ACT Score Reporting and Sending Scores

Your registration fee for the ACT includes free score reports for you, your high school, and up to four colleges, but only if you enter those college codes when you register. Add colleges after registering and each report costs $20.00. This guide covers what is free, what extra reports cost, the difference between a single-date report and a Superscore report, and why a rush reporting option does not exist.

Timing matters as much as cost. ACT posts scores online within one to four weeks of your test date for over 97 percent of students, and knowing the release calendar helps you plan when colleges see your results. Report requests are filled after your scores are final, so the release date sets the floor on delivery. Nothing you pay moves it earlier.

Free Score Reports at Registration

The base ACT registration fee bundles report delivery for four colleges at no added cost, along with reports for you and your high school. ACT's fee schedule confirms the test fee covers score reports for the student, the high school, and up to four colleges, provided you enter college codes during registration. Leave the college fields empty and you still get the student and high school reports, but the four college slots go unused. Filling all four costs nothing extra, so use them even for schools you are still weighing.

There is no separate deadline to add those four free colleges later. Enter the codes when you register, not after. ACT recommends confirming recipient details before test day, since changes made afterward fall under the paid report process described below.

The free reports are bundled into the base test fee, not charged as an add-on. For 2026-27, the EMR (English, Math, Reading) Composite costs $70.00, and adding Writing brings it to $95.00. See our full ACT cost breakdown for every fee tier.

Register by the deadline for each national test date, and enter your college codes as you register to keep the four reports free. Later registration is allowed for a $42.00 late fee, and the four free college reports still apply as long as you enter college codes at the time you sign up. ACT's national test dates schedule for 2026-2027 also publishes a late deadline and a photo upload and standby deadline for every national date, so the dates below are not the last chance to sign up. The table lists the regular 2026-27 registration deadlines, all at 11:59pm Central time.

Adding Score Reports After Test Day

Miss the free-report window and each added report costs money. Additional score reports cost $20.00 per report, per test date, and you order them online through MyACT once your test is scored. The fee counts per test date, so sending two sittings to one college is two reports. Requests stay open after test day, so a college added months later still receives the scores from an earlier sitting.

A fifth or sixth college choice follows a separate rule: request those online before the test date for $20.00 each, and ACT refunds the fee on written request if you do not end up testing. Older scores cost more to retrieve. Reports for test events three years or older carry a $30.00 archive fee on top of the standard $20.00 per-report fee, so an old test date costs $50.00 per report. The archive fee is nonrefundable and covers the cost of maintaining older records.

The table below compares every paid report fee ACT charges outside the free four-college bundle. The archive fee stacks on the $20.00 report fee rather than replacing it. Read the timing column first, since each option depends on when you order. Only the fifth and sixth college choices ordered before the test date carry a refund path, and it takes a written request.

Single-Date Report vs Superscore Report

ACT calculates a Superscore for you once you have tested more than once since September 2016. ACT builds the Superscore from the average of your highest section scores across attempts, and you choose which version to send, Superscore or a single test date, separately for every report request. The choice sits at the request level, so one college receives your Superscore while another receives a single sitting. Decide school by school rather than once for the whole list.

Not every college accepts a Superscore. Many schools weigh it, but admissions offices set their own policy. Check each target school's stated practice before deciding what to send.

Report eligibility depends on when you tested. Scores from test events dating back to September 2011 are eligible for reporting to colleges and scholarship agencies, alongside the Superscore. High schools receive a wider window: scores from the past five school years. Writing scores from before September 2016 are unavailable for any report, and accounts opened before September 2011 report only scores registered through MyACT.

For the full Superscore formula and which colleges accept it, read our ACT retake and Superscore guide. If you need a refresher on how the 1-36 composite is built before deciding which report to send, read how ACT scoring works. The decision matters most when your best section scores are spread across two or three sittings.

Rush Reporting: Not Offered

ACT's official fee schedule lists no rush or expedited score-reporting product, and the score-sending page confirms the same. No option exists to pay for faster delivery outside the standard process. A college deadline sitting inside the release window needs a different fix, such as testing on an earlier national date.

Once a report request is processed, delivery moves fast on its own. ACT reports are usually sent the same day once your scores are ready and the request is processed. Requests are filled only after the test is scored and all results for your test option are available. Build your timeline around the score release date, since no rush fee exists to shorten it.

Score Release Timeline After Test Day

Most scores post fast. Over 97 percent of ACT scores are available online within one to four weeks of the test date. Online test takers see results sooner: ACT receives online scores immediately after testing finishes, so online results generally post before paper-test results from the same national date.

Release dates differ by format. The table below lists initial score release dates for the 2026-27 national test dates, split between paper and online testers, as published in ACT's score release schedule. Online results land on the same day as paper results for two of the seven dates and several days earlier for the other five.

ACT reports scores to recipients only once every score from the test event is ready, so a Writing score in progress holds back the multiple-choice results in the same report. Adding Writing stretches the gap between test day and the moment a college sees anything from the sitting. With a tight deadline, confirm whether your target schools require Writing before you register for it.

Once your score posts, decide whether another sitting is worth another registration fee. Our free ACT practice tests and section drills show where your sections stand today, with no signup required. Work a full-length test under real timing, then compare the section highs against the Superscore you already hold.

Sources

• ACT Fees
• ACT National Test Dates Schedule 2026-2027
• Sending Your Scores and Additional Score Reports | ACT
• ACT Test Scores | Sign In to View Scores | ACT