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How Much Does an Eye Test Cost?
How Much Does an Eye Test Cost?
Written by
Madeline Pettet
Edited by
Ellie Garran
Reviewed by
Andres GutierrezCompare Health Insurance Policies
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Long story short
An eye test checks your vision and eye health
Regular eye tests make it easier to catch issues before they can become more serious and damage your sight.
Medicare could cover the cost of your eye test
But there are limits on how often you’ll receive the rebate, and you might not always be bulk-billed.
Private health insurance can help cover additional costs, like glasses
Medicare doesn’t cover the cost for much at the optometrist, so an extras policy can be handy.
What is an eye test?
If you’ve been upping your phone text size or missing turns while driving, it might be time to see an optometrist for an eye test. They’ll check your eyes for vision problems like short-sightedness (myopia) and long-sightedness (hyperopia).
But an eye test isn’t just for finding out whether you need glasses. It’s also a chance to check in on your eye health, ideally catching any problems early. Many common eye conditions can be hard to notice in those first stages, but the sooner you treat them, the better off you’re likely to be. In fact, about 90% of blindness and vision impairments in Australia are preventable and/or treatable if they’re caught at the right time.1Healthdirect – Eye care It’s a case of the early bird gets the worm – and gets to keep their sight!
What types of eye tests are there?
Like getting a check-up at the doctor, eye tests tend to be a combination of little tests. Your optometrist will ask you about your general health and family medical history to work out which tests are most important to do.
Visual acuity
This is the classic eye exam, where you read from a chart on the wall. It checks your ability to see detail at a distance. You might find that Ds quickly start to look like Bs, and is that an M or an N?
Retinoscopy
This test measures how light moves over your eye. The set-up involves the kind of glasses a mad scientist would wear, but it lets your optometrist flick through different lenses to figure out your prescription.
Visual field test
To test your peripheral vision – or visual field – you’ll look ahead into a special machine. Your job is to say whenever you see a little flash. As strange as it may seem, your results can show whether you have a glaucoma.
Slit lamp test
In this test, your optometrist uses a powerful microscope and a tiny slit of light to examine your eye. It looks a bit like a tandem bike version of a microscope, but with more awkward eye contact. But that uncomfortable silence is worth it to check for cataracts.
Ophthalmoscopy
The X-ray of the eye world, an ophthalmoscope looks at the back of your eye, where your retina and optic nerve hang out. It’s handy to look for macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. FYI, if ‘ophthalmoscopy’ is too much of a mouthful, it’s also called a retinal test.
Tonometry test
Ever wondered about your eye pressure? (And no, that’s not whether your eyes are feeling stressed about all the bad takes you’ve seen in your socials feed.) A tonometry test uses puffs of air to measure your eye pressure, checking for glaucoma signs.
What conditions does an eye test check for?
Cataracts
Behind your pupil is your eye’s lens. A cataract is when this lens becomes cloudy, making it harder to see – like a smudge on a camera lens. It can be fixed by surgery.
Diabetic retinopathy
Sometimes a complication of diabetes is damage to the blood vessels in your retina, causing your vision to blur or fade.
Glaucoma
If the fluid pressure in your eye is too much, it can damage the optic nerve. This can cause vision loss and even blindness without treatment.
Macular degeneration
If cells in your retina become damaged, you can start to lose your vision. It’s a similar story if abnormal blood vessels grow and leak fluid into a part of your retina called the macula.
Booking in a comprehensive eye test is like booking in a dental check-up. You won’t need a referral; just reach out to the optometrist directly for an appointment.
And like dental check-ups, you should have an eye test regularly. For most people, an eye test every two or three years is all that’s needed. But if you’re over 65 or have certain risk factors, like diabetes, high blood pressure, or a family history of eye disease, health guidelines recommend more frequent appointments.
Of course, if something suddenly changes with your eyes, you don’t need to wait for that two-year mark to tick around. Book in as soon as you can to quickly get to the bottom of what’s happening. There’s no need to be pulling the wool over your own eyes when it comes to eye care.
How much does an eye test cost?
Eye tests can be thorough, but is the bill for one just as dense? Typically, no.
If you’re eligible for Medicare, you’ll get a rebate on your eye test cost. The catch is, Medicare only pays a rebate on the cost of an eye test every three years for those under 65. If you’re over 65, you have a little more wiggle room – Medicare pays a rebate on your eye check-up cost annually. Seeing the optometrist more regularly than this means paying the cost of your eye test without Medicare’s help.
