Flying without a Real ID? TSA says it will cost you $45 beginning Sunday.

Airline passengers will need to show Real ID to travel starting on Sunday — at least if they want to avoid having to pay an extra fee. Air travelers who don’t have Real ID will be charged $45 under a new Transportation Security Administration policy that goes into effect on Feb. 1.

The new policy marks the next step in TSA’s effort to encourage travelers to meet its higher standards for identity verification, which went into effect earlier this year after nearly two decades of delays.

“Identity verification is essential to traveler safety, because it keeps terrorists, criminals, and illegal aliens out of the skies and other domestic transportation systems such as rail,” Adam Stahl, a senior TSA official, said in a statement announcing the $45 fee.

In November, TSA published a proposed rule that would require anyone using an alternative ID to pay $18 in order to cover the “government-incurred costs” of enhanced screening that’s needed in those cases.

“​​The current alternative identity verification process is time and resource intensive, limiting the number of individuals for whom TSA can provide the service,” the agency wrote in a notice to the Federal Register.

Officials reportedly decided to raise the price to $45 because the expected costs of the additional screenings turned out to be higher than originally anticipated. Anyone traveling without an accepted ID — which also includes a valid passport, tribal ID and certain other types of government-issued identification — will also need to register through an online portal called TSA ConfirmID.

Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005 to create new federal standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and other ID in response to the Sept. 11 attacks four years earlier. The law initially called for the new rules to be enforced in 2008, but that deadline was pushed back repeatedly. Real ID requirements finally went into effect in May 2025, almost exactly 20 years after the law was passed.

Currently, there is no punishment for those traveling without a Real ID, other than potential delays to allow for extra security screening.

The new policy will only affect a small minority of air travelers, according to TSA. About 94% of passengers already use a Real ID or other acceptable forms of identification, the agency said.

“We must ensure everyone who flies is who they say they are,” Stahl said. “This fee ensures the cost to cover verification of an insufficient ID will come from the traveler, not the taxpayer.”

All U.S. states and territories currently issue Real-ID-compliant driver’s licenses, but IDs that are more than a few years old may not meet the new federal standards. TSA encourages anyone who’s not sure whether their license is acceptable under the updated rules to contact their state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.