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Certification Guide · Fees

IC-38 Exam Fee: What You Pay, and to Whom

The published exam fee is ₹590 including GST, on the Insurance Institute of India's schedule for corporate agents, brokers and marketing firms. For individual agents no schedule is published. Here is who pays, how, and which fees to refuse.

Written and fact-checked by Lead Trainer — Insurance & NBFC Published 6 min read

This page is only about the money: what is published, who pays, and how. For the exam itself - the pattern, the pass mark and how to prepare - read our full guide to the IC-38 exam.

What the Institute publishes

The Insurance Institute of India runs the IC-38 exam for IRDAI, the insurance regulator. It publishes a fee schedule for three kinds of licence: the person who sells insurance for a corporate agent (a company such as a bank registered to sell policies), the sales person at an insurance marketing firm, and the authorised verifier at a broker.123 The amounts are the same on all three sheets.

Scroll sideways to see every column

IC-38 fees published by the Insurance Institute of India
Payment Fee GST (18%) Total
Exam1 ₹500 ₹90 ₹590
Training (first licence)1 ₹750 ₹136 ₹886
Training (renewal)1 ₹500 ₹90 ₹590

Two honest limits on that table. First, the sheets are undated, and they still print a pass mark of 17 out of 50 - which the Institute changed to 15 for exams from 1 January 2024.8 So treat the fees as the latest figures the Institute has published, not as a promise that nothing has changed since. Second, they do not cover everyone.

What the Institute does not publish is a fee schedule for an individual agent appointed directly by an insurer. Its IRDAI Examinations page links fee sheets for corporate agents, marketing firms and brokers, and none for individual agents.7 Insurer articles quote the agent exam at roughly ₹500 to ₹700.9 That is a range from an insurer, not an official figure, which is why it carries an "est." label in the facts panel.

Who pays: you or the company

There are two payments, and they happen at different times: the training first, then the exam.

  • Through a company such as a bank or a broker: the company pays for your online training, by card, net banking or a wallet it holds with the Institute,5 and then registers you for the exam and pays against a batch it creates. The Institute's manual is explicit that no individual candidate can create that batch.4
  • As an individual agent: you register on the Institute's website and pay for the online training yourself.6 The insurer appointing you then handles the exam.

Whether a company later recovers the cost from your salary or incentives is its own decision, and it varies. Ask for the answer in writing before you join, alongside the fixed pay.

How payment works

This is the order the Institute's manuals set out for a company registering its staff:

  1. You finish the training first. Exam registration is only possible once a training completion certificate has been generated for you on the Institute's website.4
  2. The company pays for the training. The company uploads your registration number and pays for the online training, by card or net banking, or from a prepaid wallet it holds with the Institute.5
  3. The company creates your exam batch. On the Institute's examination portal, iiiexams.org, the company picks a preferred exam date and creates a batch ID. The manual is explicit that no individual candidate can create the batch or transaction ID.4
  4. The exam fee is paid against that batch. Payment is made online through NSEIT, the exam agency, against the batch or transaction ID — from the day after the batch is created.4
  5. You get a slot. Depending on the option the company chose, NSEIT allots the exam slot or you pick it yourself.4

Notice what is missing from that list: at no point do you, the candidate, send money to a person. Payments go through the Institute's website or through NSEIT against a batch the company created.

If an insurer is appointing you

The individual-agent route starts with you. You fill in a registration form on the Institute's website, upload a photo and signature, and pay for the online training. Your user ID is your mobile number and the password arrives as an OTP. After 25 hours of training you download your training completion certificate using your PAN and mobile number.6

The exam is registered through the Institute's examination portal, which it lists for insurance agents.7 Because no fee schedule is published for this route, ask the insurer for the exact amount - and who pays it - before anything is paid.

Fees to refuse

Low published fees make fraud easy to spot. Walk away from any of these:

  • A "registration fee" or "IRDA licence fee" in the thousands. The published exam fee is ₹590 and the published training fee is ₹886, both with GST.
  • A request to pay a person. A personal UPI ID, a phone number, or cash without a receipt is not how the Institute's process works.
  • A "guaranteed pass" package. Nobody can sell you a result. The pass mark is set by the Institute and applied to your answers.
  • An offer to book the exam for you, for a fee, with no company attached. In the Institute's process the company registers you; an outsider cannot.

If the offer also promises you a job, read our warning signs for fake bank and insurance job offers before you reply.

If you have to re-sit

Insurer sources say each attempt is a separate exam: if you do not pass, the fee is paid again, and a fee that has been confirmed is usually not refunded.9 The Institute does not publish a separate re-sit fee. Because the company books your slot, a second attempt also means asking it for another batch.

The cheapest re-sit is the one you avoid. The pass mark is 15 out of 50 with no negative marking, and two weeks of steady reading is enough for most people. If you want the fortnight laid out day by day, here is a 14-day plan for clearing IC 38 on the first try.

IC-38 fees: common questions

The company appointing you registers you for the exam. For corporate agents such as banks, the Insurance Institute of India's manual says the company creates the exam batch and pays against it, and no individual candidate can do that step. Whether the cost is later recovered from you is the company's decision, so ask before you join. As an individual agent, you pay for the online training yourself.

In most cases you do not pay it directly. The company creates an exam batch on iiiexams.org and pays against it through NSEIT's online payment page, from the day after the batch is created. What you pay online yourself, as an individual agent, is the training fee, on the Institute's website when you create your profile.

Yes. On the schedule the Insurance Institute of India publishes for corporate agents, brokers and insurance marketing firms, training is ₹886 and the exam is ₹590, both including GST. They are paid at different stages: the training first, then the exam once a training certificate exists.

Insurer sources say yes: each attempt is a separate exam, so the fee is paid again, and a confirmed fee is usually not refunded. The Institute does not publish a separate re-sit fee. Because the company books the slot, a re-sit also means asking them for another batch.

No. The published exam fee is ₹590 and the published training fee is ₹886, both including GST, and the company appointing you handles the registration. Anyone asking you for thousands of rupees to register you, or to guarantee a pass, is not following the Institute's process. Do not pay an individual.

Sources

  1. Mandatory qualifications and examination fee structure: Corporate Agent (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  2. Mandatory qualification and fees details: Insurance Marketing Firm (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  3. Mandatory qualification and fees details: Insurance Brokers (Authorised Verifier) (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  4. Examination registration procedure (help manual) (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  5. Online payment help manual for corporate agents (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  6. Help manual for registration of an individual insurance agent (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  7. IRDAI Examinations (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  8. Grace marks to pass IC 38 (Insurance Agents and Other Intermediaries Examinations), circular of 27 December 2023 (opens in a new tab)

    Insurance Institute of India · www.insuranceinstituteofindia.com · checked

  9. IC38 exam fees: online registration, payment and refund process (16 December 2025) (opens in a new tab)

    Niva Bupa Health Insurance (secondary source) · www.nivabupa.com · checked

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