WGU Term Planner & Acceleration Cost Calculator

Western Governors University bills in six-month terms. Undergraduate students must enroll in at least 12 competency units per term and graduate students at least 8. Terms equal remaining CUs divided by CUs per term, rounded up, because a leftover CU still costs a full term. A bachelor's student with 60 CUs left needs 5 terms at the 12-CU minimum, 4 terms at a typical 18-CU pace, or 1 term if the whole list clears inside six months. WGU's scheduling page (verified August 13, 2026) states full-time enrollment is 12 CUs for undergraduates and 8 CUs for graduates, and that most bachelor's programs are about 120 CUs.

WGU tuition is a flat amount per six-month term plus a $200 e-books and resources fee, effective for terms beginning on or after October 1, 2026. School of Business bachelor's programs are $3,850 plus $200. School of Education bachelor's programs stay at $3,825 plus $200. School of Technology rates vary by program, from $3,925 (B.S. Information Technology, B.S. Data Analytics, B.S. Cloud and Network Engineering) to $4,425 (B.S. Cybersecurity). Leavitt School of Health non-licensure bachelor's programs are $4,425 plus $200. A term that started before October 1, 2026 still bills at the January 1, 2026 schedule, which is kept in the comparison table further down this page. Figures re-checked on WGU's four college tuition pages and the official 2026-2027 table October 19, 2026. Edit the $ per term field if your program posts a different number.

WGU posted new flat-rate tuition for terms that start on or after October 1, 2026, and this planner now calculates with those rates. Most programs moved up by $15 to $500 per term. School of Education bachelor's programs stay at $3,825, B.S. Computer Science and B.S. AI Engineering are unchanged, and B.S. Software Engineering moved down to $4,125. If your current term started before October 1, it still bills at the January 1, 2026 rate: find your program in the table and type the January figure into the $ field. WGU's technology page still shows the old M.S. Computer Science and M.S. Software Engineering amounts on its program cards, and its accelerated computer science card still lists the January figures too, but the official 2026-2027 table lists $4,625 for both master's programs, and that table is what new terms bill under. Figures re-checked against WGU's 2026-2027 tuition page and all four college tuition pages October 19, 2026 (the technology page's M.S. CS, M.S. SE, and accelerated CS cards still lag at the January amounts; the official table governs). The calculator switched to the October 1, 2026 schedule on October 5, 2026. Confirm your program code on WGU's table before you plan.

WGU requires undergraduates to enroll in at least 12 competency units each term and graduate students to enroll in at least 8. Those floors are the on-time pace this planner uses for the first scenario column. Completing fewer CUs than you enroll in can put federal aid at risk under WGU's 66.67% satisfactory-progress rule. Prelicensure nursing is excluded here because clinical cohorts do not follow this acceleration math. The 12 / 8 minimum appears in current WGU program guidebooks and on WGU's scheduling page, spot-checked August 13, 2026.

A one-term WGU finish is documented and uncommon. It means clearing every remaining competency unit inside a single six-month bill. At 20 study hours per CU, 60 remaining CUs need about 47 hours a week for six months. Community write-ups on r/WGU and DegreeForum describe one-term finishes, usually from students with heavy transfer credit or unusually open calendars. This planner will not recommend a one-term finish that needs more than 60 hours a week. WGU itself markets the flat-rate term as the reason speed saves money. The hours-per-week test is this tool's honesty rule, not a WGU guarantee.

Terms equal remaining CUs divided by that scenario's CUs per term, rounded up. Cost equals terms times (published tuition plus the $200 resources fee). Cost per CU equals that total divided by remaining CUs, rounded to the nearest dollar. If you enter weekly hours, your pace is floor(hours × 26 / hours-per-CU). The 20 hours-per-CU default is an assumption you can change. Typical-pace presets (18 CUs undergraduate, 12 graduate) come from community term recaps, not from WGU. Sources: WGU college tuition pages (Oct 1, 2026 rates), WGU scheduling policy, r/WGU term-pace threads, and DegreeForum one-term write-ups. Anecdotes are not guarantees.