OBJECTIVE To analyze the characteristics and drug cost of hepatoprotective drugs among outpatients in domestic hos-pitals and provide references for rational drug use.METHODS The outpatient prescription data of 119 hospitals in 9 cities from Jan-uary 2016 to December 2023 was collected,and the clinical application of hepatoprotective drugs was analyzed.RESULTS A total of 8 635 977 prescriptions from 3 194 167 patients were obtained in this study.The most frequent diagnoses of hepatoprotective drugs were hepatitis B(7.59%),liver cirrhosis(5.11%)and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(4.53%).98.15%of prescriptions for 1-2 hepato-protective drugs are prescribed,and oral dosage forms account for 97.29%.The total drug cost of hepatoprotective drugs increased from 85.38 million yuan to 109.8 million yuan,and the average drug cost per time increased from 85.15 yuan to 95.52 yuan.The gly-cyrrhizin preparation was the most used regimen,and the polyene phosphatidylcholine+glycyrrhizin preparation was the most used regi-men.CONCLUSIONS The aggregate costs on hepatoprotective medications appears a consistent annual increase,which brings eco-nomic burden to medical insurance.This study analyzes the trend of hepatoprotective drug costs in the past 8 years,which is of great significance to the drug management of patients with liver disease.