How much does Model UN cost? Fees, travel and free options

On mymun, the typical fee is about €60 in person and €7 online where one is charged, and longer conferences charge more.

The delegate fee is what the organizers charge each delegate to take part. It pays for the rooms and the materials, and sometimes for lunch or a social. On mymun, a one-day in-person conference typically charges about €12, a three-day one about €55 and one of four days or more about €85.

In person, a typical fee is about €85 in North America and Africa, and about €60 in Europe and Asia. Where the fee is set in US dollars, it is typically about $105. Each card on mymun shows the fee in the conference's own currency, with the amount in euros or dollars beside it, and the high school and university pages show the typical fee at each level.

A higher fee does not buy a better conference: on mymun, in-person conferences that charge under €40 are rated a little higher on average than those at €150 or more.

Add travel, a room, food, clothes and extras to the fee: once you sleep away from home, they usually cost more than the fee.

The fee is the price you see first, and rarely the largest once you leave your city. Add these before you apply:

If you need a visa

Check early whether you need one. A Schengen visa for most of Europe costs €90, and you can apply up to six months before you travel. Pupils and students on an educational trip, and their teachers, pay no visa fee, and delegates aged 25 or under at a conference run by a non-profit can have it waived too: say so when you apply. Ask the organizers for an invitation letter as soon as you are accepted.

For parents

Your child spends days speaking in public, negotiating and writing alongside students from other countries, and uses those skills long after the conference: here is what Model UN gives students. Most of the cost is the trip, not the conference. If a trip costs too much this year, an online or local conference gives the same practice for far less, and who supervises students has its own answer.

Online costs little or nothing; in person costs more, and buys you the room, the people and the trip.

Online, the fee is almost the whole cost: no train, no room, no new clothes. More than half of upcoming online conferences on mymun are free, and online conferences that charge typically ask about €7. In person, about one upcoming conference in twelve is free.

What you give up online is the room itself: lobbying over lunch, the moment a vote passes, the friends you travel with. Many delegates start online, then add one in-person conference a year. Online conferences take applications all year round.

In a delegation, your school or your leader often pays for the group, so ask before you pay anything.

Many delegates go with a school or university delegation. The group's leader, a student head delegate or a faculty advisor, signs everyone up. On mymun, the leader can pay every member's fee in one go, so ask before you pay anything yourself.

Some conferences add a fee per school or for faculty advisors, so a group's total can be more than its delegate fees. Teachers find costs, deposits and help with funding in taking students to a conference, and clubs raise money with these ideas.

Start with a free or nearby conference, catch early-bird rates and codes, and ask the organizers about a reduced fee.

• Free conferences. Free Model UN conferences lists every one, online and in person.
• One-day conferences near you. A one-day in-person conference on mymun typically charges about €12, and you sleep at home. The map shows what is near you.
• Early-bird rates. Some conferences charge less if you pay by a set date. Follow a conference on mymun, and you hear the moment applications open, in time for the lower price.
• Discount codes. About three in ten conferences that charge a fee also create discount codes, often for partner schools or members of the organizing society. Ask whether you qualify.
• A reduced fee. Write to the organizers before you rule a conference out: say what you can pay and why you want to come. They set their own prices, so they can make an exception.
• Chairing. About four in five in-person conferences on mymun that take chairs let them in without a fee, so becoming a chair after a few conferences saves money too.
• Your school club. Practise at a club with the UN's free research resources and Model UN toolkit, take the free Model UN masterclass, and run whole sessions in MUN Command before you pay for a trip.

The UN itself gives no financial help to Model UN delegates, so help comes from the conference, your school or a local sponsor.

mymun charges nothing to apply, and the price on the conference page is the price you pay.

mymun charges nothing to apply: you pay only the conference's own fee, from your application, once the organizers ask for it. That is usually once you are accepted, and your application page shows when it is due.

• The price you see is the price you pay. At checkout, a processing fee shows as a line inside that total, never on top of it.
• Card, PayPal or bank transfer, or another method the conference offers. If you pay by transfer, upload your receipt at checkout, and the organizers confirm it.
• Another currency? The fee is charged in the conference's currency, so ask your bank what it charges for a payment from abroad.
• Refunds follow each conference's own rules, so read them before you pay.

Your payment goes to the conference itself, through its checkout or the bank details it shows there.