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Ellen Lee is a writer focused on parenting and health gear. She has tried dozens of COVID-19 antigen tests—including while sick with COVID-19. Rapid Coronavirus Test Kit
Flu is (still) surging nationwide. You can test for flu infection at home, using any of the combination Covid/flu tests we review here. These include the CorDx Tyfast At-Home Flu A/B and COVID-19 Rapid Test Kit and the iHealth COVID-19 Flu A&B 3-in-1 Rapid Self-Test.
“The dominant virus infection that we’re seeing this year is the flu,” Dr. Susan R. Russell, medical director at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s medical intensive-care unit, told The New York Times.
Rapid antigen tests offer a quick and easy way to screen for COVID-19, influenza (flu) A, and flu B on your own. Often called “rapid tests,” these tests rely on a nasal swab to detect active infections within about 15 minutes. They can be valuable tools for managing life with the coronavirus.
In November 2023, the Acon Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test became the first at-home rapid antigen test cleared through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s traditional premarket review process. Altogether, more than six dozen rapid antigen tests have earned FDA emergency authorization for at-home use without a prescription. And there are now a handful of at-home combination Covid/flu rapid tests available in the U.S. For many people, it makes sense to keep at least a few of these tests on hand.
People covered by private health insurance plans may be eligible for free Covid tests: View your insurer’s guidance on how to obtain covid tests without paying out of pocket (and how to be reimbursed for tests you’ve paid for).
Below are eight antigen test kits authorized by the FDA that we’ve found to be relatively affordable and that are sold through multiple retailers. We list additional FDA-authorized tests available for purchase, including some at-home molecular tests kits, below.
You’re likely eligible for eight at-home covid tests per month at no cost to you. See your insurer’s website for details.
Check the CDC’s Increasing Community Access to Testing for COVID-19 program to find free COVID-19 testing near you.
Acon Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test kits are available in boxes of one, two, and five tests.
Abbott’s BinaxNow COVID-19 Antigen Self Test kits come in boxes of two, four, or 10 tests.
A single combination Covid/flu test comes in the CorDx Tyfast At-Home Flu A/B and COVID-19 Rapid Test Kit box.
One box of CVS Health At Home COVID-19 Test Kits contains two tests. (They are rebranded Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Tests.)
One box of iHealth’s COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test comes with two test kits.
iHealth’s COVID-19, Flu A&B 3-in-1 Antigen Rapid Tests comes in boxes of two or four combination Covid/flu test kits.
The Intrivo On/Go COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test (one test per box), pairs with an optional app that walks you through testing (including a timer to ensure you’re taking the proper amount of time to collect your sample) and displays results on your phone.
The Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test includes two tests, which can be bought in bulk—at a reduced cost per test.
May be out of stock
One box of Walgreens At-Home COVID-19 Test Kits contains two tests. (They are rebranded Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Tests.)
Molecular tests done in labs—the most well-known type being a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test—are still considered the gold standard for confirming or ruling out a COVID-19 infection. But even though most at-home tests are not as sensitive as lab tests, they can quickly detect whether there is “a level of the virus that we have to be concerned that somebody could transmit [COVID-19] to someone else,” said Dr. Clare Rock, a clinical epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who runs a COVID-19 infection-control consultancy.
A negative at-home result, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that someone doesn’t have COVID-19, especially as new variants continue to circulate. For instance, if you swab too soon after a potential exposure, you may test negative—even if you are carrying the virus. The CDC recommends that people who have come into close contact with someone who has COVID-19 should test at least five days after the encounter. With the Omicron and successive variants, though, some experts have recommended that you test two to three days after exposure and, if negative, test again each day, or every other day, through day six.
Although PCR tests are known to be so sensitive that they can detect a weeks-old COVID-19 infection (even after the person is no longer infectious), that’s not the case for at-home rapid antigen tests. If you test positive with a rapid antigen test, even after staying home for the recommended five days, you’re quite possibly still infectious. “If you’re positive, you’re positive,” said Dr. Wilbur Lam, a professor of pediatrics and bioengineering at Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology and a clinical pediatric hematologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to a growing number of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests that are available to shoppers, without a prescription, in pharmacies and online. Most at-home kits come with two tests and cost between $20 and $40.
