How much does the GRE cost?

GRE exam cost: The direct answer

The current GRE exam cost for the ETS GRE General Test is $249 in US dollars everywhere except China, where the published fee is $231.30. Those amounts take effect August 1, 2026, and ETS says they can change without notice. The fee buys one sitting plus up to four score recipients on test day. India is not a dollar figure on the global chart; ETS sends Indian test takers to the ETS India GRE site instead of listing an INR price here.

That $249 line is the starting budget, not the whole bill. A date change, a center change, extra score sends, an Analytical Writing review, or a second sitting each add a published ETS charge. Some countries add VAT or sales tax at checkout. Confirm the live invoice in your ETS account before you treat any blog table as final.

This page owns the GRE exam cost and GRE fee query so the GRE pillar and the take-my-GRE money page can link here instead of stuffing every add-on into one URL. If you want the sitting handled end to end, the commercial path is the pay-someone GRE service. You still pay ETS its own fee. You pay only after you pass on the service side, and that is billing, not a promise about the score.

• •General Test: $249 most areas, $231.30 in China, effective August 1, 2026.
• •India: use ETS India. Do not invent an INR amount.
• •Four free score recipients on test day; extra sends are $40 Additional Score Reports.
• •Reschedule $55 outside China, $53.90 in China. Center change $55.

Official GRE fees after August 1, 2026

ETS publishes GRE General Test and service fees in US dollars on its official fees page. The table below is the August 1, 2026 schedule, and ETS says those figures can change without notice. Use it to budget one sitting, then confirm the live total in your ETS account before you pay. This is the GRE exam cost owner, so later pages can point here instead of restating every add-on.

Read each row as one product, not a bundle. The test fee does not include a free reschedule. An Additional Score Report is not a score review. A Fee Reduction Voucher is not automatic. If an older GRE post still says $220, treat that number as retired.

Registration still happens in your ETS account. The fee table does not book the seat. Use the registration walkthrough when you are ready to pick a date, then come back here if an add-on price is unclear.

China, India, and regional GRE pricing

ETS splits the GRE General Test fee by location rather than by test-center versus at-home delivery. China is $231.30. Every other published area is $249. Test takers in India are told to use the ETS India GRE site for the amount they will actually pay. This page does not invent an INR price or treat a currency-converter result as an official GRE fee.

China also has its own reschedule amount: $53.90 instead of $55. The test-center change fee stays $55. If you are comparing an at-home GRE with a center sitting, do not expect ETS to discount one delivery mode. The location fee is the same published row for that area.

India is a routing problem, not a math problem. The worldwide ETS fees page defers payment and local display to ETS India. Open that site, complete the India checkout, and save the invoice. A US-dollar blog table is planning context for India, not the amount you should wire.

GRE reschedule and test-center change fees

ETS charges a separate GRE fee when you keep a registration but change the date or the test center. Rescheduling is $53.90 in China and $55 in all other areas. Changing your test center is $55. Those amounts are not a new full test fee, and they are not a refund. The GRE Information Bulletin, not the fee table, is where ETS puts the timing rules for when a change is even allowed.

Do not guess a four-day window or a 50 percent refund from memory. Payment methods, cancellation cutoffs, and refund math live in the bulletin and in the live ETS account flow. If the appointment is too close, you can lose the sitting and still owe the original GRE fee.

A reschedule is cheaper than a second registration only when ETS still lets you move the same appointment. If you cancel too late, or miss the sitting, the next date is usually another $249 or $231.30. Check the bulletin before you treat $55 as a guaranteed escape hatch.

• •Reschedule keeps the same GRE registration and charges $55, or $53.90 in China.
• •A center change is $55 and does not reset the test fee.
• •Refund and deadline rules are in the GRE Information Bulletin, not in the dollar table.
• •A missed appointment is not automatically a free or discounted retake.

ScoreSelect and Additional Score Reports

The GRE test fee includes up to four score recipients on test day if you designate graduate institutions or fellowship sponsors then. ETS ScoreSelect lets you send Most Recent or All for those free reports, or send nothing yet. Extra sends, or any send after test day, are Additional Score Reports at $40 per recipient. Those paid reports add an Any option during the five-year reportable window.

That Any option is the detail most stale GRE posts get wrong. On test day you do not pick individual older sittings for the four free reports. After test day, a paid ASR can use Most Recent, All, or Any. ETS also warns that some programs require every GRE administration. Check the school's current page before you hide a sitting.

ASR orders cannot be canceled, changed, or refunded once submitted. ETS says processing takes about five business days. If the five-year reportable window is closing, order early enough for that processing time. Four carefully chosen free sends still beat a stack of $40 reports you did not plan.

Score review, reinstatement, and Q&A review

ETS also sells optional GRE scoring services after the sitting. A Score Review for the Analytical Writing measure is $60. Score reinstatement is $50 if you canceled scores and later want them back. A question-and-answer review of Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning is $50 and is limited to New York State residents. None of these services changes the published test fee, and none is a substitute for a retake.

The Analytical Writing review is the only scored GRE measure ETS prices this way on the fees page. It is a review of the Issue essay, not a rewrite and not a new test. If the essay is the weak line on your report, read the writing guide before you spend $60 hoping a review moves a half point.

Reinstatement only helps if you canceled scores and then decide a school needs them. The Q&A review does not exist for most testers; ETS limits it to New York State residents and to Verbal and Quant. Other scoring tools, including the GRE Diagnostic Service, are listed as having no associated fee on that same page.

