When Do AP Scores Come Out? Release Dates, Times and What to Do Next

AP scores come out in early July, roughly seven to eight weeks after the May exams. For the last three years the release has landed on the first or second Monday of July, and the College Board announces the exact day on its AP Students site ahead of time.

This guide covers the verified release dates for recent years, what actually happens between your last exam and score day, how to log in and read your report, and every deadline that matters before and after release: the free score send, cancellation, withholding, rescoring and copies of your free responses.

AP Score Release Dates by Year

Each spring the College Board's View Your AP Scores page states the day scores become available. Here is what that page said for the four most recent exam years.

The pattern is consistent: a weekday in the first full week or so of July, after the Fourth of July holiday. Colleges get access a few days before students do. For 2026, the College Board told institutions they would begin receiving scores on July 1, 2026, which is why a college you named in your free score send can have your results before you see them.

What Time Do AP Scores Come Out?

The College Board publishes the date, not an hour-by-hour schedule. In recent years scores have not appeared for every student at the same moment. Students and counselors have consistently reported that scores begin showing in the morning, Eastern time, and roll out in waves by location over the course of the release day, which spreads out the load on the scores website.

• Do not panic if a friend in another state sees scores before you do. Waves are normal.
• Refresh occasionally rather than constantly. Heavy traffic can slow the site in the first hours.
• If your scores still are not showing by the end of the release day, check again the next day before contacting anyone. Most delays clear up on their own.
• Students testing outside the United States should check the official page for any note about timing in their region rather than relying on social media.

Why It Takes Until July

The gap between May and July is mostly about the free-response section. According to the College Board, multiple-choice answers are scored by computer, but essays and open-ended answers are scored by hand at the annual AP Reading, held during the first two weeks of June. College faculty and experienced AP teachers do that scoring.

1. May: you take the exam. Late testing for students with approved conflicts happens later in May.
2. Late May to early June: multiple-choice sections are scored and exam materials are processed.
3. First two weeks of June: the AP Reading scores every free-response answer.
4. June: section scores are combined into a composite and converted to the 1 to 5 scale using cut points set by a statistical process.
5. June 20: deadline to choose your free score send recipient.
6. July 1 (2026): colleges begin receiving scores.
7. Early July: scores open to students.

The step that turns a composite into a 1 to 5 score is where the curve lives. The College Board does not publish the cut points, but you can see the estimated composite percent each exam needs in our AP score curve chart.

How to Get Your AP Scores on Release Day

Scores are only available online through your College Board account. They are not mailed to you, and your parents cannot see them unless you give them your login.

1. Before release day, sign in once to make sure you remember your username and password. This is the same account you use for My AP and other College Board services.
2. Confirm that the email address on your account is current, because the College Board uses it to tell you about delayed scores.
3. Never create a second account. Duplicate accounts are a common reason scores go missing.
4. On release day, go to the View Your AP Scores page on apstudents.collegeboard.org and choose the option to go to score reporting, then sign in.
5. Download the PDF version of your score report for your records. It is an unofficial copy, so colleges still need an official score send.

What Your Score Report Shows

Your report lists every AP score you have ever earned, not only this year's, along with any AP awards. If you took your last AP exam before 2018, those scores are archived and no longer appear online; they can only be sent by mail or fax request.

Two exams carry extra information. Calculus BC students also get a Calculus AB subscore from 1 to 5, based on the part of the exam that covers AB topics, which the College Board says is about 60 percent of the exam. Music Theory students get separate aural and nonaural subscores.

Want to know how your score compares with everyone else's? Our breakdown of the 2026 AP score distributions lists the percent of students at each score for all 40 exams.

If Some Scores Are Missing

Most scores arrive on release day, but some take longer. The College Board names later testing dates, late arrival of exam materials and extra time to match records as common causes. You will get an email when a delayed score is added.

• Took a late-testing exam: expect your score to trail the main release. Wait for the email.
• A score from a previous year is missing: this usually means you have more than one College Board account. Contact AP Services for Students to merge them.
• Still nothing by August 15: contact AP Services for Students. Response times are longer than usual during July.
• Your free score send went out before the delayed score arrived: the College Board automatically sends the late score to that college once it is ready.

Score Sends: Free and Paid

Seeing your score and sending it are two separate things. Colleges only grant credit or placement based on an official score report sent by the College Board, not on a screenshot or your PDF copy.

