MRI Cost in Austin: The Prices That Are Actually Published (2026)
Austin's imaging market is competitive but unusually opaque: the major local providers quote cash prices by phone rather than posting them. We verified what is genuinely published for Austin, listed it below with sources and dates, and are honest about the rest: for most Austin centres you will need to make two or three phone calls.
Key insight: The published Austin floor is $263 to $280 all-in for common scans. Baylor Scott & White's own transparency files list about $2,367 cash for the same brain MRI at its Austin-area hospitals. Everything between those two numbers is a phone call.
Published Cash Prices in Austin
The only per-scan Austin rates we found actually published, verified 3 August 2026. They apply at participating centres booked through the RadiologyAssist programme, all-inclusive with the radiologist report; programme terms apply.
| Exam | Published cash price |
|---|---|
| MRI Cervical Spine (no contrast) | $263.22 |
| MRI Lumbar Spine (no contrast) | $264.10 |
| MRI Abdomen (no contrast) | $270.30 |
| MRI Brain (no contrast) | $270.76 |
| MRI Knee (no contrast) | $279.38 |
Source: radiologyassist.com Austin MRI rates page, retrieved 3 August 2026. The page compares its $263 Austin rate with an $889 national average MRI price. Contrast scans cost more; without-contrast rates shown.
Honest note: beyond the programme rates above, we could not verify a single Austin imaging centre that publishes its own cash price list. That is unusual, Houston and San Antonio both have at least one. If research turns one up, this page will list it; until then, the how-to guidance below is the reliable path to a fair Austin price.
Hospital vs Imaging Center in Austin
Austin's other big hospital systems, Ascension Seton and St. David's HealthCare, also publish machine-readable price files and online estimator tools under the federal Hospital Price Transparency rule. We quote figures only where we retrieved them, so we show the Baylor Scott & White numbers above and point you to each system's own price tool for the rest. The pattern is consistent with every Texas metro: hospital cash prices in the thousands, freestanding rates in the hundreds, for a clinically equivalent routine scan.
Austin Imaging Providers: Who to Call
All quote-only, none publishes a cash rate card we could verify (checked 3 August 2026). Call with your exact scan and ask for the self-pay rate.
Touchstone Medical Imaging
Quote-onlyMultiple Austin locations. States its scans average 40% to 60% less than hospitals; customised self-pay pricing for uninsured patients, quoted on request.
Longhorn Imaging
Quote-onlyAustin-based group, 14 locations across Austin and San Antonio. No pricing published on its site; call the Austin main line for cash rates.
ARA Diagnostic Imaging
Quote-onlyAustin Radiological Association, the city's largest radiology group with sites across the metro. No public cash rate card; provides estimates on request.
Sanity check for any Austin phone quote: our national sourced range for freestanding centres is $400 to $2,000 for most single body parts, and the published Austin programme floor is $263 to $280. Full tactics in how to save on an MRI.
Cash-Pay Networks Serving Austin
Green Imaging
Quote per orderGreen Imaging is a Texas-founded (Houston, 2011), physician-owned cash-pay network that coordinates scans at partner facilities, including in the Austin market. It quotes one bundled price per imaging order, facility fee and radiologist read included, paid upfront. It publishes no rate card, so it sits in the quote-only column with the local providers above, but a bundled quote-per-order is a useful extra data point in a city where nobody posts prices.
How Green Imaging's pricing worksMRI in Austin, Frequently Asked Questions
Verified published rates in Austin start at $263.22 (cervical spine, no contrast) through the RadiologyAssist booking programme, with brain, lumbar, abdomen and knee scans all listed between $263 and $280, radiologist report included. Austin's local imaging providers, including Touchstone, Longhorn Imaging and ARA Diagnostic Imaging, publish no cash rate cards and quote by phone; typical freestanding-centre quotes land in our national $400 to $2,000 sourced range. Baylor Scott & White hospitals around Austin list about $2,367 cash for a brain MRI in their federal transparency files.
Sources, all retrieved 3 August 2026: radiologyassist.com/facility-locations-rates/locations-by-city/mri/austin-tx-mri/ (published programme rates, radiologist report included); clearhospitalcosts.com/mri-cost-austin/ (Baylor Scott & White cash prices parsed from CMS-mandated transparency files, accessed 13 Apr 2026); cms.gov Hospital Price Transparency rule; touchstoneimaging.com (40-60% claim, custom self-pay pricing, no rate card); longhornimaging.com (no published prices); greenimaging.net (quote-per-order model). National ranges: our methodology.