Jobs / Healthcare / 29-2052.00

Pharmacy Technicians

Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.

US jobs
471,680
Median wage
$45,750 a year
Job family
Healthcare

Can agents do the work of pharmacy technicians?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:

  • Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
  • Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.

  • GDPvalby OpenAIProject level · Wins plus ties against experts
    84.9%GPT-5.5 · Apr 2026
    Strong
  • GDPval-AAby Artificial AnalysisProject level · GDPval-AA Elo
    1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026
    Unrated
  • MedAgentBenchby Stanford UniversityTask level · Task success rate
    69.7%Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2 · 24 Jan 2025
    Strong

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
  • Enter prescription information into computer databases.
  • Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.
  • Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
  • Receive and store incoming supplies, verify quantities against invoices, check for outdated medications in current inventory, and inform supervisors of stock needs and shortages.
  • Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests.
  • Assist customers by answering simple questions, locating items, or referring them to the pharmacist for medication information.
  • Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers.
  • Price and file prescriptions that have been filled.
  • Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.
  • Order, label, and count stock of medications, chemicals, or supplies and enter inventory data into computer.
  • Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
Other job titles for this occupation (18)

Accredited Pharmacy Technician · Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) · Chemotherapy Pharmacy Technician (Chemo Pharmacy Technician) · Compounding Technician · OR Pharmacy Tech (Operating Room Pharmacy Tech) · RPhT (Registered Pharmacy Technician) · Compounding Pharmacy Tech (Compounding Pharmacy Technician) · Drug Coordinator · Hospital Pharmacy Tech (Hospital Pharmacy Technician) · Inpatient Pharmacy Tech (Inpatient Pharmacy Technician) · Pharmacist Assistant · Pharmacist Technician · Pharmacy Clerk · Pharmacy Laboratory Technician · Pharmacy Service Associate · Pharmacy Technician (Pharm Tech) · Pharmacy Technologist · Retail Pharmacy Tech (Retail Pharmacy Technician)