1.4 Registration, Fees, Retake Policy & ScoreSelect

Registration, Fees, Retake Policy & ScoreSelect

Quick Answer: The GRE costs $220 in the U.S. and most other areas through July 31, 2026; ETS announced that registrations completed on or after August 1, 2026, will cost $249 USD (China and some regions differ). Fee Reduction Voucher recipients pay $100. You can retake once every 21 days, up to 5 times in any rolling 12-month period. ScoreSelect lets you choose which scores from the past 5 years to send. Official scores arrive in 8-10 days and remain valid for 5 years.

Creating an ETS Account and Registering

Registration is online through your free ETS account at https://www.ets.org/gre. You will need a government-issued ID that matches the name you use on your ETS account exactly. The ID must be valid on test day—expired IDs are not accepted, and name mismatches are the single most common reason test takers are turned away at the center.

After creating an account, you choose:

1. Test format — General Test or a Subject Test.
2. Delivery method — Prometric test center or At Home (where available).
3. Date and time — Test centers run year-round; the At Home option runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in most regions.
4. Score recipients — You can designate up to four free score recipients at registration (more on ScoreSelect below).

Confirm your appointment by email. Rescheduling is allowed for a fee if you do it at least four full days before your test date.

Test Fees

ETS announced that effective August 1, 2026, the GRE General Test fee increases to $249 USD for registrations completed on or after that date (Subject Test fees also change). Through July 31, 2026, the General Test remains $220 in the United States and most other areas.

ETS also offers a GRE Fee Reduction Program. Eligible voucher recipients pay $100 to register for the GRE General Test and receive free access to selected official prep materials. Eligibility includes demonstrated financial need, unemployment with compensation, Peace Corps service, and certain national pathway programs. Apply through your ETS account or program coordinator well in advance—vouchers take time to process.

Test-Day Logistics

Test Center

Arrive 30 minutes early. Bring:

• The ID you used to register (name must match exactly).
• A snack and water if you like—but note the shortened format has no scheduled breaks, so you can only eat or drink during the brief transitions between sections if a test center administrator permits.
• No phones, no watches, no calculators (the on-screen calculator is provided), no notes (scratch paper is provided and collected at the end).

The session lasts about 2 hours from check-in to dismissal.

At Home

The At Home option requires a private, well-lit room with a clear desk, a reliable internet connection, and a webcam the proctor uses to verify your environment. The At Home test has the same content, format, scoring, and validity as the test-center version.

Retake Policy

You can take the GRE once every 21 days, up to 5 times in any rolling 12-month period. The 21-day clock runs from your test date, not from the day scores are released. If you cancel your scores at the test center, that administration still counts toward your retake limit.

The retake policy is per-test-taker, not per-program. Retaking to chase a higher score is common and expected—admissions committees generally consider only your highest scores, and ScoreSelect lets you control which scores they see.

ScoreSelect: Choosing Which Scores to Send

ScoreSelect is ETS's score-reporting option that gives you control over which past scores reach programs. The rules:

• On test day (free, included): You can send your most recent score, your all-time scores, or any specific past scores to up to four recipients.
• After test day (per-recipient fee): You can send your most recent score, your all-time scores, or any specific past scores to any recipient.
• Past scores are reportable for 5 years. After 5 years they expire and are no longer reportable.

You cannot mix-and-match individual sections across test administrations: if you send a specific administration, you send all three scaled scores (V, Q, AW) from that test. If you want the highest V from one test and the highest Q from another, you must send both full administrations and let the program pick.

Most admissions committees state openly that they consider only your highest section scores across administrations (the "superscore" approach), so sending multiple full score reports is rarely penalized. Check each program's stated policy if you are uncertain.

When to Retake

Common signals that a retake is worthwhile:

• Your Quant score is below the 50th percentile (Q < 160) and you are applying to a STEM or quantitative program.
• Your Verbal score is below the 60th percentile (V ≤ 154 on the July 2022–June 2025 ETS table, where V 154 = 59th) and you are applying to a humanities or social science program.
• Your AW score is below 4.0 and you are applying to a writing-heavy program.
• Your practice POWERPREP scores have plateaued at least 3 points above your official score.

A retake is not worthwhile if you cannot dedicate at least 3-4 more weeks of focused study, or if your score is already at or above the 75th percentile of your target program's reported range.

Score Validity Recap

• 5 years from test date — scores are reportable.
• 8-10 days after test date — official scores available in your ETS account.
• Immediate at test center — unofficial V and Q scores; you can preview these and choose to cancel.
• ScoreSelect window — any past score from the last 5 years can be sent to any recipient at any time during that 5-year window.