How much does an MRI of the brain cost in the US?

Across 1,185 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $799, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $420 and $2,100. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $2,552 across the 931 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.

Why do Brain MRI prices vary so much?

Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 10.6 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $317 in Puerto Rico to $4,230 in South Dakota.

Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?

Sometimes. At 224 of the 931 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.

What is the Medicare rate shown here?

$356 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.2 times it.

All procedures / Brain MRI

Brain MRI Cost in the US (2026): What 1,185 Hospitals NegotiatedNPI VERIFIED

Across 1,185 US hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate for an MRI of the brain is $799 — 2.2× the Medicare outpatient rate of $356. The middle half of hospitals negotiated between $420 and $2,100; the priciest tenth negotiated more than $3,633, 10.6× the cheapest tenth (under $344). Hospitals that list a self-pay price ask a median of $2,552 (931 hospitals).

Code CPT 70553 · Source: hospital machine-readable files (45 CFR §180), file dates 2022-11-12 to 2026-09-28 (median 2026-04-01) · Medicare baseline: CMS OPPS Addendum B, July 2026 · Data extracted 2026-10-06 · Page updated 2026-10-07

National median

$799

all plan types · 1,185 hospitals

Middle half

$420–$2,100

25th–75th percentile of hospitals

Median cash price

$2,552

self-pay · 931 hospitals list one

Medicare baseline

$356

CMS OPPS national · July 2026

1,185 hospitals, one bar per price band

median $799Medicare $356

$0$2,500$5,000

Each bar counts hospitals whose median rate falls in that price band; the last, dashed bar holds the 34 at $5,000 or more. The cheapest tenth negotiated under $344, the priciest tenth over $3,633 — 10.6× apart for the same procedure.

These are contract reference rates, not your bill. A median across hospitals is not a quote for your plan or network. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network status.

This is the hospital's facility fee. The radiologist who reads the images bills separately.

Coverage: 1,185 of the 5,419 hospitals in the CMS roster have an identity-verified price file with this procedure in our data. It is not a random sample, and a hospital missing here has not been judged non-compliant — we may simply not have its file yet. 87 of these 1,185 hospital files were more than 12 months old at extraction — hospitals must update yearly; we keep the figures and say so rather than hide them.

By insurance type

Insurance type	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare
Commercial (plan type not stated)	725	$1,914	$852 – $3,725	5.4×
PPO	767	$1,948	$945 – $3,405	5.5×
HMO	521	$1,217	$790 – $2,616	3.4×
EPO	126	$1,924	$776 – $4,598	5.4×
POS	59	$1,257	$543 – $3,318	3.5×
ACA Marketplace	473	$725	$537 – $1,619	2.0×
Medicare Advantage	678	$393	$349 – $1,387	1.1×
Medicare (as listed)	671	$369	$346 – $569	1.0×
Medicaid	756	$658	$393 – $1,545	1.8×
Federal employees (FEP)	22	$2,473	$2,108 – $4,214	6.9×
Workers' comp	132	$2,552	$716 – $3,719	7.2×

Plan types are grouped from each hospital's plan names. Each figure is a median of hospital-level medians; types with fewer than 20 hospitals are left out.

