Any eye exam that measures your glasses prescription must end with a free copy in your hand, whether or not you ask. Take it, and ask for your pupillary distance, the space between your pupils, before you leave. Then price the same frames and lenses online before you buy at the office.
Most people pay the office price anyway. According to the FTC, the vast majority of patients who buy glasses after an eye exam get them at the eye doctor’s office that same day.
You don’t have to. Under the FTC’s Eyeglass Rule, the office must hand over your prescription before it offers to sell you frames, and it can’t require you to buy glasses there or make you sign a liability waiver. The FTC’s Contact Lens Rule gives contact lens wearers the same protections once their fitting is complete.
Shopping around pays. When the nonprofit Consumers’ Checkbook priced the same frames with basic lenses for a common mild prescription at Boston-area stores and websites, some charged more than twice as much as others. The cheapest sellers were usually online.
The FTC updated the rule in 2024 to add a signature step. Since September 2024, an office that sells glasses and gives you a paper copy must ask you to sign a statement confirming you got it, so sign only once it’s in your hand. Then ask for your pupillary distance, the space between your pupils that online sellers need to align your lenses. Most states don’t require it on the prescription, and some let offices charge to measure it. Online tools can estimate it, though less accurately.
Online, compare the total with the lenses and coatings you need, not the frame’s starting price, and read the return policy before you order. Prescription glasses are a qualified medical expense, so your health savings account or flexible spending account can pay for them wherever you shop.
Two cases still call for an in-store optician. Progressive lenses have to line up with where your pupils sit in the frame you choose, a measurement that’s more precise in person. And a strong prescription’s thicker lenses can make rimless frames a poor choice, so let the optician help you pick the frame.
Everyone else can split the visit in two. Pay for the exam at the office, then take the prescription wherever the glasses cost less.
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