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The NCLEX Fee Goes to $350 on Feb. 1, 2027: What Changes and What Doesn't

Written & reviewed by the Quibank editorial team · · Editorial standards

On Feb. 1, 2027, the NCLEX registration fee goes from $200 to $350 in the United States and Australia, and from $360 CAD to $570 CAD in Canada. NCSBN says this is the first adjustment to the fee since 2000 and attributes it to 25 years of inflation plus rising exam, data-protection and cybersecurity costs. No other NCLEX fee is changing: the $150 international scheduling fee and the $50 change fees stay where they are, and the REx-PN fee is untouched.

The detail that actually decides what you pay is buried in one sentence on NCSBN's announcement: 'Those who complete their registration before Feb. 1, 2027, will be charged the current fee. Those who register on or after Feb. 1, 2027, will be charged the adjusted fee. The exam date does not affect the fee.' You can register in January 2027, test in June, and still pay $200.

Registering early locks in $200 — and starts a 365-day fuse

Because the price follows the registration date, a candidate graduating in spring 2027 can register with Pearson VUE before Feb. 1 and save $150. That is a real option, not a trick, and it works because NCLEX registration and your nursing regulatory body's licensure application are two separate tracks that run at the same time. You can register and pay before your NRB has declared you eligible.

The catch is what happens if your board is slow. Registrations stay open for 365 days while the NRB determines eligibility, and the candidate bulletin is blunt about the ending: candidates not made eligible within that window 'will forfeit their NCLEX registration, including the registration fee,' and have to reregister and pay again. So a January 2027 registration buys you until roughly January 2028 — generous for a normal graduation timeline, tight if your transcript, fingerprints or a name change stall the file.

You also cannot stockpile a cheap spare. A candidate may not hold two open registrations of the same exam type, and if you submit a second one anyway it 'will be processed and denied, and the fee collected will be non-refundable.' There is no way to pre-buy a $200 retake before the increase while your first registration is still live.

What a retake actually costs, before and after

Retakes are where the increase bites, because every attempt is a fresh registration fee. NCSBN's retake policy allows eight attempts a year with at least 45 test-free days between them, and repeat candidates are offered an appointment after 45 days rather than the 30 days first-timers get.

This is not a rare situation. In NCSBN's 2025 statistics, U.S. NCLEX-RN sittings included 42,513 repeat attempts by U.S.-educated candidates, who passed at 52.7%, and 40,187 repeat attempts by internationally educated candidates, who passed at 30.5%. Against 328,443 total U.S. RN sittings, roughly one in four was somebody paying the fee again. After February 2027, that same second attempt is $350.

Your board's fee stacks on top of that, and it is the number candidates get wrong most often. California's published fee schedule lists a Reapply/Repeat Examination Application at $250 — so a failed California candidate retaking after the increase is looking at $350 to Pearson plus $250 to the BRN, or $600 before a single practice question. On allnurses, candidates in that thread trade figures of $75, $150 and $250 for the same California fee, which tells you how stale forum numbers get. Look up your own board's current schedule rather than a figure someone posted three years ago.

Five ways to lose the fee without sitting the exam

The refund policy is one line long: 'There will be no refund of NCLEX registration fees (telephone or via the Internet) for any reason.' Every item below ends with you reregistering and paying the current price — which after Feb. 1, 2027 means $350, even if the fee you burned was $200.

  • Your ATT expires. The Authorization to Test averages 90 days and 'cannot be extended for any reason.' Candidates on allnurses who let one lapse describe redoing the board application and repaying Pearson from scratch.
  • You no-show, or cancel late. Missing your appointment or failing to reschedule outside 24 business hours forfeits the exam fee and invalidates your ATT.
  • Your board never makes you eligible inside 365 days. The registration and the fee are both forfeited.
  • You submit a duplicate registration. It gets processed, denied, and the money is not refundable — NCSBN's instruction is to call Pearson before submitting another one.
  • You book internationally and then switch. The $150 international scheduling fee is separately non-refundable, and moving that appointment to a domestic test center does not get it back.

The two-track mistake that early registration does not fix

Registering before Feb. 1 saves money; it does not speed anything up. A recurring allnurses thread is the candidate who registered with Pearson VUE in January, before graduating, and then sat waiting for an Authorization to Test that could not arrive — Pearson issues the ATT only after the board notifies it that you are eligible. Paying early puts you in a queue behind your own transcript, not ahead of it.

Two smaller fees are worth knowing before you commit. Changing your nursing regulatory body after you have registered costs $50, and so does switching between the RN and PN exam. If you are registering early specifically to beat the deadline, register for the board you will actually license with — a $150 saving that turns into a $50 change fee is still a saving, but only just.

One thing the increase does not touch: your Candidate Performance Report. When you fail, the NRB sends a report identifying how many items you were administered and your relative strengths and weaknesses against the test plan. It is the only free, personalized diagnostic in the process, and it is worth more than any fee-timing strategy — read it before you register again.

If you are testing near the deadline

Two scenarios cover most people. If you graduate before roughly January 2028 and can register in January 2027, do it — $200 is locked, and the 365-day window comfortably covers a normal eligibility timeline. If your graduation is further out than that, registering early trades $150 in savings against the risk of forfeiting the entire $200, which is a bad trade.

If you have already tested and failed, the calendar matters more than the price. With at least 45 test-free days required and an ATT that averages 90 days once issued, a fail in November 2026 can realistically be retaken in January 2027 at the old fee. A fail in January 2027 almost certainly cannot, so budget for $350 plus your board's reapplication fee, and use the waiting period on the weak areas your Candidate Performance Report named.

Try the free NCLEX-RN practice test →

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