A standard STD test costs anywhere from $0 to $300 or more, depending on where you go, what infections you test for, and whether you have insurance. If you have health insurance, several common screenings are fully covered with no out-of-pocket cost under federal law. Without insurance, you can pay as little as nothing at a public health clinic or upwards of $150 to $280 for a comprehensive panel at a commercial lab.
What Insurance Covers at No Cost
The Affordable Care Act requires most health insurance plans to cover certain STD screenings without charging you a copay, deductible, or coinsurance. The catch is that these mandates apply to specific groups based on age, sex, and risk level, not to everyone across the board.
Chlamydia and gonorrhea screening is covered at no cost for sexually active women age 24 and younger, and for older women at increased risk. Syphilis screening is covered for anyone (including men) at increased risk and for all pregnant women. HPV testing is covered as part of cervical cancer screening for women aged 30 to 65. HIV screening is also covered as a preventive service for adolescents and adults ages 15 to 65.
If you fall outside these categories, your insurance may still cover testing, but you could owe a copay or have the cost applied to your deductible. It’s worth calling the number on your insurance card and asking specifically whether the tests you want count as preventive care for your situation.
Commercial Lab Pricing Without Insurance
If you’re paying out of pocket, national labs like Quest Health offer direct-to-consumer testing with transparent pricing. A basic STD screening panel that covers the most common infections runs about $149, plus a $6 physician service fee. An expanded panel that adds more infections costs around $282. Individual tests are available too: an HSV (herpes) 1 and 2 blood test is about $105, a trichomoniasis test is $79, and a mycoplasma genitalium test is $85.
These prices include the lab work but not treatment if you test positive. You order the test online, visit a local lab location for a blood draw or urine sample, and get results digitally within a few days.
At-Home Test Kit Prices
Home testing kits let you collect your own samples (usually a finger prick, urine sample, or vaginal swab) and mail them to a lab. Prices for panels that cover around five infections cluster in the $149 to $220 range. Everlywell’s five-infection panel costs about $169, LetsGetChecked’s comparable kit is around $149, and Nurx’s full panel runs $220 plus a $14.50 service fee without insurance.
Home kits are convenient and private, but they do have limitations. They test for fewer infections than a clinic visit typically would, and if something comes back positive, you’ll still need to see a provider for treatment, which is a separate cost.
Free and Low-Cost Clinic Options
Public health departments in most cities and counties offer STD testing at no charge or on a sliding scale. Chicago’s Department of Public Health, for example, provides STI clinic services regardless of ability to pay or insurance status. Organizations like Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C., offer free HIV testing, counseling, and referrals. Salt Lake County’s health clinic charges $40 for syphilis testing, $50 for an HIV blood test, and $60 to $80 for herpes testing, but provides free rapid HIV tests to high-risk individuals while grant funding lasts.
Planned Parenthood uses a sliding scale for uninsured patients, calculating your fee based on household size and monthly income. Lab fees are included in their listed prices, though medication for treatment is separate. The amount you pay can range from very little to their standard rate depending on your income bracket.
To find free testing near you, search “free STD testing” plus your city or zip code, or use the CDC’s GetTested locator tool.
Costs That Catch People Off Guard
The sticker price of a test doesn’t always reflect the full bill. At a doctor’s office, you may be charged an office visit fee on top of the lab work. If your provider orders tests through an outside lab, that lab may bill you separately. Even with insurance, if your doctor codes the visit as diagnostic (you have symptoms) rather than preventive (routine screening), your plan may not cover it at the zero-cost preventive rate.
Treatment is another cost to plan for. Free clinics that offer no-cost testing often note that a positive result triggers a medical evaluation and treatment, which is a billable service. Whitman-Walker Health, for instance, provides free testing but refers positive results to a clinic visit that can be processed through insurance or financial assistance programs.
How Test Type Affects Price
The type of test your provider uses also influences cost. Rapid point-of-care tests for HIV or syphilis give results in minutes and tend to be cheaper. At Salt Lake County’s clinic, a rapid syphilis test and a standard blood-drawn syphilis test both cost $40, but the rapid HIV test is free while the lab-based HIV blood test is $50.
Herpes testing shows a bigger price gap depending on method. A PCR swab test, which detects the virus directly from an active sore, costs around $80. An antibody blood test, which checks whether your immune system has responded to a past infection, runs about $60. PCR is more accurate for active outbreaks, while blood tests are better for screening when no symptoms are present.
Urine-based tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea are standard and relatively inexpensive when bundled into a panel. Testing for less common infections like mycoplasma genitalium or bacterial vaginosis adds cost, with individual tests ranging from $85 to $179 at commercial labs.
What Most People Actually Need
A basic panel covering chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV is the standard starting point for routine screening and typically the most affordable option. Adding herpes, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or trichomoniasis increases the price but may be appropriate depending on your risk factors and sexual history. If you’re unsure which tests to get, a basic four-infection panel in the $50 to $150 range covers the infections that public health guidelines prioritize most.