How much does CASPA cost?

Dear Applicant,

CASPA charges $185 for the first program you apply to and $65 for each additional program. Those are the two numbers on CASPA's own fee page, which states them without attaching a cycle year to them. The only cycle year on that page labels the fee waiver income table, headed "Low Income Levels for 2026-2027 Cycle Awards." Everything else here is either stacked on top of those two numbers or a rule about how you lose them.

The arithmetic: four programs is $185 plus three times $65, or $380. Ten is $185 plus nine times $65, or $770. The only total CASPA's fee page publishes is the $250 attached to the fee waiver, so any worked example beyond two programs, this one included, is arithmetic rather than a published figure. That page carries no fee history either, so a figure quoted here is only as current as the page it came from.

The cycle opened April 30, 2026. April 1, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET is the last date you can create an account, submit, request evaluations or order transcript entry. It is not the cycle close: CASPA's table puts that at April 9, 2027 at 5 PM ET, when "All application processing ends," with transcript, evaluation and verification cutoffs in between. Either way it is CASPA's clock, not necessarily yours. Its cycle page says near the top that "In some instances, the individual program's deadline may differ from the application's cycle dates," and its submission page says CASPA "cannot grant deadline extensions if you miss your deadline; contact your programs directly for more information." Individual programs can still let you in late: CASPA says "Some programs provide invitation codes, which are deadline extensions offered to individual applicants," used to "apply to a program whose deadline has already passed."

Supplemental fees belong to the program: "Some programs may have an additional supplemental fee; contact your programs to learn if they require this and how to pay it." No list of which programs charge one, and no range of amounts, appears on CASPA's fee page.

Transcripts are the same. In its mail-transcript checklist CASPA lists "Any transcript fees required by the registrar" among the things you hand the registrar, and that is the only mention of a fee on the page. If you attended a foreign school or earned your degree outside the United States, CASPA says "most CASPA programs require you to submit your foreign coursework to a US-based evaluation service for a course-by-course US equivalency report." The same page carves out study abroad: "These instructions do not apply to applicants who attended a foreign school as part of a study abroad program." It names five evaluation vendors while saying "This list is not all-inclusive and we do not recommend or endorse any particular vendor or service," and it publishes none of their prices.

PTE is CASPA's optional service for applicants who "prefer not to enter all your coursework yourself." It is priced by transcript count: "1-3 transcripts: $85," "4-6 transcripts: $110," "7 or more transcripts: $160."

Before you price it, check that your own coursework qualifies. CASPA says "This service is only available for completed coursework from accredited schools. Foreign coursework and planned/in-progress courses are ineligible for PTE and must be entered by you." It also says "the PTE specialists only enter the information listed on your official transcripts and do not correct errors for coursework you have already entered." So a study abroad semester or a class you are sitting in right now is yours to enter at any price.

Three more things catch people. It is additional: these fees "are in addition to regular application fees." It sits outside the assistance system: "Fee waivers and coupon codes are not available for PTE." And the money does not follow you, since your PTE payment "cannot be transferred to another cycle."

PTE also sits in front of verification rather than replacing it, which makes it a timing question as much as a money one. CASPA gives an application a Complete Date only once several things are true at the same time, and one of them is money: "Your application fee payment was submitted and marked as received." On PTE specifically it says your application "will not be given a Complete Date and moved into the verification queue until your coursework entry is approved, at which point it can take up to an additional 10 business days to be verified." That gap is the subject of CASPA complete is not verified.

The Fee Assistance Program is a fixed-value waiver: "Beginning at the start of the cycle, a limited number of fee waivers are provided to qualified applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. Each fee waiver covers the cost of the first two programs ($185 and $65, for a total of $250)." PAEA, which describes CASPA as "sponsored and administered exclusively by PAEA," publishes the same figures.

The $250 is conditional on how you submit: "To redeem the total amount of the fee waiver, you must submit your application to two programs at the same time by clicking Submit All; otherwise, you'll forfeit any remaining balance." At the same time is the operative phrase. Sending one program and then the other in two separate transactions is the failure case, and it costs you the $65. Past program two, "you are responsible for the remaining balance."

CASPA gives two routes. "To qualify for a fee waiver, you must have either" filed a 2025 Federal Income Tax Return Form 1040 with "an adjusted gross income that falls below the Low Income Level listed below," or been "listed as a dependent on" such a return. If a parent or guardian claimed you as a dependent on their 2025 return, "CASPA requires you to use that individual's Federal Income Tax Return instead of your own."

The 2026-2027 thresholds are $31,920 for one, $43,280 for two, $54,640 for three, $66,000 for four, $77,360 for five, $88,720 for six, $100,080 for seven and $111,440 for eight, with $11,360 added per additional person. CASPA footnotes both columns of that table: "Size of family means the number of exemptions listed on the qualified income tax return forms," and "Income Level refers to the adjusted gross income stated on the federal income tax return 1040."

