The cheapest IQ test that is still a real score, ranked by price from free to a clinic

0 The short answer

The cheapest online battery of several subtests that we priced costs about 15 dollars, while the cheapest Wechsler assessment we found is listed at 100 to 400 dollars on one university clinic's sliding scale, with other clinics at 900 dollars or more; free tools mostly compare you with their own visitors or carry no norms, and 1 dollar trials renew into plans that cost 241.99 to 480.87 dollars over twelve months if never cancelled. ACIS Quick costs 15 dollars one time for 6 subtests in about 45 minutes, read on October 28, 2026, and it is one option among several: the American Mensa Local Group test, proctored by volunteers, was listed at 30 dollars on promotion through October 31 and 60 dollars otherwise, and some free tools are worth a look for curiosity. The two trial totals at the ends of that range use prices from ACIS reviews dated October 6, 2026, which we could not read again on October 28, and they are our arithmetic. The decisive limit is that any score from an unsupervised online test, ACIS included, is a personal estimate and not a credential for a school, clinic, employer or society.

1 What Does "Cheapest Real IQ Test" Actually Mean?

A cheap IQ test is real only if three things hold at once: the score is compared with a described reference group, the test samples enough tasks to be precise, and the purpose you have is one the score can support. Price says nothing about any of the three, which is why a ranking by price alone misleads. This page ranks by price and then tests each step against those conditions.

The first condition is norms. An IQ score is a position in a reference group, and a number with no described group has no meaning. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, the joint document of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education, says in its 2014 edition that norms "should refer to clearly described populations". Some online tests say plainly whom they compare you with. ArealMe states on its own page that its score "compares performance with recent AREALME participants, not the world population," and BRGHT states that a raw score is "compared to the entire population of test-takers." Both are honest descriptions of a reference group, and neither is the general adult population. The page on how IQ scores are normed explains why that difference changes what a number means.

The second condition is precision. The same Standards state in their chapter on reliability that if an assessment is shortened by decreasing the number of items or tasks, reliability is likely to decrease, and that lengthening it with comparable tasks is likely to increase it. A very short test can still be useful, but its score carries a wider band of uncertainty, and a cheap price often comes with a short test. The page on reliability and validity covers the terms.

The third condition is purpose. What counts is whether the party that asks for the number accepts how it was obtained. The page on which IQ tests count as official sets out the three routes that institutions accept. A cheap score answers a personal question well enough if you read it as an estimate, and it answers an institutional question not at all.

Two scope notes keep this page honest. The detailed breakdown of psychologist and clinic fees belongs to the full price breakdown of IQ tests, and we summarize it in one section here. Free options, billing models and the quality ranking each have their own page, linked where they matter. Also, we sell ACIS, so every ACIS claim here is limited to what its pages and prices state, and the section before the sources discloses the conflict and the limits.

2 Where Does Each Price Step Sit, From Free to a Clinic?

Ranked by price, the options fall into six steps, and the step that matters is not the cheapest one but the cheapest one whose score is compared with a described group. The table below lists what each option measures, who it compares you with, whether anyone supervises, how long it takes, what it costs and what you receive. Prices were read on pages we opened on October 28, 2026 unless the cell says another date, and every price can change.

Three observations follow. First, supervision is documented only for the Mensa Local Group option and the Emory clinic, and several rows above them compare you with their own participants or with no group at all. Second, the lowest clinic figure we found, 100 dollars, is twice the 50 dollar ACIS Full Scale price (our arithmetic), though other clinics we read charge 900 dollars or more, so the clinic step is the widest range on the ladder. Third, a one time price and a subscription price look alike on a button, and the page on paid IQ tests and billing models explains why the difference decides what a test really costs.

The ranking here is by what you pay, and a separate question is which of these tests is best. The ranking of the best online IQ tests answers that question on quality grounds, and the two lists do not match, which is the point of this page.

