Every fee below is the AMC's own published figure, in Australian dollars and free of GST. The arithmetic that matters is not any single line: it is that the Standard pathway bills you in three separate instalments, spread over a year or more, and that the second stage has historically ended without a pass in about three sittings out of four. That is a rate per examination sat rather than per candidate — someone who sits twice appears twice in it — so read it as a reason to budget for a re-sit, not as your personal odds.
Budget about A$6,562 for a clean first run
If everything goes right the first time and you sit the in-person clinical examination, the AMC will charge you this:
| Stage | Fee AUD | When you pay it |
|---|---|---|
| Establish your portfolio (includes one qualification) | $642 | Before anything else |
| CAT MCQ examination authorisation | $2,920 | Buys a 12-month window, not a seat |
| Clinical examination, in person | $3,000 | After you pass the MCQ |
| First-attempt total | $6,562 | Excludes verification and surcharges |
Take the online clinical examination instead and it is $3,400, because a $400 levy sits on top of the same $3,000. Take the workplace based assessment route instead of the clinical examination and the AMC's own fee drops to $1,070, which makes the pathway total $4,632. That is the single largest lever on this page, and it is the one worth settling before you pay for anything, because the WBA route depends on a place at an accredited provider that you have to secure yourself.
Treat $6,562 as a floor rather than an estimate. Nothing above includes credential verification, the card surcharge, an English test, travel, or a single re-sit.
The AMC's full published fee schedule
Checked against the AMC's fees page on 14 August 2026. The AMC changes these without much fanfare, so confirm the current figure on its own page before you pay anything.
| Item | Fee AUD | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Initial portfolio, including one qualification | $642 | One-off |
| Each additional qualification added | $107 | Payable per qualification |
| CAT MCQ examination authorisation | $2,920 | Per authorisation |
| Clinical examination, in person | $3,000 | |
| Clinical examination, online | $3,400 | $3,000 plus a $400 levy |
| Workplace based assessment | $1,070 | AMC's fee only, see below |
| Reissue of results | $107 | MCQ or clinical |
| Clinical appeal, one station | $910 | Plus $235 per extra station |
One warning about the WBA line. The $1,070 is what the AMC charges; it is not what the assessment costs you. WBA is delivered by accredited hospitals and general practices that set their own programme fees, and those are typically the larger number. Ask the provider for its fee in writing before you accept a place, because the AMC's refund clock starts the moment you do.
Know the refund cliffs before you pay, not after
This is the part of the AMC's fee page almost nobody reads, and it is where money is quietly lost. Each fee has its own refund structure, and each one has a point after which you get nothing back.
| If you withdraw | Refund | The cliff |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio, before it is assessed | Full | |
| Portfolio, assessed but no ECFMG status processed | 50% | |
| Portfolio, once an ECFMG status is processed | Nothing | Verification is the trigger |
| MCQ authorisation, within 1 month of payment | 75% | Supporting evidence required |
| MCQ authorisation, after 1 month | 50% | Until the authorisation expires |
| MCQ, non-attendance | Nothing | The authorisation is consumed |
| Clinical, within 1 month of payment | 50% | |
| Clinical, after 1 month or on the day | Nothing | |
| WBA, after accepting a place | 50% | Nothing once it commences |
Three of those deserve to be said plainly. Do not pay the MCQ authorisation fee until you are confident of your window, because after one month you forfeit half of $2,920 and the AMC requires supporting evidence even for that. Do not miss an MCQ sitting you are authorised for: non-attendance consumes the authorisation outright, so the money and the window both go. And if you sit the online clinical examination, note that the AMC distinguishes between an outage beyond anyone's control, which returns 50%, and a problem at your end, which returns nothing. If your home connection is unreliable, that distinction is worth $3,400 to you.
Four costs that are not on the fee page
The AMC's schedule is honest about what the AMC charges. It is silent about what the pathway charges.
- Primary source verification through ECFMG. Every international medical graduate must have their medical degree verified at source, and the AMC now routes this through ECFMG's MyIntealth platform. This is billed by ECFMG in US dollars, separately from anything you pay the AMC. If you hold an older EICS or EPIC verification it still counts and you do not repeat it.
- The card surcharge. The AMC applies a 0.96% surcharge to every credit and debit card payment. On the $6,562 first-attempt total that is roughly $63, small in isolation, and it applies to each payment you make including publications from the AMC store.
- The verification trap. If you verify a transcript or an alternate graduation document instead of your final medical diploma, the Medical Board may later require the diploma at registration. That means paying for verification a second time, to both ECFMG and the AMC. Verify the final diploma the first time if you have it.
- English language proficiency. The Medical Board sets this requirement, not the AMC, and the test fee goes to IELTS, OET, PTE or TOEFL. Budget for it separately and check the Board's current criteria instead of a forum's summary.
Price in one re-sit, because the numbers say you might
The last pass rates the AMC published were 51% for MCQ sittings and 24% for clinical examinations. The AMC's most recent annual report contains no pass rates at all, so those figures are where the published record stops. We set out where they come from in our guide to the AMC pass rate.
Read them as a budgeting instruction, not a prediction. At roughly one in two, a second MCQ authorisation is a realistic line item at $2,920. At roughly one sitting in four ending in a pass, a second attempt at $3,000 is common enough that you should have the money for it. The AMC does not publish a first-attempt pass rate, so nobody can tell you your own odds. A candidate who budgets $6,562 and needs one clinical re-sit is looking at $9,562, and that is before verification and surcharges.
None of this means the pathway is unaffordable. It means the failure mode here is financial surprise, and surprise is the part you can remove today.
Where you can save, and where you cannot
You cannot negotiate an AMC fee, and there is no student rate. What you can control is how many times you pay one.
Choose WBA if you can get a place. On the AMC's fees alone it saves $1,930 against the in-person clinical examination and $2,330 against the online one. It also removes a single high-stakes exam day. The catch is real: you need current registration and an appointment at an accredited hospital or general practice, which is not available to everyone at the moment they want it, and the provider's own programme fee may erase part of the saving.
Choose the in-person clinical examination over the online one if travel to a centre costs less than the $400 levy. Price the whole trip against a flat $400: flights, a night's accommodation, time off work. Do that arithmetic with real flight prices.
Do not buy the MCQ authorisation early to feel committed. It buys a 12-month window in which to schedule a sitting, and the refund drops from 75% to 50% once a month has passed since payment. The AMC's page does not say which date starts that clock, so read the dates on your own authorisation. Buy it when your preparation is far enough along that twelve months is comfortably enough, which is the same advice we give on choosing your AMC exam date.
Stop at one good question bank. This is the one place where extra spending reliably buys nothing: a second question bank costs money and produces overlap, while the first one produces the errors you learn from.
Sources checked
Fees, refund structures, the non-attendance forfeiture and the bank surcharge were read on 14 August 2026 from the AMC's fees and charges page. The 12-month authorisation window comes from the AMC's CAT MCQ examination page, read the same day, which states the authorisation is valid for 12 months to schedule an examination event and does not name the date that starts it. The English language requirement was checked the same day against Ahpra's English language skills registration standard, which every applicant must meet through their National Board. Pathway structure comes from the AMC's Standard pathway and workplace based assessment pages, and verification requirements from its primary source verification page. Pass rates are the AMC's last published figures, cited in full in our AMC pass rate guide. Budgeting advice and the re-sit arithmetic are StudyRise editorial judgement, not AMC guidance. Fees change: confirm every figure on the AMC's own page before you pay.