How Long Does Xeomin Last?
Reviewed for medical accuracy against our Medical Review Board · Last updated 23 August 2026
Part of The Ultimate Xeomin Guide
Xeomin's label answers this directly, which is unusual: a median onset of two to seven days, and a typical duration of up to 12 to 16 weeks. Dysport's label, by contrast, gives no onset figure at all. So the familiar claim that a toxin "starts working in a few days" is a labelled figure for Xeomin and pure convention for Dysport, which is the reverse of what most comparisons imply.
The label also adds the caveat that matters more than the number: duration "may vary in individual patients." Below is what the trials measured, what actually moves your own figure, and a scoring gap between patients and clinicians that explains most complaints about a result fading early.
1. The short answer
Up to 12 to 16 weeks, which is three to just under four months, and that figure is from the label rather than from marketing. Onset is a median of two to seven days, also labelled. Most people settle into three treatments a year.
The label adds that duration "may vary in individual patients", and the honest reading of "up to" is that 16 weeks is the top of the range rather than what to expect. Two weeks is when to judge the result.
2. What the label actually says
Section 2.9 of the prescribing information, headed Monitoring to Assess Effectiveness, is the sentence to know:
"The median onset of XEOMIN treatment effect occurs within two to seven days after injection. The typical duration of effect of each treatment is up to 12-16 weeks; however, the duration of effect may vary in individual patients."
Unpacking that: 12 to 16 weeks is three to under four months, "up to" means that is the top of the range rather than the average, and "may vary in individual patients" is the manufacturer telling you the number is soft.
The rest of the label's timing information:
- Efficacy was assessed at day 30 in all four cosmetic trials. No later efficacy timepoint is published, though patients were followed for 120 days.
- Retreatment should be no more frequent than every three months.
One thing worth heading off: "four months" also appears in the medication guide, telling you to inform your provider if you have had another botulinum toxin in the last four months. That is about disclosure before treatment, not duration.
The comparison with Dysport is genuinely surprising. Dysport's label says its effect "may last up to four months" and publishes a day-by-day table from day 14 to day 180, so it is better documented on the tail. But it gives no onset figure anywhere, which Xeomin does. The two labels are strong in opposite places, and our page on how long Dysport lasts covers that side.
3. How fast it works
Here Xeomin is on unusually firm ground: a median onset of two to seven days, stated in the label. Median means half of people were inside that window and half outside it, so it is a midpoint rather than a promise.
This is the one place Xeomin is better documented than Dysport, whose label contains no onset figure at all despite Dysport having the stronger reputation for working fast. If a clinic tells you the label says Dysport works in two days, it does not. If they tell you Xeomin's label gives two to seven days, they are right.
What that looks like in practice is that movement changes before appearance does. Most people notice they cannot frown as hard several days before they notice the line has softened. The visible result then builds over the following week or so, and the trials measured at day 30.
If you are judging your result, give it two weeks. If you are judging your symmetry, give it two weeks too, because muscles relax at slightly different rates and a great many people who think one side has failed at day four are even by day fourteen.
4. What the trials measured
Xeomin now has four independent readings on frown lines, from two separate approval programmes, all measured at day 30 on the same demanding endpoint: at least a two grade improvement at maximum frown, agreed by both the investigator and the patient.
| Trial | Xeomin | Placebo |
|---|---|---|
| GL-1 | 111 of 184 (60%) | 0 of 92 (0%) |
| GL-2 | 87 of 182 (48%) | 0 of 89 (0%) |
| Trial 1071 | 53% | 0% |
| Trial 1070 | 49% | 0% |
Roughly half to three fifths of people clear that bar, and not one placebo patient did, across all four trials. That last column is the most persuasive evidence on this page: whatever is uncertain about duration, the effect itself is not expectation or the sensation of being injected.
The corollary is worth saying plainly. Around 40% to 50% of people did not meet the endpoint. Most of them improved, just not by two full grades with both assessors agreeing. So if your result is real but more modest than the photographs you were shown, you are in the normal range and the photographs are the top of the distribution rather than the middle.
5. Why your injector thinks it lasted longer than you do
This is the most useful thing on the page, and it is now demonstrated across two different manufacturers rather than being a quirk of one trial.
Xeomin's glabellar trials scored the same faces twice, once by the investigator and once by the patient:
| Trial | Investigator | Patient | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xeomin GL-1 | 77% | 65% | 12 points |
| Xeomin GL-2 | 71% | 55% | 16 points |
| Dysport, day 30 | 88% | 74% | 14 points |
Three trials, two companies, the same direction every time, and a gap of 12 to 16 points. Patients are consistently harder markers than clinicians, and it is not close.
Nobody is wrong here. Both used the same scale on the same faces. It is simply that the person who sees their own face in the mirror every morning notices smaller changes than a clinician seeing them every few weeks.
