What does psychedelic therapy cost in Toronto, and does OHIP cover it?

If you are asking what psilocybin therapy in Toronto costs, the honest answer starts with a correction: there is no legal, approved treatment with a price tag. Health Canada says that there are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin in Canada or elsewhere, and that the production, sale and possession of magic mushrooms are illegal. What exists are three legal routes that run through a regulated health care practitioner: clinical trials, Health Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP), and individual subsection 56(1) exemptions. Each route splits the bill differently.

This article explains who pays for the drug and for the therapy in each route, what the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) does and does not pay for, and which published figures come from neutral sources such as government documents and peer-reviewed cost studies. Where we found no reliable figure, we say so. We do not name, link or recommend any clinic or provider, and we do not quote any clinic’s prices. The routes themselves are described in our guide to psilocybin therapy in Ontario.

What would you actually be paying for?

Psilocybin-assisted therapy is not a single appointment. A 2026 implementation study at a university-affiliated tertiary care centre in Canada broke one complete course into stages: an initial medical assessment, preparatory psychotherapy, a psilocybin administration session attended by a physician and a psychologist in its lowest-cost scenario, and post-session integration, which the authors estimated at roughly six to eight hours of physician or psychologist time (Dorval et al., 2026). Their costs covered physician fees, salaries of other professionals such as nurses and psychologists, and overhead for clinical space.

That gives four cost components to ask about in any legal route: the drug itself, the professionals’ time before, during and after the session, the space and monitoring on the day, and the paperwork needed to obtain authorization. Who covers each one is the real question, and the answer changes by route.

Who pays in a clinical trial?

Health Canada says clinical trials should be the first legal route pursued by people seeking psilocybin for therapeutic treatment, and that anyone interested should speak with their health care provider (Health Canada). We found no federal or Ontario rule that sets a single price for taking part in a trial, and we did not verify what any particular study charges, pays or reimburses.

What is set nationally is disclosure. Under the Tri-Council Policy Statement that governs research ethics at Canadian institutions, participants must be given information about any payments, including incentives, reimbursement for participation-related expenses and compensation for injury (TCPS 2, chapter 3). The policy explains that reimbursement is meant to keep participants from being put at a direct or indirect financial disadvantage, giving transportation and parking as examples of direct expenses and unpaid leave from work as an indirect one. So the consent form for any study is where its costs and payments should be written down.

Cost can still be a barrier. In a 2022 Canadian Press report, a British Columbia patient said she had tried to join an existing trial but it was too costly for her, and that on disability she could not afford $6,000 for three rounds of therapy (CBC News, 2022). That is one person’s account from another province, not a price for Toronto. Ontario trials are listed in our Canadian trial tracker.

Who pays under the Special Access Program?

Under the SAP, a practitioner, not the patient, makes the request. Health Canada’s general SAP page says drugs accessed this way are supplied directly by manufacturers to practitioners, and on cost it states: “The manufacturer determines the cost of the drug. In some cases, drugs released through SAP are free.” If there is a charge, it says hospitals, public or private insurers or, in some cases, patients or their families cover it (Health Canada SAP page). The page does not mention psilocybin specifically. More on the program is in our Special Access Program explainer.

Researchers describe how this has worked in practice for psilocybin. A 2024 peer-reviewed study of Canadians who received psilocybin through compassionate access reported that, to the authors’ knowledge, licensed suppliers had generally provided psilocybin for SAP use without charge. It added that in at least some cases physicians had billed the provincial insurance plans for the time spent providing therapy, while in other cases clinicians worked pro bono or charged the patient or the patient’s private insurance (de la Salle et al., 2024). The 2026 hospital study likewise assumed a drug cost of zero, because the supplier provided psilocybin free of charge to clinicians at the time of the study, and noted that in routine practice the drug would be a hospital cost (Dorval et al., 2026).

Neither study promises that the drug will be free in future, and the SAP page leaves the price to the manufacturer. One timing caution: the federal Controlled Substances Regulations came into force on 1 October 2026. Health Canada’s psilocybin page was updated on 20 October 2026, but the one change we found is a sentence on clinical trials; its description of the routes otherwise reads as before (Health Canada). Check Health Canada’s current pages before relying on any description of the routes, including ours.

What does a section 56 exemption cost?

Health Canada does not describe any fee for an individual subsection 56(1) exemption request on its psilocybin page. It says a request for a medical condition should include a letter of support from a medical practitioner, and that this route should generally be considered only after clinical trials and the SAP (Health Canada). See our section 56 explainer for how the route works.

The only cost data we found comes from a small sample. In the 2024 study, eight people who had received psilocybin under section 56 exemptions reported how the services around their application were paid: three through the provincial health plan, three out of pocket and two by therapists who charged no fee. Those who paid out of pocket estimated the application process cost them CAD 300 to 420 (de la Salle et al., 2024). Eight people is far too few to stand for anyone else’s costs.

Is psychedelic therapy covered by OHIP in Ontario?

Not as such. We found no OHIP coverage of psilocybin or psilocybin-assisted therapy, and the Ontario government’s What OHIP covers page (updated 22 April 2026) does not mention it. That page lists, among services not covered, prescription drugs provided in non-hospital settings and health services “considered to be experimental”.

