Free, cheap or expensive: what visitors pay for HIV and STI tests

Whether a traveller pays nothing or a few hundred dollars depends on the country and the clinic. What official sources and clinic price lists said when we checked.

“Is it free?” has a different answer in almost every country, and the answer for residents is often not the answer for you. These examples come from official pages and clinics’ own price lists, each checked on 18 September 2026. Treat them as a guide to the pattern, and confirm before you go.

Free for everyone, visitors included

• England. The UK government’s guidance on NHS entitlements says services for diagnosing and treating sexually transmitted infections are free to all overseas visitors. That is why clinics like 56 Dean Street can see you without charge. (GOV.UK) Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own rules.
• Melbourne. Melbourne Sexual Health Centre states that all its on-site services are free, including for international visitors without Medicare. (MSHC)
• Toronto. The City of Toronto says its sexual health clinics are free and can be used without an Ontario health card. (City of Toronto)

Free for locals, paid for visitors

• Thailand. Free HIV tests at many community clinics are for Thai nationals. Visitors pay, but the prices are modest and often published: a rapid HIV test is listed from 300 THB at Tangerine in Bangkok.
• Hong Kong. Government Social Hygiene Clinics see people without a Hong Kong identity card as paying patients: the official fee is HK$850 per attendance, with tests and medicines charged on top. (Department of Health)

Small fees for everyone

Community “checkpoints” in continental Europe often charge a low flat fee regardless of who you are. Mann-O-Meter in Berlin lists rapid HIV tests from €10, and Checkpoint BLN quotes €5–25 depending on the tests, free for people on a low income.

Sliding scales and “ask us”

In the United States, care is rarely free for visitors and prices are rarely published. New York’s city-run Sexual Health Clinics charge a sliding-scale fee and say you can still be seen if you can’t pay, regardless of immigration status (NYC Health), but no amount is listed. Expect to be asked about income, and ask for the self-pay price up front.

Four things that change the bill

1. The consultation. Often charged separately from the tests. Ask for the total.
2. Which tests. A rapid HIV test is cheap; a full panel with throat and rectal swabs costs more.
3. Medication. Treatment, PEP and PrEP are usually priced separately, and PEP can be expensive without local cover. Cost should never delay PEP; see the urgent page.
4. Who you are on paper. Resident, insured, under a certain age, low income, visitor: many clinics have a different price for each. On our listings every price says who it applies to.

How we show cost

On every clinic page, prices are listed per service and per who-pays, in local currency, with the source and the date we checked. When a clinic doesn’t publish its prices, the listing says “Ask about prices before your visit.” We only ever show a service as free when the clinic or an official source says it is free: a missing price is not a free service.

Where To Test is a directory, not a clinical service. Rules and prices change; every figure here links to its source and the date we checked. Spotted something out of date? Use “Something wrong? Tell us” on any clinic page.