CBC Test Price in Pakistan (2026): What Every Number on Your Report Means

Your doctor scribbles "CBC" on a slip and says come back with the report. One lab quotes you Rs 560. The lab two streets away wants Rs 1,200 for what is written down as the same test. Then the report arrives with fifteen rows of numbers, half of them flagged in bold, and nobody explains a single one. Here is what a CBC costs in Pakistan right now, what each line is telling you, and which numbers are worth a follow up appointment.

What a CBC test actually measures

CBC stands for Complete Blood Count. In Urdu most labs and doctors call it khoon ka mukammal test. It counts the cells floating in your blood and describes their size and shape. That is the whole test. It does not check your sugar, thyroid, liver or vitamin D, which is why doctors often order it alongside something else.

Cell type	What it does	What an abnormal count can point to
Red blood cells and haemoglobin	Carry oxygen around your body	Anaemia, iron or B12 deficiency, blood loss
White blood cells	Fight infection	Bacterial or viral infection, allergy, inflammation
Platelets	Help blood clot	Dengue, bleeding or clotting problems

It is the most ordered blood test in the country for a reason. It is cheap, it needs one small tube, and it picks up the most common health problem among Pakistani women. The National Nutrition Survey 2018 found 41.7 percent of women of reproductive age anaemic, and 53.7 percent of children under five. A CBC is how that gets caught.

CBC test price in Pakistan, August 2026

Rates below were checked this month. Labs run their own discount schemes, prices differ between branches and cities, and booking platforms often shave 20 to 30 percent off the list rate, so confirm the number when you book.

Lab	CBC price (PKR)	Notes
Health+ by Marham	560 to 640	Home collection in Lahore, report in about 2 hours
Chughtai Lab	800 (list 900)	Widest branch network, home sampling available
Islamabad Diagnostic Centre	1,200 list, often 840 to 1,080 after discount	Report usually the same day
Public sector hospitals	Free or nominal with an OPD slip	You will queue, and reporting can take longer

The practical range is roughly Rs 560 to Rs 1,200. If a lab quotes Rs 2,000 or more, check what you are being billed for. Some places bundle CBC with ESR, or slip it inside a health package you did not ask for. A standalone CBC should never cost that much.

Worth knowing: paying more does not buy you a better CBC. Analysers at a Rs 600 lab and a Rs 1,200 lab count cells the same way. The extra buys turnaround time, home collection and a report you can pull up online.

How to prepare for the test

No fasting. This is the question everyone asks, and the answer is that you can eat normally and take your usual medicines before a CBC. Fasting only becomes relevant if a sugar or lipid profile has been added to the same slip, in which case that test's requirement applies to the whole visit.

Do drink water beforehand. Dehydration concentrates your blood and can nudge your haemoglobin and haematocrit slightly higher than they really are, and hydration makes the phlebotomist's job easier if you have thin veins. Mention it if you started iron tablets recently, if you have been unwell, or if you are on your period during sampling. None of that stops you testing. It changes how a borderline result gets read.

Reading your report without guessing

Every lab prints its own reference range beside your value, and those ranges vary slightly by machine. Read your result against the range on your own report rather than one from a search result. The figures below are what most Pakistani labs use.

Haemoglobin (Hb)

The number most people actually came for. Typical ranges are 12.0 to 15.5 g/dL for women and 13.5 to 17.5 g/dL for men. The WHO 2024 guideline on haemoglobin cutoffs defines anaemia as below 12 g/dL in non-pregnant women aged 15 and over, below 13 g/dL in men, and below 11 g/dL in pregnancy.

An Hb of 11.4 is mild anaemia and extremely common here. Worth treating, not an emergency. An Hb of 7 or 8 with breathlessness on one flight of stairs is a different conversation, and that one needs a doctor this week.

MCV, MCH and RDW

These three describe your red cells rather than count them, and they are how your doctor works out the cause of an anaemia without ordering five more tests. MCV is average red cell size, normally 80 to 100 fL.

