When Do SAT Scores Come Out? 2026 Release Dates

October SAT scores come out on Friday, October 16, 2026: that is College Board's published release date for the October 3 test, and your score appears in your account at studentscores.collegeboard.org. Educator score reports follow on Monday, October 19, so counselors and schools see it a few days after you do. If it is not there on release day, the cause is almost always an account mismatch or a second College Board account, not a lost score (details below). The rest of the calendar is confirmed on the official score release page: November 20 for the November 7 test, December 18 for December 5, and the spring 2027 dates through June.

When do October SAT scores come out?

Scores from the October 3, 2026 SAT release on Friday, October 16, 2026, in students' College Board accounts at studentscores.collegeboard.org, 13 days after the test. Educator score reports follow on Monday, October 19, 2026. The previous administration followed the same pattern: September 12 scores were released on September 25, with educator reports on September 28.

Scores release October 16: what to do when they arrive

College Board commits to a date, not a time, and scores roll out over the morning rather than all at once. Here is the short version of what to do on release day, in order:

1. Check your score at studentscores.collegeboard.org. Sign in with the College Board account you registered with. Your newest score sits at the top of the page with the total (400-1600) and the two section scores. Do not wait for an email; the account is the source of truth. Counselors and schools get access a few days later (October 19 for the October 3 test), so your account will show the score before your school does.
2. If your score is not showing, work through College Board's three listed causes. Their getting-scores page names them directly: (a) incorrect account information, which you fix with the Find Your Scores tool by checking and updating your address or school; (b) multiple College Board accounts, where you, a parent, or a counselor created a second account and the score landed in that one; (c) archived scores, which only applies to old tests and requires calling or mailing College Board and paying a processing fee. College Board's guidance is that most scores are available on release day, not all, so a small number of tests that need extra review land afterward. Give it a few business days before you contact them, unless a deadline is close.
3. Sort out your score sends. The nine-day window to add or change your four free sends for the October 3 test closes on October 12, so set or fix them before then and they go out automatically at release. Anything you add after that is an additional report at $15 each (free with a fee waiver), and rush reporting (a $31 fee on top of the report fee, delivered within one to four business days, not counting weekends and holidays) is only available once a score has been released.
4. Decide about a retake against the calendar. Regular registration for the November 7 test closes on October 23, a week after the October 16 release, so you can decide with your October score in hand. November 7 scores release November 20, which is too late for most November 1 early deadlines but workable for later ones, and December 5 (register by November 20, scores December 18) is the last date before the three-month gap to March 6, 2027. An October 3 score released October 16 is in time for November 1 deadlines with standard sending.

2026-27 SAT test dates and score release dates

College Board publishes test dates, registration deadlines, and score release dates on the SAT Suite site. Here is what is confirmed on College Board's score release and dates pages as of October 9, 2026. Registration for the August, September, and October tests has closed, so those rows show only the release dates:

Test date	Registration deadline	Changes/cancellation deadline	Student score release	Educator release
Saturday, August 22, 2026	Closed	Closed	Released Friday, September 4, 2026	September 8, 2026
Saturday, September 12, 2026	Closed	Closed	Released Friday, September 25, 2026	September 28, 2026
Saturday, October 3, 2026	Closed	Closed	Next: Friday, October 16, 2026	October 19, 2026
Saturday, November 7, 2026	October 23, 2026	October 27, 2026	Friday, November 20, 2026	November 23, 2026
Saturday, December 5, 2026	November 20, 2026	November 24, 2026	Friday, December 18, 2026	December 21, 2026
Saturday, March 6, 2027	February 19, 2027	February 23, 2027	Friday, March 19, 2027	March 22, 2027
Saturday, May 1, 2027	April 16, 2027	April 20, 2027	Friday, May 14, 2027	May 17, 2027
Saturday, June 5, 2027	May 21, 2027	May 25, 2027	Monday, June 21, 2027	June 21, 2027

A few things to notice:

• Every published release through May 2027 is 13 days after the test, on a Friday. That is the current pattern for the digital SAT. June 5, 2027 is the one exception on the official page, listed for Monday, June 21. College Board's general guidance is that "most scores from weekend tests are released 2-4 weeks after test day," so the two-week turnaround is the norm, not a guarantee.
• Educators get scores a few days after students. College Board's educator release dates are October 19, November 23, and December 21 for the remaining fall tests, and March 22, May 17, and June 21 for spring 2027, so your own account is always the first place a score appears.
• Spring 2027 release dates are now on the official page. Check satsuite.collegeboard.org/scores/score-release-dates before you plan around a specific day, since College Board can revise a date.
• The next open registration is for November 7. Regular registration closes October 23, 2026, with changes and cancellations until October 27. Late registration is available worldwide for an extra fee (currently $38 on top of the $68 registration fee). The deadlines above are the regular ones, and all of them expire at 11:59 p.m. ET.

What time do SAT scores come out?

College Board commits to a date, not a time. In practice, the pattern from recent release days is that scores begin appearing in the morning, Eastern Time, and release-day reports commonly put the first batch around 8 a.m. ET. Treat that as a historical pattern rather than a promise. Two practical notes:

• Scores roll out, they do not all flip at once. A blank score page at 8:15 a.m. is not a problem.
• Release-day traffic is heavy. Slow loading and sign-in hiccups are normal for the first hour or two. Refresh later rather than repeatedly hammering the page.

How to check your SAT score

Scores are delivered online through your College Board account, the same one you used to register.

1. Go to studentscores.collegeboard.org and sign in with your College Board username and password.
2. Your most recent score appears at the top of the page, with your total score (400-1600) and your two section scores for Reading and Writing and Math.
3. Select See Score Details for percentiles, the college and career readiness benchmarks, and a breakdown by content domain. The domain breakdown is the most useful part if you are considering a retake, because it tells you where the points actually went.

