BrokerExamRIBO’s fees page, read again on September 3, 2026, puts the Level 1 exam at $325 per attempt and the individual broker licence at $240 for the licensing year ending September 30, 2026, rising to $265 for the year beginning October 1, 2026. The exam fee moved from $300 to $325 on January 1, 2026, which RIBO announced in its Upcoming Licensing Exam and Fee Update. Every fee on RIBO’s fees page is in Canadian dollars, and the exam fee is paid to the exam provider rather than to RIBO.
The exam: $325 per attempt
RIBO’s fee update, posted August 6, 2025, is where the change was announced:
Starting January 1, 2026, the fee for all RIBO licensing exams will change from $300 to $325. Exams scheduled on or after will reflect the new rate. It applies universally, regardless of the exam provider or whether the exam is written online or in-person.
RIBO’s fees page carries the same $325 and adds who collects it: “Fees are payable directly to the exam provider and are subject to the provider’s terms and conditions.” There are two approved providers, so which one you register with decides who takes the payment and whose refund policy applies, but not the price.
A rewrite costs a fresh $325, and RIBO’s Exam Rules add one way to lose the money without a result: rule 2.15 says an examination found to be null and void forfeits the examination fee automatically. The rules on when you may rewrite are set out in what to do after failing the RIBO Level 1.
The licence renews every year
The licence fee recurs annually rather than buying a permanent licence. The fees page sets out the cycle: “All RIBO licences run from October 1 to September 30 and must be renewed prior to expiry.”
For an individual licence, as the page stood on September 3, 2026:
| Licensing year | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026 | $240 |
| October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027 | $265 |
Payment is online by credit card, and the page names Mastercard, Visa and American Express as the cards accepted.
Applying between July 1 and September 30
There is one window where the first payment is larger than the annual fee, and the fees page sets out how it is worked out. An application submitted July 1 to September 30 pays two things, and the page lists them under one heading:
The total fee will include:
- A partial-year fee for the remainder of the current licensing year (set at 50% of the annual fee, currently $120), and
- The full annual licence fee for the upcoming licensing year ($265, effective October 1, 2026).
In the 2026 window that comes to $385 in licence fees, against $240 for an application filed earlier in the same licensing year, and it buys the last quarter of one licensing year plus all of the next. File outside the window and the annual fee for that licensing year is the whole of it.
Firm licences are separate and are the brokerage’s charge, not yours: $600 for an active firm for the year ending September 30, 2026, and $650 for the year beginning October 1, 2026.
What neither fee covers
RIBO does not sell a course and does not include one. Its exam page says so directly, and the two organizations it names instead price their own material; what each publishes on format, length and price is compared in RIBO Level 1 prep courses.
Study material is the other line nobody quotes you. Everything RIBO publishes for the exam is free to download, which is the subject of what to study for the RIBO Level 1 exam, and this site’s own pricing page says what it charges on top of that.
Refunds sit with whoever took the money. The fees page says RIBO’s own fees are “non-refundable once any licence has been issued or services have been rendered”, with a full refund only where payment was made and no licence issued. For the exam it points elsewhere: “Refunds related to examinations are governed by the exam provider’s refund policy and are not administered by RIBO.”
Adding it up, and when to re-check
A first licence taken out in, say, November 2026 costs $325 for one sitting of the exam plus $265 for the licensing year, so $590 if you pass first time. A second sitting adds $325. Those are the two numbers RIBO publishes; a course, if you take one, is priced by whoever sells it.
Every figure above was read from RIBO’s own pages on September 3, 2026, and the exam fee and the licence fee both move on notice. RIBO changed the exam fee on January 1, 2026 and changes the licence fee on October 1, 2026, and published each on ribo.com before it took effect. So check the fees page on the day you pay. A fee quoted anywhere else, this page included, was true on the day it was written.