Even if you’re all set for a Medicare rebate, you can still have out-of-pocket costs. You might be familiar with the fact that not all GPs bulk-bill (i.e. only charge the rebate amount, so you don’t have a bill to pay). But did you know that optometrists also have this option? Depending on the optometrist you visit, the Medicare rebate ($66.15 as of 2025), might not cover the full cost of your eye test.
For other kinds of healthcare, you can look to private health insurance to help foot the bill. That can be true for eye tests, too – to an extent. It depends on what your optical cover policy includes. And, like Medicare, you might need to pay your bill with a calendar in hand. Annual limits often apply for extras cover. But, if you’re under 65, a one-year turnaround comes much sooner than a three-year one!
Are there other or ongoing costs after an eye test?
While we’re crossing our fingers that your eye test comes back without issue, we know (and this bespectacled writer knows all too well) that not all of us can be so lucky. So, depending on what your results are, you might have some further costs for eye care after your eye test.
Possible other costs
Depending on the treatment, you might be able to look to Medicare for help. For instance, you could receive a Medicare rebate for glaucoma laser eye treatment. You might have out-of-pocket costs if your specialist doesn’t bulk-bill, though.
If you need to go to hospital to treat a condition like cataract surgery, you won’t have an out-of-pocket cost if you pick the public hospital system. The flip side is that public hospital waiting times can be long. In 2023–24, public hospital patients had a median wait of 118 days for cataract surgery.2Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Admitted patient care 2023–24: What procedures were performed?
A shorter wait is one reason people opt to use private health insurance and be treated as a private hospital patient. As a private patient, you also have the benefit of choosing your treating doctor and the chance of a private room to recover in.
Possible ongoing costs
Ongoing costs can include prescription glasses and/or contact lenses if your eyes need some extra assistance to see properly. Unfortunately, Medicare doesn’t cover the cost of glasses or contact lenses. Each state and territory has schemes for glasses and contact lenses instead. Eligibility requirements tend to apply, and you mightn’t get the goods for free; it could just be at a discounted rate.
Alternatively, lots of private health insurance optical extras include cover for glasses and contact lenses. Every policy is different, including how much is covered and whether you need to see a preferred provider. And don’t forget those annual limits.
But private health insurance can make having a back-up pair of glasses affordable if you’re always losing them. It can also give you the option to pick up some prescription sunnies. And these shades will do more than just make you look cool – UV eye protection, like wearing sunglasses, can help reduce your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration.
Helpful tip
Eye health is a lot like dental health. Being proactive and looking after your eyes (and teeth!) can go a long way to avoiding problems that require multiple appointments or a stay in hospital. Private health insurance with optical cover can be a handy reminder to do right by your eyes, whether that’s a new pair of glasses to stop them getting sore and tired, or regular check-ups to catch issues from the start.
Andres Gutierrez
General Manager – Health
How long will I have to wait for an eye test?
You probably won’t have to wait long for your eye test, since you don’t need a referral. It’s just a matter of matching your free time with an available optometrist appointment (and how long it takes you to get around to making said appointment).
Further tests and treatments might have a wait time. For instance, it might take a week or two for your new glasses to be ready to wear. And, as we noted above, a public hospital stay can mean waiting a few months.
If you’re wanting to claim a Medicare rebate for your eye test, or get money back through your private health insurance, you might need to press pause on your test. Remember, Medicare only pays a rebate either once every year or three years, depending on your age. Meanwhile, your health insurance likely has annual limits. You might need to wait for these to reset before popping over to the optometrist.
What level of private health insurance covers an eye test?
Private health insurance looks out for your peepers through two options: hospital cover and extras cover.
Because it’s covered by Medicare, you won’t be able to claim for your eye test under private health insurance. However, an extras health insurance policy could help cover some of the costs for any eyewear you need. You’ll need to get familiar with a policy’s documents to see what is and isn’t covered. That paperwork also holds the answer to what your annual limits are, and whether you need to see preferred providers to use your cover.
Hospital health insurance is for when you need to go to hospital, like for cataract surgery. Different procedures are covered by different tiers. The gold tier covers all hospital procedures, while lower tiers only have to cover some. If you’re after cataract surgery cover, you’ll likely need a gold tier policy. A lower plus tier policy might include cover, too, but it’s not a guarantee.
Where can I find and compare health insurance?
Finding health insurance can be hard even if you haven’t misplaced your glasses. But iSelect is here to help, making it easy to compare a range of health insurance policies from different providers. Jump onto our online comparison tool or give one of our health comparison experts a call on 1800 784 772.
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