SQE fees rise in September 2026: what to do

If you're planning to sit the SQE any time soon, there's a date worth knowing: September 2026. That's when the SRA's assessment fees go up again, and the new numbers are now confirmed.

Here's the short version. SQE1 rises to £2,006 and SQE2 rises to £3,086. Together that's £5,092 for both parts, up from £4,908 today. It's a 3.7% increase, not dramatic, but real money if you're funding yourself.

This post walks through the new fees, why they're going up, and how to work out whether booking before the change actually makes sense for you.

The new fees, in full

Until the change takes effect, the fees are:

• SQE1: £1,934
• SQE2: £2,974
• Combined total: £4,908

From September 2026, the fees become:

• SQE1: £2,006 (up £72)
• SQE2: £3,086 (up £112)
• Combined total: £5,092 (up £184, or 3.7%)

These are SRA assessment fees only. They cover sitting the exam itself, not any prep course, question bank, or tuition you might also be paying for. If you want the fuller cost picture including prep providers, the SQE cost breakdown post covers that separately.

As with any regulator-set fee, treat these as the figures at time of writing and check the SRA's current fee page before you book, since it's the only source that updates in real time.

Why the fees are going up

The SRA reviews assessment fees periodically to reflect the actual cost of running the SQE, which is delivered through Pearson VUE test centres and covers everything from exam-day logistics to marking SQE2's skills stations.

One factor the SRA points to for this round of increases is the cost of providing SQE materials in Welsh. Wales has separate legal rights around bilingual public services, and the SRA has cited the cost of delivering a professional assessment in both English and Welsh as part of the justification, a reason it has also given for a previous fee rise. That cost, as the SRA frames it, gets folded into the overall fee every candidate pays, regardless of which language they sit in.

It's a small piece of a bigger picture: assessment fees have risen most years since the SQE launched in 2021, and the increases haven't all been small. This one is a modest 3.7%, but a previous rise came in at 11%. This isn't a one-off shock, it's a pattern that's continued at varying rates.

Who should book before September 2026

If you're already close to ready, booking your sitting before the fee change is a straightforward way to save £72 to £112. A few situations where it's worth acting early:

1. You've already finished (or nearly finished) your prep course and are deciding between a summer sitting and a later one. If the study is done, there's little reason to wait.
2. You're weighing a 2026 sitting against pushing to 2027. The fee saving alone probably shouldn't decide this for you, but it's a genuine (if modest) tiebreaker if everything else is close.
3. You're self-funding and every pound matters. £184 across both parts won't change your life, but it's a real number, and stacked against course fees running into the thousands, it's worth folding into your overall budget.

Booking windows close roughly five weeks before a sitting, so "book before September" really means finalising your decision well ahead of that, not waiting until the last moment. If you haven't mapped out the actual 2026-27 sitting calendar yet, the SQE dates guide lays out the windows in full.

Who shouldn't rush it

Booking early to dodge a fee rise only makes sense if you're actually ready, or close to it. A few reasons to hold off regardless of the September deadline:

• You haven't covered enough of the syllabus. Sitting underprepared to save £72 is a false economy. A resit means paying again (the full SQE2 fee, or the fee for whichever SQE1 paper you need to retake), on top of the first attempt, which erases any saving many times over.
• Your QWE (qualifying work experience) isn't going to be signed off in time. The exam and the work experience requirement are separate, but if your admission timeline depends on QWE finishing first, sitting earlier doesn't help you qualify sooner.
• You're still deciding on a prep route. Choosing a course under time pressure, just to hit a booking window, tends to produce worse decisions than taking a few extra weeks to compare options properly.

The fee difference is worth having in the calculation. It shouldn't be the calculation.

How this fits the wider cost picture

Even after the rise, the SRA's own assessment fees remain a smaller share of total SQE cost than most people expect. Prep course fees vary hugely, from a few hundred pounds for a self-study question bank up to five figures for a full-service course with tutoring, and that gap dwarfs a 3.7% move in the assessment fee itself.

That's worth remembering if the headline "fees are rising" makes the whole process feel more expensive than it is. The assessment fee change is real, but it's the smaller lever. Where you study, how you study, and whether you pass first time matter far more to your total spend, since a resit means paying the assessment fee again.

If pass rates factor into how you're thinking about first-time cost, the cohort pass rates post breaks down what the published figures actually mean by sitting.

A practical way to plan around it

Whether you sit before or after September 2026, the smart move is the same: build a realistic study timeline, book with enough runway that you're not rushing preparation, and treat the assessment fee as one line in a bigger budget rather than the whole decision.

A free SQE study planner can help you map backwards from a chosen sitting date to a booking deadline and a realistic prep window, so the fee question sits inside a proper plan rather than being decided in isolation under a deadline.

Frequently asked questions

When exactly do the new SQE fees start? The increase takes effect from September 2026. Anyone booking a sitting from that point pays the new rate. Always confirm the precise cutover date on the SRA's official fee page before booking, since implementation details can shift.

How much more will the SQE cost after the rise? SQE1 rises by £72 to £2,006, and SQE2 rises by £112 to £3,086. Combined, both parts cost £5,092, up £184 (3.7%) from the current £4,908 total.

Why are SQE fees increasing? The SRA periodically adjusts assessment fees to reflect delivery costs. This particular rise has been linked in part to the cost of providing SQE materials and support in Welsh, alongside the general cost of running Pearson VUE test centres and marking.

Should I book my sitting early to avoid the fee increase? Only if you're genuinely prepared or close to it. The saving is £72 to £112, which is worth having but shouldn't push you into sitting before you're ready. An unsuccessful attempt means paying the assessment fee again.

Does the fee rise affect resits too? Yes. Resits are charged at the standard assessment fee for whichever part you're retaking, so a resit booked from September 2026 onward is charged at the new rate.