Ten questions · free · no email required
Free autism test for adults
Ten questions covering social communication, sensory experience, routine and masking. You get the result on this page straight away. Nothing is emailed to you and nothing is stored.
This is not a diagnostic test. No online questionnaire can diagnose autism, and this one is not a validated instrument. What it is: a structured version of the questions a clinician opens with, so you can decide whether a real assessment is worth your money before you spend any.
Whatever this said, it is a prompt to think, not a verdict. Ten questions cannot do what a clinical interview does. If your score was low but something still does not feel right, that is worth taking seriously too.
What this test is actually measuring
The diagnostic criteria for autism sit in two groups. The first is social communication — reciprocity in conversation, reading and producing non-verbal signals, and building and keeping relationships. The second is restricted and repetitive patterns — needing sameness and routine, deep focused interests, repetitive movement or speech, and unusual sensitivity or insensitivity to sensory input.
Questions one to five above sit in the first group and six to nine in the second. Question ten is there because it is the sentence adults use most often when they describe it themselves.
The two questions at the end are about cost, and in adults they carry more weight than the trait count. The criteria require that these things cause significant impairment. An adult who has built a life that accommodates them is in a different position from one whose second decade of anxiety treatment has never quite fitted.
Why masking makes self-tests unreliable
Masking is the effortful performance of behaviour that does not come naturally — holding eye contact you find uncomfortable, running a conversation through a script prepared in advance, copying expressions and phrases that seem to work for other people, suppressing the movement that would settle you.
It creates a real problem for any self-report questionnaire, including this one. If you have spent thirty years becoming good at appearing fine, the honest answer to “do you find social situations difficult” can be no — because the performance works. The difficulty has moved from the interaction into the preparation before it and the collapse afterwards.
That is why questions two and three above ask about effort and aftermath rather than outcome, and why a low score here means less than a low score would in someone who has never learned to compensate. In an assessment, a clinician asks what a thing costs you, not whether you manage it.
Autistic women and late diagnosis
The diagnostic picture was built largely on studies of boys, and the presentation that got written down was a boy's presentation. Girls who mask well enough to pass are not referred, so they do not enter the research, so the picture never updates. It is a loop that has taken decades to start breaking.
What it produces is a recognisable adult history: a childhood described as shy, sensitive or gifted rather than autistic; friendships that are intense and few; years of treatment for anxiety, depression, an eating disorder or chronic burnout that helps a bit and never quite explains things; and often a child's diagnosis that makes the parent recognise themselves.
None of this means every exhausted woman is autistic. It does mean that a negative screen on a page like this is weak evidence, and that if the history above reads like yours, it is worth asking properly.
What a real autism assessment adds
An adult autism assessment with us is two to three hours over video with a registered psychologist, split across two sittings if that suits you better. It covers a developmental history, standardised instruments, a structured diagnostic interview against the DSM-5 criteria, and where you want it, a collateral account from someone who knew you as a child. You get a written report that shows the reasoning rather than just a verdict.
The fee is $1,650, including the report. If ADHD is also on the table, assessing both together is $1,950 rather than $3,300, because the history only has to be taken once.
If ADHD might also be in the picture
Autism and ADHD co-occur frequently, and each can hide the other. The restlessness gets read as ADHD alone; the social exhaustion gets read as anxiety; the combination gets missed for decades. Assessing both at once costs less and takes less out of you than doing them in sequence.
Common questions
Is this a real autism test?
No. It is a structured version of the questions a clinician opens with, and it will tell you whether a proper assessment is worth your time and money. No online questionnaire can diagnose autism. A diagnosis requires a clinical interview, a developmental history, and a clinician ruling out the conditions that present similarly.
How is this different from the RAADS-R or the AQ?
The RAADS-R and the AQ are published screening instruments with research behind them, normally used as one input inside a full assessment rather than on their own. This page is not one of them and does not reproduce them. It asks about the same territory in plainer language so you can decide whether to go further. If you assess with us, validated instruments are part of the process.
Why do so many autistic women get diagnosed late?
Because the diagnostic picture was built largely on studies of boys, and because girls are more often taught — and more often able — to mask. Copying other people's mannerisms, scripting conversations in advance and performing sociability all obscure the underlying difficulty. It works well enough to pass, at a cost that is usually invisible until burnout. Many women are treated for anxiety, depression or an eating disorder for years first.
Is the test free?
Yes. No charge, no sign-up, no email. Your answers are scored in your browser and are not sent to us or stored anywhere.
How much does an adult autism assessment cost?
An adult autism assessment with us is $1,650, including the written report. If ADHD is also on the table, assessing both together is $1,950 rather than $3,300, because the developmental history only has to be taken once.
Do I need a GP referral?
Not for a psychologist-led assessment. You need one if you want the Medicare rebate attached to the psychiatrist-led option.
Is a diagnosis worth it as an adult?
That depends entirely on what you want it to do, and it is a fair question to ask before spending money. It can unlock workplace and university adjustments, support an NDIS access request where there is functional impact, and change how clinicians treat you. It will not, on its own, get you NDIS funding. If you mostly want the explanation rather than the paperwork, plenty of people find that valuable and plenty find it changes less than they hoped. We would rather you went in knowing that.
Still not sure whether to bother?
Tell us what is going on. A clinician reads every enquiry and will tell you if an assessment is the wrong move — we would rather say that than take your money.