IEEE Access APC and Open Access: Current IEEE Pricing, Member Discounts, and What You Get
IEEE Access APC is $2,160. IEEE members get 5% off and IEEE society members get 20% off. Current fully open-access pricing and discounts.
Readiness scan
APC budgeted? See what IEEE Access reviewers are likely to push back on.
The fee is one decision. Getting through review is the harder one. Run the Free Readiness Scan with IEEE Access as your target to see desk-rejection risk, likely reviewer concerns, and journal fit.
IEEE Access at a glance
The figures IEEE Access publishes about speed, selectivity and cost, each linked to the page we read it on. They describe the journal, not your manuscript's chances.
Quick answer: IEEE Access currently charges an APC of $2,160 per article, plus applicable local taxes. The journal is fully gold open access, so there is no subscription route.
The important current detail is that the old $1,850 number is out of date. IEEE now publicly lists $2,160, with a 5% discount for IEEE members and a 20% total discount for IEEE members who are also IEEE Society members (IEEE Access APC page, checked October 8, 2026). Discounts cannot be combined, the member discounts exclude Student and Graduate Student members, and authors in World Bank low-income countries can get a discount only when every author is located in an eligible country. For the hub, see the IEEE Access journal page.
If the real question is whether the paper belongs in IEEE Access rather than a more selective Transactions journal, run an IEEE Access submission readiness check.
IEEE Access APC at a glance
Item | Current position |
|---|---|
Journal model | Fully gold open access |
Current APC | $2,160 (IEEE Access APC page, checked October 8, 2026) |
IEEE member discount | 5% |
IEEE + IEEE Society member discount | 20% total |
Low-income country discount | Yes, only if all authors are in a World Bank low-income country |
Subscription route | No |
Page limits | No formal page limit |
Overlength charges | No |
Taxes | Applicable local taxes may apply |
Review-speed positioning | Rapid peer review; IEEE advertises 4 to 6 weeks from submission to publication |
2025 JIF (2026 JCR release) | 4.2 (IEEE Access bibliometrics page, checked October 8, 2026) |
5-year JIF | 3.9 |
JCI | 0.82 |
2025 CiteScore | 9.3 (IEEE Access bibliometrics page, checked October 8, 2026) |
2025 SJR | 0.884 (same source) |
If the cost looks workable, the harder question is whether your paper will clear desk review. A IEEE Access desk-rejection risk check takes about 2 to 3 minutes before you commit to these fees.
What IEEE currently says
IEEE Access's APC page is explicit:
- the journal is fully OA
- the APC is $2,160
- there are no page length limits or overlength charges
- IEEE members receive a 5% discount
- IEEE members who are also IEEE Society members receive a 20% total discount
That means the older frame of "IEEE Access costs $1,850 and there are no real discounts" is no longer current.
What authors actually pay
Author status | Approximate APC before tax |
|---|---|
Nonmember | $2,160 |
IEEE member | about $2,052 |
IEEE member + IEEE Society member | about $1,728 |
For the right author profile, the effective price lands much closer to the old numbers than the sticker price suggests.
That matters because IEEE Access competes in a crowded engineering OA lane where authors compare:
- speed
- brand recognition
- Xplore indexing
- and APC cost
Metrics context behind the APC
Metric | Current figure | Why it matters with the APC |
|---|---|---|
JIF (2025 data) | 4.2 | Solid but not elite by engineering-journal standards |
5-year JIF | 3.9 | Slightly stronger longer-run profile than the 2-year window |
JCI | 0.82 | Citation performance is below world average once normalized |
CiteScore (2025) | 9.3 | Scopus gives the journal a somewhat stronger read than JCR alone |
SJR (2025) | 0.884 | Prestige-weighted influence is respectable, not top-tier |
Review speed | 4 to 6 weeks submission to publication, as advertised by IEEE (checked October 8, 2026) | Fast handling is one of the main reasons authors choose it |
IEEE Access is not charging like a prestige IEEE Transactions title. It is charging like a high-volume, fast, broad-scope engineering OA journal with strong discoverability inside the IEEE ecosystem.
Long-run citation context
Year | JIF |
|---|---|
2017 | ~3.6 |
2018 | ~4.1 |
2019 | ~3.7 |
2020 | ~3.4 |
2021 | ~3.5 |
2022 | ~3.9 |
2023 | ~3.4 |
2024 | 3.6 |
2025 | 4.2 (verified on the IEEE Access bibliometrics page, October 8, 2026) |
The latest move is upward: IEEE's own bibliometrics page lists 4.2 for 2025 citation data, against the 3.6 shown here for 2024, but the larger story is stability. The journal has stayed in the same citation band for years. That tells authors not to expect prestige upside from the APC alone. The value proposition is speed, openness, and IEEE branding.
