"Sulfur burps" is not a term you will find on any drug label.
What the labels do count is eructation, the medical word for burping. It sits in the adverse-reaction tables for Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound. Here is what each label measured, and where the evidence stops.
Burping often travels with nausea, which has its own page: Ozempic nausea.
How often burping showed up in the trials
Each figure below is the share of people who reported burping as an adverse reaction in placebo-controlled trials. The rows come from different trials in different people, so they are not a head-to-head result.
| Drug, dose and population | Drug group | Placebo |
|---|---|---|
| Ozempic 0.5 mg, type 2 diabetes | 2.7% | 0% |
| Ozempic 1 mg, type 2 diabetes | 1.1% | 0% |
| Wegovy 2.4 mg, adults, weight trials | 7% | under 1% |
| Wegovy 2.4 mg, ages 12 and up, weight trial | 4% | 0% |
| Mounjaro 5 / 10 / 15 mg, type 2 diabetes | 3.0% / 2.5% / 3.3% | 0.4% |
| Zepbound 5 / 10 / 15 mg, weight trials | 4% / 5% / 5% | 1% |
The Ozempic figures sit in a list of stomach reactions reported in under 5% of people [1]. In the same list, reflux ran 1.9% on 0.5 mg and 1.5% on 1 mg, against 0% on placebo.
At the higher Wegovy dose for weight, burping made the label’s main table [2]. So did bloating, at 7% against 5%, and reflux, at 5% against 3%.
The Mounjaro figures come from its diabetes trials [3]. The Zepbound figures come from two weight trials, where burping is listed among the reactions reported by at least 5% of people [4].
Wegovy was also tested at 7.2 mg. That label table lists only reactions that ran higher than on 2.4 mg, and burping is not among them [2]. The label gives no 7.2 mg burping rate to quote.
What no source measures: the smell
Trials record whether burping happened. They do not record what it smelled like, or whether it tasted of eggs.
None of the labels, trials or safety-database studies cited here describe a sulfur smell. The word appears in forums and news stories, not in the clinical record.
That matters when you read explanations online. A cause offered for the smell may sound plausible. It has not been tested in people taking these drugs, as far as these sources show.
Why these drugs can cause burping
What the labels do state is that both drugs slow the stomach. The Ozempic label says semaglutide delays early emptying after a meal [1].
The Mounjaro label says the delay from tirzepatide is largest after the first dose [3]. It adds that this effect diminishes over time.
The labels link stomach reactions to timing too. For Wegovy, reactions such as burping, bloating and reflux were most often reported while the dose was being raised [2].
So if burping starts after a dose increase, that fits the pattern the labels describe. The dose steps are laid out in semaglutide dosage and tirzepatide dosage.
What safety reports add
The FDA collects voluntary reports of side effects in a database called FAERS. Researchers look for reactions reported more often with one drug than with all others.
For semaglutide, one study found 45 stomach-related signals in reports from 2018 to 2022 [5]. Burping gave the strongest, with the lower bound of its reporting odds ratio at 42.03.
For tirzepatide, a study of reports from mid-2022 to mid-2024 found the same shape [6]. Burping and slowed stomach emptying had the highest disproportion among stomach reactions.
What clinical guidance suggests
No trial has tested a remedy for burping on these drugs. The closest guidance is a consensus paper by specialists on managing stomach side effects of GLP-1 drugs [7].
One of its worked cases describes a patient with heaviness after meals, frequent burping and heartburn. The advice for that case was to keep the dose where it was, not raise it.
It paired that with eating changes. The paper lists smaller, more frequent meals, and avoiding coffee, tea, spices and cola.
It also lists fatty, fried or processed foods, tomato, mint and chocolate as foods to avoid. Alcohol and fizzy drinks are on the list, and so is lying down soon after eating.
For the reflux in that case, the paper suggests a short course of an acid-reducing drug before the next dose step. That is a decision for your prescriber. More on meals is in what to eat on semaglutide, and on drinking in Ozempic and alcohol.
When burping comes with something else
Burping on its own sits among the milder reactions. The labels flag stomach reactions that are more serious.
On Wegovy, severe stomach reactions were reported by 4.1% of adults in the weight trials, against 0.9% on placebo [2]. On Zepbound, they ran 1.7% to 3.1% by dose, against 1% [4].
All four labels say the drug is not recommended for people with severe gastroparesis, a condition in which the stomach empties very slowly. They also warn about pancreatitis and gallbladder disease.
Those warnings, with their rates, are covered in semaglutide side effects and tirzepatide side effects.