3 What Does a Free IQ Test Give You, and What Does It Leave Out?

A free IQ test gives you an estimate of your standing among its own visitors at no cost, and it usually leaves out a described general adult norm group, a stated precision and any value as a credential. That can be exactly what a curious person wants, and the honest providers say so themselves.

ArealMe is the clearest example, because it states its limits on its own page. It offers a free 49 question Quick version and a free 119 question Complete version with, in its words, no email, sign up or payment required. It states that the score compares performance with recent ArealMe participants and that the result is "not a clinical IQ assessment." Even its optional certificate is described as free. The ACIS review of the ArealMe IQ test covers its reference group and terms in detail. A number computed against recent visitors of one website is a rank in that crowd, and the crowd is not a sample of the adult population, so the number cannot be read against a Wechsler style scale without caution.

123test offers a free classical intelligence test of 10 questions, with a paywall for its professional versions at 12.99 dollars each, 25 questions for the culture fair version and 44 for the classical one. Its page states that scores are based on comparison with the norm group of people who took the test. Our review of the 123test IQ test weighs its evidence. A 10 question test samples very little, and the free version tells you so by giving an estimate or a number correct.

The International Cognitive Ability Resource, ICAR, is a research tool with a clear label, and its own project page is blunt about what it is. It is a collection of instruments for research, built with automatic item generation, and its core test, the ICAR 60, covers three dimensional rotation, letter and number series, matrix reasoning and verbal reasoning. It is distributed under a scientific use license intended for academic use exclusively. On norms its FAQ answers no, and it says that without norms you cannot infer an individual's IQ and that the ICAR 60 cannot replace a proper cognitive ability assessment under controlled conditions. It is distributed for research, and it was never meant to give you a personal IQ.

Cognitive Metrics offers a free battery called CORE, and our review of Cognitive Metrics separates what its documentation supports for each of its tests. In that review, based on pages read on September 20, 2026, CORE carried no payment for the full battery while several of its other tests charged 10 dollars for the full score profile, and the CORE page and an AGCT page we opened on October 28, 2026 showed the same split. The review is the place to check whether its norm group suits you, and we do not repeat its evidence here.

A free test is the right first step in two situations: you want to see what the task formats feel like, or you want a rough estimate for entertainment and will not act on it. The page on free IQ tests and the comparison of free and validated tests cover that ground in depth, and the IQ test for adults page shows where ACIS fits for an adult who wants more than a number. The free trial that ACIS offers needs no card, and one trial is allowed per person.

4 Why Can a 1 Dollar IQ Test Cost Hundreds of Dollars a Year?

A 1 dollar IQ test is the price of a short trial, and when the terms renew automatically, the first charge is a small fraction of what an unbroken year costs. Four products show the renewal pattern, three of them with an entry charge of 0.99 to 1.99 dollars, and the last column of the table says when each amount was read and whether it comes from an ACIS review.

MyIQ's own terms, which we opened on October 28, 2026, define the trial as an initial 7 day period with a one time charge of 1.00 dollar, and its pricing page states that unless you cancel before the trial ends, the subscription renews automatically at 29.99 dollars every 28 days. The same terms say that billing cycles can be weekly, every 28 days or quarterly, list 28 day plans at 19.99, 24.99 and 29.99 dollars, and say that regional pricing applies, so your own checkout screen governs. The 13 renewals come from counting charges on day 8 and every 28 days after that inside 365 days, and the total is our arithmetic. The ACIS review of MyIQ discusses the score, the cancellation steps and the cost.

Innerly and CogniProfile were read by ACIS on October 6, 2026 from the text of their payment screen code, not from a rendered screen. We tried their pages again on October 28 and found no price text we could read, so the amounts carry the earlier date and may have changed. The Innerly review and the CogniProfile review record the entry price, the renewal and the refund statements, and the CogniProfile terms we opened on October 28 say that subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled before the renewal date and that refunds are handled case by case, with the right reserved to refuse them at its discretion. The Innerly review adds that its terms allow other trial and monthly amounts depending on the offer. The Test-IQ.org figures come from the Test-IQ.org review, which as of August 2026 describes a one month Unlimited Access Pass at 29.99 dollars that renews automatically; its payment terms page showed no readable terms when we opened it on October 28, so that amount may also have changed.

