How we gather and check these figures

Every cost, issuing-agency name, and appointment policy on this site is read from a state’s official DMV REAL ID page (or another official .gov source) and recorded with the URL we read it from and the date we read it. The federal document checklist is cited to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; the airport-fallback detail is cited to the Transportation Security Administration. We do not generate numbers from memory, and we do not carry over figures we can’t point to a source for.

Primary sources only

The state DMV is the load-bearing citation for each state; DHS and TSA are the load-bearing citations for the federal document set and the airport process. Aggregator sites that resell DMV help with a markup are used only to cross-check completeness, never as a primary source. You can see the full citation list, with last-verified dates, on the Sources page.

Honest about the unknown

Most states fold the REAL ID cost into the standard driver-license fee and don’t publish a separate REAL ID surcharge. Where that’s the case, we say “standard license fee” and point you to the official page rather than inventing a number. For the airport fallback, we cite TSA directly: as of February 1, 2026, TSA’s ConfirmID identity-verification process carries a $45 fee, valid for a 10-day travel window and paid via Pay.gov — we link to TSA’s announcement rather than paraphrasing the amount.

Annual refresh

Fees and appointment rules change. We re-check the dataset on an annual cadence and record what changed on the changelog.

Who this is for

REAL ID affects a large share of the roughly about 262 million U.S. adults (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census) who fly domestically or visit federal facilities.

Professional review

Professional review in progress. We’re recruiting a reviewer from the identity-document field — an immigration/identity-document paralegal or a legal-aid identification-clinic supervisor. This site is informational and is not legal advice; always confirm details with your state DMV before relying on them.