Quick answer: a 5-panel drug test screens for five drug categories. A 10-panel screens for those same five, plus five more, mostly prescription drugs like benzodiazepines and barbiturates. The 5-panel covers what most employers actually need. The 10-panel earns its higher price in safety-sensitive industries, or when a regulator requires it.
That's the whole answer. Here's what's actually in each one, what it costs, and how to pick without overthinking it.
The 5-panel is the original standard, and it's been around for decades. It tests for marijuana (THC), cocaine, opiates, amphetamines (including methamphetamine), and PCP.
That list covers the drugs most employers actually worry about day to day. It's also the base panel that federally regulated testing programs, including DOT-regulated roles, are built on.
A 10-panel keeps all five of those and adds five more. Typically: barbiturates, benzodiazepines, methadone, propoxyphene, and a fifth category that varies by lab, sometimes methaqualone, sometimes MDMA.
Don't assume every 10-panel tests the exact same ten substances. Panels vary by provider, so if the specific fifth category matters for your policy, ask your lab directly instead of guessing.
What that extra coverage buys you is visibility into prescription drug misuse: sedatives, anti-anxiety medication, and certain opioid painkillers a 5-panel simply doesn't look for.
| Panel | Screens for | Typical cost | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-panel | Marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, PCP | $35–$60 | Most office, retail, and professional roles |
| 10-panel | The 5-panel list, plus barbiturates, benzodiazepines, methadone, propoxyphene, and one more lab-specific category | $50–$100+ | Safety-sensitive, regulated, or high-risk roles |
Because the extra substances matter for some jobs and don't for others. A forklift operator misusing a sedative is a real safety problem. An accountant doing the same thing usually isn't a hiring-decision issue on its own.
I don't love blanket 10-panel policies for office roles. You're paying extra to screen for problems that job almost never surfaces. Match the panel to the actual risk, not to whatever a vendor defaults you into.
Transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and other safety-sensitive industries should lean toward the 10-panel, or toward whatever panel your specific regulator requires. Office, retail, and most professional roles are usually fine with a 5-panel.
If you're DOT-regulated, don't pick off this list at all. The federal DOT panel has its own defined substance list, last broadened in 2018 to catch more prescription opioids, and it doesn't map cleanly onto either commercial package. Check with your provider directly instead of assuming a "5-panel" label means the same thing as the DOT one.
State marijuana law is a genuine mess right now. Plenty of states now limit what an employer can actually do with a positive marijuana result, even in states where the drug itself is legal. That changes what "positive" means for your hiring decision, not just whether you test for it at all.
Check your state's current rules, or ask an employment lawyer, before you write marijuana into a drug testing policy. This is an area that shifts fast, so I'm not going to hand you a state-by-state list here and have it be wrong in six months.