Hospital Price Lookup

CT Scan of the Head/Brain (without contrast): cost by metro

Imaging & scans · outpatient (same-day) · billed as CPT 70450 · priced across 28 metros

What does a CT Scan of the Head/Brain (without contrast) cost? Across 28 major U.S. metros, the typical insurer-negotiated price for a Head CT (CPT 70450) ranges from about $91 to $1,835 by metro, based on hospitals' own price-transparency files. Self-pay cash prices, where hospitals publish them, are often lower. Pick your metro for the local range and a hospital-by-hospital breakdown. These are price references from public data — not a quote, a bill, or medical or financial advice.

Head CT price by metro

The typical insurer-negotiated price for a Head CT, by metro — lowest first. Open a metro for the full three-level breakdown and every hospital.

Metro Typical negotiated Range Cash
Indianapolis, IN $91 $67–$116 $435
Cleveland, OH $100 $99–$501 $477
Detroit, MI $101 $43–$331 $1,690
Riverside, CA $127 $101–$4,926 $2,177
Sacramento, CA $153 $145–$153 $2,682
San Francisco, CA $153 $153–$913 $2,682
Memphis, TN $157 $157 $611
Tampa, FL $177 $120–$214 —
New York, NY $184 $132–$346 $272
Philadelphia, PA $193 $128–$506 $959
Phoenix, AZ $197 $113–$988 $286
Seattle, WA $227 $125–$1,803 $436
Birmingham, AL $236 $49–$1,649 $677
Jacksonville, FL $236 $236 $677
St. Louis, MO $240 $176–$261 $1,274
Milwaukee, WI $245 $110–$1,128 $1,020
Nashville, TN $256 $207–$563 —
Kansas City, MO $280 $245–$4,112 —
Hartford, CT $283 $125–$286 —
Houston, TX $360 $245–$772 —
Denver, CO $559 $368–$836 $1,795
Pittsburgh, PA $671 $78–$1,347 $1,873
Austin, TX $748 $141–$2,219 $1,347
Dallas, TX $792 $138–$1,619 $1,766
Virginia Beach, VA $885 $876–$2,754 —
Chicago, IL $1,392 $1,123–$1,848 $855
San Antonio, TX $1,819 $97–$2,119 —
San Jose, CA $1,835 $153–$1,889 —

Source: hospitals' own machine-readable Standard Charges files, published under the U.S. Hospital Price Transparency rule (45 CFR §180.50). Most recent hospital file in this dataset: July 2026. Prices are references, not quotes or bills, and never medical or financial advice — where a hospital reports no price, nothing is shown rather than a guess.

About Head CT pricing

A Head CT is billed as CPT 70450 and is usually a outpatient (same-day) service. Prices vary widely by metro and by hospital, which is why every figure here is tied to a specific hospital's own published file. 20 of these 28 metros have at least one hospital publishing a self-pay cash price.

The chargemaster (list) price is the hospital's undiscounted sticker rate. Almost no one actually pays it — insurers negotiate it down and self-pay patients are usually offered the cash price — but it shows how large the discount off list can be.

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