Tools
What a licence actually costs
Counting only the fees read off an agency page, one sitting of each test and nothing optional added, the published government fees for a car licence run from $40 in South Australia to $365.30 in Australian Capital Territory. That is a floor rather than the cost of a licence: 7 of the 40 fee lines across the 8 jurisdictions carry no figure this site would repeat, and lessons, usually the largest cost of all, are a private market with no published price. Sources: the agency fee page behind every line, each named on this page with the day it was read.
Fee by fee, with the agency page and the date on every line. Where a jurisdiction does not publish a figure in a place we could read it, the line says so and stays out of the total.
Pick your jurisdiction, say how many sittings you expect to need, and tick anything optional that applies to you. The table underneath is an itemised bill where every priced line links to the agency page it was read from, and every unpriced line stays in the list and out of the total.
- What it needs from you
- A jurisdiction, the number of knowledge test and practical test sittings, and any optional items.
- What it gives back
- A line by line bill, a total of the fees that could be sourced, and a count of the lines left out of it.
- Where the amounts come from
- Agency fee pages, each named on its own row with the day it was read. There is no national fee schedule to work from.
- What it will not do
- Price a lesson, guess a fee that is not published, or call the total the cost of a licence. It is a floor, and the panel under the table says so.
Where you are getting the licence
Knowledge test sittings
Practical test sittings
Add anything that applies to you
| Fee | How it is charged | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learner licence | One fee | $32 | NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. |
| Driver Knowledge Test, in person | One fee | $58 | NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. |
| Hazard Perception Test | One fee | $58 | NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. |
| Driving test | One fee | $72 | NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. |
| P1 provisional licence | One fee | $74 | NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. |
| Total of the fees we can source | Every line on this list is priced | $294 | Transport for NSW and Service NSW |
What this number is not
It is the sum of the government fees we could read on an agency page, for New South Wales, at the sittings you picked. It does not include driving lessons, which are usually the largest cost of getting a licence and are set by a private market rather than published. It does not include concessions, which several jurisdictions offer. It is a floor, not a quote.
The Safer Drivers Course is run by approved providers who set their own prices, so there is no one number to publish.
Concessions exist for some card holders and are not modelled here.
Where this tool stays quiet
- Lessons. The largest line in most real totals, and a private market with a different rate in every suburb. There is no published price to read, so there is no line for it.
- Fees that are not published in a form we would repeat. They keep their row, marked as not published here, and they are excluded from the total rather than estimated into it.
- Concessions. Several jurisdictions offer them, on terms that depend on the person rather than on the licence, so the tool prices the standard fee and leaves the concession to the agency.
- The Safer Drivers Course in New South Wales. Approved providers set their own price, so there is no single figure to carry.
Why half the lines are blank
Because a blank line is the honest answer, and every other site fills it in.
There is no national fee schedule in Australia. Eight agencies publish eight sets of fees, on their own pages, on their own schedules, in their own formats. New South Wales and Queensland publish a clean table with an effective date on it, so those two jurisdictions are almost fully priced here. Western Australia prices its learner permit and theory test on the page where you apply for them. The rest were either behind a page we could not read or were not stated in a form we would repeat.
We could have copied the missing figures from a competitor. Several of them carry a full eight state fee table, and some of those numbers are years out of date. A wrong fee is worse than a missing one, because a missing one sends you to the agency and a wrong one does not.
What moves the total most
Resits. Western Australia passes fewer than half of its practical assessments, and Victoria stops more than one drive test in five part way through. In New South Wales a second Driver Knowledge Test sitting costs the same again in person, while DKT Online is one fee for as many attempts as it takes, which is the single clearest saving on this page. Set the sittings control above to two and watch which jurisdictions move.
What is not here at all
Lessons. A professional lesson is the largest line in most people's real total and there is no published price for it, because it is a private market with a different rate in every suburb. Anyone showing you a national lesson price is showing you an average of guesses. The same goes for the Safer Drivers Course in New South Wales, which approved providers price themselves.
Common questions
Every answer here is built from the same fee lines the bill above prints, and names the agency page each amount was read from.
- How much does it cost to get a driver licence in Australia?
- Counting only the fees read off an agency page, one sitting of each test and nothing optional added, the published government fees for a car licence run from $40 in South Australia to $365.30 in Australian Capital Territory. That is a floor rather than the cost of a licence: 7 of the 40 fee lines across the 8 jurisdictions carry no figure this site would repeat, and lessons, usually the largest cost of all, are a private market with no published price. Sources: the agency fee page behind every line, each named on this page with the day it was read.
- What does the learner knowledge test cost in each state and territory?
