Longevity clinics in Germany: What they cost and what you actually need

A longevity clinic is a private practice or centre for healthy people without acute complaints. It measures you to spot risks early and then builds a programme from the results, covering training, nutrition and sleep, sometimes prescription drugs and often supplements. Any practice can use the word "longevity", whoever works there, because it is neither a protected term nor a medical qualification. The word "clinic" is stricter: a German appeals court has ruled even "Praxisklinik" misleading for a practice that cannot admit patients overnight.^[25]

Behind the label sits a young field. Bischof and colleagues describe longevity medicine as prevention built on the biology of ageing: measure ageing processes before a disease appears, then work against them.^[1] They argue that doctors need training for this.^[1] So far, though, the medical chambers' model regulations list no specialist or add-on qualification for longevity medicine.^[11]

Because the label is open, an anti-ageing practice may call itself longevity today as well. In our use of the terms, anti-ageing historically targeted appearance and symptoms such as skin, hormones and wellbeing. Longevity medicine, by contrast, targets measurable risk factors for disease and death. A good longevity clinic talks about cholesterol particles and fitness, an anti-ageing practice about wrinkles and energy, and only the programme tells them apart.

That programme is, in the end, a package of measurements and advice. A typical one contains:

• Extended blood panel, often dozens of lab values: ApoB (a count of the artery-clogging cholesterol particles in your blood), Lp(a) (an inherited cholesterol particle), HbA1c (average blood sugar over about three months), fasting insulin, hs-CRP (a marker of low-grade inflammation), thyroid, sex hormones and vitamins
• Body composition by DEXA, a low-dose X-ray scan that estimates fat mass, lean soft-tissue mass (a stand-in for muscle) and bone density
• VO2max by spiroergometry, which measures your endurance capacity under load while you breathe through a mask
• Blood pressure and a resting ECG, often with a carotid ultrasound; as screening in people without symptoms, the IGeL-Monitor rates the last two "tends to be negative".^{[13, 14]}
• CGM, a glucose sensor worn on the arm for two weeks
• Epigenetic age test from blood or saliva, which estimates biological age from chemical tags on your DNA
• Pricier packages that add whole-body MRI, coronary CT, genetic tests or a microbiome analysis
• Afterwards a doctor's consultation, a written plan and coaching, frequently supplements from the clinic's own range, and for annual memberships follow-up visits and repeat measurements

Three of these tests come with legal conditions, even when you pay yourself. DEXA and coronary CT use X-rays, so German law requires a doctor with radiation-protection training to decide that the scan is justified for you^[17] For DEXA, tracking body fat or training progress alone is not a medical reason.^[31] Predictive genetic tests may only be done by qualified physicians in Germany, with genetic counselling before the test and after the result.^[28] You can waive that counselling only in writing, after written information about what it covers.^[28] Whether a whole-body MRI makes sense is a question of its own, which the whole-body MRI guide answers.

None of the rest is exotic. The free Check-up 35 covers part of it,^[8] and your GP or a nearby lab offers most of the remainder to self-payers. What a clinic really adds is a doctor who reads all your results together and turns them into a plan. That is what you should be paying for, if you pay at all.

A one-off longevity check-up in Germany costs roughly 1,500 to 5,000 EUR, and an annual membership 5,000 to 20,000 EUR or more. That money buys the doctor's reading of your results and the plan as one package. The range is wide because there is no fixed product and every provider bundles something different. The price depends above all on whether the package includes whole-body MRI, genetic tests or a liquid biopsy (a blood test for traces of tumour DNA).

Those package prices rest on the German fee schedule for physicians (GOÄ), which has no code for longevity. Each test is a numbered line item, and the doctor multiplies its base fee by a factor. Many clinics advertise a package price, but the invoice must still list every item with its GOÄ number, amount and factor.^[10] A fee above the schedule needs a written agreement signed before the treatment.^[10]

Who pays that invoice is mostly you. Statutory insurance does not reimburse a private package, not even the parts that overlap with the Check-up 35, which you get free only through the check-up itself.^[8] Single tests are covered when there is a medical indication, and some insurers also subsidise a sports-medical exam. One statutory insurer, for example, pays 80 EUR every two years, or up to 150 EUR with medically justified extras such as spiroergometry.^[19] With private insurance your tariff decides, so ask before you book which items will be reimbursed. The self-pay guide explains the split in more detail.