PAEA's 2026-27 fee waiver flyer words the rule differently, as an income that "falls 200% below the federal poverty line." The help center instead publishes dollar thresholds and says the level "is based on 200 percent of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines." Neither page says which wording controls, and only the help center gives numbers you can check a return against. The flyer is useful for what it rules out as documentation: a W-2, an IRS tax return summary or IRS tax return transcript, and a paystub. What it asks for is the first two pages of the 1040, "CLEAR AND IN FOCUS," with the Social Security number redacted. CASPA agrees on the page count: "You must upload the full tax return form; summary printouts are not accepted," and "you must submit both pages to CASPA."

You must request it "before you submit your application. Requests received after an application has been submitted will not be honored." Processing "can take up to 10 business days," and you are frozen during the wait: "While your fee waiver request is pending, you are unable to submit your application." You can cancel the request to get moving, but that door swings once: "Once you submit your application, you are ineligible to apply for another fee waiver."

Approval starts a second clock. You must submit "within 21 days (including holidays and weekends)," extensions "will not be granted," and "failure to submit your application on time will void your fee waiver and you will not be allowed to reapply for a waiver." The 21 days govern your submission, not your paperwork: CASPA says "Outstanding transcripts, evaluations, and/or test scores do not have to be received within this timeframe."

On whether any waivers are left, the only channel CASPA names in the waiver instruction itself is a phone call. It says the funds "can be quickly depleted" and to "Contact customer service at 617-612-2080 before you submit a fee waiver request to determine if waivers are still available." Its customer service page publishes two more routes and prefers one of them: "For the quickest response, log in to your application and contact us by chat," alongside email at [email protected], Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM ET. A waiver in a past cycle does not disqualify you: "If you received a fee waiver during a previous cycle, you may still apply for another in the next cycle."

Some programs issue coupon codes that offset CASPA fees. Unused value evaporates: when a code exceeds the transaction, "you'll forfeit the remaining balance offered by the coupon code, as CASPA will not issue credits or carry remaining balances forward." And "you cannot redeem a program's coupon code after you submit your application to them."

Your application fee is paid inside the application at submission. "Payments can only be made in the application via credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), PayPal, Venmo, and Flywire," and "Credit card payments cannot be made over the phone." PTE is billed separately and earlier, through a narrower set of methods: CASPA says of PTE, "Payments are non-refundable and can only be made online via credit card, and where available, PayPal or Venmo."

After that, the refund position is absolute: "no refunds can be issued for any reason (this includes missed deadlines and programs no longer accepting applicants)." Submission is the line. Before it, CASPA's program deletion page says "You can remove a program at any time prior to submitting the application," though anything you wrote in that program's materials is destroyed. After it, its program selection page says "You cannot substitute or remove submitted programs after submissions," and that "we do not offer refunds for selections made in error and we do not transfer payments to another program." That page also strongly encourages applicants to "contact your programs and ensure seats are still available before submitting your application."

A chargeback is what follows when you dispute a charge with your card company. CASPA's page defines it as "the return of funds to a consumer, typically occurring after a credit card transaction is disputed with the credit card company." An unauthorized one holds your application everywhere: "An unauthorized credit card chargeback against a fee will result in the application being placed on hold for all programs." Reinstatement takes "a money order that totals the full fee plus a $25 bank processing charge for each incorrect chargeback." The debt outlives the cycle, since future activity is "barred until all outstanding fees are paid, including applications for future cycles."

Supplemental fee amounts. A live count of how many waivers are left, or when they run out. A self-serve way to check that without contacting someone. The price of the background check: CASPA says it "has partnered with Certiphi Screening to offer participating programs the option of a national criminal background check (CBC) process for accepted applicants," and names no cost and no payer. Transcript and foreign evaluation prices. Any fee history.

Some of those numbers exist on PAEA's side, dated and not refreshed. PAEA put the background check's "average cost of a criminal background check, for the applicant" at $75 in a January 2023 announcement, and said "Payment is collected directly from the student via credit card or PayPal." In October 2024 it reported that the waiver "budget stands at nearly $400,000 and in the 2023-2024 applicant cycle the program granted almost 2,000 fee waivers," and almost 13,000 since 2010. PAEA has not restated any of those for 2026-2027, so treat them as the last published figures rather than this year's.

Where CASPA says anything at all about the rest, it points you elsewhere: to your programs for supplemental fees and background check requirements, to customer service for waiver availability, to the registrar for transcript fees, and to the evaluation service for a foreign credential report. On a fee history it says nothing.

The standards this brief is written to are here.

Alex