No REAL ID? It could cost you $45 and precious time at a TSA airport checkpoint
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- TSA began charging $45 for automated Confirm.ID screenings at checkpoints nationwide.
- Travelers without REAL ID must prepay online or leave the line and lose time.
- REAL ID remains optional; bringing compliant ID avoids the fee and extra screening.
The Transportation Security Administration has gotten serious about enforcing federal identification standards at airport checkpoints, and it will cost you $45 if you aren’t carrying the right ID.
The fee is to cover the cost of a new system for screening people who show up at airport security checkpoints without a REAL ID, passport or other credential that meets federal standards. The TSA announced the new system in early December and began using it at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and airports nationwide on Sunday, Feb. 1.
The federal government began enforcing stricter identification standards required by the REAL ID Act last May 7. Since then, travelers without a REAL ID or other compliant credential have been subject to special screenings to verify their identity before being allowed through airport security. The most common way involved a TSA call center.
But now the TSA is using an automated system it calls TSA Confirm.ID. The agency says the $45 fee covers the cost of developing and operating the system.
Travelers must pay the $45 in advance at www.tsa.gov/tsaconfirm-id. If you show up at a TSA checkpoint without a REAL ID or its equivalent and don’t have a receipt for the TSA Confirm.ID fee, you’ll be asked to leave the checkpoint and pay online before getting back in line.
At the checkpoint, an agent will then enter your legal name, address and date of birth into the TSA Confirm.ID system to try to confirm you are you. The TSA says that process takes 10 to 15 minutes on average but can take 30 minutes or more in some cases.
Verification through the new system is good for 10 days, after which another fee is required. Travelers who are denied access to the airport for any reason will not get their $45 back.
Travelers can avoid the fee and the extra screening by bringing REAL ID-compliant identification. You can find a list of acceptable forms of ID at www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification.
Getting a REAL ID is optional. North Carolina began offering them in 2017, and as of December about 43% of the nearly 8.7 million residents with a state driver’s license or ID card had chosen not to get one, according to the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
As the time TSA Confirm.ID was announced in December, more than 94% of air travelers nationwide were showing up at TSA checkpoints with a REAL ID or other acceptable identification. In North Carolina, that figure was about 91.5%, according to the agency, which meant thousands required extra screening each week.
This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 11:11 AM with the headline "No REAL ID? It could cost you $45 and precious time at a TSA airport checkpoint."
