What does inburgeren cost in 2026?

The exams cost €50 per part. That is €250 for the five core parts. (Under the old 2013 law there was also ONA at €40, for €290; the current 2021 law has no separate ONA fee.) Courses are separate, and that is where the real money goes: a little if you study smart, a lot if you need many hours of class. Who pays depends on your law: under the 2021 law the gemeente covers asylum status holders, while family and other migrants can borrow from DUO for approved courses and exams. If you borrow and pass on time, that loan can be waived.

That is the short answer. Below is the full breakdown. You will see exactly where the money goes, and where you can keep it down.

What the inburgering exams themselves cost

The inburgeringsexamen is not one test. It is a set of parts: Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking, and Knowledge of Dutch Society (KNM). Under the old 2013 law there was also ONA, about orientation on the Dutch labour market; under the current 2021 law that is handled inside your route (the MAP module), not as a separate paid exam.

You pay €50 per part. According to inburgeren.nl, the official DUO portal, the five core parts add up to €250. Under the old 2013 law, ONA added €40, bringing that total to €290. Asylum status holders get their first two attempts at each part for free, as long as you sit them at the level set in your PIP. Beyond that, a resit costs the part's fee again. That is the main reason a calm, prepared first attempt is the cheapest attempt.

These fees are set centrally and can change over time. Always confirm the current amount on the official channels before you book.

The real cost of inburgeren: courses and study

Here is the honest part. The exam fees are modest. What makes inburgeren expensive for some people is the studying.

A language school charges for hours of teaching. Start close to the required level and need only a little polish, and a course can cost a few hundred euros. Start from scratch and need a long, intensive programme, and you can reach a few thousand. Same exam, very different bill. The difference is almost entirely how many hours of tuition you buy.

I watched my own family run into this. The exam itself was never the scary number. The course around it was. So before you pay anyone, it is worth knowing your three broad options:

• Self-study. Cheapest in euros. But you carry all the structure and discipline yourself, and it is easy to study the wrong things.
• A full language course. The most hand-held option, and the most expensive. Worth it if you need to build the language from the ground up.
• Online preparation. Sits in between. You practise the exact tasks the exam asks, at a predictable monthly price, and add tutoring only where you actually need it.

The DUO loan: why the sticker price is not the real price

This is the part that changes the whole picture. Many people do not realise it.

Whether you borrow depends on your law and status. Under the current 2021 law, asylum status holders do not borrow at all: the gemeente pays for their course and two exam attempts per part. Family and other migrants under the 2021 law pay themselves and can borrow money from DUO for approved courses and exams. As DUO explains on how much you can borrow, for them the amount depends on income, and DUO decides how much. (The fixed €10,000 ceiling you may read about is the old 2013-law figure for asylum status holders.) You do not pay it all up front. You draw on the loan as you go.

Better still: the loan can be waived. Per DUO's rules on loan waiving (kwijtschelding), if you obtain your diploma on time you do not pay it back at all. If you are a little late but still finish within six months, part of the loan can be waived. You do not apply for this yourself. DUO grants it if you meet the conditions. So if you prepare well and finish on schedule, a large share of your cost can effectively disappear. Your real cost ends up far below the sticker price.

The exact rules depend on when you became obligated to integrate and which law applies to you, so check your own situation directly with DUO. But the principle is simple. Passing on time is not just about the deadline. It is about money.

So, is inburgeren expensive?

It depends almost entirely on one thing: how efficiently you prepare.

The exams are a few hundred euros. Add a long course on top and the bill grows. But prepare in a focused way, pass on time, and use the DUO loan and its possible waiver, and the real cost can be modest. Sometimes close to just the exam fees.

The expensive version of inburgeren is the unfocused one: months of general lessons, missed deadlines, and resits. The affordable version is the calm, exam-first one, where you always know what to study next and why. That is how Inburgeringscursus is built. You can see the full inburgering course cost for yourself.

Know the costs, use the loan, prepare for the exam in front of you. Inburgeren becomes a clear, manageable expense instead of an open-ended one.