One detail surprises a lot of students: a score report includes your entire AP history, not only the most recent exams. If a college receives your report, it sees every score unless you have canceled or withheld one. Seniors heading to college in the fall should check their college's deadline for AP scores and send them in July; some colleges will not accept scores after you arrive on campus.

Not sure whether a particular score will earn credit? Colleges set their own policies. For one worked example, see what college credit each AP Chemistry score earns.

Canceling or Withholding a Score

If you are worried about one result, you have two tools, and they work very differently.

Notice the timing trap. Cancellation is the only way to keep a score away from your free score send recipient, and that request has to reach the College Board by June 15, before you have seen the score. Most students should not cancel blindly. A 2 or even a 1 rarely hurts an application, and colleges look at far more than exam scores. If you genuinely know an exam went badly and the college you named is one you care about, weigh the option carefully, or simply skip naming a free score send recipient for that year.

Can You Get an AP Exam Rescored?

Only in a narrow set of cases. The College Board offers a multiple-choice rescore service, where your answer sheet is rescored by hand, but only for the exams that are still taken on paper: French, German, Italian and Spanish Language and Culture, Spanish Literature and Culture, and Music Theory.

• Fee: $30 per exam, paid by credit card.
• Deadline: the form must be received by October 31 of the year you took the exam.
• Result: your score can go up, go down or stay the same, and the result is final. You get a letter 6 to 8 weeks after the request is received.
• Free-response answers are never rescored, and AP scores cannot be appealed.

You can also order a printed copy of your free-response answers for $10 per exam, by September 15 of the exam year, as long as the questions were publicly released. No scores or comments are included, so this is a study tool, not a path to a higher score. Spoken responses for language exams and sight-singing for Music Theory are not available.

What to Do After You See Your Scores

1. Download your PDF report and keep it with your college documents.
2. Check that every exam you took is listed. Follow up on anything missing after the delayed-score email window, and by August 15 at the latest.
3. If you are a rising senior or incoming freshman, look up the AP credit policy at each college you care about, then send scores where they help.
4. Thank your teachers. They see your scores too, and they care.
5. Use the result to plan next year. If you scored a 2 or 3 and plan to take a related course, look at where the composite fell short.
6. Planning more AP exams? Note that next year's free score send deadline is June 20 again, and decide early which college should get it.

For that last step, our calculators are built for exactly this kind of review. Enter practice test points into the AP Calculus AB, APUSH, AP Biology or AP Lang calculator, or any of the others in AP Exam Scores, and see how many more points you would need for the next score.

A Timeline to Save for Next Year

Frequently Asked Questions

When do 2027 AP scores come out?

The College Board had not announced the date at the time of writing. In 2024, 2025 and 2026 scores opened on a Monday in early July (July 8, July 7 and July 6). Expect something similar in 2027, and check the View Your AP Scores page on the College Board's AP Students site for the confirmed date.

Do AP scores come out at the same time for everyone?

Not exactly. The College Board publishes a release date rather than a single time, and in recent years scores have rolled out in waves through the release day, starting in the morning Eastern time. A classmate seeing scores an hour before you is normal and does not mean anything is wrong.

Can colleges see my AP scores before I do?

Yes, potentially. For 2026, institutions began receiving scores on July 1, while students could view theirs from July 6. If you named a college in your free score send by June 20, it may have your report a few days before you see your scores.

Can I see my AP scores without a College Board account?

No. Scores are only available online through your College Board account, and they are not mailed. Use the same account you used for My AP. If you have lost access, use the account help pages well before release day, because AP Services gets very busy in July.

Does a canceled AP score show up anywhere?

Your own report and your high school's report will list the canceled exam with no score. Colleges and scholarship programs will not see the exam name or score at all. Cancellation is permanent, so a canceled score can never be reinstated.

How much does it cost to send AP scores?

One score send per exam year is free if you choose the recipient by June 20. After that, each additional report costs $15 and is usually available to the college within 24 hours. Withholding a score from a paid send adds $10 per score per recipient.

Related Guides

Compare your result with the official 2026 AP score distributions, see which exams have the most forgiving bar in the AP curve chart, or read our take on the easiest and hardest AP exams before you pick next year's courses.

Sources: College Board, AP Students: "View Your AP Scores" (including archived versions from 2023 to 2026), "Sending AP Scores", "Use Your Free Score Send Before the Deadline", "Cancel Scores", "Withhold Scores", "Multiple-Choice Rescore Service", "About AP Scores", "AP Score Scale Table" and "Special Score Structure" pages; College Board, AP Central, "Accessing AP Higher Education Score Reports". Accessed October 2026.