Quick Summary Box
| Testing window | Year-round — continuous testing at Prometric centers and at home, 7 days a week |
| GRE General Test fee | $249 USD (most of the world; China $237.86; India priced separately) |
| Fee Reduction fee | $100 USD with an approved ETS Fee Reduction voucher |
| Reschedule fee | $55 USD · must be done 4+ days before your test |
| Cancellation refund | 50% of the test fee if you cancel 4+ days before; nothing after |
| Registration cutoff | Test center: 2 days before · At home: 24 hours before (if seats/slots remain) |
| Retake limits | Once every 21 days, max 5 times in any rolling 12 months |
| Official scores | In your ETS account ~8–10 days after test day |
The one thing to know: the GRE has no opening day and no test-date calendar to race for. Registration is first-come, first-served, year-round — the game is picking the right date for your application deadlines, knowing the 4-day reschedule/cancel window cold, and applying for the Fee Reduction Program early if you might qualify (the voucher cuts the fee to $100, and it is not retroactive).
Verdict
Book early for fall test centers, lean on at-home testing for flexibility, and never let a date ride past the 4-day deadline. ETS's rules are generous up front — you can register as little as 24 hours ahead for an at-home test — and unforgiving at the back end: miss the 4-day window and a reschedule costs you a full new registration, while a cancellation returns nothing.
If there's any chance you qualify for the Fee Reduction Program, apply before you register. ETS emails the voucher within about two weeks of approval, the General Test drops from $249 to $100, and you also get two paid practice tests and writing practice free. Register at full price first and there is no mechanism to claw the difference back.
For most applicants, test 10–12 weeks before your earliest application deadline: official scores take 8–10 days, schools need a few more days to process them, and the 21-day retake gap means one bad day shouldn't sink your cycle — but only if you left room for it.
Detailed Breakdown
How registration works
Source: ETS GRE registration pages (ets.org/gre). There is no fixed test calendar — appointments exist year-round on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Create an ETS account. The name you register with must match your government-issued ID exactly — this is the single most common registration mistake (see ID rules below). Never create a second account.
- Choose test center or at home. Both are the same test — same content, format, scoring, and price. Test-center tests run at Prometric centers; at-home tests are monitored live by a human proctor and are available around the clock, 7 days a week.
- Pick a date and time. Test-center seats and at-home slots are shown in your ETS account. You can book well ahead or very late: registration closes 2 days before a test-center appointment and 24 hours before an at-home appointment, subject to availability.
- Pay. Credit/debit card and other ETS-accepted methods; the fee is charged in USD.
- Designate score recipients on test day. Up to 4 free score reports are included if you name the schools on test day (see ScoreSelect below).
There is no late-registration fee — the window simply closes at the cutoffs above. But "can register late" is not the same as "should": popular centers in the fall application season fill weeks out, and at-home slots at sane hours go first.
Fees (USD, per the ETS GRE fee schedule — effective August 1, 2026)
Registration: $249 in the U.S. and most of the world · $237.86 in China · India has separate pricing via ETS India. Fees include applicable taxes in most jurisdictions; ETS notes some countries (including the U.S. and Canada) add sales tax at checkout where required.
Special handling:
| Request | Fee |
|---|---|
| Rescheduling | $55 (China: $55.43) |
| Changing your test center | $55 |
Scoring services:
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Additional Score Reports (per recipient) | $40 |
| Score Review for Analytical Writing | $60 |
| Score reinstatement (cancelled scores, within 60 days) | $50 |
| Question-and-Answer review (Verbal & Quant, NY residents only) | $50 |
The free GRE Diagnostic Service has no fee.
Rescheduling and cancellation — the 4-day rule
ETS's change/cancel policy runs on one number: four days.
- Reschedule no later than 4 days before your test date (10 days for test centers in Mainland China) and pay the $55 fee. Miss the window and your fee is forfeited — you must register and pay again. A rescheduled appointment cannot be moved more than one year past the original test date.
- Cancel no later than 4 days before your test date and you receive a refund of half your test fee ($124.50 on a $249 registration), back to your original payment method. Cancel inside 4 days, or no-show, and you get nothing. ETS never refunds the other half — it covers registration processing.
- You cannot switch between the General Test and a Subject Test when rescheduling.
ID requirements — exact match, no exceptions
- Bring an original, physical, government-issued photo ID — unexpired, with your full name, recent photo, signature, and date of birth. Photocopies and digital/phone IDs are not accepted.
