Sending AP scores is genuinely one of the easier parts of the whole AP process — but a few details trip students up: the one free send and its deadline, the fact that your entire AP history goes by default, and the odd timing where you often choose where to send before you’ve even seen your scores. This guide walks through all of it: how to send scores step by step, when to send, what it costs, how many colleges you can send to, and the smartest, most cost-effective way to get your scores where they need to go.
Here’s the essline: you send AP scores online through your College Board account, and each year you take exams you get one free score send to a single college — used by an annual deadline (typically in June) — with additional reports available for a per-report fee (commonly around $15, with an optional rush service). Two things surprise people: a report includes your entire AP history by default, not just one subject; and the free-send deadline usually falls before scores are released, so you often decide where to send before seeing results. Most colleges need an official report for credit but let you self-report for admissions. Here’s how to do it right.
Whether a score is worth sending depends on what it unlocks. Estimate results with the AP score calculator and its subject tools for Biology, Chemistry, English Language, and World History, then check what is a good AP score.
What this guide covers
The one free score send (use it wisely)
The single most valuable thing to understand about score-sending is the free send, because using it well can save you real money and using it poorly wastes it. Every AP student gets one, every year.
Each year that you take AP exams, the College Board gives you one free score send to a single college, university, or scholarship program. You claim it by designating your chosen recipient by an annual deadline that typically falls in June, and once scores are released in early July, that institution automatically receives your report. It’s the easiest and most cost-effective route, so the goal is to not waste it. The catch that trips students up: because the deadline usually comes before scores are released, you’re often deciding where to send before you’ve seen your results. For a graduating senior, the natural choice is to point the free send at the college you’ll actually attend, since that’s the one that needs official scores for credit. For a sophomore or junior who already has a clear top-choice school, using the free send there can even signal early interest. The key is to make a deliberate choice rather than letting the deadline pass unused — an unused free send is money left on the table if you later have to pay to send.
The big quirk to plan around: the free-send deadline usually falls before scores come out, so you typically choose your recipient before seeing your scores. For most seniors that’s fine — point it at the college you’ll enroll at. Just don’t let the deadline pass unclaimed, or you’ll pay to send later.
How to send AP scores, step by step
The actual sending process is short and entirely online, so once you know the steps there’s little that can go wrong. Here’s the full sequence.
Go to the AP score-reporting portal or My AP and sign in with the same account you used to register and enroll in your AP classes. Using a duplicate or different account is a common, avoidable snag.
Navigate to the score-send area of your profile or the reporting portal — typically labeled something like “Send AP Scores” or a Score Send tab. This is where both your free send and any paid sends are managed.
Search for the college, university, or scholarship program you want to receive your report and select it. You can look institutions up by name; each has a designated recipient code the system matches for you.
Apply your free send if you haven’t used it this year, or set up a paid additional report. If you need faster delivery, you can select the rush option for an added fee, and manage any score withholds here.
Confirm the recipient and the exams included, pay any fee by card for paid sends, and submit. Keep the confirmation, and remember a report includes your full AP history unless you’ve withheld or canceled a score.
That’s the entire process. For your free send, there’s no payment step — you just designate the recipient by the deadline and scores flow automatically at release. For paid sends, the order is submitted immediately and the report is made available to the recipient shortly after. If you ever can’t send online for some reason, the College Board also accepts requests by mail or fax, though online is far simpler.
What it costs: free, paid, and rush
Cost is where most of the practical questions land, so it’s worth laying out the structure clearly — the amounts can change, but the structure is stable. One send is free; the rest are paid.
The framework is consistent: one free send per year to a single recipient, then a per-report fee for each additional college — commonly around $15 per report — with an optional rush service for an added fee if you need faster delivery. Separately, if you want to hide a specific score from a report, withholding carries its own per-score fee on top of the report cost. Because these amounts are set by the College Board and can change year to year, treat any figure here as indicative and confirm the current fees on the College Board’s sending-scores page before you order. The structure, though, is what matters for planning: budget nothing for your first send, and a modest per-report fee for each additional school beyond it. The comparison below captures the two routes most students choose between.
Free score send
- One per year that you take AP exams
- Goes to a single college/scholarship program
- Designate by the annual (typically June) deadline
- Recipient receives scores in early July at release
- Most cost-effective — use it before it expires
Additional (paid) report
- Commonly around $15 per report (confirm current fee)
- Send to as many colleges as you want, anytime
- Optional rush service for an added fee
- Paid online orders available to download quickly
- Withholding a score adds a per-score fee
When to send your scores
Timing matters more than students expect, because a missed college deadline can mean losing credit you earned — so it’s worth getting right. The guiding rule is simple.
