What Is a Lipid Panel? What It Measures and What It Costs

This page explains what the panel measures and where to buy it. It does not explain what your numbers mean: reference ranges differ from lab to lab, and reading a result is a clinician's job. For every service ranked, see the best blood tests page; to see which plans include each heart marker, use our biomarker comparison.

What it measures

Cholesterol travels in the blood inside particles called lipoproteins, and a lipid panel reports how much cholesterol sits in each main kind. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute calls the test a lipoprotein panel and says it "measures the levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood" (NHLBI).

Measured or calculated?

Only some of those lines are measured directly. On LDL, MedlinePlus explains: "This means that your LDL level is an estimate based on your total cholesterol, HDL, and triglycerides" (MedlinePlus). On VLDL, it says "a lab can use your triglycerides level to estimate your VLDL level" (MedlinePlus). Some labs measure LDL directly instead. Our coverage tables count calculated lines as calculated, so a plan cannot inflate its marker count by printing a ratio.

What a lipid panel does not include

A standard lipid panel does not measure ApoB or Lp(a), two heart tests that some memberships add on top. Each has its own price guide: ApoB test cost and Lp(a) test cost. It also does not measure blood sugar; that is the hemoglobin A1c test or the glucose line in a CMP.

Where to get it and what it costs

Lab-test stores sell a lipid panel on its own, with a physician order included, and send you to a Quest or Labcorp patient center for the draw. Some at-home brands, such as Everlywell, LetsGetChecked and myLAB Box, also sell a mail-in kit. The table lists each seller's price, cheapest first, the fee it adds per order, and the memberships and panels that include a full lipid panel:

List prices from each store's own page. Memberships and panels that include it: Function Health, Superpower, Empirical Health, Mito Health, Labs by Hims, Maximus, Everlywell, Quest, Ulta Lab Tests, SiPhox Health, Rythm Health.

Three things decide what you actually pay:

• The per-order fee can cost more than the panel. On list price, Mito Health and Marek Diagnostics are the lowest, but both add a lab draw fee. Put every test you want in one order so you pay that fee once.
• A kit costs more than a draw. The at-home kits in the table cost several times what the cheapest lab stores charge, fee included. They save you a trip, not money.
• Your state decides whether you can buy at all. Lab-test stores do not sell in New York, New Jersey or Rhode Island; our guide to ordering your own blood test explains the rules.

If you want a lipid panel inside a broad yearly panel, most broad memberships include one. Function Health costs $365 a year and measures 99 markers; Superpower costs $199. Our lab order price page ranks one-time panels by cost per measured marker, and our guide to blood test cost without insurance prices a lipid panel next to six other common tests.

Already have your results?

LifeFrom, a sister app from the team behind this site, can keep your results in one place and explain them in plain language (LifeFrom). It is our own product, so weigh that when you read this. For what a specific number means for you, ask the clinician who ordered the test or your own doctor.