The accuracy of an at-home antigen test depends in part on test sensitivity (in a nutshell, the test’s reported ability to detect a true positive), test specificity (its reported ability to detect a true negative), sample integrity (whether a swab contains enough sample or the swab solution is contaminated by, say, another pathogen), whether someone follows the manufacturer’s instructions exactly, the time since a person’s last known or suspected exposure and/or their onset of symptoms, and the person’s viral load at the time of testing. In general, these tests all have about the same ability to detect the virus, and you should feel comfortable using any of them to check whether you’ve contracted COVID-19, said Dr. Michael Mina, a former Harvard epidemiologist who is now the chief science officer for eMed, which sold a version of Abbott’s BinaxNow at-home tests for certified results (such as for travel).
“The odds that you’re going to test negative twice when you’re infected are much lower than the odds that you’re going to test negative once.” —Christopher Brooke, infectious-disease expert
For a test to be considered for emergency use authorization, test makers must submit to the FDA clinical data demonstrating test sensitivity and specificity. Note that these sensitivity and specificity percentages are a snapshot in time, with a limited sample—all FDA-authorized tests have proved they can detect an infection. (Some independent studies have shown much lower sensitivity and specificity for some antigen tests, particularly when they’re used on asymptomatic individuals.) “Most of these tests do work, but there is no such thing as a perfect test that works 100 percent of the time,” said Lam, who is part of a team testing new rapid antigen tests, and verifying that they can detect COVID-19, on behalf of the National Institutes of Health.
As new coronavirus variants and subvariants have emerged, manufacturers have self-reported whether their tests can detect them. Generally, these tests can detect COVID-19 variants, but they may not be as sensitive to it, which means you may get a false negative at first.
The tests are authorized for use on people as young as 2 years old, provided that any child’s sample is obtained and processed by an adult. (The results of a 2022 study suggest that kids as young as 4 may be able to swab and collect the sample on their own, provided they watch an instructional video.) The instructions that accompany all of the tests listed below also include a disclaimer indicating that negative results may require additional testing for confirmation. For each of them, there’s a small (and lesser) chance of false-positive results, too.
The following tests are FDA emergency-use-authorized and available for purchase.
Note: Availability of these tests fluctuates frequently.
Sensitivity: 84.6% (PDF) within seven days of symptom onset
Specificity: 98.5% (PDF) within seven days of symptom onset
Cost: about $8 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $8 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $8 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $4 per test at the time of publication
Sensitivity: SARS-CoV-2 89.1%, influenza A 83.6%, influenza B 90% (PDF)
Specificity: SARS-CoV-2 99.8%, influenza A 98.8%, influenza B 99.9% (PDF)
Cost: about $13 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $8.50 per test at the time of publication
Note: The CVS Health At Home Covid-19 Test Kit is a rebranded Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test.
Cost: about $9 per test at the time of publication
Sensitivity: SARS-CoV-2 84.2%, influenza A 81.6%, influenza B 82.5% (PDF)
Specificity: SARS-CoV-2 98.4%, influenza A 99.8%, influenza B 99.8% (PDF)
Cost: about $12.50 per test at the time of publication
Note: In addition to Covid, the test can detect both influenza A (flu A) and influenza B (flu B).
Cost: about $8.50 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $9 per test at the time of publication
Note: Intrivo On/Go packages and distributes the CareStart COVID-19 Antigen Home Test through a partnership with Access Bio.
Cost: about $9 per test at the time of publication
Note: On/Go packages and distributes the Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test through a partnership with Acon Laboratories.
Cost: about $9 per test at the time of publication
Note: InteliSwab’s results are available in 30 minutes, rather than 10 to 15 minutes as with other tests.
Cost: about $8.50 per test at the time of publication
Cost: about $12 per test at the time of publication
Note: The Walgreens At-Home Covid-19 Test Kit is a rebranded Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test.
The FDA has also authorized five molecular tests for use at home without a prescription or the need to send a sample to a lab for testing. (Only one remains widely available.) The results take longer, from about 30 minutes to an hour, but are supposed to provide “PCR-quality results” and have a better likelihood of detecting COVID-19 early on. These tests are much more expensive because they include a machine that magnifies the sample and reads the results.
Sensitivity: SARS-CoV-2 88.3%, influenza A 90%, influenza B N/A (PDF)
Specificity: SARS-CoV-2 100%, influenza A 99.3%, influenza B 99.9% (PDF)
Cost: $43 at the time of publication for a single-use kit
Note: In addition to Covid, the test can detect both influenza A (flu A) and influenza B (flu B).
At-home antigen tests require a relatively noninvasive nasal swab.
Each test comes with specific instructions, which essentially require you to collect a sample with a swab, dip the swab into a solution, transfer some of the solution into a small reservoir, and wait for the result.