These four are described factually, and none of this implies bad faith: a trial that renews is a billing model that the providers state in their terms. The point is arithmetic. If you cancel inside the trial, the cost is the entry charge, and if you forget, the cost is one of the large numbers above, which are 16 to 32 times the 15 dollar price of ACIS Quick (our arithmetic on 241.99 and 480.87 against 15). Before you pay any entry price, find three things on the payment screen: the day the first renewal is charged, the renewal amount, and where to cancel. The billing questions are the same for any paid test.

There is a second cost that a low entry price hides. The ACIS reviews of three of these products report that they publish little to judge the score by. The MyIQ review, as of August 2026, could not locate a technical manual, a described norm sample or reliability coefficients, the Innerly review reports that the product publishes no technical manual, norm sample or reliability for its score, and the CogniProfile review reports that its public pages document timing, terms and data use but not its norms or reliability. Paying 1 dollar for a number whose reference group is unstated does not buy a real score at any price.

5 What Does a One Time Report Fee of 10 to 20 Dollars Buy?

A single report fee of 10 to 20 dollars buys an analysis of one score, and the fee tells you nothing about whether the number behind the analysis is compared with a described group. The model is free to take and paid to read, which is a different billing structure from the subscriptions above because the charge happens once.

IQTest.com is an example we could price on its own page. Its shop, opened on October 28, 2026, lists an item called the Complete Intelligence Profile at 19.95 dollars and describes it as a detailed analysis of the IQ score you received on the IQ Test. The ACIS review of IQTest.com covers the free general score, what the profile claims and what evidence stands behind it. 123test sells each of its professional intelligence tests at 12.99 dollars, a figure we read on its page on October 28, 2026. Cognitive Metrics, according to the review we cite above, charged 10 dollars on September 20, 2026 for the full score profile of several of its tests other than CORE, and its AGCT page still carried the 10 dollar notice when we opened it on October 28, 2026.

Two things are worth checking before you pay a report fee. The first is when the price appears. When a site lets you answer every question for free and shows the price only afterward, you have already spent the time, so look for the price, the reference group and any stated precision on the first page, before you start. The second is what the fee unlocks: a percentile and a profile built on a norm group of unknown size and age are a different product from a score compared with a stated adult group.

The honest comparison is with ACIS Quick, because the amounts are close. A 15 dollar Quick form returns a Full Scale IQ with its 95 percent confidence interval from 6 subtests in about 45 minutes, and the 19.95 dollar profile above analyzes a score that came from a separate free test. Neither fact says the other product is poor. They say that a report fee is a price for text and graphs, while the 15 dollars is a price for the test and the report together, and you should know which one you are buying. The page on how a professional IQ test differs from an online one explains what separates the categories.

6 What Does a Normed Online Battery Cost, and Is ACIS the Cheapest?

Among the paid, one time online batteries of five or more subtests that we priced, ACIS Quick at 15 dollars is the lowest and RIOT IQ Basic at 25 dollars is next, while both full batteries cost 50 dollars. The cheaper options we found are single tests or free tools, namely the 123test professional tests at 12.99 dollars each, the 10 dollar report unlock on several Cognitive Metrics tests and the free tools of the earlier sections, which explain what most of them leave out.

RIOT IQ is the closest comparison, so we use its own page, opened on October 28, 2026. It sells a Full IQ Test of 15 subtests in about 52 minutes with a stated margin of plus or minus 3.7 IQ points, shown at 50 dollars beside a struck through 150 dollars, a Basic IQ Test of 5 subtests in about 13 minutes with a stated margin of plus or minus 5.6, shown at 25 dollars beside a struck through 50 dollars, and a Custom IQ Test at 10 dollars per subtest. The page shows "Buy now" buttons and, in the text we read, no recurring billing language. The ACIS review of RIOT IQ covers its norms, refund terms and margins in more detail.

