Best Online Birth Control for Acne to Help Reduce Breakouts

The best birth control pill for acne is the combination pill, which contains both estrogen and progestin. Pandia Health is our pick for the widest variety of pill options because it has 148 birth control pills to choose from, including all four types of birth control pills approved by the FDA to treat acne. If you’re interested in trying a delivery method of hormonal birth control other than a daily pill, Pandia also has a choice of two types of patches and two rings. With this impressive variety of options, you are very likely to find a birth control formulation that improves your acne without negative interactions with your other medications or health conditions, and with minimal side effects.

An asynchronous consultation with a doctor costs $25 annually, but if you have an existing prescription you want to transfer to Pandia, no consultation is necessary. And if you don’t have insurance, you can still access birth control for as little as $7 per pack. Pandia Health also offers telehealth acne treatment services, where you can access a variety of prescription oral and topical acne medications. Acne consultations are $35 and prescriptions start at $0 copay or $30 per month out of pocket.

Pandia Health’s mission is to provide high-quality, convenient reproductive care online. It was founded by Sophia Yen, MD, MPH, who leads multiple nonprofits dedicated to improving women’s lives. The variety of pills on this platform certainly serves that mission. Residents of all states can transfer existing prescriptions to the service, but as of April 2023, Pandia Health can only provide telehealth consultation and prescribing services to residents of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. It has plans to expand over the course of the year.

Unlike some other online prescribing and pharmacy services, at Amazon Pharmacy, pricing is transparent. You can see the price of medications with or without insurance, and discounts are available for those who are paying out of pocket. You can request telehealth consults and prescribing services, or easily transfer an existing prescription over to its mail-order service. Over 100 types of birth control are offered through the service and pharmacists are available 24/7 to answer any questions you may have. You can transfer birth control, acne treatment, and other prescriptions to the service so all your medications come from the same place.

By purchasing the $5 RxPass, Prime members can get as many generic medications as they are prescribed from a list of 50 and free two-day shipping. For non-Prime members, shipping is also free, but it takes four to five days. Whether you already have a Prime membership or not, the budget benefits are clear. You can treat your acne with birth control and other prescriptions without breaking the bank. 

Amazon recently acquired One Medical, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated this acquisition. Ultimately, the FTC did not block this acquisition from occurring but did issue a statement regarding consumer privacy.

With the ability to both provide a birth control prescription for your acne online and call it into a local pharmacy of your choice, GoodRx Care is our pick for local pharmacy pickup. Don’t worry; this company can also ship your prescription to your home if needed. But sometimes a local pickup is just more convenient.

GoodRx is a drug discount app that helps people find the prescriptions they need at lower costs, while GoodRx Care offers appointments with healthcare providers online. A telehealth consult to get a birth control prescription is $59, and prescriptions start at $7. 

A GoodRx Gold membership is free for the first 30 days; after that, an individual plan is $10 a month or a family plan is $20 a month. With a GoodRx Gold membership, you get discounts on telehealth and prescriptions. Telehealth visits are $19 with membership.  

On February 1, 2023, the FTC announced that GoodRx Holdings, Inc. would pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for sharing user health data to advertisers. GoodRx has denied these allegations and any wrongdoing but has agreed to settle the case and pay the fine.

Getting ahold of your doctor to renew a birth control prescription can be inconvenient and stressful, and may involve a copay. And no one wants to miss doses of their birth control and risk negatively impacting their acne treatment because they couldn’t get their prescription refilled in time. Lemonaid Health provides a free visit with a provider if you are an existing customer and run out of birth control refills. Lemonaid Health also ships your birth control to you three packs at a time, and provides auto refills, making this our pick for most convenient refills.

Lemonaid Health was acquired by 23andMe in 2021. 23andMe, along with other DNA testing firms, has faced public scrutiny over DNA privacy concerns, and in 2018 agreed to rules that will govern how it shares genetic information with third parties.

Planned Parenthood is known for the low-cost reproductive health care it provides. Now, it has launched an app, Planned Parenthood Direct, so you can conveniently access low-cost birth control to treat your acne (as well as emergency contraception) from your phone. Your birth control will arrive in discreet packaging, without the words Planned Parenthood printed on it, and the charge will appear on your credit card or bank statement as “PPDirect,” making this our pick for privacy.

The only drawback here is that Planned Parenthood Direct currently only offers 10 birth control pill options by mail, so be sure to check out which pills they offer in the FAQs. Additionally, Planned Parenthood Direct is not available in all states, and service prices vary slightly by state. Planned Parenthood Direct is not available to residents of Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or West Virginia.

The app is also in its beta stage at this point in time and is looking for beta testers. The app is actively expanding its services to more states, so check back with the website often if the app is not available in your state yet.

Ongoing care costs to treat your acne can really add up, even if you have health insurance. Between traveling to and from your doctor’s office, possibly taking time off from work to make it to the limited follow-up appointments available, and copays, ongoing care can really be a stressor. Hers provides free initial telehealth consults and $5 follow-up video visits, so you can get the ongoing care you need from wherever you are, without breaking the bank.

Hers does not take insurance or flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) payments, but it is available in every state and birth control subscriptions start at $12/month. Roughly a dozen birth control pill types are available, and the service notes which ones are good for treating acne. The patch and ring are not offered. Hers also provides telehealth and prescribing services to address issues like acne, yeast infections, hair loss/thinning, and even primary care concerns.

Blink Health has got it all: bring your own birth control prescription or receive one from a provider via video medical consultation; get your birth control shipped to you for free, or pick it up at your local pharmacy; use your insurance, or receive a discount for paying out of pocket; access brand name or generic birth control pills.

Blink Health uses a membership model: membership is $10 per month, plus the cost of your prescription (certain medications are included in the cost of the first month). Membership covers the cost of your initial medical consult and includes unlimited messaging with a physician. Few online birth control services offer unlimited, direct access to medical providers. This perk makes Blink Health a great option for people with acne who may want to discuss persistent symptoms, side effects, or switching birth control formulations.

Before sharing any personal information, Blink Health lets you look up the birth control you already take or that you’re interested in taking to treat your acne to confirm it does indeed sell it. Blink Health does not accept insurance for telehealth prescribing, but you can use your insurance if you transfer an existing birth control prescription over to BlinkRx, which it will fill and ship to your home, ensuring you pay the lowest price available with your insurance plan. You can renew prescriptions online at no additional cost when you run out of refills on your prescription. All of this flexibility and convenience makes Blink Health our pick for most comprehensive online pharmacy for birth control to treat acne.

Currently, telehealth prescribing for birth control is available in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas.