How Much It Really Costs
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How much does it cost to get an Italian driving licence?

The state charges EUR 58.40 in compulsory payments for an Italian category B licence. The real bill is the driving school's: city averages measured by the consumer body Altroconsumo run from EUR 695 in Rome to EUR 1,061 in Bologna, and extra driving hours push it past EUR 1,300.

Verifiable answer

The state charges EUR 58.40 in compulsory payments for an Italian category B licence. The real bill is the driving school's: city averages measured by the consumer body Altroconsumo run from EUR 695 in Rome to EUR 1,061 in Bologna, and extra driving hours push it past EUR 1,300.

Question
How much does it cost to get an Italian driving licence?
Average cost
€880 / course
Price range
€695 – €1,400
Area
Italy
Last verified
22 July 2026
Confidence
Confidence: Limited
What is included
The EUR 42.40 payment for the theory test, tariff N067; The EUR 16.00 payment for the driving test, tariff N019; Enrolment and theory classes, on the driving school route; The compulsory certified driving hours with an instructor in a dual-control car; The school's assistance with paperwork and exam bookings
What is not included
Driving hours beyond the compulsory minimum; Retaking a failed test, which nearly every school bills separately; The medical fitness examination, where it is not part of the package; Photographs and duty stamps on related paperwork; Insurance and access to a car to practise in while holding the provisional licence
What the price depends on
Which driving school you choose, which matters more than which city you live in; How many driving hours you need beyond the compulsory minimum; Whether you go through a school or apply as a private candidate; Whether you pass both tests first time; The actual length of a single driving lesson; Your region, for the administrative side in territories with their own tariff
Sources and methodology
2 sources

Official price versus real cost

Official price

€58

/ course

Difference+€822 (+1407%)

Real cost

€880

€695 – €1,400

Here the gap between official price and real cost is not twenty per cent, as with a passport: it is fifteenfold. The state collects EUR 58.40 and collects it identically from everyone; the rest of the bill, somewhere between EUR 695 and EUR 1,400, is the price of a private service in a market that has had no mandatory minimum fees since 2012. There is nothing irregular about that, but it changes entirely where savings are to be found: comparing state payments means examining two or three per cent of the spend, while comparing three driving schools in your own city means examining the part actually worth hundreds of euros.

Short answer

The public part of an Italian driving licence costs under sixty euros and is the same for everyone. Everything else is an open market, and two schools in the same city can differ by six hundred euros for an identical service.

The Italian category B licence is where the gap between official price and real cost is widest in our whole catalogue, for a simple reason: the state sells only a small part of the product. There are two compulsory payments, they come to EUR 58.40 in total, and they are the same for everyone, from a private candidate studying alone to a student at the most expensive school in town. Everything else — enrolment, theory classes, driving hours, the medical, help with the paperwork — is a private service at a free price, and free prices in Italy behave as you would expect: they vary enormously. Altroconsumo's survey of 146 driving schools across nine cities found an average of EUR 695 in Rome and EUR 1,061 in Bologna for the same package, and differences of up to EUR 615 between two schools in the same city. That figure is worth reading twice: which school you pick moves the final bill more than which city you live in.

What is included

  • The EUR 42.40 payment for the theory test, tariff N067
  • The EUR 16.00 payment for the driving test, tariff N019
  • Enrolment and theory classes, on the driving school route
  • The compulsory certified driving hours with an instructor in a dual-control car
  • The school's assistance with paperwork and exam bookings

What is not included

  • Driving hours beyond the compulsory minimum
  • Retaking a failed test, which nearly every school bills separately
  • The medical fitness examination, where it is not part of the package
  • Photographs and duty stamps on related paperwork
  • Insurance and access to a car to practise in while holding the provisional licence

