Rules · paperwork
Colorado permit and licence rules cheat sheet
Ages, education, fees and holding periods for a Colorado instruction permit, including what changes for applicants under 21 in 2027.
650 words · source: Colorado DMV — Permits and first-time driver license, State DMV fees, and @Home Driving Knowledge Tests
How old you have to be
Colorado issues an instruction permit from fifteen years old, and no testing location may administer the knowledge test before the fifteenth birthday. Under eighteen you must hold the permit for a full twelve months before applying for a licence, and you must be accompanied whenever you drive by a licensed driver who is at least twenty-one and seated in the front passenger seat. The permit itself expires after three years or on your twenty-first birthday, whichever comes first. Questions in this area often turn on the supervisor requirement rather than on the age itself.
Driver education before the permit
If you are under sixteen, education comes first. From fifteen to fifteen and a half you must complete a thirty-hour driver education course. From fifteen and a half to sixteen you may take either that course or a four-hour driver awareness program. At sixteen and older there is currently no education requirement at all. Certificates have a limited validity window, so do not take the course so early that it expires before your appointment, and bring the completion confirmation with you.
What it costs
The state instruction permit fee is twenty dollars for a REAL ID permit or twenty-three dollars for a standard one, and those figures were adjusted in mid-2025. If you take the knowledge test online first, the first attempt costs six dollars and fifty cents, made up of a five dollar testing fee and a one dollar fifty card fee, and later attempts cost seventeen dollars and sixty-five cents because the eleven dollar fifty state retest fee is added. Retesting in an office carries that eleven dollar fifty fee each time. A driving school may charge its own fees on top.
The test itself
The driving knowledge test is twenty-five multiple-choice questions and you need twenty correct to pass, which is eighty percent. It is offered in English and Spanish only, both in the office and online. You may take it as many times as you need but only twice in one day, and if you miss more than half the questions on a first paper attempt you must wait until the next day. An interpreter is allowed, and the test can be read aloud to you in either language as an accommodation.
What changes on January 1, 2027
House Bill 24-1021 removes the age-based exemptions. From 2027, applicants aged fifteen through seventeen must complete a thirty-hour driver education course, which may be taken online. Applicants aged eighteen through twenty must complete either that course or a four-hour driver awareness program, a group that previously had no requirement at all. Anyone under sixteen and a half still needs six hours of behind-the-wheel training with an instructor. The change does not apply to permits issued before January 1, 2027, even if the licence is applied for later.
After you pass
Passing the knowledge test is not the end of the appointment. You still complete a vision screening, a photograph with glasses and hats removed, and fingerprints, and you pay the permit fee. If you are under eighteen, a parent, guardian, or responsible adult over twenty-one with a valid licence must sign the Affidavit of Liability, either at the counter or in front of a notary beforehand. Bring proof of identity, your Social Security number or proof of ineligibility, and two documents showing a Colorado residential address.
Why appointments fail
The three failures that send people home are a missing second proof of address, a parent or guardian who is not present when the applicant is under eighteen, and a driver education certificate that has expired. Certificates are only valid for a limited window, so booking the course too early relative to the appointment is its own problem. The second tier is smaller but just as final: an untranslated foreign birth certificate, a school identification card offered as the only proof of identity, and a Social Security number that does not match the records. Check the state document checklist for your situation before you book rather than on the morning of the appointment.