Cost calculator · free, no sign-up
NAATI CCL Cost Calculator
The sitting fee is the advertised price. Set your own honest odds of passing and this works out the expected total cost — fee, add-ons and your own prep budget — and what that comes to per PR point.
Your honest chance of passing, first sitting
Not how confident you feel — your best guess at the real odds. Most candidates over-estimate this; if you’re unsure, 40–50% is a reasonable starting guess for a first attempt without dedicated preparation.
Whatever you’d actually spend preparing — a course, materials, tutoring, or $0 if you’re studying from free resources. Nothing is pre-filled here on purpose; type your own number.
That works out to $326 per PR point across the 5 points a pass is worth. At 50% odds, the expected number of sittings is 2.0.
How that total is built
Compared against the English ladder
Going from proficient (10 pts) to superior English (20 pts) is the same 10-point gain a CCL pass gives you from zero. A retest costs roughly $400a go — cheaper per attempt than the CCL fee, and cheaper per point too on paper — but with no guarantee a retake gets you there at all. This isn’t a sales pitch for the CCL; it’s the same $/point arithmetic applied to both routes.
The honest way to read this calculator: preparation is insurance on the sitting fee, not an extra cost on top of it — every dollar spent preparing that lifts your odds lowers the expected number of sittings, which is most of what drives the total above. It is only cheap if you pass. See what NAATI actually charges and the full cost-versus-value case before deciding how much to spend preparing.
The fee is fixed. Whether you pay it twice is not.
There is no re-sit discount, so preparation is insurance on the fee rather than an extra cost. Start with the free papers and see where you actually are.
Free, no account needed. We sell NAATI CCL Punjabi preparation — the practice above is free either way.
Why “expected cost” is the honest number
A single sitting fee tells you nothing about what the CCL will actually cost you, because the CCL is not a purchase — it’s a test you might not pass. The standard way to price something with a success probability is to weight the cost by how many attempts it statistically takes: at even odds, expect two sittings on average; at 25% odds, expect four (capped here at three, for the reasons in the FAQ). Multiply that by the fee and you get a number closer to what people actually spend than the number NAATI publishes.
This cuts both ways. Someone who is confident and prepared should see a total close to the sticker price, because their expected number of sittings is close to one. Someone sitting cold, with no preparation and a genuine 20% chance of passing, should see a much higher number — and should probably read that as a reason to prepare rather than a reason to avoid the test.
Preparation as insurance, not an extra cost
The cleanest way to read this calculator is that preparation is insurance on the sitting fee, not money on top of it. Every dollar spent preparing that measurably raises your odds of passing lowers your expected number of sittings, which is the single biggest lever in the whole calculation — bigger than the practice test or review add-ons, and often bigger than the fee itself once you’re below even odds. That is an argument for preparing seriously, not a pitch for any particular course; see what NAATI itself charges for the fee side of the ledger, and the full cost-versus-value guide for the wider argument before you decide how much to spend.
Cost per point is a comparison tool, not a verdict
Dividing your expected total by 5points gives a number you can genuinely compare against other ways to gain points — an English retest, a professional year, a state nomination. It cannot tell you which of those you’re actually eligible for, or which ones you’re likely to succeed at, only what each one costs per point if it works. Use it alongside, not instead of, the full gap finder, which ranks every option side by side.
What this tool will not tell you
It will not tell you your actual chance of passing — that number comes from an honest look at your own preparation, not from this page. It will not tell you whether the CCL is the right route for your visa or occupation, or whether a re-sit is even useful for you (some candidates are better served by a different preparation approach than by simply sitting again). And it is not a NAATI product: figures are independently verified against NAATI’s public fee schedule and can lag a fee change until we re-check it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the NAATI CCL actually cost?+
The published sitting fee is $814 for the 2026–27 schedule. That is the cost of one attempt. There is no re-sit discount, so two attempts is $1,628 in fees alone — the number this calculator is built to make visible before you sit, not after a second attempt.
What is 'expected cost' and why does it use my own odds?+
It's the sitting fee multiplied by how many attempts you're statistically likely to need, given your own honest chance of passing on any one sitting. If you rate your odds at 50%, the expected number of sittings is 2, so the expected fee cost is roughly double the sticker price — not because NAATI charges you twice, but because on average, at those odds, that's what clearing the test costs.
Why cap the expected sittings at 3?+
Because the raw formula (1 divided by your odds) produces numbers like 10 or 20 sittings at very low odds, and nobody should read that as a real financial plan. Past a certain point the honest advice isn't 'budget for more attempts' — it's 'you need more preparation before you sit again'. The cap keeps the number meaningful instead of technically-correct-but-absurd.
Is the CCL cheaper than retaking an English test?+
Per point, an English retest at roughly $400 a go can look cheaper on paper for the 5-to-20-point gaps English covers — but it comes with no guarantee a retake gets you a higher band at all, and for a lot of people the ceiling is simply out of reach regardless of budget. The comparison in this calculator runs both numbers side by side so you can judge for your own situation rather than take either claim on faith.
Should I buy the practice test and budget for a review?+
Both are optional add-ons NAATI itself offers: the official practice test ($165) and a review of a raw score of 58 or higher ($187). Toggle them on if you'd genuinely use them — they raise the total shown, but a practice test that meaningfully lifts your odds of passing can lower your expected number of sittings by more than it costs.
Are NAATI's fees the ones in this calculator?+
Yes — verified against naati.com.au on 14 September 2026. NAATI states its prices are subject to change without notice and the fee schedule rolls over every 1 July, so re-check the current figure before you book.
Related tools
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Read the detail
- Is the NAATI CCL Worth It? The Honest Cost-Benefit Maths
The real maths behind the NAATI CCL: the ~$814 fee, the 30–60 hours, the value of 5 PR points, and an honest answer on whether the test is worth it for you.
- The Cheapest Ways to Gain PR Points, Ranked
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- The NAATI CCL Timeline: From Booking to Points in Your EOI
Booking → sitting → the result wait → updating your EOI. The end-to-end NAATI CCL timeline, and why people chasing a birthday or visa deadline routinely miscount it by weeks.
Every tool on this site is free and ungated — see all of them.