OBJECTIVES Country-specific lists of standard costs can reduce the variability of results in health economic evaluations that are attributed to differences in employed data sources and approaches for defining the resource use and unit prices. Moreover they potentially speed up the conduct of health economic evaluations. We aim to investigate which HTA agency officially recognizes and applies a standard cost list and, where such list exists, explore pre-specified procedural and methodological aspects. METHODS Reviewing all national pharmacoeconomic guidelines published on the ISPOR Website http://www.ispor.org/PEguidelines/index.asp in English (i.e., 30 out of 37). Standard cost lists mentioned in the guidelines were, inter alia, compared on the following aspects: i) objective, ii) authorship, iii) release interval, iv) data sources, v) costing perspective, vi) cost categories, and vii) health-state costing. RESULTS Out of the 30 pharmacoeconomic guidelines available in English, a standard cost list was officially recognized and applied by 4 HTA agencies (Canada, England, Australia and the Netherlands). All 4 lists aim to reduce heterogeneity between health economic evaluations in order to increase the comparability. Compiling the standard cost lists was commissioned to external scientific institutions in all 4 countries. Updates of the lists have been published periodically, spanning from anually (e.g. England) to when required for methodological reasons or to ensure currency (e.g. the Netherlands). Data collection was primarily based on claims data and/or official statistics; in the Netherlands, published research and expert opinions can be employed (for estimating resource use). Costs were derived from a payer perspective. Both direct and indirect costs were stated, except for Australia (only direct costs). No country presented costs in relation to health states. CONCLUSIONS Standard cost lists are mentioned in 13 % of the pharmacoeconomic guidelines available in English. The 4 lists conicide on many procedural and methodological aspects. Heterogeneity arises mainly from country-specific costs.