United States
Hong KongWhat it costs, and what failing costs
USD 49 to Pearson VUE for the examination and USD 50 to TDI for the license application, plus a fingerprinting fee we do not publish. A retake is a fresh registration at the same USD 49. Texas requires no pre-licensing course, so the mandatory cost of qualifying is genuinely small.
This is one of the cheapest professional licensing exams in the United States, and the reason is not generosity. It is that Texas does not make you buy anything before you sit it.
The costs you cannot avoid
| What | Paid to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Examination InsTX-LAH05 | Pearson VUE | USD 49 |
| License application | TDI, filed through Sircon | USD 50 |
| Fingerprinting | TDI's portal | A real cost, not published here |
Two of those three are firm. The fingerprinting fee is set by the vendor TDI uses and we have not verified a current figure, so we are not printing one. Budget for it; do not budget from us.
What a retake costs
A retake is not a discounted resit. It is a fresh examination registration at USD 49, the same as the first one, and you sit all 130 scored questions again. There is no half-paper, because the general and Texas portions are one score.
| Scenario | Exam fees |
|---|---|
| Passed first time | USD 49 |
| Passed on the second attempt | USD 49 plus USD 49 |
| Passed on the third attempt | USD 49 three times over |
With a first-time pass rate of 57.7 percent, the second row is the outcome for roughly four candidates in ten. Budget for it and you will rarely be wrong; budget for the first row alone and you are planning around the better half of a coin flip.
The cost nobody counts
The fee is the small part. The expensive part of failing is the calendar, and it is invisible in a table of dollar amounts.
You lose the appointment. You lose the study block you had scheduled around it. If a carrier is waiting on your license to appoint you, they are waiting longer. And you have to reload material you had already learned once, which is the most demoralizing kind of study there is.
A passing result has to be turned into a filed application within a year or the examination has to be retaken. That is another USD 49 for a paper you already passed, which is the least necessary money anybody spends on this license.
Preparation is optional, which is unusual
Texas requires no pre-licensing education for a General Lines agent license. TDI's page lists three steps: take the exam, get fingerprinted, apply. Every dollar you spend on preparation is a choice, not a compliance cost.
That is not the impression most of the market gives, because most of the market sells courses. We measured four live prices on 6 September 2026.
| Provider | Price |
|---|---|
| Kaplan EssentialPlus | USD 249 |
| America's Professor | USD 199 |
| JustInsurance | USD 199 |
| Elite Training Academy | USD 49.99 |
WebCE, XCEL Solutions, ExamFX and A.D. Banker also sell into this market and were not priced on that pass, so we are not going to characterize what they charge.
The honest concession: those incumbents are larger and older than in any other market this site covers, and a carrier recruiting new agents very often pays for their course outright. If somebody else is buying, the price comparison above is not your comparison, and the right question becomes which material teaches the current outline rather than which is cheapest.
The total, three ways
| Route | Exam and license fees | Preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Self-study from free sources | USD 49 plus USD 50 | Nothing |
| A question bank | USD 49 plus USD 50 | Your choice of provider |
| A full pre-licensing course | USD 49 plus USD 50 | USD 49.99 to USD 249 on the prices we measured |
Fingerprinting sits on top of all three. So does a second USD 49 if the first attempt goes badly.
Where to check before you budget
Our figures were verified on 6 September 2026 against the Pearson VUE candidate handbook and TDI's own licensing page. Fees get amended. Read the current handbook rather than trusting any third party with this, including us, and treat a fee quoted on a course sales page with more suspicion than one on a regulator's.
Common questions
How much does the Texas life and health insurance exam cost?
USD 49, paid to Pearson VUE when you register for exam code InsTX-LAH05. The license application to TDI is a separate USD 50, and fingerprinting costs extra through TDI's portal.
Is a retake cheaper than the first attempt?
No. A retake is a fresh registration at the same USD 49, and you resit the whole 130-question paper because the general and Texas portions are scored as one result.
Do I have to pay for a pre-licensing course?
No. Texas requires no pre-licensing education for this license, so any course is a purchase you chose to make. Course prices we measured on 6 September 2026 ran from USD 49.99 to USD 249.
What does the license application cost?
USD 50 to TDI, filed through Sircon after you pass. It has to be filed within one year of the passing result or the examination has to be retaken at USD 49.
Why does this page not give a fingerprinting fee?
Because we have not verified a current one. Fingerprinting is required and it does cost money, but the figure is set by TDI's vendor and we would rather leave a gap than publish a number nobody here checked.