OHIP does pay for psychotherapy when a physician delivers it. The Schedule of Benefits defines psychotherapy as treatment in which “a physician deliberately establishes a professional relationship with a patient”, and lists it as an insured physician service, claimed in units of a half hour or major part of one, with at least 20 minutes for one unit (Schedule of Benefits, effective 1 July 2026). In the OHIP fee schedule master effective 1 October 2026, the fee OHIP pays a family physician for individual psychotherapy (code K007) is $80.00 per unit, and a psychiatrist’s individual out-patient psychotherapy (code K197) is $102.35 per unit (OHIP fee schedule master). These are amounts paid to the physician by OHIP, not prices charged to the patient.

Psychologists and registered psychotherapists are different. The same Ontario page lists, among services OHIP does not cover, health services “delivered outside of hospital by health care providers that are not physicians” (Ontario). So the non-physician share of a psychedelic therapy team, if billed privately outside hospital, would not be paid by OHIP. The 2026 hospital study reflects the same split: physician fees were treated as publicly covered, while hospital-level costs included the salaries of non-physician health professionals (Dorval et al., 2026).

For context, Ontario does fund some talk therapy without a physician. The province’s Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program gives adults 18 and older cognitive behavioural therapy and other services free of charge, with referral from a physician, nurse practitioner or other health care professional, or self-referral in some areas (Ontario). It does not involve psilocybin.

Does any public drug plan pay for psilocybin?

We found none. The Ontario Drug Benefit page (updated 18 August 2026) says drugs that are not listed on the official formulary are not covered unless approved through the Exceptional Access Program, and it does not mention psilocybin. Since Health Canada has approved no psilocybin product, there is no marketed product for a formulary to list. We did not check every provincial and federal drug plan in Canada, so treat this as what we found rather than a complete survey.

Is there a reliable price for psilocybin therapy in Toronto?

No. We found no government, court or peer-reviewed source that gives a price for psilocybin therapy in Toronto or in Ontario. The figures below are the only ones we found from neutral sources. They are estimates or modelling assumptions from other places and perspectives, not quotes for a patient.

Two points stand out. First, the Canadian hospital estimate excludes the drug, because it was supplied free during the study, so a future price for an approved product would come on top (Dorval et al., 2026). Second, the US model found that cost-effectiveness was sensitive to the price of the therapy, with only a 1% probability of being cost-effective at US$10,000 (Avanceña et al., 2025), and the UK model found psilocybin cost-effective only when therapist support costs were halved and the drug price fell to £400 to £800 per person (McCrone et al., 2023). In other words, the therapy time, not just the drug, drives the cost.

Can private insurance or a health spending account help?

Possibly for some components, depending entirely on the plan’s wording. We found no published Canadian insurer policy on psilocybin-assisted therapy, and we do not describe any particular plan. In the 2024 study, none of the eight participants reported that private insurance paid for their application, preparation or dosing sessions (de la Salle et al., 2024).

Tax rules give some general signposts. The Canada Revenue Agency lists, as eligible medical expenses, “the amounts paid for drugs and medical devices that have not been approved for use in Canada” when bought under Health Canada’s Special Access Program, and says you can only claim the part of an expense you have not been and will not be reimbursed for (CRA). The CRA’s list of authorized medical practitioners for Ontario includes psychologists and registered psychotherapists (CRA). The CRA also treats premiums paid to a private health services plan as eligible when 90% or more of the premiums paid under the plan are for eligible medical expenses. Whether any given expense qualifies is a question for a tax professional or the plan administrator.

How is ketamine-assisted therapy different?

Ketamine is a different drug with a different legal status, so its costs and coverage cannot be read across to psilocybin. Health Canada approved an esketamine nasal spray in 2020, by prescription only, in combination with an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant for adults with major depressive disorder who have not responded adequately to at least two separate courses of antidepressant treatment (Health Canada). We do not report fees for ketamine services, and we name no clinic. If you are comparing options, the coverage questions in this article, about who delivers the therapy and whether the drug is on a plan’s list, apply there too.

What should you ask before paying for anything?

• Which legal route is this: an authorized clinical trial, a Special Access Program authorization or a section 56(1) exemption? If it is none of them, Health Canada says the activity is illegal unless it authorizes it (Health Canada).
• Who supplies the psilocybin, and is there a charge for it? Under the SAP, the manufacturer sets the cost.
• Which sessions are delivered by a physician and billed to OHIP, and which are delivered by non-physician providers and billed privately?
• For a trial, what does the consent form say about payments, reimbursement of expenses and compensation for injury?
• Will your private plan or health spending account pay for each component, and do you have that in writing?

Anything offered outside these routes, such as a retreat or private service that supplies psilocybin without authorization, is outside the safeguards described here, whatever it charges. Shroomverse sells mushroom products; nothing we sell is a lawful route to therapy.

Shroomverse sells mushroom products. This article is general information about the law and clinical research. It is not medical or legal advice, and it does not recommend any product, provider or clinic.