Botox vs Dysport: differences, units, cost and which lasts longer

Botox Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA, Allergan/AbbVie) is FDA-approved in adults for the temporary improvement in the appearance of four areas: moderate to severe frown lines (glabellar lines), crow's feet (lateral canthal lines), forehead lines, and platysma bands (vertical neck bands).

No other cosmetic area is on its label.

Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) was FDA-approved on April 29, 2009, for cervical dystonia and for glabellar lines in adults under 65.

Its cosmetic indication stops there: it has no US label for crow's feet or forehead lines.

Botox's own frown-line approval came earlier, on April 12, 2002, in a product first approved in 1989.

So they are separate drugs with separate labels, separate labeled doses and separate trial records.

Each also has its own guide on this site (Botox and Dysport), and the other FDA-approved brands — Xeomin, Jeuveau, Daxxify and Letybo — are covered in our guide to all neurotoxin brands.

Onset. The Botox Cosmetic label says muscle relaxation in the frown-line area typically begins 1 to 2 days after injection and increases in intensity during the first week.

We could not find an onset time in days on the Dysport label.

Galderma, the company that markets Dysport in the US, cites a median time to onset of 2 to 3 days from post-hoc analyses of its own trials, measured by subject self-assessment: a manufacturer figure, not a label one.

In one 2025 randomized trial that compared four brands head to head in 143 women at a single center, Dysport and Jeuveau had the fastest onset at day 3.

One trial is a data point, not a ranking.

How long results last. The Botox Cosmetic label gives approximately 3 to 4 months for glabellar (frown) lines.

The Dysport label says its clinical effect for frown lines may last up to four months, and that it should be given no more often than every three months.

Neither label states that its product outlasts the other.

Each label also reports how results faded in its own trials.

Those were different trials, with different scales and populations, so their percentages cannot be compared or ranked against each other.

In the Botox Cosmetic glabellar trials (405 treated adults, a single 20-unit dose), investigators rated frown lines none or mild at maximum frown in 80% at day 30, 48% at day 90 and 25% at day 120.

Dysport's label reports its study GL-1 (50 units, 105 treated) separately: investigators rated frown lines none or mild in 88% of treated subjects at day 30 and 23% at day 120.

A 2010 review of duration studies measured the two brands differently.

For Botox Cosmetic frown lines it reported time to relapse to baseline — 3 to 5 months in women and 4 to 6 months in men, with most patients relapsing by 6 months — and full relapse comes later than when results visibly fade.

For Dysport it reported an average retreatment interval of 3.9 months (median 3.3).

Those are different measures, so they cannot be set against each other.

In the 2025 head-to-head trial, Jeuveau and Xeomin retained efficacy at day 180 compared with their baseline.

So "does Dysport last longer than Botox" has no answer on the labels: for frown lines, both describe a similar window.

Spread. You may have read that Dysport "spreads more" than Botox.

That is not something we can state: the two labels make no such comparison, and the diffusion comparisons we found come from small studies with conflicting results.

What both labels do carry is the class boxed warning below.

Units. The labeled frown-line dose is 20 units for Botox Cosmetic (4 units into each of 5 injection sites) and 50 units for Dysport (five 10-unit injections).

Those numbers are not comparable: each label states that its units cannot be compared to or converted into units of any other botulinum toxin product, and there is no official conversion ratio between the two.

The ratios you may see quoted — such as 1:2.5 to 1:3 — come from studies: a 2016 systematic review of head-to-head trials concluded that a Botox-to-Dysport ratio between 1:2.5 and 1:3 gives comparable safety and efficacy for therapeutic movement disorders, and a 2016 review suggested a Dysport-to-Botox ratio of 3:1 or lower for spasticity and other neurologic uses.

No label endorses any of these ratios for cosmetic use.

Both brands are typically priced per unit or per treatment area, and the labeled doses anchor the unit count for the frown-line area of each brand — 20 units for Botox Cosmetic, 50 for Dysport — so a per-area price roughly tracks units times the practice's per-unit rate.

The comparison that matters: a unit of one brand is not a unit of the other, because the labels say the units cannot be converted.

A lower per-unit price on one brand therefore does not make it the cheaper treatment for the same area.

A per-area quote sidesteps the unit math, but then you cannot see the unit count behind it — asking for both numbers is fair.

We could not confirm a current national average price for either brand: the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2025 statistics report omits fees for minimally invasive procedures, and the national fee sources we checked were not retrievable.

What you can compare is each practice's own quote for the specific brand, area and dosing you would actually receive.

By area. Botox Cosmetic's label covers four cosmetic areas: frown lines, crow's feet, forehead lines and platysma (neck) bands.

Dysport's cosmetic label covers one: frown lines.

Treating crow's feet, forehead lines or neck bands with Dysport is off-label — it is not on any current US label for that product — while all four areas are on Botox Cosmetic's label.

By person. Dysport's frown-line indication is limited to adults under 65; Botox Cosmetic's label carries no such upper age limit.

In Botox Cosmetic's own glabellar trials, exploratory analyses found higher day-30 responder rates in women than in men (85% of 334 women versus 59% of 71 men), and responses appeared lower in people 65 and older — the label presents these as exploratory findings, not rules about who should be treated.

One contraindication differs. Both products are contraindicated with a known hypersensitivity to any botulinum toxin product, or an infection at the planned injection site.

Dysport adds one: it may contain trace amounts of cow's milk protein, so it is contraindicated in people allergic to cow's milk protein.

That is a label-level difference between the two brands.

Repeat use. Across up to nine treatment cycles in 1,554 frown-line subjects in Dysport's trials, none tested positive for neutralizing antibodies, per its label.

In Botox Cosmetic's crow's-feet trials, 1.5% of 916 treated subjects developed binding antibodies and none developed neutralizing antibodies.

So "which is better" has no single answer in these documents: the labels differ in area coverage, age range and one contraindication, and neither claims better results than the other.

Which of the two fits your case is a question for the licensed provider who would do the injecting.

People switch between brands for ordinary reasons — a move, a price change, a friend's recommendation.

What the labels say about switching is limited.

The Botox Cosmetic label states that the effect of giving different botulinum toxin products at the same time or within several months of each other is unknown, and that excessive weakness may be worsened by giving another toxin before a previous one has worn off.

What a switch is not is a unit-for-unit swap.

The two products' units cannot be converted, so there is no arithmetic that turns your old dose into the other brand's units — each product has its own labeled dose for an area, 20 units versus 50 for frown lines.

On timing, each label sets its own floor: Botox Cosmetic's says dosing more often than every 3 months has not been clinically evaluated, and Dysport's says it should be given no more often than every three months.

Neither label describes a switching schedule.

If you are considering a switch, the interval and the dose are questions for the provider who would do the injecting.

To find a practice that offers both brands, ask directly: which botulinum toxin brands it stocks, how it prices each one (per unit or per area), and who would be doing the injecting.

Those are questions worth settling before you book rather than in the chair.

The CDC's advice on any botulinum toxin injection is to get it only from a licensed, trained provider using product from an authorized source — and federal law requires providers to buy prescription drugs only from authorized sources.

The agency also notes that even FDA-approved product, given correctly, is "not risk-free".

Because Botox and Dysport have non-interchangeable units, different labels and one different contraindication, the brand itself is a real consultation question: a licensed provider can tell you which of the two — or neither — makes sense for your case.