The free Check-up 35 overlaps with the packages more than its price suggests. From age 35 it covers history, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol and urine every three years.^[8] Between 18 and 35 you get one check, without the urine test and with blood tests only if you have risk factors.^[8] That is the rule as of October 2026, and it may change. On 15 October 2026 the G-BA (which decides what statutory insurance covers) opened a review of the check-up's age limits, frequency and content.^[8] The review also weighs a possible focus on cardiovascular disease,^[8] so until it is done, ask your GP what is currently included.

Set against that free baseline, the table puts the packages next to the single tests inside them. The ranges are our editorial estimate from providers' published prices as of October 2026, not a survey, so ask for a written, itemised quote.

Prices: editorial estimate, as of October 2026; Switzerland from swissinfo^[12]

The DEXA row refers to body composition, because bone density follows a different rule. Statutory insurance pays for a bone-density DXA scan only when concrete findings mean a specific osteoporosis drug is being considered.^[16] One such finding is a vertebral or hip fracture without adequate trauma.^[16] The DEXA guide covers prices and uses of both kinds of scan.

Switzerland is pricier still. A swissinfo report from April 2025 gives prices from single providers, which sort into three kinds of offer^[12]:

• Check-ups as a day visit: a newly opened Zurich clinic charged from 1,850 francs, or 14,500 francs for its top check-up, and a Zurich day clinic offered a full diagnostic work-up for about 3,000 francs^[12]
• An annual programme: one patient said he paid 5,000 francs for 12 months at that day clinic in 2024^[12]
• A residential week: 48,250 francs at a clinic in Montreux on Lake Geneva, and from 117,300 francs at a practice in Küsnacht near Zurich^[12]

These are 2025 prices from single providers, not market averages, so check current price lists and ask your health insurer before booking whether any part is covered.

Whichever country you book in, a one-off baseline is almost always cheaper as single tests, as the table shows. A membership only starts to make sense when you plan repeat measurements over several visits.

No study shows that a longevity clinic programme makes people live longer, whatever it costs. The programmes are too new, too varied and too small to measure that, so anyone who promises you a longer life is selling rather than reporting.

Even the idea of the big check-up has a problem. A Cochrane review (an independent summary of randomised trials, in which chance decides who gets the check) pooled trials that reported results for about 250,000 participants.^[2] In those trials, general health checks had little or no effect on total or cancer mortality, and probably none on cardiovascular mortality.^[2] The trials are older and their checks simpler than a modern longevity package. Still, they are the best evidence there is on broad check-up packages for healthy adults, and targeted screening for one disease is a separate question.

What holds up better are some of the markers a good clinic measures. They are risk markers, which show where your risk sits but do not prove that testing them helps:

• Fitness (VO2max): in a large group of patients referred for a treadmill test at one US academic centre, lower fitness was linked to a rise in mortality as large as or larger than that from smoking or diabetes.^[3] The study found no fitness level above which the benefit levelled off. Because it is observational (it watched people rather than testing an intervention), it does not show what a given gain in fitness buys you.
• Grip strength: in the PURE study, which followed people in many countries, each 5 kg less grip strength was linked to a higher risk of death from any cause. The authors say trials are still needed to test whether getting stronger lowers that risk.^[4]
• ApoB and LDL: the European lipid guideline (ESC/EAS) classes LDL cholesterol as a cause of atherosclerosis, the hardening and clogging of arteries, and names ApoB as the better measure of how many harmful particles you carry.^[5]
• Lp(a): the European Atherosclerosis Society recommends measuring it at least once in adulthood. The level is largely inherited, and a high value raises cardiovascular risk even when LDL is low.^[6]
• Blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol, exercise, weight: the European prevention guideline estimates your 10-year risk from age, sex, smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol, and sets targets for exercise, diet and weight.^[7]

Those markers do not all stand on the same ground. LDL, ApoB and Lp(a) are causes of atherosclerosis,^{[5, 6]} while the links for fitness and grip strength come from observational studies.^{[3, 4]} A clinic can help you act on these results with a clear plan and follow-up. Whether that support is worth several thousand euros depends on how much help you need to follow through.