How the price breaks down

How the price breaks down: Getting an Italian category B driving licence
ItemTypeFrequencyMinimumTypicalMaximum
Payment for the theory test (tariff N067)Paid through the PagoPA platform and made up of EUR 26.40 in motoring agency fees and EUR 16.00 in duty. It is owed by private candidates too.Compulsoryone-off—€42—
Payment for the driving test (tariff N019)Duty payable when the practical test is booked. It is submitted together with the certificate of attendance at the driving course.Compulsoryone-off—€16—
Driving school package, city averageThe band between the lowest and highest city averages measured by the Italian consumer body Altroconsumo across nine cities. It covers enrolment, exam registration and the six certified driving hours, so the state payments listed above are already inside it.Optionalone-off€695€695€1,061
Spread between schools in the same cityThe measured gap between the dearest and the cheapest driving school within a single city, worth 35 to 70 per cent of the price. It is not a line you pay: it is what you can save, or waste, by not comparing.Optionalone-off€240€240€615
Driving hours beyond the compulsory minimumThe compulsory certified hours are a floor, not a realistic requirement: almost nobody reaches the test ready on those alone. Each extra hour is charged at the individual school's rate. A stated estimate, not a measured price.Optionalone-off€0€0€400

What the price depends on

  • Which driving school you choose, which matters more than which city you live in
  • How many driving hours you need beyond the compulsory minimum
  • Whether you go through a school or apply as a private candidate
  • Whether you pass both tests first time
  • The actual length of a single driving lesson
  • Your region, for the administrative side in territories with their own tariff

Hidden costs

  • Extra driving hours: the single biggest mover of the final bill, and never in the quoted price
  • Failing a test: on top of retaking it, most schools charge a re-presentation fee
  • Expiry of the provisional licence, which forces part of the course and the payments to be repeated
  • Packages that state a number of lessons but not their length: a forty-five minute lesson costs the same as an hour
  • Administrative and file-handling charges added at enrolment and absent from the advertised price

Three realistic scenarios

Economy scenario

€695

A school in one of the cheaper cities surveyed, a basic package with only the compulsory driving hours, and both tests passed first time with no re-presentation charges.

Typical scenario

€880

A mid-range school, a few driving hours above the minimum because the minimum is rarely enough, and both tests passed without retakes. This is the midpoint between the cheapest and dearest cities in the survey.

Premium scenario

€1,400

A school at the top of the range in an expensive city, ten driving hours beyond the minimum, one failed practical test with the associated re-presentation charge, and a medical paid for separately.

How to spend less

  1. Get at least three written quotes within the same city: Altroconsumo measured differences of up to EUR 615 for the same package, more than the gap between the dearest and cheapest cities.
  2. Ask how long a driving lesson lasts in minutes, not how many lessons you get: it is the variable that makes two apparently identical quotes incomparable.
  3. Ask in advance what an additional driving hour costs and what a retake costs: these two figures decide the final bill and almost nobody compares them at enrolment.
  4. Consider the private-candidate route if you have someone who can supervise your practice: the state payments are identical either way and are the only genuinely fixed part.
  5. Do not enrol before you have the medical fitness certificate: if any condition emerges the route changes, and some prepaid packages are non-refundable.
  6. Check whether your region uses its own tariff schedule: the ministry page notes that Sicily, Valle d'Aosta and the autonomous provinces apply different amounts.

Frequently asked questions

Exactly how much goes to the state?

EUR 58.40 in total, according to the Italian transport ministry's page on obtaining a category B licence. It splits into two payments made through the PagoPA platform: tariff N067 for the theory test, worth EUR 26.40 in motoring agency fees plus EUR 16.00 in duty, and tariff N019 for the driving test, worth EUR 16.00 in duty. Private candidates owe them too. Sicily, Valle d'Aosta and the autonomous provinces apply their own tariff schedules.

Do you really save money as a private candidate?

You save, but less than it appears and not unconditionally. The state payments are unchanged, because they attach to the exams rather than the school. What you avoid is enrolment and the theory course. You still need the medical fitness certificate and the certified driving hours with a qualified instructor in a dual-control car, which have to be bought regardless. The route suits people who have a qualified supervising driver and a car to practise in.

Why do two schools in the same city charge such different prices?

