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What Driver's Ed Costs in Greater Portland, Maine

Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 19, 2026 · 11 min read

If your kid turns 15 this fall, the class you want is already full at two of the three schools that post seat counts. AAA's Portland course lists October 13, November 10 and December 8 as fully booked, with five seats left on January 5, 2027. Driver's Ed with Fred in Gorham shows every remaining 2026 session, October 26, November 16 and December 14, as FULL, with January 11, 2027 the first open date. 207 Driving School is the exception, and it is closing fast: its September 19 weekend had 14 open spots on September 6 and was full by the morning it started, and its October 3 weekend went from 18 open spots to 6 in the same two weeks. October 17, October 31 and November 14 still showed 18 to 20. This is a market where the price matters less than the date, and where most schools, unusually for this region, actually print the price.

Here is the number. Of fourteen driver education schools licensed by the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles inside twenty-five minutes of downtown Portland, ten publish a course price on their own website, in a class information document, or in the registration system they send you to. Four do not. The ten published prices run from $459 to $800, and the middle of the pack sits at $650.

What the state requires before any school gets paid

Maine law is the reason this is a purchase and not a choice. Under Title 29-A, section 1304, anyone 15 or older can apply for a learner's permit, but anyone under 18 must first complete a driver education course. The BMV's Chapter 9 rules fix what that course is: 30 hours of classroom instruction and 10 hours behind the wheel, taught by a school and instructors the state licenses. Several schools now deliver most of the classroom portion through an online course, and the state accepts that as long as it runs alongside in-person sessions.

The state's own charges come after the school's. The permit exam is $35. A permit lasts two years and cannot be renewed; if it expires, you retake the written test. Anyone under 21 must hold the permit at least six months and log 70 hours of supervised driving, 10 of them at night, before applying for a road test. The Class C license itself is $30, or $55 for a REAL ID version. A driver licensed before 18 gets an intermediate license with no passengers outside immediate family, no driving between midnight and 5 a.m., and no cellphone use.

So the real cost of a Maine teen license is the course tuition, plus $35, plus $30, plus at some schools a separate online-course fee that goes to AAA rather than the school. That last item is the one families miss.

The ten that print a price

A few of these need reading closely.

Mullen's is the lowest published number by a wide margin, and its page is explicit that the $459 blended package is what runs at its Gorham, Scarborough and Windham locations: the first and last of ten classes in person, the eight between on Zoom, plus the 10 driving hours. The same page says the $399 in-person package is Augusta only, and that the exact tuition for a given class appears once you select it in the registration tool, so treat $459 as the listed package price rather than a quote. A $300 non-refundable payment holds the seat.

Tuttle's and Driver's Ed with Fred both use AAA's online classroom and both say plainly that the AAA fee is on top: $39.95 for AAA members, $49.95 for everyone else, paid to AAA. Tuttle's also charges $35 more if you pay by Venmo instead of cash or check, and wants a $200 deposit at orientation. Fred's class information sheets for the September and November 2026 sessions add up the same way, $300 to sign up and $500 at orientation, and note the $35 permit fee separately. Fred is the most expensive published option in the area, and on September 19 every 2026 Gorham session left on its list, October 26, November 16 and December 14, was marked FULL, with January 11, 2027 the first date not marked.

Roy's is the case that decides whether a school counts as publishing. Its website has a drivers page, a class descriptions page and a locations page, and the only dollar figure on any of them is the state's $35 permit fee. Click through to register for the Freeport High School teen class and the enrollment portal loads a package called "Drivers Education (no additional fees)" at $700. Brunswick loads the same $700; Lewiston loads $675. The price exists and is public. It is just not on the brochure.

The Right Choice has no website of its own that we could find; its Cape Elizabeth and South Portland courses register through the two towns' community services departments. South Portland's listing is specific: Fall Session 1 runs October 5 to 22 and Fall Session 2 runs November 9 to December 3, weekday afternoons 2:30 to 5:00 at the community center, minimum 10 students, maximum 15, $625 for residents and $635 for everyone else. Registration opened August 11 for residents.

AAA publishes $650 for members and $705 for new members on its Maine enrollment portal, and confirms membership at checkout. The course is seven hours of classroom, the self-paced online course, and 10 driving hours. Portland classes meet on a Tuesday evening once a month.

ABC on Dartmouth Street, which teaches in Arabic, Somali and English, lists a $685 full package for either an in-person classroom or an online classroom, and on the same page prices AAA's online course at $39.95 or $49.95, which reads as an addition to the online option. Its French-language and Portuguese-language services pages, reached from the same site, list the equivalent package at $600. We are reporting both numbers; we did not ask which is current.

The four that do not

Hamilton's Driving School at 385 Stevens Avenue, across from Deering High School, publishes almost everything except the tuition. Its pages state the $150 non-refundable deposit, the AAA online fee of $44.95 or $54.95, the mailing address for the deposit check, and a line that prices are "subject to small change due to any substantial changes in gas prices." We read the home page, the Portland class dates page, the online sign-up form and the FAQ. No total appears on any of them.

Casco Bay Driving School, licensed at Deering High School, prints $70 for a one-hour private lesson, $120 for two hours, and $120 to use its car for the road test, but no price for the driver education course itself, which it says students book through its scheduling system. Proper Turn Driving School in Westbrook has a two-page website with a contact form and no prices. Learning By Doing Driving School, licensed at 149 Devereaux Circle in South Portland, is new to the BMV's May 2026 list and we found no website for it at all.