Two practical consequences. If your injector says the result looks good and you are less convinced, you are both probably reporting accurately, and a systematic double-digit gap is the expected outcome rather than a brush-off. And it explains why the point at which you think it has worn off arrives earlier than the point at which your clinic thinks so, which is a large part of why duration feels shorter than the marketing says. Our page on before and after, day by day goes further into how this shapes clinic photography.
6. The three month rule
The label is firm: retreat no more frequently than every three months. That is the one hard timing number Xeomin gives you, and it is the same interval Dysport sets.
The reason is not that more would stop working; it is dose exposure over time. Whatever the theory, the practical effect is a floor. If your result has faded at ten weeks, the answer is a conversation about dose and placement at your next appointment, not an earlier top-up.
Three months as a minimum, with most people landing at three treatments a year, is the realistic plan to budget for.
7. Does it last longer than Botox or Dysport?
No, and nobody has shown otherwise. There is no head-to-head trial of duration between these products, and the labels do not support a ranking:
- Xeomin: up to 12 to 16 weeks, and a median onset of two to seven days. Three month minimum interval.
- Dysport: may last up to four months, roughly 17 weeks, so nominally a shade longer. But its own day-by-day data shows only about one person in five still clear at day 120, and about half the effect gone by day 90. No onset figure at all.
- Botox Cosmetic: also three months minimum between treatments.
So on paper Dysport's ceiling is slightly higher and Xeomin's onset is better defined. Given that Dysport's own tail data shows most people well past their peak by three months, treating these two as equivalent in duration is the defensible position.
Anyone telling you Xeomin outlasts the others because it has no accessory proteins is combining two unproven claims. The purity is real and in the label; the duration benefit is not established, and Xeomin's own label states that assay differences prevent comparing antibody rates between products, which is the mechanism that argument depends on. Our Xeomin against Dysport comparison lays out the differences that are real, and the Botox comparison does the same.
8. Does it last the same in every area?
The label does not answer this, because it reports one timepoint. Clinical experience says no, and the pattern is consistent enough to plan around:
- Frown lines are the benchmark, and the area with all four trial readings.
- Forehead lines behave similarly, and are on-label for Xeomin at 20 units, which Dysport is not. In Xeomin's trials the forehead was actually the best responding area at day 30, at 58% and 67%. See forehead lines.
- Crow's feet often feel shorter, partly because the muscle is thinner and the dose smaller at 24 units. Worth knowing that treating this area alone succeeded in only 24% of patients in one trial, against 33% to 53% when the whole upper face was treated. See crow's feet.
Small doses in small muscles generally fade sooner than larger doses in larger ones, which is why a lip flip with any brand is the shortest-lived treatment of all.
9. What actually changes how long it lasts
In rough order of how much they matter:
- Dose. The single biggest factor. An underdosed treatment fades early, and it is far more common than overdosing. Xeomin's labelled doses are 20 units for frown lines, 20 for the forehead and 24 for crow's feet, so a quote well below those is worth asking about.
- Placement. Correctly placed product in the working part of the muscle lasts longer than the same dose spread imprecisely.
- Your muscles. Strong, frequently used muscles recover faster. This is largely why duration is personal and why your own history predicts your next result better than any average.
- The area. As above.
- How much you were expecting. Given the 12 to 16 point scoring gap, some of what feels like early fade is the threshold at which a change stops being visible to you.
What does not appear to matter much: metabolism claims, exercise, and most of the aftercare folklore. Our aftercare page sorts those rules by whether there is a mechanism behind them, and the myths page covers the rest.
10. If yours wore off early
Work through these in order, because the first two explain most cases:
- Ask what dose you had. Compare it against the labelled 20, 20 and 24. If you were given noticeably less, that is very likely your answer, and it is fixable next time.
- Check what you are comparing against. If your reference point is the very best week of your first treatment, everything afterwards will feel like a decline. The trials measured at day 30, not at peak.
- Consider the area. Crow's feet and small perioral doses genuinely fade sooner.
- Only then consider the product. Antibody resistance is very unlikely to be the cause: of 2,649 patients in Xeomin's trials, 0.3% tested positive for neutralising antibodies and no patient lost response to treatment because of them.
The single most useful thing you can do is record your dose per area and how many weeks it lasted. Two treatments of that record is worth more than every average on the internet, because it is measured on the only face that matters. Full dosing detail is in the Xeomin guide.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Xeomin last?
Does the Xeomin label say how long it lasts?
How long does Xeomin take to work?
When should I judge my Xeomin result?
Does Xeomin last longer than Botox?
Does Xeomin last longer than Dysport?
Why did my Xeomin wear off after two months?
How often can I have Xeomin?
Why does my injector think my result looks better than I do?
Does Xeomin last the same on the forehead and crow's feet?
Will my second treatment last longer?
Can I make Xeomin last longer?
Know the count before the quote. The unit count is half the bill, and a low per-unit rate recovered by a high unit count is the commonest way a deal is not one. How to tell.
Deciding which area, not how many units? Botox by facial area covers what each zone actually achieves, which four are FDA approved, and the things Botox cannot fix at all.
