El Paso, TX · Public · Every figure is for a student starting in fall 2027. We work each one out again whenever we update the site.
How to pay for The University of Texas at El Paso
What a year costs here, what brings it down, and what a SmartTuition plan could save a family like yours.
Paying for four years here
Four years here, after grants
$53,752
A SmartTuition plan could save a family like this about $6,400.
A SmartTuition plan shows what to pay from where, each semester, using your own numbers.
Build your SmartTuition plan for UT El Paso, $99 →Best once your award letter arrives. No letter yet? Get the monthly email.
A family of four with good credit and $500 a month for college. How we worked these out ↓
A year at UT El Paso
| Full price, in state | $20,497 |
| Full price, out of state | $34,093 |
| After grants, at your income | $12,497 |
At this income, 2 of Texas's other 58 colleges cost less after grants, and 56 cost more. See them all →
What can bring it down
Merit scholarships. The UTEP Excellence Scholarship pays $8,000 to $32,000 over four years, chosen from an application due January 31 of senior year. Test scores are not considered.
UT El Paso's promise. Paydirt Promise: tuition and mandatory fees covered for Texas students with family income of $100,000 or less. The conditions ↓
Pay less for college
A SmartTuition plan shows what to pay from where, each semester.
At UT El Paso, our scenarios for Texas households with good parent credit show a SmartTuition plan saving a median of about $7,100 over four years. How we worked this out ↓
Considering more than one college?
Put the schools you are considering on one list and we price each of them for your family. It is free. It asks what you earn and what you have saved, never your name.
Put your schools side by side →Merit scholarships
What the University of Texas at El Paso says it awards for grades and test scores.
The UTEP Excellence Scholarship pays $8,000 to $32,000 over four years, chosen from an application due January 31 of senior year. Test scores are not considered.
Published guarantees you may qualify for
We do not assume you qualify for any of these, and our plans never bank on them. Check each against your own situation with the aid office.
Paydirt Promise: tuition and mandatory fees covered for Texas students with family income of $100,000 or less
Household income up to $100,000. Covers tuition, fees.
- The student is a Texas resident in a first bachelor's degree who files the FAFSA, and meets the program's other requirements. It is open to first-time freshmen, returning students and transfer students.
“The University of Texas at El Paso Paydirt Promise, a program that covers cost of tuition and mandatory fees for eligible students, will now help students whose families make up to $100,000 a year starting in the Fall 2025 semester. The University of Texas at El Paso Paydirt Promise, a program that covers cost of tuition and mandatory fees for eligible students, will now help students whose families make up to $100,000 a year starting in the Fall 2025 semester. This expansion of the Paydirt Promise follows a decision by The University of Texas System Board of Regents to provide additional funding for the program which currently supports undergraduate students with a family income of $80,000 or less. Increasing the threshold will make hundreds of additional students eligible for the Paydirt Promise. “One of the best values in higher education just became even more affordable,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “We are thankful for the Regents’ commitment to making high-quality education accessible to students in El Paso.” To support this expansion, the Board of Regents allocated an additional $35 million to the existing $300 million endowment for the Promise Plus scholarship program, which funds Paydirt Promise and similar initiatives across the UT System. Kevin P. Eltife, chairman of the Board of Regents, described the initiative as a transformative step in supporting students. “To be in a position to make sure our students can attend a UT institution without accruing more debt is very important to all of us, and as long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable, accessible education to all who choose to attend a UT institution,” Eltife said. Currently, more than 9,000 students benefit from the Paydirt Promise program. Eligible students must be Texas residents pursuing their first bachelor’s degree and meet other requirements.”
How we worked these out
The family
A family of four with good parent credit and $500 a month to put toward college, and the savings you pick. In state, the grants are what UT El Paso reports families at that income got, on average. Your own will differ, and a family with no aid pays close to the full price. Out of state, there are no grants: the price is before any scholarship from the college.
What a SmartTuition plan saves
The difference, over four years, between a SmartTuition plan and the standard approach: savings first, then loans for the rest. It counts loan interest and the federal tax credit.
The $7,100 in the “Pay less for college” box near the top of this page is the median saving in UT El Paso's own scenarios. Each scenario is a household that lives in Texas, with an income from $45,000 to $200,000 and savings of none, $40,000 or $100,000 in a 529. We price UT El Paso at the aid it reports for that income.
Every scenario has parents with good credit and $500 a month toward college. The card above uses the same two. A scenario where the parents would borrow more than $65,000 is left out.
The prices by income
- They describe students who got aid.
- “Over $110,000” has no upper limit, so it averages families just over $110,000 with far wealthier ones. A family at $115,000 should expect to pay less than it shows.
- Each range is reported on its own, so the prices do not always rise with income.
Where the prices come from
Where the prices come from: The University of Texas at El Paso's own 2026-27 tuition, fees, housing, food and books, from its website, carried forward to 2027 at 3.0% a year. The grants are the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard (2025-26 figures), carried forward the same way. Each price after grants is the cost less those grants. The out-of-state figure uses the published out-of-state tuition instead. The average price after grants counts the students who get federal aid. Your own figure will be different.
The University of Texas at El Paso's own budget for 2026-27 is $24,800. It also counts costs the university doesn't bill for, such as travel and personal spending. We leave those out.
SmartTuition.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The University of Texas at El Paso. Aid policies change; check current terms with the college's aid office.
Nearby at your income
- Lamar University$10,966 a year
- University of North Texas at Dallas$11,850 a year
- UT El Paso$12,497 a year
- UT Rio Grande Valley$12,602 a year
- Texas A&M Kingsville$12,714 a year
What each college charges, less the average grant for your income. Every Texas college →