Blood glucose monitors at Boots — and the better alternative

Boots sells two blood glucose meters: the Accu-Chek Instant at £34.99 and the Boots own-brand system at £19.99.

Both are test kits — a meter, a separate finger pricker, a container of test strips, lancets and a case. Five separate items to carry — and a used test to dispose of every time you test.

The Betachek C50 combines everything into one device, and used tests are stored in the cassette. Test in bed, in a car, office or wherever you are, no table or rubbish bin needed.

The cost per test is also lower than any meter available at Boots.

Below is what Boots sells, what each kit contains, and the cost of continuing to use it once the box is empty.

What Boots sells

Accu-Chek Instant Blood Glucose System — £34.99

In the box: the meter with batteries, 10 test strips, an Accu-Chek FastClix finger pricker, and two lancet drums holding six lancets each.

It has a backlit display and a target range indicator — a coloured arrow showing whether a result is high, low or in range. It connects to the mySugr app by Bluetooth, and it has a strip ejector so you can push the used strip out rather than pulling it.

Boots Blood Glucose Monitoring System — £19.99

In the box: the meter, 10 test strips, 10 lancets, a lancing device, control solution, a storage case, a leaflet and two AAA batteries.

Ten-second result, averages over 7, 14 and 30 days plus two and three months, and Bluetooth.

Those are the only two fingerstick meters Boots sells. Both come with a separate finger pricker, and both use loose test strips.

Ten tests

Both kits contain ten test strips.

At one test a day that is a week and a half. For anyone testing before and after meals, it is closer to three days.

The price on the box is therefore not the cost of getting started. It is the cost of the meter, plus a sample.

What it actually costs

Test strip prices at Boots:

Lancets are a further cost: Accu-Chek FastClix are £15.49 for 102, or £4.99 for 24.

The cost of 200 tests

Two hundred tests is approximately eight months at six readings a week, or seven months at one a day.

Starting from scratch with the Accu-Chek Instant:

With the Boots own-brand system the equivalent is approximately £87.95 for the kit and strips, before lancets.

What the Accu-Chek Instant cannot do

This limitation matters more than it may appear.

The Instant does not let you mark a reading as before or after a meal on the meter itself.

The Accu-Chek Instant stores 720 results. Every one of them is a number and a timestamp. Nothing in that memory tells you whether 8.5 was taken before breakfast or two hours after a plate of pasta — and those two readings mean completely different things.

You can tag results, but you do it in the mySugr app on your phone, after the fact. That means having the phone with you, having the app open — Roche's own documentation notes that if the app is not open the reading will not transfer automatically — being within three metres, and remembering which meal it was.

The most useful information self-testing provides is the effect of a particular meal, established by comparing a reading taken immediately before eating with one taken two hours later. A meter that cannot distinguish between the two records a column of figures that cannot be interpreted.

The BETACHEK C50 Value Pack is £69.95 for 200 tests, with the meter, 200 lancets and control solutions included. Against £149.93 for the same number of tests starting with an Accu-Chek Instant.

→ See the BETACHEK C50 Value Pack

BETACHEK C50 Starter Pack £37 (50 tests)

Not suitable for anyone testing only two or three times a month: an opened cassette lasts 90 days and unused tests expire. Individual test strips are more appropriate in that case.

A note on prescriptions

BETACHEK C50 cassettes are listed in the NHS Drug Tariff, so your GP can prescribe them. Ask for BETACHEK C50 cassettes by name.

Prices verified on boots.com, 31 July 2026, and may change. This article does not replace medical advice.