Per subtest ACIS is lower at every level, but subtests differ in length and in what they sample, so the per subtest figure is a rough guide and what each form covers matters more. ACIS Quick covers three domains with six subtests: Similarities and Vocabulary for verbal comprehension, Matrix Reasoning and Figure Weights for fluid reasoning, and Digit Span and Alphanumeric Sequencing for working memory. It does not sample quantitative reasoning, visual spatial ability or processing speed. The page on the quick IQ test explains what a short battery gives and costs you, and the 13 subtest Optimized form at 30 dollars and the Full Scale form at 50 dollars add domains. Every ACIS form reports a Full Scale IQ with its 95 percent confidence interval, so even the cheapest form shows you how wide the uncertainty is.

If you have 5 dollars rather than 15, the Custom Test sells any subtest at 5 dollars each, and any domain you complete returns its full index score. That makes a single ability check inexpensive, and a later section prices it. At 10 subtests the Full Scale form costs the same 50 dollars, so building a larger custom set one subtest at a time stops saving money at that point, and a Full Scale IQ needs the Full Scale battery.

Practical conditions matter more for a cheap test than for an expensive one, because there is nobody in the room to notice a problem. Digit Span and Alphanumeric Sequencing present their items as audio and need working sound, and both are in the Quick form. Plan about 45 minutes in a quiet room without notifications. ACIS allows breaks, saves progress between subtests and gives 30 days to complete a form, so a disturbed session can be resumed. The prices above were read on October 28, 2026 and can change, and the technical manual, linked in the last section, is the place to read the documentation before you pay.

7 Is the Supervised Mensa Test Cheaper Than People Expect?

Among the options we priced, the supervised American Mensa test is the cheapest route to a result that an institution accepts for its own purpose, and its page listed 30 dollars for the Local Group test and 49.50 dollars for private testing on promotion through October 31, 2026, against 60 and 99 dollars otherwise. The Mensa facts in this section come from the American Mensa testing page, opened on October 28, 2026.

The page lists two options. Local Group Testing is proctored by Local Group volunteers and costs 60 dollars, or 30 dollars when purchased through October 31. Private Testing happens at approved testing facilities and is administered electronically, at 99 dollars, or 49.50 dollars through October 31 with a promotion code. The page states that the test qualifies you if you have "tested at, or above, 98 percent of the general population." It says the test takes between one and two hours, that it is given for admission into Mensa and not to quantify intelligence, and that Mensa is not able to provide a detailed report with scores, percentile ranks or an IQ score. It does not say whether unsupervised online tests count, and it lists no membership dues. It also says promotional discounts appear in the shopping cart at checkout, so the promotion may change.

On a normal curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, the 98th percentile corresponds to about 130.8, which is our arithmetic and not a figure Mensa publishes. The page on what score Mensa requires explains how to estimate that threshold.

Compared with ACIS Quick at 15 dollars, the Mensa promotion costs twice as much and the list price four times as much, and the two buy different things. The Mensa test is supervised and admits you to one society, so it answers a question that no online test can answer, and it returns no IQ score to use anywhere else. The page on IQ test certificates explains what institutions ask for that an online certificate does not provide. If your goal is Mensa, ACIS is not an admission route, and the cheapest honest path is the Mensa test itself. Readers outside the United States should check their national organization, and the guide to where to take an IQ test lists the in person and online routes by type.

8 What Does a Clinic Fee Buy That Nothing Cheaper Does?

Clinic fees in the pages we read run from 100 to 400 dollars at one sliding scale university clinic to 900 dollars or more at others, and what that money buys is an individually administered assessment, which no online step provides. Three university clinics give us dated numbers, and we treat them as examples and not as national averages.

