How to Register for the ACT: MyACT Steps, Deadlines, and Fees

How Do You Register for the ACT?

You register for the ACT online through a free MyACT account at act.org: create the account, upload a recent photo of yourself, pick a test date and test center, choose your format - paper, online, or BYOD at US national centers - decide whether to add the optional science and writing sections, and pay. The base fee is $70 for the current 2026-2027 cycle, and the maximum with both add-ons is $100.

The ACT runs 7 times a year at US national centers, and regular registration closes about 5 weeks before each Saturday test date. Miss that window and you can still register late for an extra $42, or request a $75 standby seat up to the Monday before the test. Eligible 11th and 12th graders testing in the US, its territories, or Puerto Rico can skip the fees entirely with up to 2 fee waivers from a school counselor. Everything below - fees, the full 2026-2027 deadline table, format choices, fee waivers, accommodations, and test-day ID rules - comes from act.org's current registration pages.

• •Where: online through a free MyACT account at act.org - you need a computer, a payment method or fee waiver code, and a recent photo.
• •Cost: $70 base (English, math, reading); $75 with science; $95 with writing; $100 with both.
• •Deadlines: regular closes about 5 weeks before test day, late about 2-2.5 weeks before (plus $42), all at 11:59 pm Central Time.
• •Dates: 7 national Saturdays per year - September, October, December, February, April, June, and July.

What Do You Need Before You Register for the ACT?

Per act.org's registration page, you need three things besides the free MyACT account itself: a computer with internet access, a payment method such as a credit card, and a recent photo of yourself. The photo is not a formality - it prints on your admission ticket, and test center staff compare it against your face and your photo ID before letting you into the room. Use a clear, recent headshot that actually looks like you will look on test day.

Have a few details ready before you start so you finish in one sitting. If you want colleges to receive scores automatically, look up the codes for up to 4 schools in advance, because reports added during registration are free while every report you order later costs $20. If you plan to use a fee waiver, get the code from your school counselor before you open MyACT - you enter it in place of payment at the end of the flow.

Two groups need extra lead time. If you will request accommodations, link your high school to your MyACT account before you register, because the request routes through a school official rather than through you. And if you have not settled on a date yet, skim the deadline table below first: the photo upload deadline lands the Monday before each Saturday test, and ACT can cancel a registration that is still missing its photo, so upload early rather than at the wire.

How Do You Register for the ACT Step by Step?

The whole flow happens inside MyACT, and act.org describes it as a few simple steps you can complete in one sitting. Work through it in order and you will not need to come back later to fix a name mismatch, a missing photo, or a forgotten college code - the three errors that cost students money or, worse, admission on test day.

One decision deserves real thought before you click through: format and add-ons. You can add science or writing or switch formats until the late registration deadline if a seat is available, but any change - date, center, or format - costs $49 per change, so it is cheapest to decide once. If you are planning multiple attempts across the year, map the dates first - the guide on how many times you can take the ACT covers sensible retake spacing.

How Much Does It Cost to Register for the ACT?

Per act.org's current fees page, the base ACT costs $70 for the 2026-2027 testing year and covers English, math, and reading - the three sections that produce your Composite. Science adds $5, writing adds $25, and taking everything costs $100. Every registration also includes score reports for you, your high school, and up to 4 colleges you name at registration, so the sticker price covers more than the test itself.

Service fees stack on top of the base price. Registering after the regular deadline adds $42. Changing your test date, center, or format costs $49 per change. Standby testing - the last-resort option after the late deadline - costs $75. Extra score reports run $20 each, including reports to a 5th or 6th college choice.

Budget for the combination you actually need, because add-ons and service fees compound: a student who decides late to take the ACT with writing pays $137 - the $95 registration plus the $42 late fee. The refund exceptions are narrow. The standby fee comes back if you are denied a seat on test day or your registration is cancelled for a missing photo, and score report fees for a 5th or 6th college choice are refundable on written request if you do not test.

Two optional products are worth knowing about before scores arrive. ACT My Answer Key, which lets you review the questions alongside your answers, costs $36 ordered before the test or $44 after. Score verification, if you believe a score is wrong, costs $67 for multiple-choice or writing and $134 for both. Treat every fee as nonrefundable unless act.org states otherwise, and expect the schedule to change each testing year - confirm current amounts at act.org before you budget.

When Are the ACT Registration Deadlines for 2026-2027?

The ACT is offered 7 times a year at US national test centers - September, October, December, February, April, June, and July - always on a Saturday. Per act.org's national test dates page, regular deadlines close about 5 weeks before each test, late deadlines about 2 to 2.5 weeks before, and every deadline hits at 11:59 pm Central Time, not your local time. If you are on the East Coast, that is 12:59 am the next day; do not cut it that fine.

Three deadlines matter for each date. The regular deadline gets you in at the base price. The late deadline adds $42 to whatever you registered for. The photo upload and standby deadline - the Monday before the Saturday test - is the true final cutoff: it is both the last day to submit your photo and the last day to request a $75 standby seat, which is granted on test day only if the center has room.

Initial scores post to MyACT about 10 days to 2.5 weeks after each test date. Those are multiple-choice scores; writing scores arrive later, so never promise an application deadline the full report cannot meet. If you are working backward from college deadlines, pick a test date whose score release lands comfortably before your earliest one, and leave enough calendar room for a retake if the first attempt falls short.

One regional quirk to plan around: no test centers were scheduled in New York for the July 2026 date, and July testing opens to New York students starting in 2027. Seats in big metros go fast in general - students testing around New York or Chicago should register the day their window opens rather than waiting for the deadline week.

Should You Choose Paper, Online, or BYOD - and Add Science or Writing?