Readiness check
Run the scan while the topic is in front of you.
See score, top issues, and journal-fit signals before you submit.
How IEEE Access compares with nearby options
Journal | APC structure | Metric profile | Practical fit |
|---|---|---|---|
IEEE Access | Fully OA, $2,160 before discounts | JIF 4.2 (2025 data), CiteScore 9.3 | Broad engineering work that benefits from IEEE branding and speed |
Fully OA | Similar broad-volume logic, different disciplinary identity | Better when the work is not IEEE-native | |
Fully OA | Similar volume-oriented publication logic | Better for sensor-heavy work where MDPI is acceptable | |
Relevant IEEE Transactions journal | Usually hybrid or subscription-led | Often stronger field prestige | Better when subfield reputation matters more than speed |
Fully OA | Lower prestige in engineering | Better when broad soundness review matters more than IEEE identity |
The real comparison is usually not "IEEE Access versus Nature-family science journals." It is "IEEE Access versus a field-specific IEEE Transactions title" or "IEEE Access versus a broad OA engineering outlet like Sensors."
What we see in pre-submission review work with IEEE Access manuscripts
The APC is not the main risk at IEEE Access. Scope and technical framing are.
Applied extensions often look weaker than authors think. If the manuscript uses an established architecture or system in a new dataset or deployment context, IEEE Access still expects a clear technical delta.
Baseline quality is part of the price logic. Authors choose IEEE Access for fast review, but the journal still rejects papers with thin benchmarking or incomplete validation.
The IEEE identity has to be obvious. Papers framed as generic AI, healthcare, sustainability, or materials work without a clear engineering contribution get slower handling or outright rejection.
That is why the right order is:
- confirm the manuscript is genuinely IEEE-native
- confirm the contribution is more than a straightforward application
- then decide whether the APC is a good trade for speed and branding
Submit if / Think twice if
Submit and accept the APC if:
- the paper fits clearly inside electrical engineering, computing, communications, sensing, or adjacent IEEE scope
- rapid publication matters
- IEEE Xplore visibility matters to your audience
- the manuscript has complete baselines and validation at submission
Think twice if:
- the work is engineering-adjacent rather than engineering-owned
- a specific IEEE Transactions title would carry materially more career value
- the novelty claim is vague and relies mostly on a new dataset or application setting
- you are treating IEEE Access as a fallback without checking scope carefully
Practical verdict
IEEE Access is now a $2,160 APC decision, not an $1,850 one.
That is still a workable price for a fully OA IEEE-branded journal, especially once discounts are applied. But the real reason to choose IEEE Access is not that it is cheap. It is that it gives you:
- broad IEEE visibility
- rapid handling
- and a publication lane that is more inclusive than most Transactions titles
If those are not the actual reasons you want the journal, the APC is harder to justify.
Frequently asked questions
IEEE Access currently charges $2,160 per article plus applicable local taxes. The journal is fully open access, so every accepted paper goes through this APC route.
Yes. IEEE says corresponding authors who are IEEE members receive a 5% discount, and IEEE members who are also IEEE Society members receive a 20% total discount. Student and Graduate Student members are excluded from that discount.
Usually not. IEEE Access is a fully gold open-access journal with no subscription route or hybrid option, so the APC applies unless IEEE grants a discount or its APC waiver for authors from low-income countries (as classified by the World Bank).
No. IEEE states that IEEE Access has no page length limits and no overlength article charges, though it recommends staying under 20 pages for readability.
IEEE advertises a submission-to-publication time of 4 to 6 weeks on the IEEE Access home page (checked October 8, 2026). Treat that as the journal's target for papers that move smoothly, not a promise for yours.
Sources
- 1. IEEE Access APC page
- 2. IEEE Access guide for authors
- 3. IEEE Access rapid peer review
- 4. Clarivate Journal Citation Reports
- 5. IEEE Access bibliometrics (2025 JIF, CiteScore and SJR, checked October 8, 2026)
Free guide
The list price is rarely the price you pay.
Waivers, funder agreements and institutional deals move it, and the deadline for most of them is submission, after which there is no appeal. Every figure in the guide was read off the publisher or funder page that sets it, on the date shown, and each one is linked at the end.
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- Is IEEE Access Predatory? A Practical Legitimacy Verdict