How Much Does the MCAT Cost? Fees and Reschedule Charges

Registering for the MCAT costs $360 for 2027 test dates, or $145 if you qualify for the AAMC Fee Assistance Program. That buys one seat on one date, and the cost most people do not plan for is what happens when they change their mind: moving that date costs $55 to $210 on top, depending on how close the exam already is.

Most pages answering this question quote the registration fee and stop there. The schedule that actually decides your total is the change fee ladder, it has three steps, and the step you land on is set by the day you act rather than the day you test.

What registering for the MCAT costs

Every examinee pays the AAMC the same registration fee, and there is only one discount. The MCAT scheduling fee schedule lists these amounts for all 2027 testing dates:

A candidate testing in London on the standard fee therefore pays $490, and one testing there with fee assistance pays $275. The international fee is not refunded if you later cancel the registration, which makes it the one line on this page you cannot get back under any circumstances.

Two scheduling facts belong with the price. The last day you can schedule an exam at all is 10 days before exam day, so a seat is not something you can pick up at the last minute. And registration for the whole 2027 season, January through September, opens Oct. 20 to 22, 2026, staggered by testing center location, which is when the popular dates go.

If you are still deciding whether to sit the exam this cycle at all, the MCAT score release calendar shows how a test date maps onto the date schools actually see your score, and that usually matters more than saving a reschedule fee.

What it costs to move your MCAT date

This is the part the ranking pages skip. The AAMC prices a date change on a three step ladder, and the fee roughly doubles at each step as the exam gets closer.

MCAT reschedule fee by deadline window, 2027 testing year. Source: AAMC MCAT Scheduling Fees.

Here is the full schedule for a standard registration:

And the same schedule on fee assistance:

Three rules govern both tables. The reschedule fee covers a change of date, a change of test center, or both at once, so moving across town costs the same as moving by two months. Every deadline falls at 11:59 p.m. local test center time on the day of the deadline. And inside 10 days, no change is allowed at all: you sit the exam, or you lose the seat and the entire fee.

Fee assistance applies the same discount all the way down. It cuts registration by 59.7 percent and the three reschedule fees by 54.5, 59.1 and 59.5 percent, so an approved recipient pays roughly 40 percent of the standard price for every action on this page, not just the first one.

Rescheduling always beats cancelling and re-registering

Students who need a later date often cancel the registration and book a new one, assuming a refund makes that the clean option. It never is. The refund is partial at best, and a new registration is charged at full price.

The arithmetic is worth doing once. On the reschedule path you have already paid $360 and you add the change fee. On the cancel path you have paid $360, get part of it back, then pay a fresh $360 for the replacement seat.

Total cost of ending up with a later MCAT date, standard examinee. Source: AAMC fee schedule, TestPrepPal calculation.

On fee assistance the gap is smaller but points the same way. Rescheduling costs $170, $190 or $230 by window, while cancelling and re-registering costs $215, $215 or $290, so you save $45, $25 or $60 by moving the booking instead of scrapping it.

Cancelling has one genuine use: when you are not going to sit the exam in this cycle, the $180 refund is real money, and it disappears entirely once you are inside 30 days. If you are weighing a later date against a retake, the MCAT retake calculator estimates what a second attempt is likely to add to your score, which is the question underneath most reschedule decisions.

There is no MCAT late registration fee

This one causes real confusion, partly because several other admissions exams do charge a late surcharge. The AAMC fee schedule lists exactly one standard registration price, $360, with no tier that rises as the test date approaches. Booking a seat six months out and booking one 11 days out cost the same.

What rises is the price of changing a booking you already hold. That is the distinction worth keeping straight: the MCAT does not punish late registration, it punishes late changes. Someone who registers early and then reschedules twice can easily pay more than someone who waited and booked once.

The practical consequence runs against the usual advice. Registering early does secure your preferred date and center, and the MCAT study schedule is easier to build backwards from a confirmed date. But if your plan is genuinely unsettled, there is no financial penalty for deciding later, and there is a real one for booking a date you then move.

What fee assistance is actually worth

The Fee Assistance Program is the only way to pay less than $360, and its MCAT discount is the smallest part of what it covers. The AAMC publishes a value for each benefit in the Fee Assistance Program benefits list:

Added together those come to about $2,342 at current prices. The portion that lands in your MCAT year, meaning the registration discount plus the prep bundle plus MSAR access, is $592, and the official prep bundle alone lists at $336.15 and is the single largest piece of it. That bundle is the material our AAMC question bank review covers in detail, and it is the prep most students buy regardless.

Four rules decide whether you can use any of it:

• Benefits are not retroactive. Nothing paid before your approval is refunded, so applying for fee assistance after you register means paying the full $360 anyway.
• Approval comes before booking. You need final approval before you select your test date and location.
• Benefits expire on Dec. 31 of the calendar year after approval, whenever in that year you were approved.
• You can apply once per calendar year, and receive a maximum of five awards in your lifetime.

The AAMC benefits page still describes the discount as a cut "from $355 to $145", which was the standard fee for the 2026 testing year. The 2027 schedule lists $360, so the standard fee rose $5 between testing years while the fee assistance price held flat.

Costs this page does not include

Everything above is money paid to the AAMC for the exam itself. The rest of an MCAT cycle is discretionary spend, and keeping the two apart is the only way the headline number stays honest:

• Prep courses and question banks, which for most students dwarf the registration fee. Our MCAT prep course roundup compares what the major providers charge and what you get, and are MCAT prep courses worth it covers when the spend is justified.
• Free material, which is more substantial than most candidates expect. The free MCAT resources page collects what you can get without paying anything.
• Travel to a testing center, which matters most for candidates outside major metro areas, since center availability drives test date choice more than price does.
• Medical school applications, billed separately through AMCAS once you have a score.

The AAMC schedule covers registration and date changes only. Application costs are billed separately once you have a score, so they are not part of the figure at the top of this page. The MCAT exam hub has the rest of the logistics.

MCAT cost FAQs

How much does it cost to take the MCAT?

Standard registration is $360 for 2027 test dates, and the Fee Assistance Program price is $145. Testing outside the US, Canada or US territories adds a non-refundable $130 international fee, bringing those totals to $490 and $275. There is no separate sitting fee and no charge for having your score sent to AMCAS.

How much does it cost to push back your MCAT date?

Rescheduling costs $55 if you act 60 or more days before the exam, $110 at 30 to 59 days, and $210 at 10 to 29 days. On fee assistance the same changes cost $25, $45 and $85. The fee is the same whether you change the date, the test center, or both, and no change of any kind is allowed inside 10 days of the exam.

Can you get a refund if you cancel the MCAT?

Partially, and only if you act early. Cancelling 30 or more days before the exam refunds $180 of the $360 registration fee, or $75 of the $145 fee assistance price. Cancel inside 30 days and you get nothing back. The $130 international fee is never refunded. If you intend to test on a later date rather than withdraw, rescheduling costs less in every window.

Is there a late registration fee for the MCAT?

No. The AAMC fee schedule lists a single standard registration price of $360 with no late tier, so booking a seat two weeks out costs the same as booking it six months out. What increases near the exam date is the fee to change a booking you already have, which reaches $210 in the final window. The practical deadline is that scheduling closes 10 days before exam day.

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