Your state · your scores · your date
The test that stands in for a high school diploma (the high-school equivalency test) runs on rules that change at every state line: which test is offered, what it costs per subject, whether you can take it from home, the youngest age allowed, what a retake costs, and — years later — which office holds the paper that proves you passed. The two test makers each publish only their own door. This site is neutral: it computes your answer — your state, your scores, your date — free, in your browser, with nothing uploaded. The scale of it, from the test maker's own 2025 review: more than 1 million subject tests taken in 2025; 154,839 people earned the credential; and 30% of prospective learners delay testing out of fear of failure. The fear is understandable. The maze is not a reason to feed it.
No login. Nothing uploaded. Ever.
Before you pay for a single practice test or book a single seat, you deserve the whole map: which test, which mode, what it costs, and what a bad day would cost to fix — for your state and your age.
Tell it your state, your age, and which test you lean toward. It answers with the tests your state offers, the per-subject and total cost, online vs. test-center, the retake rules and the worst-case retake cost — and the cheapest legal path, stated plainly. No login, nothing uploaded; it runs on this page, in your browser.
Under the standard age in your state? The result names your exception path (the waiver or permission route) instead of just saying no.
The rules
State × age × test choice × online-or-center × total price, retake exposure included. New York tests free; Arkansas charges $4 a subject at a center; six states offer no online test at all — and one famous list of those states is wrong, which our correction log shows. The Path Checker →
The readiness
Your four practice scores become verdicts in the test maker's own band words, a subject order, hours a week that add up to the hours you actually have, a dated calendar to your test date, and a retake budget in your state's prices. Free, standalone, calendarized, test-neutral. The Readiness Planner →
The records
Passed years ago and an employer is asking? The record sits with one of three kinds of doors (Parchment in 19 jurisdictions, DiplomaSender in 14, state offices in 18) — and the year you passed can change the door. The Transcript Finder →
The honest frame, up front: free classes exist in most states and free practice is all over the internet — use them. What nobody free computes is your personal answer: your state's cheapest legal path, your dated plan from your real scores, your worst-case retake bill. That computation is this site's whole job, and it stays free. The paid pieces are print: the workbook the plan points into, and the $19 Pass Plan that prints your plan out.
One giant sells the GED test; another sells the HiSET exam. Neither can tell you the other test is cheaper in your state, includes two retakes in the price, or is the only test your state offers. Neither will print the words "testing is free in New York" beside a $144 price table, or warn you that a record from 2005 sits behind a different door than a record from 2019. That silence is structural — and it is the whole reason a neutral site exists.
Our facts come from the official pages themselves — every state's policy page, read in full and dated 2026-10-20 — and every figure we could not verify on an official page is flagged unverified — check the official page right where it stands, never smoothed over. 138 flagged cells are on this site in plain sight.
One payment, yours to keep — the printable companion to the free plan above. Everything inside →
145–200
The green band. It is also a key: a green score in a subject inside the last 60 days is what unlocks online testing in that subject. What a 145+ means →
134–144
Not a failure — a measurement that cannot separate ready from not-ready. The honest reading, and the dated plan that moves it. The too-close band →
100–133
Information, not a verdict on you: the plan rebuilds weakest-first from exactly here. The not-likely band →
Missed the real test by the smallest possible margin? There is a page written for exactly that search: failed by 1 point — what it means, what a retake costs in your state, and the next three moves.
La prueba se ofrece en español, y esta guía también: el verificador de camino y las herramientas principales están en español desde el primer día. DiplomaPath en español →
It depends on your state and where you sit it — from $0 in New York to $50 a subject in South Dakota, typically around $36 a subject. The Path Checker computes yours; the cost guide explains the shape of it.
In most states, yes — with a green practice score in that subject inside the last 60 days. In FL, NY, HI, MA, WV and CT, no: the test is taken at a test center. And one correction the farms keep missing: Wyoming does offer online testing. The online guide →
Most states use the GED test, about half offer both, and Iowa and Maine are HiSET-only. Neither maker will show you the other's door; the checker shows both. The neutral comparison →
Through the custodian (the office that holds the record) for your state and year — one of three kinds of doors. The Transcript Finder names yours, its fee, and its era warnings.
The workbook is a print book sold on Amazon (see the workbook page). The Pass Plan — the printable companion to your computed plan — is $19, once. The tools stay free either way.
Facts checked 2026-10-20 against the official state policy pages and the custodians' own lists. Scale figures: GED Testing Service 2025 year-in-review (ged.com). Practice-test price checked October 2026: $7.99 per subject, $25.99 for all four, at the official door.