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How to Cancel or Withhold Your AP Scores Step-by-Step Process
03 August, 2026 | Abhishek Malani | 12 Min Read
Introduction
If you walked out of an AP exam this May feeling less than confident, it’s worth knowing upfront: a rough exam day doesn’t have to follow you into your college applications. The College Board gives every student two distinct tools for managing which scores colleges actually see: AP score cancelation and score withholding, and understanding the real difference between them, including deadlines, fees, and how permanent each choice actually is, matters far more than most students realize until they’re staring at a score report in July.
At Quest for Success, we’ve built this guide to walk you through exactly how to cancel AP exam scores or withhold them instead, step by step, so you can make a decision based on clear information rather than panic in the final weeks of the school year.
Table of Contents
Cancel vs. Withhold: The Core Difference
Before touching either process, it’s worth being completely clear on what each option actually does, because they are not interchangeable, and one of them is irreversible.
| Score Cancellation | Score Withholding | |
|---|---|---|
|
What it does
|
Permanently deletes the score from College Board records
|
Hides the score from specific recipients you choose; the score itself still exists
|
|
Reversible?
|
No, once canceled, it cannot be reinstated
|
Yes, you can remove the withhold at any time
|
|
Cost |
Free (though your original exam fee is not refunded)
|
$10 per score, per recipient
|
|
Who sees it afterwards
|
No one, ever
|
Everyone except the specific recipients you withheld it from
|
|
Best for
|
Scores you never want to exist on your record again
|
Scores you want hidden from certain colleges now, but might want to send later
|
The distinction matters because a canceled score disappears entirely, including from your own future score reports, while a withheld score is simply paused for specific recipients and can be released again later if you change your mind.
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How to Cancel an AP Exam Score, Step by Step
If you’ve decided a particular score should be permanently removed from your record, here’s exactly how to cancel AP exam scores through the College Board:
- Sign in to the AP student score reporting portal using your College Board account credentials, the same login you used to register for and view your AP exams.
- Locate the score reporting or score management section of your account, where your full AP score history is listed.
- Select the specific exam score you want to cancel. You can cancel individual scores without affecting any of your other AP scores; canceling one exam does not touch the rest of your record.
- Submit your cancellation request. Once submitted, the exam will not be scored if it hasn’t been scored yet, or the existing score will be permanently deleted from College Board records if it already has been.
- Wait for processing. Cancellation requests are typically processed within 15 business days of receipt, after which the cancellation will be reflected on your online AP score report.
A few important details to know before you submit: there’s no fee to cancel a score, but your original exam registration fee is not refunded. Once processed, the cancellation is final, the score cannot be reinstated later under any circumstances, and archived scores (scores from previous years already finalized in the archive) cannot be canceled at all.
How to Withhold an AP Score, Step by Step
If you’d rather keep a score on record but simply prevent specific colleges or scholarship programs from seeing it, withholding is the tool designed for exactly that:
- Sign in to the AP student score reporting portal with your College Board account.
- Start a new score send order or navigate to the section for managing existing score sends and withholds.
- Select the score you want to withhold, then choose the specific college, university, or scholarship program you want it withheld from. You can withhold a score from one recipient while still sending it freely to another.
- Pay the withholding fee of $10 per score, per recipient, which does not include the separate cost of sending your score report to that institution.
- Confirm your request. The score will no longer appear on any future score reports sent to that specific recipient, though it remains fully intact in your College Board record.
One detail worth flagging clearly: mailed or faxed paper forms are no longer accepted for score withhold or paid score send requests. Every withhold request must be submitted directly through the online AP student score reporting portal.
If you later change your mind, you can remove a withhold at any time, and there’s no charge. However, removing a withhold doesn’t automatically resend the score; you’ll need to place a new score-send order and pay the standard score-send fee to deliver the score to the recipient again.
Key Deadlines You Can't Miss
Timing is the single most common way students accidentally lose control over this process, so treat these dates as hard boundaries, not general guidelines:
- June 15 of the year you took the exam is the deadline for the College Board to receive your cancellation or withholding request in order to keep that score out of the free score report automatically sent to the college or scholarship program you designated during registration.
- Cancellation requests can technically be submitted at any time after this deadline, but the score will already have been included in your free score send, meaning your designated recipient will have already seen it before the cancellation takes effect.
- Withholding future score sends can be requested at any time going forward; the June 15 deadline specifically applies to stopping a score from reaching the free recipient tied to the exam year you just completed.
Because these dates are firm and don’t flex for individual circumstances, mark them on your calendar the moment you register for an AP exam, not after scores are released in July.
What Cancellation and Withholding Actually Cost
- Cancellation: No fee to cancel. Your original AP exam registration fee is never refunded regardless of whether you cancel the score.
- Withholding: $10 per score, per recipient, to withhold. Removing a withhold later is free. If you decide to send a previously withheld score afterwards, you’ll pay the standard score send fee to deliver it.