Because Italy abolished mandatory minimum fees for professional services in 2012, and driving schools compete on an entirely free price. Altroconsumo's survey of 146 schools in nine cities measured within-city differences of EUR 240 to EUR 615 for the same package, worth 35 to 70 per cent of the price. So the factor that moves the final bill most is not where you live but which school you walk into.

Are the figures in this guide current for 2026?

The state payments are: we verified them on the ministry's site on 22 July 2026. The market figures are not, and it is only fair to say so: they come from fieldwork carried out in October and November 2023, the only comparable and methodologically sound survey we found. Prices have risen since, partly because of the revision of examiners' pay that took effect at the end of 2025. Treat them as a realistic floor rather than the price you will be quoted today.

How many driving hours do you actually need?

Considerably more than the compulsory ones. The certified course required by law is a minimum entry condition for the test, not an estimate of how long learning takes: someone who has never driven almost always ends up buying additional hours. This is why two identical quotes produce very different final bills, and why the most useful question to ask a school is not what the package costs but what an extra hour costs.

What happens to the bill if I fail?

The direct cost is modest compared with the indirect one. Beyond retaking the test, nearly every school charges a re-presentation fee, and in the meantime you need more driving hours to arrive prepared for the second attempt: those hours, rather than the test itself, are what hurt. There is also the provisional licence, which has a limited life: if it expires before you pass, part of the course and of the payments has to be done again from scratch.

Sources and methodology

How we worked it out

The administrative side comes from the Italian transport ministry's page on obtaining a category B licence, which lists the tariff codes and amounts: N067 for the theory test, EUR 26.40 in agency fees plus EUR 16.00 in duty, and N019 for the driving test, EUR 16.00 in duty. The EUR 58.40 total is a straight sum, not an estimate. The market side comes from Altroconsumo's survey of 146 schools in nine cities, carried out in October and November 2023: we take its two extreme city averages, EUR 695 and EUR 1,061. The typical value of EUR 880 is the midpoint between those two averages and is declared as an editorial calculation, not measured data. The EUR 1,400 maximum comes from applying the largest within-city spread measured in the same survey to the Bologna level. We found no equally rigorous, more recent survey, and we say so openly.

Why this confidence level

Limited confidence, and not because the public side is weak: the EUR 58.40 in payments comes from the ministry and is certain. The problem is the market side, which is over ninety per cent of the bill and rests on fieldwork from October and November 2023, the only rigorous comparable survey we could find. Costs have risen since, particularly after the late-2025 revision of examiners' pay. We therefore treat the market figures as a reliable floor rather than a picture of today.

  1. Tariff N067 for the theory test at EUR 26.40 in fees plus EUR 16.00 in duty, and tariff N019 for the driving test at EUR 16.00 in duty

    Conseguimento patente B (opens in a new tab)

    Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti · Public authority · Verified on 22 July 2026

    The ministry's own page describing the licensing procedure. It is the only source used for the administrative side: it lists tariff codes, amounts and required documents, including the medical fitness certificate and the certificate of attendance at the driving course. The page notes that Sicily, Valle d'Aosta and the autonomous provinces apply their own tariff schedules.

    Authority5/5

  2. Survey of 146 driving schools in nine cities: lowest city average in Rome at EUR 695, highest in Bologna at EUR 1,061

    Quanto costa iscriversi a scuola guida e come risparmiare (opens in a new tab)

    Altroconsumo · Research · Verified on 22 July 2026

    Fieldwork carried out between October and November 2023 on a standard package covering school enrolment, exam registration and the six certified driving hours. It is the most rigorous source we could find on what driving schools actually charge, but it is nearly three years old. We cite it with its age stated, and it is the main reason this guide carries Limited confidence.

    Authority3/5

Read the methodology

Revision history

First published on 22 July 2026. State payments verified against the Italian transport ministry's page; the market side rests on Altroconsumo's October-November 2023 survey, with the age of the data stated openly.

Published on
22 July 2026
Last verified
22 July 2026
Next review
22 October 2026

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