US national centers offer three formats, and you pick during registration: traditional paper, online testing on a provided computer, or BYOD, where you bring your own or a school-managed laptop to the test site. You can switch formats up to the late registration deadline if a seat in the new format is open at your center. Outside the US there is no choice to make - the ACT is delivered as a computer-based test only at international centers.

The add-on decision exists because of the enhanced ACT, which launched for national online testing in April 2025 and reached paper national testing in September 2025. Since September 2025 the Composite is calculated from English, math, and reading only. Science became an optional $5 section: take it and you get a standalone science score plus a STEM score, but neither number touches your Composite.

Writing remains a separate $25 optional essay. Whether you need either add-on depends entirely on your college list - some programs still want a science or writing score and requirements vary school by school, so check each college's testing policy before you skip them. The enhanced ACT guide covers the format changes in detail, and the superscore guide explains how colleges combine your best section scores across test dates.

One more format note: the enhanced version is now the only ACT you can meet, whichever route you test through. State and District school-day administrations moved to the enhanced format starting in spring 2026, matching the national Saturday test. That matters for prep as much as registration - practice with enhanced-format materials, and treat older full-length practice tests built around a mandatory science section as structurally out of date.

How Do ACT Fee Waivers and Accommodations Work?

Fee waivers come from your school counselor, not from ACT directly. You qualify if you are enrolled in 11th or 12th grade, testing in the United States, US territories, or Puerto Rico, and meet an economic-need indicator: free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, enrollment in a federally funded program for economically disadvantaged students, foster care or homelessness, a family receiving low-income public assistance, or family income at or below USDA free-lunch levels.

Eligible students get up to 2 waivers, and each covers the registration fee plus the science and writing add-ons - so a waiver is worth up to $100 per test. The bundle goes well beyond the test fee itself, per act.org's fee waiver page:

One caution: the waiver covers the test and add-ons, but act.org does not say it covers late fees or test-change fees, so plan to register by the regular deadline and pick your date carefully. Get the code from your counselor before you start registration and enter it at the payment step.

Accommodations run through your school as well. Link your high school in MyACT, select Yes at the accommodations question, then forward ACT's follow-up email along with a completed Consent to Release Information to ACT form to a school official, who submits the request through the Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) system. Starting with the June 2026 test date, requests are due by the regular registration deadline - a recent change, so ignore older advice that allowed more time. Chase your school if nothing updates within 10 business days.

• •Score reports to your high school and up to 6 colleges
• •Unlimited free score reports requested after registration
• •Free access to The Official ACT Self-Paced Course
• •ACT My Answer Key at no extra cost
• •Eligibility to request college application fee waivers

How Is ACT Registration Different Outside the US?

International students use the same free MyACT account, and ACT's non-US registration page estimates about 30 minutes to finish, with a computer, a payment card, and your high school course details at hand. The structural differences: the test is computer-based only at authorized centers, with no paper option, and it runs in 7 windows per year, most spanning a Friday and Saturday rather than a single Saturday morning. For the current cycle, the windows include Sep 5, Oct 23-24, and Dec 11-12 in 2026, then Feb 12-13, Apr 2-3, Jun 11-12, and Jul 9-10 in 2027.

Fees are the biggest gap. The international base fee is $188.50 for English, math, and reading, the science add-on is $10, and writing is $25 - so the full test costs $223.50. Late registration ($42), test changes ($49), and extra score reports ($20) match US pricing, and your registration still includes free reports for you and up to 4 colleges. Fee waivers are not available outside the US, its territories, and Puerto Rico.

If you are an international student still choosing between admissions tests, price and format may tip the decision - the SAT vs ACT comparison walks through how the two tests differ for the current cycle. Whichever you pick, confirm international dates and fees at act.org before you commit, since windows and prices are cycle-specific.

What Do You Need on ACT Test Day?

Registration is not truly finished until you show up with the right documents. You need two things: your printed admission ticket from MyACT and an original, valid photo ID on a hard plastic card, issued by a city, state, or federal agency or by your school. The name on the ID must match your registration name exactly, and staff also check your face against the photo you uploaded during registration - three points of identity that all have to agree.

The rejection list is strict, per act.org's test day page. Paper and electronic IDs, birth certificates, credit cards, photocopies, and Social Security cards are all unacceptable, and personal recognition - even by test center staff who know you - does not count. Students who arrive with only unacceptable ID are not admitted, and ACT fees are nonrefundable unless act.org states otherwise, so an ID mistake can cost you the whole registration.

If you have no qualifying ID, the fallback is the ACT Student Identification Form, completed with a photo by a school official or a notary - arrange it well before test week, not the night before. Then treat the morning like part of the exam: lay out your ticket, ID, and materials in advance, and if nerves are the bigger threat, the test anxiety guide has concrete routines for the final 48 hours.

How Can You Hit Your Target ACT Score?

Registration is the easy part; the score is the work. Start from your college list: pull the middle-50-percent ACT ranges for admitted students at each school, set a Composite target at or above the top of that range, and pick a test date far enough out to allow a full prep cycle plus one retake. The good-ACT-score guide breaks down what different tiers of colleges actually expect from applicants.

Then build backward from your date. Sit a timed, full-length practice test in the same format you registered for - pacing on the online ACT feels different from paper - and split your remaining weeks between your two weakest sections. Because the Composite now comes from English, math, and reading alone, a weak science result no longer drags it down, which changes where your prep hours pay off most.

If the gap between your practice scores and your target is not closing as test day approaches, Exam Assist supports ACT candidates on pay-after-pass terms. Message us with your test date, format, and target Composite, and we will lay out your options confidentially. Exam Assist is independent and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, ACT, Inc.