The deadline for people interested in requesting an exemption from paying the 2026 Enem (National High School Examination) registration fee and for those candidates who need to justify their absence from last year’s edition to participate in this edition for free begins this Monday (April 13, 2026) and extends until April 24th.
Interested parties must access Enem’s email address with the single login of the federal government’s digital services platform, Gov.br.
Right to request exemption
Inep grants free registration for the exam in the following cases:
- enrolled in the 3rd year of high school in a public school, in 2026;
- students of all secondary education in a public school or full scholarship holders in a private school and who have an income equal to or less than one and a half minimum wages;
- low-income people with active registration in CadÚnico (Single Registry for Social Programs of the federal government);
- beneficiaries of the Pé-de-Meia program, from the MEC (Ministry of Education);
People who fit these profiles must request exemption from paying the fee, as exemption is not automatic.
Inep highlights that the participant who is part of a family registered with CadÚnico must have regular registration status to request exemption from enrolling in Enem. Failure to update CadÚnico may result in the request to take the tests for free being rejected.
Absence in 2025
The participant who was exempt from paying the Enem 2025 registration fee, did not attend the tests on the 2 application days in November last year and wants to request exemption from the registration fee again in 2026 must justify his absence.
Justification for absence in Enem 2025 must also be made by , in the same period, from April 13th to 24th.
Self-declaration documents or documents issued by parents or guardians of participants will not be accepted.
Documents to justify absence from Enem 2025 must contain all the specifications of the notice and be legible for analysis, otherwise they will be considered invalid. Among them: police report, for cases of robbery or traffic accident; marriage certificate or declaration of stable union, if it occurred nine days before the first day of the tests.
Inep requires documents only in PDF, PNG or JPG formats, with a maximum size of 2MB.
Results
The results of registration fee exemption requests will be released by Inep on May 8.
Applicants with exemption requests denied by the municipality will be able to file an administrative appeal from May 11th to 15th. The definitive results of the appeals will be known on May 22.
The Enem 2026 rules and deadlines relating to requests for exemption from the registration fee are described in the one published by Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira) on the 1st.
Registration required
The Inep notice clarifies that having approval of the request for exemption from paying the Enem 2026 registration fee does not guarantee registration for this year’s Enem.
The registration period via the Participant Page will still be defined and published by the MEC.
Enem
Enem is the main entry test into Brazilian higher education, through initiatives such as Sisu (Unified Selection System); and federal initiatives such as Prouni (University for All Program) and Fies (Student Financing Fund).
Since the 2025 edition, Enem has once again certified the completion of this teaching stage for candidates who are 18 years old and also achieve the minimum score in each area of knowledge on the tests and in writing.
Individual Enem results can also be used in the selection processes of higher education institutions in Portugal that have an agreement with Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira) to accept exam scores.
