How to order free rapid covid tests from the US government — again

Autumn is here, and once again, warnings are going up about the spread of the covid-19 virus — along with the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. To try to minimize the upsurge, the US government is once again offering free home rapid antigen tests to each US household. According to the government website, orders will start shipping this week.

As before, it’s extremely simple to put in your order. You will not need to submit a credit card or any other financial information.

• Go to COVIDTests.gov.
• Tap on the button reading Order Free At-home Tests.
• If you don’t see the button for any reason, you can go directly to the USPS site (which is where the button would send you anyway) at special.usps.com/testkits.
• Fill in your name, email address (if you want to receive notifications), and shipping address.
• Click on the green Check Out Now button.
• A pop-up window will ask you to confirm your contact information and shipping address. If everything is correct, click on the green Place My Order button — and you’re done! You’ll get an order number and (if you entered your email address) a confirmation email with that number, along with (hopefully) updates on delivery.

Screenshot: USPS

By the way, if you’ve ordered tests in the past, don’t forget to check to see if the expiration dates for your tests have been extended. You don’t want to throw out any tests that are actually still useful.

Unfortunately, the program offering reimbursement from private health insurance for purchased tests is no longer available — and since the price of a pair of covid tests are not inexpensive, this could be an issue for households with low budgets. There are still a few very limited options for people to get low- or no-cost testing.

Update September 30th, 2024: This article was originally published on December 15th, 2022, and has been updated to describe the most recent testing program.