The lowest figure comes from the University of South Florida. Its Psychological Services Center lists on its clinic policies page, opened on October 28, 2026, a Gifted Assessment that covers the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale at 100 to 400 dollars. The page says fees are computed on a sliding scale that reflects income or ability to pay, and that half of the quoted fee is due at the first in clinic meeting, before the formal assessment begins. It does not say who administers the tests, and it lists other assessments, such as a learning disability or ADHD evaluation, at 200 to 700 dollars. This is the cheapest individually administered Wechsler route we found. The page says fees depend on income and on the type or complexity of the assessment, so 100 dollars is the bottom of the range and not a price every client pays, and the page does not say who is eligible or how long the wait is.

At the other end, Emory University's psychological center says on its frequently asked questions page, read on October 28, 2026, that the fee for a comprehensive cognitive assessment ranges from 900 to 1,800 dollars, determined by a sliding scale based on income and the number of people in the household supported on that income. The clinic describes itself as staffed by graduate students in clinical psychology who work under the direction of licensed clinical psychologists with intensive supervision on each case. It does not take insurance, and it says a comprehensive assessment is conducted over several sessions that can each last from 2 to 4 hours, with breaks as needed. You are told your fee during the phone intake. The page does not itemize what the fee covers.

The University of Colorado's CU PATH clinic says on its page that the fee for a comprehensive adult evaluation is 2,100 dollars, with a 200 dollar non-refundable deposit to join the waiting list that is applied to the total cost. The page describes services by clinical psychology graduate students supervised by licensed doctoral level clinical psychologists, mentions payment plans and does not mention a sliding scale. It also does not say whether an intelligence test is part of the evaluation, so we cite it only as a price for a comprehensive adult evaluation and not as an IQ test price.

One instrument a clinician may use is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fifth edition. Pearson's product page, opened on October 28, 2026, describes it as an individually administered clinical instrument for ages 16:0 to 90:11, with 45 minutes for the 7 subtest Full Scale IQ and 60 minutes for the 10 primary index subtests, and lists it at qualification level C. The page on the WAIS test online explains what official and online options exist for it. For what private psychologists charge, with insurance and wait times, read the page on psychologist and clinic fees.

Two lessons for a budget buyer follow. A university clinic with a sliding scale is the lowest priced route to an individually administered assessment among those we found, with fees from 100 to 1,800 dollars for similar sounding services, so ask what the fee covers and which instrument is used, and ask early because wait times and eligibility vary. Also ask what the receiving party needs, whether a school, a disability office or an employer, because a report that does not meet that need is money spent twice.

9 How Short Can a Cheap IQ Test Be Before the Score Stops Meaning Much?

A short battery still gives a usable estimate, but fewer tasks mean a wider band of uncertainty, and a single subtest or a single index is less precise than a Full Scale IQ built from several abilities. The practical skill is to read the band as well as the number, whatever the price.

The vocabulary is short. A raw score is the number of points earned. A scaled subtest score converts it to a scale with a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3, and ACIS reports scaled scores from 1 to 19. An index score combines the subtests of one ability on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, and the Full Scale IQ uses the same mean and standard deviation. A percentile says what share of the reference group scored lower, and the size of the standard deviation is why the same percentile lands on different numbers on different scales. A 95 percent confidence interval is the band in which the true score is expected to fall with 95 percent confidence under the test's measurement model. As a hypothetical illustration, not an ACIS figure, a report that shows 108 with a band from 102 to 114 supports the statement that the person is probably above average and probably not in the top few percent, and it does not support the statement that the person is exactly 108.

