CIRO Exam Fees: What You'll Actually Pay in 2026

The $475 is the easy part. Every CIRO exam costs the same, so budgeting looks like a two-second job — count your exams, multiply, done.

Then you find out what the $475 actually buys. One attempt, not three. Quoted before tax. And if you miss your exam by an hour, you lose the fee and burn one of your attempts.

None of this is hidden. It sits in two policy PDFs on Fitch Learning's support site, which is not where anyone thinks to look when they're trying to work out whether they can afford to get licensed. Here is the whole picture.

The short version: $475 for your first attempt, $300 for each retake, same price across all nine exams, and both figures are before tax. Enrolment lasts 12 months and covers up to three attempts, each paid separately. Three fails or no-shows inside six months triggers a six-month lockout, after which you pay the $475 again. A straight path to a retail advisor licence is $950 before tax. Study materials are free.

Every CIRO exam costs the same

There's no premium tier and no discount for the shorter papers. The Director and Executive Exam is 75 questions; the Retail Securities Exam is 120. Both cost $475.

Fees from CIRO's Fees, Payments and Refunds Policy, version 2, issued April 2026 — CIRO sets them, Fitch Learning collects them. Question counts and durations from CIRO's published syllabus for each exam.

What $475 actually buys

One attempt. The policy is unambiguous: "The Enrolment Fee allows a Candidate one Exam Attempt. Further attempts will require the payment of a Retake Fee."

What enrolment gives you is a 12-month window in which up to three attempts are allowed. The window is the thing you're buying; the attempts inside it are priced separately.

Two more rules sit on top. Your enrolment dies when the 12 months expire or when you've used all three attempts, whichever lands first — and continuing after that means a new $475. And enrolments aren't transferable, not to another person and not to a different exam. Book the RSE when you meant the ISE and the money is gone.

The three charges nobody budgets for

1. Tax. The policy says "unless otherwise specified, all fees presented in this policy are subject to applicable taxes." The $475 is pre-tax, and your card gets charged sales tax on top at your province's rate.

On a CIRE-plus-RSE path that's another $124 in Ontario on top of the $950. It never makes the spreadsheet, because the round number is the one everybody quotes.

2. The 36-hour rule. You can reschedule free, as many times as you like, provided you do it at least 36 hours before your sitting. Inside 36 hours there is no mechanism at all. You get an absent result, recorded as a failed attempt, and no refund. So a missed alarm costs $475 and moves you a third of the way to a lockout.

3. The cooling-off period. Three failed or absent results inside six months and you're locked out of that exam for six months — no enrolling, no scheduling, no sitting. When it lifts, you're starting a new enrolment period, so the next attempt is the $475 enrolment fee rather than the $300 retake.

Worth sitting with that last one. Three fails costs $1,075. Three fails plus the lockout plus a fresh enrolment costs $1,550 before tax — and parks your registration for six months while your firm waits.

What a licence costs end to end

Assuming you pass each exam on the first try:

That's the entire bill. No course is required, nothing is bundled, and nobody charges you for a textbook you have to buy first. If you're not sure which row is yours, the decision map is here.

What CIRO gives you free

For all nine exams, CIRO publishes a syllabus, a study guide and a practice exam, and charges nothing for any of them. CIRO's own wording on the model: it "does not require preparatory courses."

They're also clear that they don't endorse anybody: "you can look for education providers who may be offering relevant education, courses, or other resources to help you prepare. Please note that we do not provide a list."

Start with the free material. It's the only document written by the people who write the exam, and the syllabus tells you the element weights — which is the single most useful thing you can know before you plan a week of study.

Can you get a refund?

Almost never, and it's worth knowing the shape of it before you book rather than after.

A refund is only considered when you haven't sat the exam, you can't reschedule inside your enrolment period, and you can document one of:

• unexpected personal illness, injury or incapacitation, with a medical certificate
• unexpected family illness or injury requiring your care
• the death of an immediate family member during your enrolment period

There's one other door: if you paid in error and tell Fitch Learning within 24 hours, they'll look at it.

Everything else is final. Absences are explicitly excluded. Refunds are never granted once the exam has been taken, approved ones take up to 28 days, and the policy states that decisions on refunds are final. Payment is credit card only through the enrolment portal — no other method or channel exists.

There's one more way to lose the money, and it catches people sitting the exam at home. If you test in a room without a door — an open-plan space, a studio — Fitch Learning's rule is that you must guarantee nobody else comes in. Their wording: "If a person or animal enters your testing environment during your exam, your exam will be terminated. If your exam is terminated, you will forfeit your entire exam fee, and you will not be issued with a result."