Use your free send by its annual deadline (typically June) to designate where scores should go, and they’ll be sent automatically once released in early July. If you’re a senior entering college in the fall, the crucial thing is to get scores to your college in time for its deadline for receiving them for credit and placement — and note that some colleges won’t accept scores after you’ve arrived on campus as a first-year student, so late sending can cost you credit. In general, sending no later than July of your senior year is the safe target. Because the free-send deadline usually precedes the score release, remember you’re choosing your recipient before you see results, and if you’d rather wait until you know your scores, you can always send for a fee afterward. The practical priority: identify your enrolling college’s score deadline early, and make sure your official report will arrive before it. For the full release timeline that this timing depends on, see when AP scores come out.
Why colleges see your entire AP history
This is the detail that catches the most students off guard, so it deserves its own section: a score report is not selective by default. It’s your whole record.
When you designate a college to receive your scores, the report includes your entire AP history — every AP exam you’ve taken throughout high school — not just this year’s or a single subject, unless you’ve specifically withheld or canceled a score. The report also carries certain identifying and demographic information. For most students this is a non-issue: colleges are generally interested in your qualifying scores and don’t penalize you for a lower one, especially since you choose whether to send at all. But if you have a score you’d genuinely rather a specific college not see, you have two tools: withholding (hides a specific score from a specific college, reversible, for a fee) or, rarely, cancellation (permanently deletes a score). Because withholding is reversible and cancellation isn’t, withholding is almost always the safer choice — and often simply not sending to a school achieves the goal without either. For the full breakdown of report contents and the withhold-versus-cancel decision, see AP exam results.
Plan for the full-history default: one report shows a college all your AP scores, not a single subject. That’s fine for most students, but if a particular score worries you, withhold it (reversible) rather than cancel it (permanent) — or just don’t send to that school. Confirm current withhold fees and deadlines with the College Board.
Sending to multiple colleges
Students applying to several schools often assume they must send official scores everywhere, which is both costly and usually unnecessary — so it’s worth clarifying how multiple sends really work. You can send widely, but you rarely need to.
You can send AP score reports to as many colleges as you want, but only one send per year is free; every additional recipient is a paid report. So if you’re applying to a dozen schools, sending official reports to all of them would mean one free plus many paid reports. In practice, that’s usually unnecessary and wasteful, because most colleges only need your official scores at the one institution you ultimately enroll at — that’s where credit and placement are actually awarded. Combined with the fact that many colleges let you self-report scores on the application for admissions, the efficient pattern for most students is: self-report where allowed during applications, then send a single official report to your enrolling college. Reserve paying for multiple official sends for the specific cases where a scholarship program or a particular college genuinely requires an official report up front. This keeps you from paying to send official reports to schools that only needed self-reported scores or that you won’t attend.
Official reports vs self-reported scores
The distinction between official and self-reported scores is what makes the “smart approach” possible, so it’s worth understanding clearly. They serve different purposes.
An official report comes directly from the College Board and is what most colleges require to actually award credit or placement. Self-reported scores are ones you enter yourself on a college application, and many colleges accept these for admissions purposes, requiring an official report only later — typically after you enroll. This two-track system is the key to sending efficiently: for admissions, you can often skip paying to send official scores and simply self-report; the official report is really needed at the point of claiming credit, which is at your enrolling school. That said, policies vary — some colleges want official scores directly, others are happy with self-reporting until enrollment — so the essential step is to check each college’s specific policy. Getting this right is what lets most students send just one official report instead of many.
A score only helps if it earns something. See what is a good AP score to judge by goal and subject, do colleges see all AP scores for the privacy angle, and AP exam scores for what each 1–5 means.
The smartest, most cost-effective approach
Pulling it together, there’s a clear playbook that gets your scores where they need to go while minimizing cost, and it works for most students. Here’s the sequence.
Self-report during applications where allowed. For admissions, enter your scores on the application instead of paying to send official reports to every school.
Save your free send for your enrolling college. Point your one free send at the school you’ll attend, which is the one that needs official scores for credit.
Claim the free send by the deadline. Don’t let the annual (typically June) deadline pass unused, even though it falls before scores release — an unused free send means paying later.
Pay for extra official reports only when required. Send additional paid reports only where a specific college or scholarship genuinely needs an official report up front.
Mind each college’s deadline. Make sure your official report arrives before your enrolling college’s cutoff, since some won’t accept scores once you’re on campus.
