How to find an IQ test without a subscription

To find an IQ test without a subscription, check the checkout page before you type a card number: the price on the button should be the whole price, with no second amount, no “per week” or “per month”, no countdown from a trial period and no box you must untick. A test that charges once says so in plain words next to the price, and its terms say there is nothing to cancel.

How does a $1 IQ test become a monthly charge?

The pattern is well documented. A test is advertised as free. You answer every question, and then the result sits behind a small payment, often $1 or £1. That payment starts a short trial, usually 7 days, and if you don’t cancel in time it turns into a subscription.

• Truth in Advertising looked at one such test in March 2026: results cost $1, and the plan became $30 a month unless cancelled within 7 days. The checkout timer restarted when it ran out, and a “100% satisfaction guarantee” sat next to “all sales are final”.
• Which?, the UK consumer group, received 32 reports of unwanted IQ-test subscriptions in the first quarter of 2026. In one case a £1, 7-day trial turned into £29.99 a month and 31 charges, about £464, over seven months.
• Some IQ tests charge $1 today and $29.99 every 28 days after.

None of this is hidden in a legal sense. The renewal terms are on the page. They are just placed where a person who has spent ten minutes on a test, and wants the result, is least likely to read them.

Where does the renewal hide?

These are the places to look on any test’s payment screen, from top to bottom.

1. Under the big price. A large “$1” and a small line beneath it with the real recurring amount.
2. In the name of the plan. “Access”, “membership” or “full access” usually means a subscription; a one-time purchase names the thing you get, like a report.
3. In a trial period. Any number of days (“7-day access”) means something happens when the days run out.
4. In the terms link. If the button says “I agree to the terms”, the renewal is in the terms. Open them and search for “renew”, “recurring”, “cancel” and “per”.
5. After the payment. A welcome email that mentions a plan, a billing date or how to cancel is a subscription, whatever the checkout page said.

On a phone, scroll to the end of the payment screen before paying. Which? found renewal costs that only appeared at the bottom of the mobile page.

What do the rules require?

In the United States, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act requires a seller of an online subscription to show the material terms before taking your billing details, get your express consent to the charge, and give you a simple way to stop it. California’s automatic renewal law, tightened in July 2025, also requires affirmative consent to the renewal terms, a way to cancel online if you signed up online, and notice before a free or discounted period ends.

The card networks add their own rules. Since April 2020, Visa requires merchants that turn a trial into a subscription to get explicit consent at sign-up, send a reminder at least 7 days before billing when the trial or promotion lasts longer than 7 days, and give an online way to cancel.

The Federal Trade Commission’s “click to cancel” rule, which would have made online cancelling as easy as signing up everywhere, never took effect: a federal appeals court vacated it in July 2025. In March 2026 the FTC started a new rulemaking on the same subject, so check its status before relying on it.

What does a one-time price look like?

	One-time price	Low first payment that renews	Free test, paid result
What the button says	The full price	A small amount	A small amount, after the test
What happens next month	Nothing	A recurring charge	Depends on the terms
What you have to do	Nothing	Cancel before the date	Read the terms to find out
What the terms say	One payment, nothing renews	Renewal terms and how to cancel	Either

A test that charges once can say it in one sentence, and should say it before the first question. One-time pricing is not rare, and several tests sell results that way. What matters is that you can see the price before you start.

How Cogniva charges

The Cogniva test is free to take, and your score band is free. The full report costs $29.90, paid once, tax included, and we show that price before question 1. At checkout there is one optional add-on in an unticked box, and after payment we show one optional offer, with its price on the button. Nothing renews. Every purchase can be refunded within 14 days, and you don’t have to say why. All of it is on the pricing page.

If you’ve already been charged

Cancel the renewal first, then ask for a refund in writing, and if the seller doesn’t answer, dispute the charge with your card issuer. Deadlines apply, so don’t wait. Our step-by-step guide covers each one: how to cancel an IQ test subscription and get your money back.

Sources

• Truth in Advertising (March 16, 2026). Ad alert on a “free” IQ test with a $1 results fee and a $30 monthly plan. truthinadvertising.org
• Which? (July 16, 2026). Think before you click: how online ads mask millions of subscription traps. which.co.uk
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, 15 U.S.C. § 8403. Cornell LII
• California Business and Professions Code § 17600 and following, as amended by AB 2863 (effective July 1, 2025). Summary, Barnes & Thornburg
• Visa, Trial subscription updates (rules effective April 18, 2020). visa.com
• Eighth Circuit vacates the FTC’s click-to-cancel rule (July 8, 2025). Greenberg Traurig
• FTC restarts subscription rulemaking (March 2026). Kirkland & Ellis