ERAS application fees are the charges the AAMC bills you for submitting your MyERAS application to residency programs, and for the 2027 season they follow a brand new rate card: $11 for each of your first 30 programs in a specialty, then $30 for every program after that, with the count resetting for each additional specialty you apply to. That is only part of your bill, though. As an international medical graduate you also pay a $185 ECFMG token fee, a $70 FSMB transcript fee and at least $85 to the NRMP before Match Day. With MyERAS submissions opening on 2 September 2026, now is the moment to add up your ERAS application fees and everything that sits around them.
The AAMC states that it "has established a new, simplified residency fee rate and structure, beginning with the 2027 ERAS season, which starts in June 2026." Instead of the older banded pricing, there are now just two rates, and both are counted per specialty:
| Programs per specialty | Application fee |
|---|---|
| 1 to 30 | $11 per program |
| 31 or more | $30 per program |
The important word is "resets". If you apply to two specialties, each one starts again at program number one, so your cheaper $11 band applies twice. The AAMC gives three worked examples on its fee page, and they are worth reading slowly because they show how quickly the numbers move:
Notice that the third example applies to 64 programs for less money than the second example's 50, purely because the applicant split them across two specialties. That is the single most useful thing to understand about ERAS application fees this season.
The curve is flat, then it is not. Programs 31 to 60 in the same specialty cost you almost three times as much per application as programs one to 30.
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Three fixed charges land before a single program sees your name, and none of them are ERAS application fees paid to the AAMC.
First, the ECFMG token. ECFMG confirms a "Token Fee: $185", and 2027 residency tokens became available on 24 June 2026 through MyIntealth. Without a token you cannot register on MyERAS at all, so this is the true starting line.
Second, the USMLE transcript. The FSMB, which took over USMLE services for IMGs, states that "the transcript fee for the 2026-2027 cycle is $70. This is a one-time fee per residency application cycle," and that the same $70 covers sending your transcript to both ERAS and ResidencyCAS. Resending later in the same cycle costs nothing extra.
Third, NRMP registration. Standard registration for the Main Residency Match is $85, and that is what gets you into the R3 system so you can actually rank the programs you interview with.
That $340 is the floor, not the ceiling, and it does not include anything you spend on ECFMG certification itself. Exam fees, Pathways application fees and OET costs sit outside this budget entirely, and we cover that side of the process in our guide to ECFMG certification for IMGs.
Print this, or rebuild it in a spreadsheet with your own program numbers. It puts your ERAS application fees and every surrounding charge in one place.
| Fee | Amount | Charged by | When it is due |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERAS token | $185 | ECFMG | Before you register on MyERAS (tokens released 24 June 2026) |
| USMLE transcript | $70 per cycle | FSMB | When you order the transcript for ERAS |
| COMLEX-USA transcript | $80 per season | AAMC | Only if you have taken COMLEX-USA |
| Programs 1 to 30 per specialty | $11 each | AAMC | On submission, from 2 September 2026 |
| Programs 31 and up per specialty | $30 each | AAMC | On submission |
| NRMP standard registration | $85 | NRMP | Registration opens 15 September 2026 |
| NRMP late registration | $50 extra | NRMP | If you register after 29 January 2027 |
| Extra rank fee | $30 per program code above 20 | NRMP | On rank order list certification |
| Couples' fee | $45 per partner | NRMP | On requesting couple status |
Two lines in that table catch people out every year. The COMLEX-USA transcript fee only applies if you sat that exam, so most IMGs skip it. The extra rank fee, on the other hand, applies to a lot of successful applicants, because interviewing well is exactly what pushes your rank order list past 20 programs.
Take a realistic non-US IMG applying broadly in Internal Medicine. Sixty programs in one specialty works out at (30 × $11) + (30 × $30), which is $330 plus $900, so $1,230 in ERAS application fees. Add the $340 fixed stack and you are at $1,570 before you have attended a single interview. If that season goes well and you rank 26 programs, the NRMP adds 6 × $30, another $180, taking the total to roughly $1,750.
Now change one thing. Split those 60 applications as 40 Internal Medicine and 20 Family Medicine, and the maths becomes [(30 × $11) + (10 × $30)] + (20 × $11), which is $630 plus $220, so $850. Same number of applications, $380 less in ERAS application fees. Whether dual-applying is right for you is a strategy question, not a money question, but you should at least know what the money is doing.
The NRMP bills separately from the AAMC, so none of this appears inside your ERAS application fees, and its fee schedule is where late or last-minute applicants get punished. Standard registration of $85 "includes the listing of up to 20 unique NRMP program codes on the primary rank order list and up to 20 unique NRMP codes on all supplemental rank order lists combined." After that:
NRMP is blunt about the consequences of not paying: "Applicants with outstanding fees will not be able to enter rank order lists or be ranked by programs until all fees have been paid in full," and applicants withdrawn over unpaid fees lose access to the List of Unfilled Programs and cannot take part in SOAP. All Match fees are non-refundable, and the extra rank and list-length fees are charged the moment you certify your list, so a list certified with extra fees cannot be trimmed afterwards to get the money back.
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Under the 2027 ERAS application fees, the marginal cost of your 31st program in a specialty is nearly three times the cost of your 30th. That does not mean you should cap yourself at 30. NRMP's own data show matched IMGs rank far more programs than unmatched ones, and our residency interview prep guide walks through what those numbers mean in practice. It does mean the 31st program onwards should be a program you have a genuine reason to apply to, not filler.
The practical move is to sort your list before you pay, not after. Rank your target programs by how strong your case actually is at each one, using the visa sponsorship history, graduation-year rules and IMG track record covered in our IMG-friendly residency programs guide, and let the $11 band carry your strongest 30 in each specialty.
Strong letters and a clear personal statement do more for your cost-per-match than any of this, which is why our ERAS letters of recommendation guide is worth reading alongside this one.
A structured clinical elective abroad sits outside your ERAS application fees as a separate line in your budget, and it is not a substitute for US clinical experience, as we explain in detail in our US clinical experience for IMGs guide. What it does buy you is a specialty-specific reference letter, real ward experience to talk about at interview, and material for your application that no fee schedule can provide. If you are already planning placement costs, our budget for a clinical placement abroad and funding guide show how students usually cover them.
Planning an elective around the 2027 Match while keeping the total bill under control? travel4med organises structured clinical placements in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bali and Zanzibar with transparent, all-in pricing. Book a free consultation and we will help you slot a placement into your application calendar.
This article was researched and reviewed by the travel4med Editorial Team, who work with international medical students on elective placements every application cycle and check every figure against the primary AAMC, ECFMG, FSMB and NRMP sources listed below.
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