A housemate looking for the kettle, or a cat, ends your $475. The single mercy is that it doesn't count as an attempt, so your three stay intact. If you don't have a room that shuts, book a test centre.

Cheaper than the system it replaced

For context on whether $950 is a lot, here's what the same licence cost before January 2026.

The CSC and CPH together ran $1,639 to $2,079 at CSI's list prices, with the WME adding $1,111. The 2026 model costs roughly a third of that and drops the mandatory coursework entirely. What it takes in exchange is that you now have to clear the RSE before you can advise anyone, rather than within 30 months of starting.

Where to go from here

1. Work out which exams you need — the decision map covers all nine and the role each one belongs to. Getting this right is worth $475, because enrolments don't transfer between exams.
2. Download CIRO's free syllabus and practice exam from the exam hub before you spend anything. The element weights alone will reshape your study plan.
3. Find out where you stand with a free CIRE readiness check — 25 blueprint-weighted questions, about 15 minutes, no account. There's one for the RSE and the ISE too.
4. Then decide what preparation is worth. EnCiro's CIRE prep is 12,000+ exam-style questions with explanations, tracked element by element, with a free tier. The honest framing: the exam fee is fixed at $475, so the only variable you control is how likely you are to pay it once.

FAQ

How much does a CIRO exam cost?

$475 CAD for your first attempt and $300 for each retake, and it's the same price for all nine exams — CIRE, RSE, ISE, Derivatives, Supervisor, Director and Executive, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Trader. Both figures come from CIRO's Fees, Payments and Refunds Policy, and both are quoted before applicable taxes.

Is the $475 CIRO exam fee before or after tax?

Before. CIRO's fee policy states that unless otherwise specified, all fees in it are subject to applicable taxes. Your card is charged $475 plus the sales tax for your province, so one exam lands at $498.75 in Alberta, $536.75 in Ontario, $541.50 in Nova Scotia and $546.25 in New Brunswick, Newfoundland or PEI.

Does the $475 cover three attempts?

No, and this is the most common misreading. Enrolment gives you the right to schedule up to three attempts inside a 12-month window, but each attempt carries its own fee. The $475 enrolment fee covers attempt one. Attempts two and three are $300 each, so three attempts at one exam comes to $1,075 before tax.

What happens if I miss my CIRO exam?

You can reschedule free of charge up to 36 hours before your exam, and it won't count as an attempt. Miss that window and you get an absent result, which is recorded as a failed attempt, and no refund is given. A no-show therefore costs you the fee and one of your three attempts.

What is the CIRO cooling-off period?

Six months. If you record three failed or absent results within a six-month period, you cannot enrol, schedule or attempt that exam until the six months have passed. After it ends you start a fresh enrolment period, which means paying the $475 enrolment fee again rather than the $300 retake fee.

How much does it cost to get licensed with CIRO?

If you pass everything first time: $475 for an Investment Representative (CIRE only), $950 for a retail advisor (CIRE + RSE) and $950 for an institutional role (CIRE + ISE). Adding the Derivatives Exam puts another $475 on top. There are no mandatory course fees, so those numbers are the whole bill before tax.

Can I get a refund on a CIRO exam?

Rarely. Refunds are only considered if you haven't sat the exam, can't reschedule it inside your enrolment period, and can document unexpected personal illness or injury, family illness requiring your care, or the death of an immediate family member. The one other route is paying in error and telling Fitch Learning within 24 hours. Approved refunds are issued within 28 days, and absences are never refundable.

Do I have to pay for CIRO study materials?

No. CIRO publishes the syllabus, a study guide and a practice exam for every one of the nine exams at no cost, and the 2026 proficiency model requires no preparatory course. Any money you spend on preparation is your choice, not a requirement.

How long is a CIRO exam enrolment valid?

Twelve months from the date you enrol, with up to three attempts inside it. If the 12 months run out or you use all three attempts, continuing means paying a new $475 enrolment fee to open a fresh period.

Sources

• Fitch Learning — Fees, Payments and Refunds Policy (CIRO Proficiency Program policy 1013, v2, issued April 2026) — the $475 enrolment fee, the $300 retake fee, the tax clause, the 36-hour rescheduling rule, and the refund conditions
• Fitch Learning — Exam Enrolment and Attempts Policy (v1, issued January 2026) — the 12-month enrolment period, three attempts, and the six-month cooling-off period
• Fitch Learning — remote exam environment requirements — termination and fee forfeiture when someone enters your testing space
• CIRO — Exam Hub — the nine exams, free syllabi, study guides and practice exams, and CIRO's statement that no preparatory course is required
• CSI — course enrolment pages — the CSC, CPH and WME list prices used in the comparison, accessed October 2026