College Board may email you when a score is ready, but the account itself is the source of truth, so check it directly on release day.

What to do if your score is missing

A missing score on release day almost always means delayed, not lost. Work through these in order:

• Check for a second College Board account. This is the most common cause. Students, parents, and counselors sometimes create separate accounts with different emails, and the score lands in the one tied to your registration. College Board's "Find Your Scores" tool and help center can match your test to the right account.
• Check your account information with Find Your Scores. College Board's own fix is the Find Your Scores tool (findyourscores.collegeboard.org): check your account information and update your address or school if needed. A mismatch can hold a score until it is matched.
• Wait a few days. Scores that need extra review, tests affected by a testing irregularity at your center, and makeup administrations can land later than the published date.
• Contact College Board through the SAT Suite contact page if your score still has not appeared roughly a week after the release date, or sooner if you have an application deadline.

Score sends: free sends, fees, and timing

• Four free score sends per registration. You can choose up to four recipients when you register and change or add them until nine days after the test date. Free sends go out automatically once scores are released, which means you are choosing recipients before you know your score.
• Additional reports cost $15 each after the nine-day window. Students with an SAT fee waiver can send unlimited reports at no charge.
• Rush reporting adds a $31 fee per order on top of the per-report charge and gets reports to colleges within one to four business days, not counting weekends and holidays. Standard reports arrive within 5-10 business days of the order (or a couple of weeks after test day for recipients chosen at registration), and each college then needs time to process what it receives. If a deadline is close, rush reporting is the lever; if it is not, standard delivery is fine.
• Colleges see scores only after College Board releases them to you. A college could not receive your October 3 score before October 16, so a free send chosen at registration arrives in the second half of October.

For early action and early decision deadlines in November, this timing matters. An October 3 test releases October 16, which leaves comfortable room for November 1 deadlines with standard sending. A November 7 test releases November 20, which is too late for most November 1 deadlines and tight for November 15 ones, even with rush reporting. Check each college's policy on the latest test date it accepts.

Should you retake the SAT?

The two-week release gap usually lets you see one score before the next registration deadline closes, and this time it does: October 3 scores land October 16, a week before regular registration for November 7 closes on October 23, so an October tester can decide with the score in hand. Here is the framework:

• Look at the domain breakdown first, not the total. If Math is 80 points behind Reading and Writing and the loss is concentrated in two content domains, that is a fixable gap. If the points are spread evenly across everything, you are looking at a longer prep cycle.
• Compare against the middle 50% of your target schools, which every college publishes. Being inside that range is the goal; being at the top of it is a bonus that rarely changes a decision on its own.
• Retake when you have time to change something. Many colleges superscore (they combine your best section scores across dates), so at those schools a retake rarely hurts, but retaking with no new preparation mostly reproduces the same score. Four to six weeks of targeted practice is the minimum that moves a section meaningfully.
• Respect the spring 2027 deadlines. After December 5, the next SAT is March 6, 2027 (scores March 19), a three-month gap. Seniors applying regular decision should treat the December test as their last shot for most schools.

Plan the retake with a schedule, not a vibe

If you decide to test again, the difference between a 30-point bump and a 100-point bump is usually whether the prep was targeted. Two tools help:

• Put the test date and your weak domains into the free study schedule generator. It turns "I have four weeks until November 7" into a week-by-week plan that front-loads the domains where you lost the most points and tapers into full-length practice.
• Turn your own materials into practice. Upload your prep book chapters, class notes, or a PDF of missed-question explanations and use the practice test generator to build timed quizzes from them, or the flashcard maker for grammar rules, vocabulary in context, and math formulas you keep blanking on. Questions built from the material you are actually studying beat generic drills because they hit your gaps, not someone else's.

Scholarly is built around that idea: you bring the sources, and it makes flashcards, quizzes, study guides, and an AI chat grounded in those sources, so the four weeks before your retake are spent on active practice instead of rereading.

SAT score release: quick FAQ

When do October 2026 SAT scores come out? Friday, October 16, 2026, for the October 3 test, in your College Board account at studentscores.collegeboard.org, with educator reports following October 19. If yours is missing on release day, check for a second account or an account-information mismatch first.

Are September 2026 SAT scores out? Yes. Scores from the September 12 test were released on September 25, 2026, with educator reports on September 28.

When is the next SAT score release after October? November 7 scores release Friday, November 20, 2026, and December 5 scores release Friday, December 18, 2026.

How long after the SAT do scores come out? About two weeks for every published 2026-27 date through May 2027 (13 days, on a Friday); June 5, 2027 scores are listed for Monday, June 21. College Board's official language is 2-4 weeks.

What time are SAT scores released? No official time. Historically scores begin appearing in the morning Eastern Time, often around 8 a.m. ET, and roll out over several hours.

Are the March, May, and June 2027 release dates known? Yes. College Board's score release page lists March 19, 2027 for the March 6 test, May 14, 2027 for May 1, and June 21, 2027 for June 5. Check satsuite.collegeboard.org/scores/score-release-dates before planning around a specific day.

The bottom line

October 3 SAT scores come out Friday, October 16, 2026, and every remaining fall 2026 date releases 13 days after the test on a Friday: October 16, November 20, and December 18. Sign in at studentscores.collegeboard.org, read the domain breakdown before you read the total, and make a real retake decision against the November 7 and December 5 dates rather than by reflex. If you do test again, build a study schedule around the domains where you lost points and practice with questions from your own materials rather than rereading. If you are an international applicant also waiting on an English test, our guide to when TOEFL scores come out covers that timeline.