You can assemble the core markers of a longevity check-up yourself for around 180 to 450 EUR (as of October 2026). That total is our calculation from the ranges in the table below, where each row is one component and where you can get it:

Prices: editorial estimate, as of October 2026; lab and sports-medicine anchors below^{[19, 20]}

Total: around 180 to 450 EUR for blood, check-up and VO2max, by our calculation from the ranges above. With a dynamometer and a DEXA, where a doctor finds one justified, the total comes to about 230 to 690 EUR. That is about a tenth of a typical clinic package, and the frugal version comes in below that.

Two of those rows have published price anchors. At the lab, single markers are cheap: one Berlin lab lists ApoB at 11.66 EUR and Lp(a) at 17.49 EUR, plus 4.20 EUR for the blood draw.^[20] So the hand dynamometer ends up costing more than either test. Through your GP, with the draw and the consultation, expect more. For VO2max, one statutory insurer puts a sports-medical exam with exercise ECG at about 100 to 150 EUR.^[19] With medically justified extras such as spiroergometry it costs 150 to 200 EUR, and the same insurer pays a subsidy towards it.^[19]

Three markers that clinics like to add deserve a second look before they go into the self-pay row. Vitamin D belongs there only with a reason such as symptoms, illness or risk. The IGeL-Monitor rates screening adults without symptoms "unclear", and the Endocrine Society advises against routine testing.^{[21, 23]} As a self-pay service the test costs 27 to 33 EUR.^[21]

Fasting insulin stays out of the core: the American diabetes and laboratory-medicine societies advise against routine insulin testing in people at risk of diabetes or heart disease.^[29] Discuss it with your doctor only if there is a specific question to answer. HbA1c stays in the row because it is cheap and part of the risk discussion. Even so, the IGeL-Monitor rates it "unclear" as an early-detection test,^[22] and the Check-up 35 already measures fasting glucose.^[8]

One clinic favourite is missing from the list on purpose: the epigenetic age test, which costs another 100 to 500 EUR. Our reading is that it is nice to know but rarely changes what you should do. The guide to epigenetic tests and the guide to biological age tests go into it in detail.

What this version lacks is a doctor who reads all the values together. Your GP can put them in context if you come with a concrete question, such as: What is my cardiovascular risk? What follows from my ApoB? My Lp(a) is high, what now? The ApoB and Lp(a) guide helps you phrase it. If that is not enough, book a single initial consultation at a longevity practice (200 to 500 EUR by our estimate) and bring your values. Even then you pay far less than for a package.

Because "longevity" is not a protected term, you have to check a provider yourself. The plan you would pay for is only as good as the doctor behind it. These eight points help you tell serious longevity medicine from a supplement business:

1. Medical leadership with a specialist title. A specialist (Facharzt) in internal medicine, general practice, cardiology or endocrinology is the fitting background. Sports medicine and nutritional medicine are add-on qualifications with an exam under the medical chambers' further-training rules, but preventive medicine and longevity medicine are not.^[11] Each state chamber's own regulation is binding, with the federal model as its template. A Heilpraktiker (a licensed non-physician alternative practitioner) is not a doctor, whatever the website suggests.

2. The markers with evidence are at the centre. ApoB, Lp(a), blood pressure, VO2max and strength should carry the programme. If a provider advertises microbiome panels, heavy-metal screens and 200 parameters instead, ask which of those results would change your care, and how.

3. No supplements as the business model. Recommending a supplement is fine when a test has shown a deficiency, but an in-house shop with a monthly subscription already priced into the programme is a conflict of interest.

4. No unproven therapies as the core offer. NAD+ infusions, stem cells, ozone, blood washing and vitamin drips without a deficiency have no evidence that they slow ageing. If they are the centre of the programme, leave. The IGeL-Monitor, in which the Medical Service rates self-pay services independently, has not assessed any of these as an anti-ageing treatment.^[9] None of them has a rating there that shows a benefit. Even some standard package items score poorly: the monitor rates a carotid ultrasound or a resting ECG in people without symptoms "tends to be negative".^{[13, 14]}

Stem-cell and other cell therapies need special care. In the EU, cell products classed as advanced therapy medicinal products may only be given as authorised medicines, in authorised trials or under a narrow hospital exemption.^[24] The European Medicines Agency warns that unregulated cell products put patients at serious risk.^[24] Ask for the authorisation, and if there is none, do not take part.