For most tests, such as the Abbott BinaxNow and Quidel QuickVue tests, you can read the results after 15 minutes or so, much as you would a home pregnancy test: Two lines indicate a positive result, and one line (the control) indicates a negative. A very faint second line can still indicate a positive result. (Check your results during the designated window of time, not earlier or later.) Covid/flu combination tests similarly show a control line to compare with results for COVID-19, flu A, and flu B.
In March 2022, the FDA issued additional safety precautions for using at-home COVID-19 tests, advising people to use and store home tests per manufacturers’ instructions (which all specify room-temperature use and storage) and to keep them out of reach of children and pets. (The agency had received reports of children accidentally ingesting the liquid solution or pieces of the test.) Having received reports of people mistaking the small vials of test-kit solution for eye drops, the FDA also cautioned that the solution is not meant to touch any part of the body. If you’ve had a problem with any at-home test, you can report it to the FDA.
Test makers are also still developing ways to make these tests accessible for people with certain disabilities. The New York Times has reported on the challenges that people who are blind or have limited vision can face when administering home tests. These tests require precise steps—with BinaxNow, for instance, you must squeeze six drops of liquid into a small hole on the test card—and require visually interpreting the results. Apps such as Be My Eyes and Aira can provide some visual assistance
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering encourages people who take at-home covid tests to report their results at MakeMyTestCount.org, where submitted information is “anonymous, secure, and cannot be traced back to you.”
Based on initial studies, the FDA authorized home covid tests to have expiration dates of about four to six months. Portions of the tests can degrade over time, which can give you an inaccurate result, though scientists have yet to determine an exact length of time after which certain kit components become unreliable. Generally speaking, the agency advises against using expired test kits. Now that there has been more time for experts to evaluate the tests, several manufacturers have received FDA authorization to extend their expiration dates (assuming that the tests have been stored at specific temperatures). If the expiration date on your test has come and gone, consult this FDA list—which denotes extended expiration dates for certain tests—and the manufacturer’s website before tossing it.
As is true for all COVID-19 diagnostics, including PCR tests, the timing of the sample collection in relation to the last known or suspected exposure and/or symptom onset is the biggest factor that can affect accuracy. This is why many test kits come with two tests, intended for use between two and three days apart.
In August 2022, the FDA recommended that all people using rapid antigen tests to screen for COVID-19 at home use repeated testing, also known as serial testing, to “reduce the risk an infection may be missed.” Specifically, the FDA says that people with symptoms of COVID-19 or who know they were exposed to the virus should retest 48 hours after an initial negative result (and again 48 hours after a second negative result).
“Serial testing boosts sensitivity,” said Christopher Brooke, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The odds that you’re going to test negative twice when you’re infected are much lower than the odds that you’re going to test negative once.”
An infected person’s viral load changes over time. “The sensitivity of a test really depends on when you use it,” said Daniel Larremore, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder, who has modeled the effects of repeated population screening of asymptomatic people with molecular and antigen tests.
“When you reach a high enough viral load, antigens are going to be at a high enough concentration to be detected,” Larremore said. Testing yourself the day after attending a party with someone who didn’t know they had COVID-19 at the time is unlikely to be useful. “Twenty-four hours after exposure, no test is going to be positive,” Larremore said. On the other hand, if you wait too long to test, you may miss peak antigen concentration, meaning you should see a fainter positive line if the test detects COVID-19 antigens in your sample.
Omicron and other variants have also shifted the timetable for detecting the virus: People are showing slightly different symptoms, possibly earlier, alerting them that they need to test. But even though people may already be symptomatic and infectious, they may not have enough of the virus in their nose to be detected by a rapid test.
If you already have COVID-19 or flu–like symptoms, you should isolate. If you have a limited supply of at-home tests, you may want to wait a day before testing, for a better chance of catching a positive result. “Don’t waste a rapid test on the first day of symptoms,” Mina said. If your result is negative, you should test again a day or two later.
If you’re taking a test before attending a gathering or seeing someone vulnerable, the best time to test is just before you walk through the door—don’t rely on a test from the day before because your results can quickly change.
If you know you’ve been exposed to Covid or flu, but are not symptomatic, experts recommend testing five days after the exposure or event. And if your test is negative, you should test again—ideally the next day or every other day until day six (the day of exposure counts as day zero).
Of course, if you test positive, you should take the appropriate precautions.
And if you still test positive for Covid with a rapid antigen test after the recommended five-day quarantine, experts say you should trust the test result and continue to take precautions.
Tracy Vence contributed reporting. This article was edited by Courtney Schley, Tracy Vence, and Kalee Thompson.
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