How Much Does CPAP Therapy Cost? 5-Year Guide (2026)

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CPAP therapy is a long game. The machine is just the first line on the receipt. The part most people underestimate is the steady drip of supplies over five years: cushions, filters, tubing, and the quiet cost of leaving a humidifier running every night. If you're trying to decide whether to go through insurance or just pay cash, you need a clear picture of what the whole thing actually costs.

Run the numbers with the free CPAP Cost Calculator. It uses the 2026 Medicare replacement schedule as its default and lets you toggle between insurance and cash scenarios in one click. The rest of this guide explains where every number comes from so you can decide whether the defaults fit your situation.

The 5-year cost breakdown

There are only three buckets that matter when you project CPAP cost over five years:

1. The machine itself. This is a one-time cost (assuming no failures), $0 out of pocket if you're going through Medicare with a 13-month rent-to-own, or somewhere between $500 and $1,200 cash for a current-generation AirSense, AirCurve, or BMC device.
2. Supplies. Cushions, masks, headgear, tubing, humidifier chambers, and filters. This is the big one over time; with the default Medicare replacement schedule, supplies cost roughly $1,058 per year at cash prices.
3. Power. A CPAP with the humidifier on draws about 60 watts during therapy. At the U.S. average electricity rate, that's around $24 per year.

Machine + supplies + power × 60 months = your 5-year total. Everything else (SD card replacements, cleaning supplies, an occasional new mask when yours breaks) is optional and doesn't move the needle much.

Medicare CPAP replacement schedule

Medicare publishes a replacement schedule that dictates how often your DME supplier can bill for each item. This schedule also tracks the clinical guidance from AASM, so even cash-pay users should follow it for hygiene reasons.

Item	Replacement cadence	Typical cash price
Mask cushion	Monthly	$15
Full mask assembly	Every 3 months	$150
Headgear	Every 6 months	$30
Humidifier chamber	Every 6 months	$25
Tubing	Every 3 months	$25
Disposable filters	Every 2 weeks	$2 each
Non-disposable filters	Every 6 months	$10

If you're on Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan, you need to have met the compliance rule before the DME supplier can keep billing for ongoing supplies. The rule is 4+ hours of usage on 70% of nights in a 30-day window during the first 90 days. The Compliance Calculator is the fastest way to check where you stand.

Insurance vs cash: how to decide

The short answer: if you hit your deductible every year, insurance is cheaper on supplies. If you don't, cash is often cheaper after year 2.

The longer answer depends on your plan. Medicare covers 80% of the Medicare-approved amount on CPAP supplies after you meet the Part B deductible. That puts your out-of-pocket for supplies at roughly 20% of the cash-pay price: about $212 per year at default rates instead of $1,058.

But the calculation flips if you're on a high-deductible commercial plan and never meet the deductible. In that case you're paying close to full sticker anyway, and you lose the flexibility of shopping Amazon prices and timing your replacements yourself. A quality mask cushion (opens in new tab) from Amazon is typically cheaper than a DME-billed one even before insurance.

There's also a hidden cost to going through a DME supplier: the paperwork. Most suppliers require a new prescription and compliance documentation every 12 months. If your sleep doctor charges for the visit and you're between plans, that's another $200-300 hit per year.

Our rule of thumb:

• New user, still in the 90-day trial window: stick with insurance. The 13-month rent-to-own makes the machine effectively free and you need the DME paper trail for compliance anyway.
• Experienced user, machine is paid off: cash-pay supplies on Amazon often beat billing insurance, especially if you have a high deductible. You can always reactivate insurance billing later if your situation changes.
• On Medicare with a supplement: insurance stays ahead indefinitely. The 20% coinsurance is covered by Plan G or similar, leaving you at ~$0 out of pocket.

Power cost math

A modern CPAP draws about 30 watts without the humidifier and about 60 watts with the heated humidifier running. At the U.S. national average of 16¢ per kWh, 7 hours of therapy per night works out to about $24 per year with the humidifier on.

