NAPLEX Pass Rates and Passing Score: What NABP's Numbers Show

The NAPLEX pass rate and passing score, in short

NABP publishes NAPLEX pass rates by graduation year, not by test date. In its report dated March 16, 2026, 86.8% of 2025 graduates of ACPE-accredited pharmacy programs passed on their first attempt, compared with 75.9% of 2024 graduates and 76.4% of 2023 graduates. The passing standard is a scaled score of 75 on a scale from 0 to 150, but you will not see a number on your result: NABP reports the NAPLEX only as pass or fail.

What is the NAPLEX passing score?

NABP's support page states that on the NAPLEX, a scaled score of 75 or higher represents a passing score, on a scale that runs from 0 to 150. Two details matter more than the number itself:

• 75 is not a percentage. NABP says a scaled score does not represent the percentage of questions answered correctly, so there is no fixed number of questions you need to get right.
• You will not see your score. The same page says scaled scores are no longer provided for the NAPLEX, and the candidate bulletin says results are reported as either pass or fail, without a scaled score.

The bulletin adds that the passing standard was set by a panel of pharmacy experts and that the ability level it represents is the same for every NAPLEX administration, so the bar does not move from one administration to the next. Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect, so finishing the exam matters.

What are the latest NAPLEX pass rates?

NABP's report "Passing Rates for 2023-2025 Graduates" gives these national totals for all graduates of ACPE-accredited programs:

NABP's separate ten-year table, prepared February 2, 2026, shows the longer trend in first-time pass rates: 92.0% for 2015 graduates, between 86.0% and 88.2% for 2016 through 2020 graduates, then 81.7% for 2021, 77.3% for 2022, 76.4% for 2023, 75.9% for 2024 and 86.8% for 2025 graduates. NABP notes that graduation data before 2021 was self-reported and is not guaranteed to be correct.

How to read NABP's NAPLEX pass-rate tables

The tables answer a narrower question than most candidates assume, so read the conditions NABP lists with them:

• Grouped by graduation year. A 2024 graduate who tested in 2025 counts in the 2024 row.
• Only the reported window. People who tested or graduated outside the reported years are left out, and so are attempts that did not receive a score.
• Only ACPE-accredited programs. The national row covers graduates of ACPE-accredited programs. It does not report foreign-educated pharmacists who take the NAPLEX after earning FPGEC certification.
• Still moving. NABP says the values may change as graduates in each year take more exams. The 2025 row is the newest, so it is the most likely to change as more 2025 graduates test.

The difference between the two rates is also worth knowing. The first-time rate covers each graduate's first scored attempt. The all-time rate counts every scored attempt, retakes included, so the two rates answer different questions.

Do NAPLEX pass rates differ by school?

Yes. The same NABP report lists first-time and all-time rates for each college of pharmacy. For 2025 graduates, the mean of the school first-time pass rates across 142 schools was 85.7%, with a standard deviation of 11.5 percentage points. A school's figure describes its own recent graduates, and it can rest on a small number of candidates, so treat it as context rather than a forecast for you.

None of these rates is your personal chance of passing. They describe groups that have already tested. What you control is how well your preparation covers the outline's five domains, so the practical use of a pass rate is to take the exam seriously, not to calculate odds. If you want a structured way to work through those domains, you can see how NAPLEX prep planned for launch is organized around NABP's content outline.

What does a failing NAPLEX result tell you?

If your primary jurisdiction uses NABP's online result reporting, results appear in your NABP e-Profile within 14 business days of the exam, and some jurisdictions, such as California and Illinois, release results themselves. A failing official report includes a section showing your relative performance in each of the five major content areas. That breakdown is the best starting point for a retake plan, because it points to the domains that cost you the most. The guide to what is on the NAPLEX explains what each of those five domains covers.

You can also ask NABP to rescore an exam. A rescore costs $200, must be purchased within 60 days of the exam date, and cannot be canceled or refunded, and NABP says a change in results is extremely unlikely because its scoring uses parallel, independent systems.

How soon can you retake the NAPLEX?

NABP's candidate bulletin sets three limits, as checked on November 1, 2026:

A retake is a new application: you pay the $100 eligibility application fee again, a board of pharmacy must reconfirm your eligibility, and you pay a new $520 exam fee. For example, if you failed on March 3, the 45-day waiting period ends on April 17, so plan your review weeks with that date in mind. Timed rehearsal helps here, and a 225-question mock exam is part of the NAPLEX prep planned for launch, with checkout not open yet.

NAPLEX pass rate questions candidates ask

Did the NAPLEX get easier for 2025 graduates? NABP's tables show the higher 2025 rate but do not explain it. The 2025 row also includes only attempts made by the end of 2025, and NABP says it can change. A single year is not proof that the exam changed difficulty.

What score should I aim for on practice tests? Practice scores, including Passy's, do not convert to NABP's scaled score. Use them to find weak domains, not to predict a result.

Does the 2027 NAPLEX use a different passing standard? As of November 1, 2026, NABP's pages describe the same pass-or-fail reporting and the same retake rules, and they announce no change for 2027.

A practical next step after reading the NAPLEX numbers

Turn the pass-rate question into a preparation question: which domains are you weakest in today? The 20 free NAPLEX practice questions are split across the five content domains by their weights, with an explanation for every option, so your misses show where to start. When you are ready for more volume, compare the planned 30-, 90- and 180-day NAPLEX prep options.