None of that means these four cost more. It means a parent comparing them has to call, and the ten schools above decided that parent should not have to.

The division nobody prints

The useful arithmetic is not tuition per course, it is tuition against what the driving hours cost on their own. Four schools here sell private behind-the-wheel time: 207 Driving School at $75 an hour, Tuttle's at $70, Casco Bay at $70 and Mullen's at $75. Ten hours of private driving at those rates is $700 to $750. Every full course in the table includes those same 10 hours, and eight of the ten published courses cost less than $700 at their lowest listed rate. The classroom portion, in other words, is close to free once you are paying for the driving. It also means the cheapest published course, Mullen's at $459, costs $291 less than buying 10 private hours from Mullen's.

Three traps

A different Right Choice. Search the Cape Elizabeth school's name and the first site that comes up is The Right Choice Driving School of Ottumwa, Iowa, which charges $375 for online coursework plus six hours of driving and lists Iowa school districts for its reduced-lunch discount. Six hours does not satisfy Maine's 10-hour rule, and the school is 1,400 miles away. The Maine one registers through Cape Elizabeth Community Services and South Portland Parks and Recreation.

Stale search summaries. A search for AAA's Portland tuition returned a summarized answer of $545 for members and $590 for non-members. AAA's own enrollment portal, read the same morning, says $650 and $705. Open the operator's page, every time.

A page that disagrees with itself. 207 Driving School's services page lists the one-hour private lesson at $75 in its heading and "just $60" in the paragraph beneath it, the two-hour lesson at $130 and then "$100," and the road test vehicle at $150 and then "$100." We are reporting the heading prices, which match the home page, and flagging that the paragraphs do not.

What this means if you have a fifteen-year-old

Book the date first and the price second. Two of the schools with the most specific schedules list every remaining 2026 session as full, and the state's six-month permit clock does not start until the course is done and the permit is issued. A teen who cannot get into a class until December will not be eligible for a road test until summer.

Then add the fees the schools do not control: $35 for the permit exam, $30 for the license, and at any school using AAA's online classroom, $39.95 to $54.95 to AAA. If you already pay for a AAA membership, the member rate applies at AAA's own school and at the online course, which narrows the gap between AAA and the rest to almost nothing. If you are new to the area, the license conversion and car registration pages cover what the adults in the household owe the same office, and the child care and music lesson audits use the same method as this one.

FAQ

How much does driver's ed cost in Portland, Maine?

Published 2026 tuition at ten licensed schools within twenty-five minutes of Portland runs from $459 at Mullen's Driving School to $800 at Driver's Ed with Fred, with 207 Driving School, indieDriver and AAA all at $650. Four more schools, including Hamilton's in Portland, do not publish a price.

Is driver's ed required in Maine?

Yes for anyone under 18. Title 29-A, section 1304 requires a person between 15 and 18 to complete a driver education course before applying for a learner's permit. Drivers 18 and older can apply for a permit without it.

How many hours is driver's ed in Maine?

The BMV's Chapter 9 rules require 30 hours of classroom instruction and 10 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction. Several Greater Portland schools deliver most of the classroom hours through an approved online course paired with in-person sessions.

What fees are there besides tuition?

The learner's permit exam is $35 and the Class C license is $30, or $55 with REAL ID. Schools that use AAA's online classroom, including Tuttle's, Hamilton's and Driver's Ed with Fred, charge the AAA fee separately: $39.95 to $44.95 for AAA members and $49.95 to $54.95 for non-members, depending on the school.

How long after driver's ed can a teen get a license?

Under 29-A section 1304, anyone under 21 must hold a learner's permit for six months and log 70 hours of supervised driving, including 10 at night, before applying for a road test. A permit is valid for two years and cannot be renewed.

Which Portland driving schools have openings this fall?

As of September 19, 2026, 207 Driving School listed 6 open spots on its October 3 weekend, 18 on October 17 and 20 each on October 31 and November 14, with September 19 full; AAA's Portland course showed October 13, November 10 and December 8 fully booked, five seats on January 5, 2027 and seats available on its monthly Tuesday starts through August 2027; Driver's Ed with Fred showed all three remaining 2026 Gorham sessions full and January 11, 2027 open; South Portland's Right Choice sessions start October 5 and November 9. On September 6 the same three schools had shown 207's September 19 weekend with 14 open spots, AAA with two seats on December 8 and Fred with December 14 open.

Are there cheaper ways to get the 10 driving hours?

No. Private behind-the-wheel lessons at the four schools that sell them run $70 to $75 an hour, so 10 hours alone costs $700 to $750, more than eight of the ten published full courses at their lowest listed rate.

Every price and date on this page was read on September 6, 2026 from the school's own website, class information document or enrollment portal, from the South Portland Parks and Recreation listing, from the Maine BMV's May 12, 2026 list of licensed driver education schools, from the BMV's fee and graduated license pages, from the Chapter 9 driver education rules, and from Title 29-A, section 1304 on the Legislature's site. We did not call any school. Class availability at 207 Driving School, Driver's Ed with Fred and AAA was re-read from the same pages on September 19, 2026; the prices generally change by school year.