Hospital Price Lookup

MRI of the Brain (without contrast): cost by metro

Imaging & scans · outpatient (same-day) · billed as CPT 70551 · priced across 28 metros

What does a MRI of the Brain (without contrast) cost? Across 28 major U.S. metros, the typical insurer-negotiated price for a Brain MRI (CPT 70551) ranges from about $207 to $3,151 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.

Brain MRI price by metro

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

Metro Typical negotiated Range Cash
Indianapolis, IN $207 $148–$265 $567
Riverside, CA $292 $190–$1,547 $2,600
Phoenix, AZ $320 $258–$1,277 $431
Tampa, FL $334 $220–$411 —
Sacramento, CA $339 $273–$339 $3,629
San Francisco, CA $339 $339–$1,518 $3,629
Memphis, TN $356 $356 $621
St. Louis, MO $359 $346–$390 $1,433
New York, NY $493 $302–$570 $528
Nashville, TN $498 $406–$636 —
Seattle, WA $515 $236–$2,636 $764
Milwaukee, WI $518 $235–$3,394 $2,020
Birmingham, AL $525 $49–$2,375 $1,127
Jacksonville, FL $525 $525 $1,127
Houston, TX $648 $518–$1,646 —
Cleveland, OH $663 $226–$1,059 $1,084
Hartford, CT $755 $289–$1,222 —
Kansas City, MO $803 $558–$5,076 —
Denver, CO $824 $546–$1,349 $2,532
Philadelphia, PA $928 $259–$948 $1,822
Detroit, MI $965 $75–$1,591 $873
San Jose, CA $1,073 $339–$1,548 —
Dallas, TX $1,084 $304–$1,859 $2,028
Austin, TX $1,527 $309–$2,170 $1,390
Virginia Beach, VA $1,865 $1,849–$5,370 —
Pittsburgh, PA $1,938 $269–$2,848 $3,963
Chicago, IL $2,198 $1,742–$2,513 $1,350
San Antonio, TX $3,151 $220–$3,742 —

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 Brain MRI pricing

A Brain MRI is billed as CPT 70551 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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