GRE Fee Reduction Voucher: $100 if you qualify

ETS offers a GRE Fee Reduction Voucher that can cut the General Test to $100 for people who qualify. The same voucher program also covers 50 percent of the regular GRE Subject Test fee. Eligibility is narrow: financial need with a FAFSA Student Aid Index of zero or less, documented unemployment, current Peace Corps service, or membership in a named partner program listed on the official fees page. Do not assume a counselor can invent a category.

Financial-need and unemployment vouchers are aimed at US citizens or resident aliens who plan to test in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, or the US Virgin Islands. College seniors must already receive undergraduate financial aid and show an SAI of zero or less. Unenrolled graduates must have applied for aid and show the same SAI. Unemployed applicants must be at least 18, have become unemployed within the past six months, and submit an Unemployment Benefits Statement from the past 90 days.

Current Peace Corps Volunteers can apply with a signed Description of Service on official letterhead that shows the service dates. Past or future service does not count. Members of a named partner program, such as TRIO McNair, QuestBridge, GEM, NSBE, or EducationUSA Opportunity Fund, get the voucher from that program's coordinator, not by inventing a self-serve discount. Financial-need and unemployment applicants use the GRE Fee Reduction Request form. ETS says approved voucher numbers arrive by email within two weeks.

• •Eligible General Test registration is $100, not $249.
• •Subject Test registration is 50 percent of the regular published fee.
• •ETS also lists free POWERPREP PLUS practice tests 1 and 2 plus ScoreItNow with the General Test voucher.
• •If you received a FAFSA-based voucher in the past year and need to retest, ETS lets you apply again with the same form.

Taxes, invoices, and the GRE bulletin

The published GRE exam cost is not always the checkout total. ETS says some jurisdictions treat the listed fee as inclusive of sales tax or VAT, while others add tax when you place the order. Australia, Canada, Colombia, 27 European Union countries, Nigeria, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam are called out as places where tax is added at checkout. Confirm the live ETS invoice rather than adding a homemade tax rate.

In other places, the customer may have to account for local tax even though the amount remitted to ETS excludes it. That is a legal and checkout problem, not something this page can price for every country. Save the ETS receipt. If a school or employer later reimburses you, they will want the invoice, not a screenshot of a blog table.

Preferred payment methods, refund math, and cancellation timing are in the GRE Information Bulletin. The fees page points there on purpose. Use the bulletin for those rules and the live account for the amount due. Do not mix an old refund story from a forum with the August 1, 2026 fee schedule.

What one GRE fee actually includes

The ETS GRE General Test fee buys one appointment for the named test taker and, if you use them, up to four test-day score sends. It does not buy a second sitting, official POWERPREP PLUS practice, a reschedule, a center change, or extra Additional Score Reports. Center and at-home delivery use the same published location fee. Prep books, travel, and a private room for GRE at home are outside the ETS line item.

Identity rules stay attached to that fee. The person named on the ETS registration is the person who sits. A paid appointment is not transferable, and a mismatched ID can burn the date without creating a free replacement. The at-home guide covers room and equipment costs that never appear on the ETS fee table.

Think of the GRE fee as admission to one timed sitting, not as a graduate-school bundle. Schools still set their own application fees. ETS still charges $40 for later score sends. A good score question is separate from a cost question: pay for the sitting you will actually use, then decide where the report should go.

• •Included: one GRE General Test appointment for the registered name.
• •Included if you designate them: up to four test-day score recipients.
• •Not included: a retake, a reschedule, a center change, or extra ASRs.
• •Same published location fee for center and at-home delivery.

Retake math and costs the fee table hides

A realistic GRE budget starts with one official sitting and then adds only the ETS add-ons you are likely to use. If you miss the date, a reschedule is $55 outside China. If you apply to more than four programs after test day, each extra send is $40. If you sit again, you pay another full $249 or $231.30. Travel, time off work, and practice materials sit on top of those ETS charges.

How often ETS lets you sit is a separate rule from how much a sitting costs. Do not treat another $249 as automatic permission. The retake owner covers the waiting period and the annual attempt cap. Use that page before you buy a second date, and use a target-score page before you decide the first score is not enough.

Two full sittings plus two extra ASRs is $249 + $249 + $80, or $578 before tax in most areas. China uses $231.30 twice plus the same $40 ASRs. That is planning math, not an ETS bundle. If you are still choosing between GMAT and GRE, compare those official fee pages too, because a second exam is another registration, not a free swap.

Take-my-GRE service versus the ETS GRE fee

The ETS GRE fee and Exam Assist's take-my-GRE service fee are different bills. You still pay ETS for the official sitting, score sends, and any add-ons in your own ETS account. The pay-someone GRE service is the commercial path when you want the sitting handled end to end. That service uses pay-after-pass billing: the service fee is due after the agreed result posts. It is a billing arrangement, not a score guarantee.

Do not mix the two invoices when you build a budget. ETS keeps $249 or $231.30, plus tax and add-ons, whether you work alone or use support. Exam Assist does not replace the ETS checkout, does not sell Fee Reduction Vouchers, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to ETS. If the timeline is tight and the target split is specific, send the date and the score you need through the booking page.

Use this fee page to stop overpaying ETS by accident: unused free score sends, late reschedules, and surprise tax. Use the take-my-GRE page when the problem is the sitting itself. You only pay when you achieve your target score on the service side. The GRE exam cost on the ETS side stays due to ETS on its own schedule.