Because withholding fees apply per recipient, withholding the same score from three different colleges costs three separate fees, which is worth factoring in if you’re managing multiple applications with different score-visibility preferences.
Which Option Should You Choose?
A few honest questions can help clarify which path actually fits your situation:
- Are you certain you never want this score to exist anywhere, ever? If yes, cancellation is the right tool. If there’s any chance a future college, employer, or scholarship program might want to see it, don’t cancel, since it’s permanent.
- Do your target colleges use AP scores for admissions, credit, or both? Many schools look only at AP scores for course credit or placement after enrollment, not during admissions review, so a single weak score may matter far less than it feels in the moment.
- Is the concern about one specific college, or every recipient? Withholding lets you hide a score from one school while still sending it freely elsewhere; cancellation removes it everywhere, permanently.
- Might this score be useful for a scholarship or credit later, even if it’s not impressive right now? If there’s genuine uncertainty, withholding preserves your options; cancellation closes them.
For most students, withholding is the more flexible, lower-risk choice precisely because it can be undone. Cancellation is worth reserving for scores you’re genuinely confident you’ll never want anyone to see.
Common Mistakes Students Make
- Waiting until scores are released in July to think about this: By then, the free score send to your designated recipient has often already happened, meaning any college on that list has already seen the score.
- Assuming a withheld score is deleted: It isn’t. Withholding only hides a score from the specific recipients you name; the score remains fully intact on your own record and can still be sent to anyone you don’t withhold it from.
- Trying to mail or fax a withhold request: These paper-based methods are no longer accepted; every request must go through the online AP student score reporting portal.
- Canceling a score impulsively right after a disappointing exam: Because cancellation is permanent and irreversible, it’s worth taking even a few days to think it through, rather than acting the same afternoon you see a lower-than-expected score.
- Forgetting that canceling doesn’t refund your exam fee: Cancellation removes the score from your record, not the cost of having taken the exam.
What Happens After You Submit a Request
Once you’ve submitted either a cancellation or withholding request, processing generally follows a predictable timeline. Cancellation requests are typically processed within 15 business days, with additional delay possible if a request is mailed internationally. Once processed, the change is reflected directly in your online AP score report, so you can confirm it went through by signing back in to your account rather than waiting for separate confirmation.
Because withholding is now managed entirely within the online portal, changes to withholding status typically apply to any new score reports generated for the recipients you specified going forward, though it’s worth double-checking your account after submitting to confirm the request was applied correctly before assuming it’s handled.
How Quest for Success Can Help
Deciding whether to cancel, withhold, or simply send an AP score is a strategic decision, not just an administrative one, and it’s easy to make the wrong call under time pressure right after exam results come out. At Quest for Success, we help students think through exactly which scores actually matter for their target colleges’ admissions and credit policies, so decisions about canceling or withholding are based on real information about how those scores will actually be used, not anxiety in the moment.
Summary
The College Board gives students two distinct tools for controlling which AP scores colleges see: score cancellation, which permanently and irreversibly deletes a score from your record at no cost (though your exam fee isn’t refunded), and score withholding, which hides a score from specific recipients you choose for $10 per score per recipient while leaving the score itself fully intact and reversible. Both actions are managed entirely through the online AP student score reporting portal, since mailed and faxed forms are no longer accepted. The critical deadline for either request to prevent a score from reaching your free score send recipient is June 15 of the year you took the exam; after that date, your designated college will likely have already received the score. Cancellation requests are typically processed within 15 business days, while withholds can be added or removed at any time going forward, though resending a previously withheld score requires a new paid score send order. Because cancellation is permanent and withholding is reversible, most students are better served by withholding unless they’re genuinely certain a score should never exist on their record again, and it’s always worth checking whether your target colleges even use AP scores for admissions decisions before making either choice.
FAQs
Cancellation permanently deletes the score from your College Board record and can’t be undone. Withholding simply hides the score from specific recipients you choose while keeping it fully intact on your record, and can be reversed at any time.
Sign in to the AP student score reporting portal, select the specific score you want to cancel, and submit your request. It’s free, though your original exam fee isn’t refunded, and the cancellation is permanent once processed.
June 15 of the year you took the exam is the deadline for the College Board to receive your request in order to keep the score out of the free score report sent to your designated recipient.
No. Withholding only hides the score from the specific recipients you name. The score remains on your record and can still be sent to any recipient you haven’t withheld it from.
$10 per score, per recipient. This fee does not include the separate cost of actually sending the score report to that institution.
No. Cancellation is permanent and irreversible under all circumstances. This is the main reason most students are better served by withholding unless they’re completely certain about canceling.
Yes. Withholding is recipient-specific, so you can hide a score from one college or scholarship program while still sending it freely to others.
Have questions about whether to cancel, withhold, or send a specific AP score, or want help figuring out which scores actually matter for your target colleges? Reach out to Quest for Success; we’re here to help you make an informed, strategic decision rather than a rushed one.
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