system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are standardized tests so expensive?

For example, the SAT is about $50 ($70 for late registration), subjects tests are about $20, and AP tests are $95. What goes into these for such a high price?
gpt
The price of a good or service isn't wholly dictated by how much it costs to produce or provide, but how much can be charged to achieve maximum profitability for the seller. It's mostly about how much people are willing to pay.

With that said, the production cost of the product is probably a bit higher than you realize. Some portion must go to supporting test centers (for some tests, anyway), which must have a proctor, security measures, and generally a fixed physical location. You have to employ people to generate the content, and refresh that content periodically. You have to design multiple test forms and then find a way to norm them (often, there will be entirely different questions on different forms, not just the same questions in different orders).

I'll also state that the SAT and AP tests are cheap. Try seeing how much taking the MCAT, GRE, a GRE subject test, or the LSAT will cost you. It's much worse. I'd imagine this is partly because it's easier to demand a higher price for these tests, as people are willing to pay it. I'd imagine a small part of the additional cost is getting people to produce the actual test questions (of course, there have been controversies about how similar tests are from form to form, and year to year... so this probably isn't a huge part of it).