The CHC model of cognitive abilities gives the vocabulary for what a cheap form leaves out. The Quick form samples crystallized knowledge and verbal reasoning (Gc) through Similarities and Vocabulary, fluid reasoning (Gf) through Matrix Reasoning and Figure Weights, and working memory (Gwm) through Digit Span and Alphanumeric Sequencing. It does not sample quantitative knowledge (Gq), visual processing (Gv) or processing speed (Gs). The 30 dollar Optimized form adds spatial and speed domains, with Layer Rotation and Spatial Comprehension for visual spatial ability and Coding and Symbol Search for processing speed, plus Antonyms, Synonyms and Logic Grid. Only the 50 dollar Full Scale form adds the quantitative domain, and seven of its subtests exist only there: Information, Arithmetic, Mathematical Achievement, Visual Number Series, Complex Relations, Visual Puzzles and Visual Sequence.

The Custom Test turns the same logic into a price list. A buyer who wants only working memory can take Digit Span, Alphanumeric Sequencing and Visual Sequence for 15 dollars and receive the full index score for that domain, because every subtest of a domain you complete returns its index. A buyer who wants processing speed can take Symbol Search and Coding for 10 dollars. These are ability checks, and they do not return a Full Scale IQ, which needs the Full Scale battery. They make sense when you want to know whether one ability, for example speed or memory, differs from your reasoning, and they make less sense as a way to avoid paying 50 dollars once, because at 10 subtests the Full Scale form costs the same.

10 Does Retaking a Cheap Test Help, and Should You Pay Twice?

Taking the same kind of test again raises scores on average, so a second cheap result is not an independent check of the first, and one well chosen test is a better use of a small budget than two cheap ones. The evidence on this is a large meta-analysis.

Scharfen, Peters and Holling searched the literature and located 174 samples from 122 studies, with 786 test outcomes and an overall sample size of 153,185. Their multilevel meta-analysis found significant retest effects and no further score gains after the third test administration, and moderator analyses indicated that cognitive ability operation and content, equivalence of test forms, retest interval and participant age have a significant influence on the size of the retest effect. The paper's abstract does not give one number that applies to every case, and we do not invent one. The paper defines retest effects as the increase in test scores due to repeated administration of cognitive ability tests. The finding that matters for a buyer is directional: scores rise on repeated administration, so a second result is partly a product of having taken the first.

Two practical points follow, and both are our reasoning, not a claim of the study. First, if you take one product and then another, the difference in scores mixes at least three things: practice, different task formats and different reference groups. A gap of several points between a free test and a normed one does not mean either is wrong, and it cannot be read as change in ability. Second, the cheapest sensible sequence is to try a free test or a free trial for the format, then pay once for the form that covers the abilities you care about. ACIS keeps finished free trial subtests if you later unlock a form that includes them, so the trial work is not wasted. The page on whether online IQ tests are accurate discusses how far an online score can be trusted.

11 Which Price Step Fits Which Goal?

The cheapest step that fits your goal is rarely the cheapest step overall, because a goal that needs supervision or an institution's acceptance cannot be met by any online price. The table matches six common goals to the lowest priced step that could serve each, using the prices read on October 28, 2026.

Several of these goals deserve their own pages. If you are asking whether you might be in the gifted range, the page on gifted tests for adults covers taking a test to check where you stand. If you want the shape of your abilities and not a single number, the IQ profile test page covers the profile route, and if the question is about work, the page on IQ tests for career guidance covers that use. ACIS is not for hiring, school accommodations or admission to high IQ societies, and a person who needs any of those should start with the party that will receive the result.

Cheapest also depends on how often you will pay. A buyer who takes one 15 dollar test pays 15 dollars. A buyer who tries a 1 dollar trial and forgets to cancel pays a subscription total from the earlier table. A buyer who pays for a profile of a free test and then for a normed battery pays twice for related information. The page that follows the money through each billing model is the page on paid IQ tests linked earlier, and this page keeps to the ranking.

12 Where ACIS Sits, and What a Buyer Should Do

ACIS is one of the cheaper normed options at 15 to 50 dollars one time, it is not the cheapest option of all because free tools exist, and it is an online, unsupervised, English only test that is not a clinical or diagnostic instrument. We sell ACIS, so treat this section as a disclosure and check it against the rest of the page and against the documentation.