Follow that and you’ll typically spend little or nothing on sending while ensuring every score reaches where it counts. Before you decide which scores are even worth sending, it helps to know where you’re likely to land — running practice tests through the AP score calculator, or the subject-specific tools for the big exams, gives you a realistic projected 1–5 so you can plan your sends around scores that will actually earn credit at your target schools.
How to send AP scores: frequently asked questions
How do I send my AP scores to colleges?
You send AP scores online through your College Board account. Sign in to the AP score-reporting portal or My AP, open the score-send section, search for and select the college or scholarship program to receive your report, choose your options, and confirm. Each year you take AP exams you get one free send to a single recipient, and additional reports cost a fee. The college receives an official report directly from the College Board, which is what most schools require for credit and placement, as opposed to scores you self-report on an application.
How much does it cost to send AP scores?
You get one free send to a single college or scholarship program each year you take AP exams. After that, additional reports cost a per-report fee, commonly around $15, with an optional rush service for an added fee. Withholding a specific score from a report typically carries its own per-score fee on top of the report cost. Because fees change over time and by service, confirm current amounts on the College Board’s sending-scores page before ordering — but one send per year is free and extra sends are paid.
When should I send my AP scores to colleges?
Use your free send by its annual deadline, typically in June, to designate the college you plan to attend; scores are then sent once released in early July. If you’re a senior entering college in the fall, send in time for your college’s own deadline for receiving scores for credit, since some colleges won’t accept scores after you arrive on campus. A key quirk: the free-send deadline usually comes before scores are released, so you often decide where to send before you see your results.
Do colleges see all my AP scores when I send a report?
Yes, by default. When you designate a college to receive your scores, the report includes your entire AP history — every exam you’ve taken across high school, not just the most recent or a single subject — unless you’ve withheld or canceled a score. The report also includes certain identifying information. If you’d rather a college not see a particular score, you can withhold it for a fee (reversible) or, rarely, cancel it permanently. But the standard behavior is that one report shows your full AP history to that school.
Can I send AP scores to more than one college?
Yes. You can send reports to as many colleges as you want, but only one send per year is free; each additional recipient requires a paid report. The free send goes to a single institution, so if you’re applying to several schools you’d use the free send for one and pay for the others — or more practically, send an official report only to the college you enroll at, since that’s typically the one that needs it for credit. Many colleges let you self-report on the application and only require an official report after you enroll.
Do I have to send official AP scores for admissions?
Usually not for admissions itself. Many colleges let you self-report AP scores on your application for admissions and only require an official report later, typically after you enroll, to award credit or placement. So you often don’t need to pay to send official scores to every college you apply to. The most cost-effective approach is often to self-report where allowed during applications, then send one official report to the college you decide to attend. Always confirm each college’s specific policy.
How long does it take for colleges to receive AP scores?
If you use your free send by its June deadline, the designated college typically receives your scores in early July once scores are released. For paid online orders, reports are generally made available to download quite quickly, often within about a day, though orders placed during certain late-June windows around scoring activities may not be available until early July. A rush option can speed delivery for a fee. Because a college showing the report as available doesn’t mean it has processed your data, contact the school to confirm receipt if unsure.
The quick version
Send AP scores online through your College Board account: sign in, open the score-send section, pick your recipient, confirm. You get one free send per year to a single college (claim it by the deadline, typically June); additional reports cost a per-report fee, commonly around $15, with an optional rush service. A report includes your entire AP history by default unless you withhold or cancel a score. The free-send deadline usually falls before scores release, so you often choose your recipient before seeing results. Most colleges need an official report only for credit at your enrolling school and accept self-reported scores for admissions.
Smart play: self-report during applications, save your free send for the college you’ll attend, and pay for extra official reports only where genuinely required. Estimate your scores first with the free AP score calculator or the subject tools for Biology, Chemistry, English Language, and World History. Browse the full education calculators or start at the Waldev homepage. See also when scores come out, AP exam results, and do colleges see all AP scores.
Accuracy note: AP score-sending fees, deadlines, delivery times, the rush option, and withholding rules are set by the College Board and can change year to year; the specific free-send deadline and dollar amounts shift and are confirmed officially each year. This guide describes the general, reliable structure for planning and is for informational purposes only. Always confirm the current fees, deadlines, and procedures on the College Board’s official sending-scores page, and verify each college’s score deadline and credit policy directly with the institution.
The College Board’s sending-scores page details the free send, fees, deadlines, and how to order. Sending AP scores →
Search each college’s required scores for credit and placement before deciding what to send. Search AP credit policies →