Calculator · 3 occupations · FAA, FMCSA, USCG
Medical Certificate Expiry Calculator — pilots, drivers, mariners
Find how long your medical certificate lasts and when it expires, given your occupation, certificate class, age and exam date.
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Where do these durations come from?
Pilot medicals: 14 CFR 61.23, the FAA's own table of medical certificate durations by class, age and operation. Commercial drivers: 49 CFR 391.45, FMCSA's examination cycle. Merchant mariners: 46 CFR 10.301, the Coast Guard's medical certificate validity rules. Each record on this site quotes the line from the regulation that states the duration.
Why does age matter for pilots but not drivers?
The FAA's duration table splits every certificate class by age — a third-class medical lasts 60 months under 40 but only 24 months at 40 or older. FMCSA and the Coast Guard set fixed cycles (24 months standard for drivers, 2 or 5 years for mariners) with shorter periods for specific medical conditions or age under 18, not an age-based cascade. The age interaction is the part people — and at least one online calculator — get wrong.
What does this not tell you?
Whether you will pass the examination — only the examiner can decide that. It answers one question: given a certificate class and an exam date, how long the regulation says that certificate is good for. Special issuance (SI) certificates may carry shorter durations set by the FAA on a case-by-case basis; those are not in the regulation's table.
About these rules
Three federal agencies require medical certificates for three different transport occupations, and none of them uses the same duration rules. A first-class FAA medical carries first-class privileges for 6 or 12 months depending on your age, then downgrades — the same piece of paper becomes a second-class and then a third-class certificate on a schedule. A CDL medical is 24 months unless a specific condition shortens it to 12. A mariner's certificate is 2 years for international (STCW) service, 5 years for national-only, and 1 year if you are under 18. Browse all the rules.