- New South Wales, Driver Knowledge Test, in person: $58. Victoria, Learner permit knowledge test, in person: $50.80. Queensland, PrepL, or the written road rules test: $29.70. Western Australia, Computerised Theory Test: $22.40. South Australia, Theory test: $40. Tasmania, Knowledge test: $0. Northern Territory, Theory test: $20. Australian Capital Territory, Knowledge test: not published here. NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Ls and Ps fees. Checked 15 September 2026. Queensland Government, Licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. Department of Transport WA, Get your learner's permit. Checked 28 August 2026. Service SA theory test fee, recorded in our state facts file. Checked 27 August 2026. Service Tasmania knowledge test booking, recorded in our state facts file. Checked 27 August 2026. Northern Territory Government, Driver and rider licence fees. Checked 3 September 2026.
- What does the practical driving test cost?
- New South Wales, Driving test: $72. Includes GST. Charged for each attempt. Victoria, Drive test: $75.30. The $53.20 test plus the $22.10 appointment fee, charged for each attempt. Queensland, Practical driving test, car: $69.40. Includes GST. Charged for each attempt. Western Australia, Further Practical Driving Assessments: $120.50. The first assessment is inside the permit fee. Every assessment after it is $120.50. South Australia, Vehicle On Road Test: not published here. Not published here. Tasmania, P1 practical driving assessment: $108.93. The novice P1 assessment. A non-government assessor may only charge this fee, but can add vehicle hire and travel. Northern Territory, Practical driving assessment: not published here. Not published here. A candidate outside DriveSafe NT pays the authorised examiner, and the amount can differ by examiner. Australian Capital Territory, Practical driving assessment booking: $133.90. Charged for each booking. NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Ls and Ps fees. Checked 15 September 2026. Queensland Government, Licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026. Department of Transport WA, Book a Practical Driving Assessment. Checked 3 September 2026. Service Tasmania, Book a provisional driving assessment, fees last updated 1 July 2026. Checked 3 September 2026. Access Canberra, Driver licence fees, correct as at 1 July 2026. Checked 3 September 2026.
- Do you pay again if you fail?
- 16 of the priced lines are charged per sitting, so a second attempt is a second fee. Western Australia charges less for a resit of the Computerised Theory Test: $22.40 then $19.20. Western Australia charges less for a resit of the Hazard Perception Test: $29.90 then $24.10. New South Wales sells DKT Online instead of the in person test at $58. One fee for unlimited attempts. From a second sitting onwards this is the cheaper path. Department of Transport WA, Get your learner's permit. Checked 28 August 2026. Department of Transport WA, Sit a Hazard Perception Test. Checked 3 September 2026. NSW Government, Driver and rider licence fees, effective 1 July 2026. Checked 28 August 2026.
- Which fees does this site leave blank, and why?
- 7 lines carry no amount: New South Wales, Safer Drivers Course, Victoria, Probationary licence, South Australia, The Driving Companion log book, South Australia, Vehicle On Road Test, South Australia, Provisional licence, Northern Territory, Practical driving assessment and Australian Capital Territory, Knowledge test. The Safer Drivers Course is run by approved providers who set their own prices, so there is no one number to publish. Concessions exist for some card holders and are not modelled here. The test fees were read on the VicRoads Ls and Ps fees page on 15 September 2026, which replaces the estimates our state facts file carried before. The probationary licence fee is not modelled here. Queensland charges the same fee for PrepL and for the older written road rules test, so one line covers both. Fewer than half of Western Australian practical assessments pass, so the fee for a second and third assessment matters more here than anywhere else. It is now on the agency page at $120.50, read on 3 September 2026. South Australia runs two pathways after the theory test, and the Competency Based Training and Assessment pathway is priced by the instructor rather than by the agency. The hazard perception test is free here as well as the knowledge test, so the priced lines are the licence card and the assessment. The Northern Territory sets no single practical assessment fee: a candidate outside DriveSafe NT pays the authorised examiner directly, so that line stays blank. The Road Rules Knowledge Test is sat through the Pre-Learner Licence Course rather than as a paid sitting, and course providers set their own price, so there is no knowledge test line to show.
One correction we owe you
Our state pages used to carry a Western Australian theory test fee of $18.20 and a Queensland PrepL fee of $28.70. Reading the agency pages for this tool put those at $22.40 and $29.70. The agency figures are what this tool uses, and the state pages, guides and comparison table now carry them too.
The cheapest way through any of these is to not sit anything twice. The pass mark checker shows how much margin your jurisdiction gives you, and the log book planner handles the other half of the problem.
The pages these figures come from
Every figure above is read off one of these pages, where it sits next to the agency that published it and the date it was checked.