How much does the permit test cost? Fees by state

In most states, getting a learner's permit costs somewhere between $3 and $50. The cheapest verified figures we found are Virginia ($3 per permit) and South Carolina ($2.50 per permit). The most expensive are the states that roll the permit and the first driver's license into one payment: New York charges $80 to $90 for a 16-year-old, Delaware charges $50, Pennsylvania $45.50 and California $46.

The number you pay depends on what your state is actually charging for. Some states bill the test, some bill the permit card, some bill the eventual license, and a few bill all three at different times. The table below gives the stored fee for every state, says where it came from, and marks the states we could not re-check this month.

What the fee is actually for

Permit fees come in three flavors. Knowing which one your state uses explains why the amounts look so different.

• A knowledge-test fee. You pay to sit the written test, whether or not you pass. Oregon charges $7 each time you take the test. West Virginia charges $7.50 per attempt. Alabama collects a $5 test fee before the exam, then $36.25 to buy the license itself. Georgia's $10 test fee has to be paid before every attempt and is not refunded if you fail any part.
• A permit-issuance fee. The test is free or cheap, and you pay for the permit card once you pass. Wisconsin charges $35 for an 18-month Class D instruction permit and lists the knowledge and signs tests at $0. Utah charges $19 for a learner permit, Indiana $9, Iowa $6, Mississippi $7 for a two-year permit, and Kentucky $15 ($18 for a REAL ID version).
• A combined permit-plus-license fee. You pay once, up front, and the fee covers both the permit and the license you earn later. Pennsylvania's "Initial Permit and Four-Year License" fee is $45.50. California's $46 original Class C application fee stays valid for 12 months. Delaware's fee page says license fees include the learner's permit that comes before the license; the July 2026 Delaware manual puts the Class D fee at $50 for an 8-year license. New York bundles the permit and license too, and adds $1 for every 6 months if you live in the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District.

Some states split the difference. Nevada charges $22.50 for the instruction permit plus a $25 testing fee that covers your first knowledge and skills tests. Vermont's manual shows $63 to get a permit: a $39 knowledge test plus a $24 permit. Idaho's supervised instruction permit for teens is $21.50 (which already includes a $6.50 skills-test receipt) plus a $5 knowledge test.

Retest fees

Failing the permit test is common, and in many states it costs money the second time around. The pattern depends on which fee type your state uses:

• If your state charges per test (Oregon, West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas), every retake costs the same fee again. Arkansas law adds a $5 charge for each written exam with no limit on how many are added to the license cost.
• Nevada charges $10 for each retest after the $25 initial testing fee.
• Oklahoma does not charge for the written exam itself, but adds $4 to the $42.50 permit issuance fee for each failed attempt, and tests taken at Career Tech centers cost an extra $25.
• Minnesota's manual says that after two consecutive failed written tests, a $10 fee applies to the third and every later attempt.
• Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut all list exam or testing fees in the site's data, but we could not reach their fee pages this month, so treat those amounts as unconfirmed.

Each state also sets a waiting period before you can test again. Those rules are collected in failed the permit test? Retake rules by state.

Online tests sometimes cost extra

A growing number of states let you take the knowledge test at home, and some charge for the convenience. Michigan's manual lists a $6.50 convenience fee for the at-home version of its test. Honolulu's fee table lists the written test at $2 and the instruction permit at $5 in person, but $12 for the online permit test (an online fee plus the written-test fee). Hawaii's fees are set by county, so check your own county's table. Washington's permit fee is $35, but the state says testing fees vary depending on where you take the test.

How we checked these numbers

Every fee in the table was taken from the site's state data, which records a source URL and a review date (September 28, 2026) for each entry. For this article we went back to each state's fee page or official driver manual in October 2026 and recorded the exact wording we saw.

Nine states could not be re-checked because their websites refused our connection or returned an error (Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota). Those rows say "not verified" and show the figure from the September review. Two states had official sources that disagreed with our September figures; both were settled by reading the agency's current fee page from a US server:

• Missouri. Our September figure was $3.50. The Missouri Driver Guide revised August 2026 lists the instruction permit at $10, and the DOR fee chart dated 08-2025, read from a US server, agrees, so the table shows $10.
• Minnesota. The DVS fee page could not be reached from our first location, and the fee statute lists only an $11.25 base fee. Read from a US server, the DVS page lists the Class D instruction permit at $29.50 (two years) and $24.50 for a renewal, so that is the figure in the table. The $10 fee for a third knowledge test is confirmed in the June 2026 manual.

Ten states have no fee recorded in the site data (Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming). We have not looked those up elsewhere, so the table says "Not published / not verified" for them.

Fees change, usually at the start of a fiscal year. Before you go, check the source link in your state's row and pay with a method the office accepts; Alabama, for example, takes no checks for its test and license fees.

Permit test and learner permit fees by state

Fees shown are for a first, non-commercial learner's permit. Motorcycle, commercial and duplicate permits usually cost something different.

Sources

• Alabama Law Enforcement Agency: Document Requirements and Fees
• Alaska DMV: License Fees
• Alaska DMV: Instruction Permit
• Alaska Driver Manual
• Arkansas Driver License Study Guide
• California DMV: Licensing Fees
• California DMV: Instruction Permits
• Delaware DMV: Fees
• Delaware Driver Manual
• Georgia Drivers Manual 2023-2024
• City and County of Honolulu: Fee Table
• Idaho Driver's Manual
• Indiana BMV Fee Chart
• Iowa Code 321.191
• Kentucky Transportation Cabinet: Graduated Driver Licensing
• Louisiana Class D & E Driver's Guide
• Michigan: What Every Driver Must Know
• Minnesota Statutes 171.06
• Minnesota Driver's Manual
• Mississippi DPS: Learner's Permit
• Missouri Driver Guide
• Montana Code Annotated 61-5-111
• Montana Driver Manual
• Nevada DMV: Driver License Fees
• Nevada DMV: Written Test for Teens
• New Jersey MVC: License Fees
• New York DMV: Fees and Refunds
• NCDMV: Level 1 Limited Learner Permit
• Oklahoma: Learner Permit
• Oregon DMV: Getting Your Permit
• PennDOT: Payments and Fees
• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 56, Chapter 1
• South Dakota Driver License Manual
• Utah Driver License Division: Fees
• Vermont Statutes 23 V.S.A. 617
• Vermont Driver's Manual
• Code of Virginia 46.2-335
• Washington DOL: Get Your Learner Permit
• West Virginia DMV: Graduated Driver's Licensing
• Wisconsin DMV: Fees