- The first and last name on your ID must exactly match the name on your ETS registration (accents/diacritical marks aside). If they don't match, you won't test and you won't be refunded.
- U.S. testers typically use a driver's license, state ID, or passport; outside the U.S., a passport is the safest choice. In India, only a passport is accepted.
- At home: you show the same ID to the proctor by webcam during check-in, and your room and equipment must pass ETS's requirements before test day. If you don't meet the equipment/environment requirements on test day, you don't test — and you get no refund and no free reschedule.
Scores and ScoreSelect
- At a test center, you see unofficial Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores on screen right after the test (never Analytical Writing — it's human-scored). At home, unofficial scores are not shown the same way; wait for the official report.
- Official scores post to your ETS account about 8–10 days after your test date, and are sent to your designated recipients around the same time. Scores are reportable for 5 years.
- ScoreSelect® — you choose which scores schools see:
- On test day (free, up to 4 recipients): send Most Recent scores or All scores from the last 5 years.
- After test day ($40 per recipient): Most Recent, All, or Any — pick scores from one or more specific test dates.
- Retakes: once every 21 days, up to 5 times in any continuous rolling 12-month period — and a test whose scores you cancel still counts as one of the five. The 8–10 day score turnaround means you'll always have official scores in hand before your earliest possible retake.
At-home vs. test center — the real tradeoffs
| At home | Test center | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | 24/7; book up to 24 hrs ahead | Center hours; book up to 2 days ahead |
| Environment | Your room, your setup — but strict rules: alone, door closed, clear desk, movable camera, no second monitor, no headphones | Controlled, no setup burden |
| Check-in | Proctor verifies ID + scans your room by camera; can take a while | Staff verify ID on site |
| Failure mode | Tech/room-check failure on test day = no test, no refund | Travel, parking, center noise |
| Score report | Identical — nothing on the report flags where you tested | Identical |
User Reviews — what students say about registration & test day
Student advice from GRE prep communities, not our own testing.
- On booking test centers: "Weekend slots at my city's Prometric center were gone six weeks out in October. Weekdays were wide open." Fall application season is consistently reported as the tightest window — book the center early, or test at home.
- On the equipment check: "Run the ETS equipment check the week before, not the morning of. My webcam passed, my bandwidth didn't — at 9 AM on a weekday." ETS itself recommends checking at the same time of day you'll test.
- On at-home check-in: "Budget 20–30 minutes for check-in. The proctor had me pan the camera around the room, show my desk, my ears, my whiteboard — both sides." A dry-erase whiteboard with marker and eraser is the only allowed scratch setup at home.
- On the 4-day rule: "I got sick three days before my test. No reschedule, no refund — the full $249 was gone. If you're on the fence about a date, decide by day five, not day three."
- On ID names: "My license says 'Mike,' my registration said 'Michael.' The center almost didn't seat me." Register with the exact name printed on the ID you'll bring.
- On retake pacing: "ScoreSelect means a bad day isn't public — but the 21-day wait is real. Take your first attempt at least two months before your deadline so a retake actually fits."
Sentiment note: student advice lines up with ETS's own policies unusually well — the recurring regrets are all deadline and ID mistakes, not test-day surprises.
Discount Link — ETS Fee Reduction Program
There are no promo codes for the GRE — ETS does not issue public discount codes, and any site selling one is not legitimate. The real way to pay less is the ETS GRE Fee Reduction Program:
- With an approved voucher, the GRE General Test costs $100 instead of $249 (Subject Tests: 50% of the regular fee)
- Voucher holders also get free POWERPREP PLUS® Online Practice Tests 1 and 2 and ScoreItNow!™ Online Writing Practice — paid prep ETS includes at no charge
- Who qualifies (financial need): U.S. citizens or resident aliens who are college seniors receiving financial aid at a U.S./territory/Puerto Rico college, or unenrolled college graduates who applied for financial aid — in both cases with a FAFSA Submission Summary showing a Student Aid Index (SAI) of zero or less — and who will test in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands
- Also eligible: people who are unemployed and receiving unemployment compensation, current Peace Corps volunteers, and members of national programs serving underrepresented groups, first-generation students, and students with financial need
- How to apply: complete the GRE Fee Reduction Request Form (PDF on ets.org) and submit the required materials — ETS emails your voucher number within about two weeks of approval, so apply well before you register. You can apply again if you need to retest
Start at the ETS Fee Reductions page and apply before registering — the reduced fee applies at checkout with your voucher and cannot be applied afterward.
Methodology: public ETS pricing & policies, October 2026. No sponsored placements — ever.