By state

State	Hospitals	Median	Middle half	× Medicare	Median cash
Alabama	13	$323	$314 – $331	0.9×	$1,768
Arizona	12	$404	$396 – $1,099	1.1×	$1,183
Arkansas	10	$505	$363 – $908	1.4×	$2,053
California	43	$513	$446 – $1,258	1.4×	$2,976
Colorado	7	$2,053	$498 – $2,120	5.8×	$1,712
Florida	47	$669	$398 – $816	1.9×	$3,221
Georgia	31	$614	$523 – $2,108	1.7×	$2,781
Hawaii	7	$434	$352 – $1,083	1.2×	$1,802
Idaho	11	$2,014	$1,710 – $2,333	5.7×	$2,520
Illinois	47	$1,597	$611 – $2,728	4.5×	$3,447
Indiana	27	$823	$720 – $1,434	2.3×	$2,605
Iowa	47	$2,122	$1,073 – $3,099	6.0×	$2,974
Kansas	45	$1,048	$816 – $1,947	2.9×	$1,408
Kentucky	40	$755	$419 – $1,351	2.1×	$2,176
Louisiana	25	$639	$507 – $1,289	1.8×	$1,850
Maine	9	$1,482	$345 – $2,669	4.2×	$1,325
Maryland	9	$937	$726 – $1,201	2.6×	$918
Massachusetts	9	$844	$549 – $1,790	2.4×	$4,228
Michigan	28	$370	$348 – $602	1.0×	$2,178
Minnesota	30	$2,087	$1,124 – $3,116	5.9×	$2,901
Mississippi	21	$327	$306 – $433	0.9×	$2,417
Missouri	29	$502	$350 – $1,195	1.4×	$2,315
Montana	18	$2,312	$790 – $3,079	6.5×	$2,729
Nebraska	31	$2,647	$827 – $4,181	7.4×	$3,968
Nevada	8	$621	$621 – $1,424	1.7×	$5,786
New Hampshire	6	$1,209	$603 – $1,935	3.4×	$9,235
New Jersey	23	$603	$433 – $603	1.7×	$1,088
New Mexico	16	$1,599	$579 – $3,314	4.5×	$2,372
New York	38	$509	$476 – $788	1.4×	$1,684
North Carolina	22	$889	$357 – $1,157	2.5×	$2,518
North Dakota	13	$2,609	$2,286 – $3,713	7.3×	$2,704
Ohio	58	$533	$355 – $940	1.5×	$2,475
Oklahoma	33	$712	$331 – $1,318	2.0×	$2,001
Oregon	22	$623	$501 – $1,195	1.7×	$2,672
Pennsylvania	58	$459	$385 – $1,733	1.3×	$2,870
Puerto Rico	11	$317	$310 – $317	0.9×	$925
Rhode Island	5	$586	$529 – $610	1.6×	$2,080
South Carolina	27	$368	$349 – $756	1.0×	$2,913
South Dakota	11	$4,230	$3,720 – $4,824	11.9×	$5,035
Tennessee	23	$344	$342 – $502	1.0×	$783
Texas	100	$1,067	$478 – $1,931	3.0×	$2,074
Utah	21	$4,200	$2,823 – $4,314	11.8×	$4,375
Vermont	8	$3,434	$1,449 – $4,192	9.6×	$4,482
Virginia	19	$992	$596 – $2,295	2.8×	$2,298
Washington	17	$2,066	$1,157 – $2,893	5.8×	$3,758
West Virginia	7	$3,292	$304 – $5,294	9.2×	$3,182
Wisconsin	26	$1,435	$865 – $1,935	4.0×	$2,966
Wyoming	9	$2,703	$2,487 – $3,158	7.6×	$2,162

middle half of hospitalsstate medianMedicare rate · a dotted end means the range runs past $5,000

States with at least 5 hospitals in our data (48 states). 3 smaller states are counted in the national figures but not listed — a median of two or three hospitals says more about those hospitals than about the state.

Hospital by hospital, in your city

Brain MRI — Chicago, IL

16 hospitals named, each plan type side by side

Brain MRI — Dallas–Fort Worth, TX

8 hospitals named, each plan type side by side

Brain MRI — Houston, TX

13 hospitals named, each plan type side by side

Get the data behind this page

The hospital-level medians, plan-type distributions and source-file links behind these figures are in our free sample dataset (CC BY 4.0): DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23199844 · Kaggle. Recompute any number on this page from it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an MRI of the brain cost in the US?: Across 1,185 hospitals that publish federally required price files, the median negotiated rate is $799, and the middle half of hospitals fall between $420 and $2,100. Self-pay cash prices have a median of $2,552 across the 931 hospitals that list one. What you pay out of pocket depends on your deductible, coinsurance and network.
Why do Brain MRI prices vary so much?: Each hospital negotiates separately with each insurer. In these files the priciest tenth of hospitals negotiated more than 10.6 times what the cheapest tenth did, and state medians run from $317 in Puerto Rico to $4,230 in South Dakota.
Is the cash price cheaper than using insurance?: Sometimes. At 224 of the 931 hospitals that list a cash price (24%), it is lower than that hospital's own median negotiated rate. If you have a high deductible, ask the hospital for its self-pay price before you book.
What is the Medicare rate shown here?: $356 is the CMS national outpatient (OPPS) payment rate for this service (July 2026). We show it as a government baseline: the national median negotiated rate is 2.2 times it.

Other imaging prices

Knee MRI

median $567 · 1,191 hospitals

Lower Back MRI

median $528 · 1,186 hospitals

Neck MRI

median $533 · 1,177 hospitals

Head CT Scan

median $303 · 1,227 hospitals

Chest CT Scan

median $448 · 1,215 hospitals

Abdomen & Pelvis CT Scan

median $676 · 1,225 hospitals

Sinus CT Scan

median $296 · 1,215 hospitals

Abdominal Ultrasound

median $217 · 1,213 hospitals

Chest X-Ray

median $112 · 1,210 hospitals

Lower Back X-Ray

median $157 · 1,206 hospitals

See all 30 procedures →