5. No prescription drugs without an indication. Testosterone, GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide or tirzepatide, metformin and rapamycin (sirolimus) are prescription-only in Germany.^[27] None is approved to slow ageing, so giving them to healthy people for longevity is outside their approved use. A serious provider prescribes them only for a documented medical reason, with baseline tests and follow-up. Grey-market peptides such as BPC-157 or TB-500 are a separate problem. The guides on rapamycin, GLP-1 drugs, hormone therapy and peptides cover each of these in detail.

6. Transparent prices before the appointment. Ask for a written quote itemised by GOÄ number before you book. If the provider knows your insurer will not cover the full cost, it must tell you the expected costs in text form before treatment.^[30] Afterwards, the invoice must list every item.^[10]

7. Results with reference ranges and consequences. A good report shows each value against its reference range. For a high Lp(a), for example, it explains what the result means for you and whether it changes your care. Ask the provider to put any recommended follow-up in writing.

8. You get your full results, and the clinic offers to send them to your GP. Forwarding them needs your consent.^[26] With your values in your own hands and your GP informed, the follow-up does not depend on one provider.

A good counter-check is to ask what the provider does not offer and why. A dubious answer sounds like "everything is possible". A serious one sounds more like "we do not do whole-body MRI at your risk level because the false positives do more harm than good".

We deliberately keep no directory and recommend no clinic, so the eight-point checklist is the tool to bring to any city. The notes below are our impression of the market rather than a survey. Each city name links to our city page, whose FAQ answers whether there is a longevity doctor near you.

Berlin has, as far as we can tell, the most specialised longevity centres in Germany, with package prices. Alongside them, private practices for internal and sports medicine offer longevity check-ups without the label.

Munich has many private practices in sports medicine and cardiology that offer spiroergometry, DEXA and extended blood panels individually, which makes the single-test route particularly easy.

Hamburg has a few practices with a longevity focus, many private practices with check-up packages and good coverage in sports medicine.

Frankfurt has a long tradition of executive check-ups in private clinics, which often still run under that older name but contain components similar to a longevity package.

Cologne and the Rhineland have many sports medicine practices and radiology centres that offer DEXA and spiroergometry as self-pay services. The first specialised longevity practices have opened in Cologne and Düsseldorf too.

Zurich is the Swiss centre alongside the Lake Geneva region. A 2025 report counted slightly more than 20 Swiss private clinics offering longevity tests, among them a Zurich clinic charging from 1,850 francs per check-up.^[12]

Vienna and the Austrian Alps have longevity practices in the capital and residential health retreats in the Alpine regions. Longevity packages are self-pay there too, but the public baseline is broader than in Germany. Everyone living in Austria can have a Vorsorgeuntersuchung (preventive check-up) once a year from age 18.^[15]

Outside these cities the same building blocks exist. A GP, a sports medicine practice and a lab cover the core in most larger towns, without a longevity sign on any of the doors.

A longevity clinic is worth it if you know you need outside structure to stick to the measures with good evidence, and if the money does not hurt. For everyone else, the do-it-yourself version is the better bet.

It can be worth it if:

• you have a concrete risk (family history of heart disease, high Lp(a), prediabetes) and want structured follow-up with repeat measurements
• you know you only see things through with an appointment and accountability
• you want everything from one source and the price does not matter to you
• you already have the Check-up 35 and the do-it-yourself markers and now want a doctor to read them together and make a plan

It is not worth it if:

• you expect the programme to extend your life, because no clinic programme has shown that and general health checks did not lower mortality^[2]
• the core offer consists of infusions, stem cells or supplements
• you have never done the free Check-up 35, which is the place to start
• you only want to know once where you stand, since single tests are enough for that

In our view, a clinic belongs after the free Check-up 35 and a few self-pay markers, not before them. If you do book one, take your full results home and let your GP see them. Keep measuring the cheap markers yourself as well, so the plan does not depend on one provider.