CPA exam and license
CPA exam pass rates: where to read them, and what a rate means for your budget
Pass rates for each CPA section are published by the AICPA; this page links to them without copying them. Type the rate you read there and the number of tries you are ready to pay for: the tool gives your odds and the fees.
Independent site: not run by, or affiliated with, any body that sets these exams or charges these fees.
A CPA pass rate turned into tries and fees
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Example at a 45% pass rate, not an AICPA figure: chance of passing within 2 tries
69.8%
| Pass rate used | 45.0% |
| Average tries to pass | 2.22 (about 2 to 3 tries) |
| Fees for 2 tries | $537 |
| Average fees for this section | $597 |
Type the pass rate published by the AICPA for your section. A pass rate is an average over all candidates, first-timers and repeaters together; your own odds may be better or worse. Each try costs $268.59.
The AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), which writes the Uniform CPA Examination, publishes cumulative pass rates for each of the six sections on its scoring and pass rates page, updated as each quarter’s scores are released. This site does not reproduce them: the AICPA’s terms limit the use of its site to personal, non-commercial purposes, so the page is linked and no figure is copied. A pass rate is the share of all sittings in the period that scored 75 or more, counting first attempts and retakes together. It converts directly into money, because every sitting costs the same section fee, $268.59 as of July 4, 2026: a section passed by half of its candidates takes two sittings on average, so about $537 in fees. The tool above does that arithmetic for the rate you type, and the cost calculator adds the retakes you expect to the four section fees.
Fees read and totals checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Where the rates are published
Pass rates are published by the AICPA on its CPA Exam scoring and pass rates page: a cumulative figure for each of the six sections, the three Core sections and the three Disciplines, for the current year to date and for past years, with the quarterly detail. Open it next to this page and type the rate of the section you are planning for into the tool above.
This site does not reproduce those figures. The AICPA’s terms limit the use of its site to personal, non-commercial purposes; a site published by a company is not a personal use, so the page is linked rather than copied. The CPA totals elsewhere on this site therefore count no retake on their own: you type the number of sections you expect to retake.
From a rate to tries and fees
If each sitting were an independent draw at the published rate p, an average candidate would need 1 ÷ p sittings to pass, and the chance of having passed after n sittings would be 1 minus the chance of failing, raised to the power n. Each sitting costs the section fee, $268.59. The table shows the arithmetic for round example rates; they are illustrations, not AICPA figures.
| Example rate | Average tries | Average fees, one section | Passed within two | Passed within three |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35% | 2.86 | $767 | 57.7% | 72.5% |
| 45% | 2.22 | $597 | 69.8% | 83.4% |
| 60% | 1.67 | $448 | 84.0% | 93.6% |
| 70% | 1.43 | $384 | 91.0% | 97.3% |
Real candidates are not independent draws: someone who fails by a few points and studies the weak areas does better on the second try than the pooled rate suggests, while someone who failed by a wide margin may do worse. The figures are the right ones for a budget, not a forecast for one person.
A section with a higher pass rate is not necessarily easier. Pass rates depend on who chooses the section and how prepared they are, so the rate of a Discipline says as much about the people who pick it as about the exam.
From odds to a budget
Every sitting costs a section fee, $268.59 as of July 4, 2026, so four sections passed the first time cost $1,074. Once you have read the rates, decide how many sections you might have to take twice and type that number into the cost calculator: it adds $268.59 for each, plus your state board’s fee for a new try where there is one. The sections page explains what the six sections cover. For the other finance exams, whose bodies publish rates this site can use, see the CFA® pass rates by session.
Using the rates to plan an order
Because the sections are paid and scheduled one at a time, the pass rates can help decide where to start. One approach is to begin with a section close to your recent coursework, to bank a pass early; another is to start with the section whose rate is the lowest, so that a retake has time to fit within your board’s credit window. The rates do not settle that choice, but they show which sections carry the most risk of a second fee.