Pattern	Usually points to
Low Hb with low MCV (under 80)	Iron deficiency, or thalassaemia trait
Low Hb with high MCV (over 100)	Vitamin B12 or folate deficiency
Low Hb with normal MCV	Recent blood loss, chronic illness, kidney issues

Low MCV is where most Pakistani women land, and it usually means iron deficiency. The catch is that thalassaemia trait produces a similar picture and is common here. If your MCV is low but your iron studies come back normal, that is the trail your doctor follows, and it matters a great deal before marriage and before a pregnancy.

White blood cells and the differential

Total WBC normally runs 4,500 to 11,000 per microlitre, and the differential splits that into neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils as percentages. High neutrophils lean bacterial, high lymphocytes lean viral, and high eosinophils suggest allergy or a parasite, which is worth remembering in a country where both are common. A mildly raised WBC while you have a cold is nothing to lose sleep over. A very high or very low count with no obvious explanation needs a doctor.

Platelets

Normal is 150,000 to 450,000 per microlitre. This is the row people watch during dengue season, and rightly so. A falling platelet count alongside fever and body aches means medical review rather than another home test. Below 100,000 with active fever is a reason to be seen the same day.

Your haemoglobin is low. What now?

Do not start iron tablets off a CBC alone. Low Hb with low MCV strongly suggests iron deficiency, but the test that confirms it is serum ferritin, and it costs about the same as a CBC. Taking iron when the real problem is B12, or when you carry thalassaemia trait, does nothing useful and can be harmful over time.

If iron deficiency is confirmed, treatment is usually a supplement for three to six months, well past the point where your Hb looks normal, because you are refilling stores rather than just fixing a number. Ferosim is one of the commonly used options here at Rs 460, and our guide to the best iron supplements in Pakistan compares what is on the shelves by dose and by how gentle they are on the stomach. Take iron with something acidic like a citrus juice, and keep it away from tea, milk and calcium tablets by a couple of hours.

If the picture points to vitamin B12 deficiency instead, a B12 supplement is the route, and any tingling or numbness is worth mentioning to your doctor early.

The other half of the job is finding out why your iron ran out. In women the answer is very often heavy or prolonged periods. If you soak through protection hourly, pass large clots, or bleed longer than seven days, that is the thing to treat, and our article on period pain and heavy bleeding covers when it stops being normal. If the CBC comes back normal and you still feel wrung out, why you feel tired all the time works through the other causes.

CBC in pregnancy and before conceiving

A CBC is part of the first antenatal visit everywhere in Pakistan and gets repeated later in the pregnancy. Anaemia in pregnancy is linked to low birth weight and preterm delivery, so this is the one time a borderline haemoglobin gets treated promptly rather than watched. If you are pregnant now, the free pregnancy calculator maps your weeks and due date so you know when the next round of tests is due.

If you are still trying, doing the CBC and ferritin before you conceive is the smarter order, because correcting iron takes months and you would rather start a pregnancy with full stores. The ovulation calculator handles the timing side, and folic acid should already be running a month beforehand, which prenatal vitamins cover for you.

When a CBC is worth doing without being told

Tiredness that sleep does not fix, breathlessness on stairs you used to manage, unusual pallor, palpitations, or periods that have quietly got heavier over a year. Any of those justify Rs 600 and a needle.

Repeating it monthly because the number moved by 0.3 does not. Haemoglobin fluctuates with hydration and with where you are in your cycle. Once you are on treatment, six to eight weeks between checks is the standard interval, and testing more often mainly buys anxiety.

The short version

Pay somewhere between Rs 560 and Rs 1,200, do not fast, and read your values against the range printed on your own report. Low haemoglobin with a low MCV means ask for a ferritin before buying iron. Low haemoglobin with a high MCV means ask about B12. If you are anywhere near planning a pregnancy, get this done early enough that there is time to fix what it finds, then browse women's health supplements once you know which number is actually off.

This article is for education and does not replace medical advice. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist about your own results.