What ACIS offers is stated plainly. There are three one time forms, Quick at 15 dollars, Optimized at 30 dollars and Full Scale at 50 dollars, plus a Custom Test at 5 dollars per subtest, with no subscription. Every form reports a Full Scale IQ with its 95 percent confidence interval, indices and percentiles are on the standard scale, and adult norms cover ages 16 to 90. The free trial needs no card and is limited to one per person: the site refuses a second trial from the same email address or the same browser. The refund condition, quoted literally, is "Full refund within 5 days if the report does not deliver the features described at checkout or a technical issue prevents you from accessing your results." That is a conditional refund and not an unconditional money back guarantee. Prices were read on October 28, 2026 and can change.

What ACIS does not offer is also stated plainly. It is taken online and unsupervised, so nobody confirms who took it or under what conditions. It is not a clinical or diagnostic instrument, and it is not for hiring, school accommodations or admission to high IQ societies. It is available in English only, and the technical manual says verbal and knowledge tasks are affected by English proficiency and educational exposure. The full technical documentation is where the evidence lives, and we point there instead of quoting statistics on this page.

The documents that govern how a score should be read agree with these limits. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014), which we read in the open access edition, say in Standard 1.0 that each intended test score interpretation for a specified use should be clearly articulated and supported by validity evidence. In the comment on Standard 3.4 they say that unproctored administrations, where standardization cannot be ensured, could give some test takers an advantage over others and that in such situations results should be interpreted with caution. Standard 5.8 asks that norms refer to clearly described populations, and Standard 9.4 makes the user responsible for the rationale and evidence when a test is used for a purpose with little validity evidence. The APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation, approved in March 2020, ask psychologists to endeavor to select tools that demonstrate sufficient validity evidence for their uses and sufficient score reliability, and to know factors that affect an instrument's applicability, such as the characteristics of its normative group. Those guidelines are written for psychologists, and a buyer can borrow the same checklist.

For a concrete next step, decide first what the score is for. If it is curiosity, start the free trial, which needs no card, and look at the example reports before you spend anything. If it is a personal estimate with a stated band, choose Quick at 15 dollars or the Full Scale form at 50 dollars if you want every domain, and take it in a quiet room with working sound. If it is Mensa, school, a clinical question or work, pay the party that will accept the result, and use the three questions from this page on any product you consider: who is the score compared with, how many tasks stand behind it, and what does the price become after the first charge.

13 Sources Behind This Page

Every figure on this page that is not our own arithmetic is traceable to one of the following, and each is linked at the point where it is used. Competing online products are named as market facts, their prices were read on their own pages on October 28, 2026 unless the text gives an earlier date and names the ACIS review it comes from, and we do not link them or use them as sources about intelligence. Totals, per subtest prices, ratios and the 130.8 figure are our arithmetic on published numbers and are labeled as such.

• American Mensa. Testing options and fees, page read on October 28, 2026.
• University of South Florida, Psychological Services Center. Clinic policies: assessment fees and sliding scale, page read on October 28, 2026.
• Emory University Psychological Center. Frequently asked questions: what services cost, insurance and assessment sessions, page read on October 28, 2026.
• University of Colorado, clinical psychology program. CU PATH clinic: fee for a comprehensive adult evaluation, page read on October 28, 2026.
• TU Dortmund University, Department of Statistics. International Cognitive Ability Resource (ICAR) project page and FAQ, page read on October 28, 2026.
• Pearson. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (WAIS-5) product page, page read on October 28, 2026.
• American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. American Educational Research Association, 2014 (open access edition).
• American Psychological Association, APA Task Force on Psychological Assessment and Evaluation Guidelines. APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation. American Psychological Association, approved March 2020.
• Scharfen J, Peters J, Holling H. Retest effects in cognitive ability tests: A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 2018, volume 67, pages 44 to 66.

14 Frequently Asked Questions