This is small enough that most people can ignore it, but two edge cases matter:

1. Expensive electricity markets (California, Hawaii, parts of New England) can push power cost to $50-80 per year.
2. Running dry (humidifier off) cuts power cost in half. If you live in a humid climate, you can often drop the humidifier without comfort issues.

The calculator defaults are conservative: 7 hours/night, humidifier on, 16¢/kWh. Override them in Detailed Mode if your numbers differ.

Five money-saving tips

After modeling dozens of scenarios in the calculator, these are the biggest levers:

1. Buy cushions in bulk on Amazon

Mask cushions are the single biggest recurring supply line. A DME supplier bills insurance $30-50 per cushion; the same OEM ResMed cushion on Amazon (opens in new tab) typically runs $12-18. Buy a 6-pack and you're set for half a year at a third of the DME price.

2. Switch to a reusable filter

The default disposable-filter schedule (every 2 weeks at $2/each) costs about $48 per year. A reusable foam filter (opens in new tab) runs $10 every 6 months, which is $20 per year: same filtration, under half the price.

3. Wash your cushion instead of replacing it

Cushions don't actually need monthly replacement for a silicone seal. Wash nightly with a CPAP-safe cleaner (opens in new tab) and you can usually stretch to 2-3 months on the same cushion without a comfort drop. The Medicare schedule is conservative by design.

4. Replace the humidifier chamber, not the whole humidifier

Some users end up replacing their entire CPAP because the humidifier starts leaking. The fix is almost always a fresh humidifier chamber (opens in new tab) ($25) instead of a new $800 machine.

5. Consider a refurbished AirSense 10 for cash buys

A refurbished AirSense 10 from a reputable seller (opens in new tab) costs $300-500 less than new and is clinically identical to the current AirSense 11 for most users. Pair it with fresh tubing and a humidifier chamber and you're on OEM spec for the price of a single month of DME billing.

Example: 5-year cost at default settings

Running the calculator with every default in cash mode produces this breakdown:

• Machine: $800
• Supplies: $5,290
• Power: $121
• 5-year total: ~$6,211
• Monthly average: $104

Flip to insurance mode with Medicare-default 20% coinsurance:

• Machine: $0
• Supplies: $1,058 (20% of $5,290)
• Power: $121
• 5-year total: ~$1,179
• Monthly average: $20

The gap is roughly $5,000. That's the upper bound on how much insurance can save you, assuming you hit your deductible every year and your supplier bills at the Medicare-approved rate. If you don't hit your deductible, your real-world insurance savings will be smaller.

FAQs

How accurate is the calculator?

The defaults are calibrated to 2026 U.S. market prices (Amazon medians for supplies, AirSense 10/11 power draw, U.S. average electricity rate). Every number is overridable in Detailed Mode, so if your supplier charges a different price or your electricity rate is higher than 16¢, you can plug in the exact numbers yourself.

Does the calculator include travel CPAPs?

No. Travel CPAPs have a different supply profile (they usually don't have a humidifier chamber and have proprietary filters) and are typically a secondary device for occasional use. Use the full-CPAP defaults if you want a worst-case estimate.

Why isn't my insurance copay shown?

The calculator assumes Medicare coinsurance (20% after deductible) by default. Commercial plans vary wildly; override the coinsurance percentage in Detailed Mode to match your plan.

What about the cost of compliance data?

SD cards (opens in new tab) cost under $10 and last years. The CPAP Clarity dashboard reads them for free. The only actual cost is the SD card itself, and you can add that line to the machine cost if you want a truly complete picture.

Try the calculator

Run the numbers for your own situation. The calculator saves your inputs in your browser (never sent to our servers), so you can tweak and re-run without losing your place. If you want to track your actual usage to prove Medicare compliance, the Compliance Calculator is the companion tool.