If you’ve been masking your whole life, this is the test that catches it.
AQ-10 — Clinician Mode.
The AQ-10 (Autism Spectrum Quotient-10) is a validated 10-question adult autism test, built by Allison, Auyeung, and Baron-Cohen at Cambridge. It is the same AQ-10 test we use in session.
In-session AQ-10 administration. Dimension breakdown, validated 6+ cutoff, printable clinical report.
Optional: log patient name and date for the printable report. Skip to administer immediately.
AQ-10 short form. Read each item aloud or have the patient self-administer. Cutoff is 4 or more “agree”-direction responses for an NHS-style positive screen; cutoff of 6+ is the more conservative research threshold used here. Dimension breakdown and printable report appear on completion.
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If you’re a clinician using this with a patient, toggle Clinician Mode at the top.
What’s stopping you?
Is it expensive?
Aetna and UnitedHealthcare are in-network in NY. Otherwise it’s $200 flat for standard care — and we help you claim money back from your insurance.
How long is the wait?
Leann, our Intake Director, calls you within 1 business day. Not weeks. Not a phone tree.
Is it serious enough to need help?
If it bothers you, it counts. You don’t need a crisis to deserve care.
Will anyone find out?
No. We never contact your employer, your family, or anyone else without your written consent.
What if it doesn’t help?
The first call is a conversation, not a commitment. You decide everything from there.
Common questions
Click any question to expand.
What the AQ-10 measures — and what it misses.
The AQ-10 is a screener, not a diagnostic instrument. A positive screen is a starting point. A negative screen doesn’t fully rule autism out, especially in adults who’ve learned to mask.
The AQ-10 was developed by the Cambridge Autism Research Centre (Allison, Auyeung, & Baron-Cohen, 2012) as a 10-item short form of the original 50-question Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-50). It’s used in NHS clinics worldwide as the first-line screener for adult autism. The validated cutoff is 6 or more “agree-direction” responses out of 10, indicating a positive screen and that a full clinical evaluation is warranted.
The three trait clusters in the AQ-10
The 10 questions group into three autism-related trait clusters. Where your score lands across the three tells you about your specific presentation pattern.
Detail-Oriented Thinking 3 items
Noticing small sounds and patterns others miss. Strong attention to detail rather than the “big picture.” Love of categorizing and collecting information. These traits often look like “expertise” in adults — the engineer who can spec a system, the analyst who catches the typo, the person who knows every variant of every model.
Attention Switching 2 items
Difficulty multitasking. Hard to recover after an interruption. Once focused on something, switching tasks feels disproportionately exhausting. This often shows up in adults as “I need to finish what I’m doing” rigidity, or strong negative reactions to surprise meetings and changing priorities.
Social Communication 5 items
Reading subtext, inferring others’ intentions, picking up on facial cues, reading between the lines. In high-masking adults, this dimension may score low (looks fine on the outside) but accomplish that by exhausting cognitive effort — analyzing instead of intuiting. The AQ-10 captures the raw difficulty; the CAT-Q captures the masking that hides it.
Adult autism vs childhood autism
The classic image of autism — a child rocking, avoiding eye contact, not speaking — is incomplete for the adult population. Many adults with autism were never diagnosed because they didn’t fit the 1990s diagnostic stereotype. What persists in adulthood often looks like:
- Sensory sensitivity — sounds, lights, textures, smells that don’t bother others bother you intensely
- Need for routine and predictability — unexpected change feels disproportionately bad
- Special interests that consume hours and emotional energy
- Social exhaustion — one-on-one feels fine; groups, parties, and unstructured social situations drain you
- Difficulty with small talk while being fluent in deep, structured conversations
- Pattern recognition strength often paired with executive dysfunction in unstructured tasks
- Burnout when the masking strategies stop working — often in your late 20s, after a major transition, having kids, or losing your usual structure
Signs of autistic masking in adults:
The masking problem (especially in women and AFAB adults)
Autism masking — sometimes called “camouflaging” — is the conscious or unconscious modification of behavior to pass as neurotypical. It’s the reason autism diagnostic rates in women historically looked so low, and why so many women receive their diagnoses in their 30s, 40s, or later.
Common masking strategies include:
- Pre-rehearsing conversations and social scripts
- Forcing eye contact even when it feels uncomfortable or distracting
- Suppressing stims (fidgeting, hand movements, vocalizations) in public
- Mimicking neurotypical body language and tone deliberately
- Hiding special interests because they feel “weird”
- Studying neurotypical social media to learn rules others seem to know naturally
- Pushing through sensory discomfort instead of leaving the environment
If you score low on the AQ-10 but felt yourself answering based on “what I’ve learned to do” rather than “what feels natural,” the AQ-10 missed you. The CAT-Q (below) is built specifically to catch this pattern.
Which test should I take next?
Pick the next step based on your AQ-10 result
A positive screen. The next step is a full clinical evaluation with a psychiatrist or psychologist experienced in adult autism. We do these at Psychiatry in Motion in NY, FL, and NJ. For additional self-assessment depth, take the AQ-50 (full 50-question form) →
The AQ-10 misses high-maskers. Take the CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire) →. It’s built specifically for adults — especially women and AFAB people — who have learned to hide autistic traits. If your CAT-Q comes back elevated even with a low AQ-10, that’s a real signal worth bringing to a clinician.
If your day-to-day struggles look more like executive dysfunction, attention problems, or restlessness, the ASRS (adult ADHD screener) → may fit better. ADHD and autism overlap significantly in adult presentation, but they’re distinct — and the treatment paths differ.
What a real clinical autism evaluation looks like
A comprehensive adult autism evaluation isn’t a 15-minute checkbox exercise. Done right, it includes:
- A structured clinical interview (the ADOS-2 for adults or MIGDAS-2)
- Developmental history — autism is a lifespan condition, so symptoms must have been present since childhood, even if undiagnosed
- Standardized rating scales beyond the AQ-10 (e.g., AQ-50, CAT-Q, RAADS-R)
- Cognitive and adaptive functioning assessment when relevant
- Ruling out conditions that produce overlapping symptoms — anxiety, OCD, ADHD, complex PTSD
- Sometimes collateral information from a family member, partner, or childhood records
- A discussion of how traits impact your functioning across multiple life domains
A thorough adult evaluation typically takes 90–120 minutes minimum, often spread across two visits. If you’re considering pursuing diagnosis, look for clinicians who explicitly state they have experience evaluating adults — the skill set and instruments differ meaningfully from child evaluation.
Allison C, Auyeung B, Baron-Cohen S. (2012). Toward brief “Red Flags” for autism screening: the Short Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Short Quantitative Checklist for Autism in toddlers in 1,000 cases and 3,000 controls. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(2), 202–212. PubMed PMID: 22265366.
Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R, Martin J, Clubley E. (2001). The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31(1), 5–17. PubMed PMID: 11439754. (Original 50-item AQ from which the AQ-10 was derived.)
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Clinical Guideline CG142 — Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management. nice.org.uk/guidance/cg142. (NICE recommends the AQ-10 for adult autism screening in primary care.)
Answer 4 quick questions and we’ll point you to the right test.
Take the 60-second triage →Talk it through with someone trained.
If your result resonates, match with Dr. Al-Katib’s team — evaluated calmly, by a psychiatrist who actually assesses adult autism. NY, FL, NJ. Leann gets back within one business day.
Match with care →This screener is for educational purposes. It is not a diagnosis. Autism can only be diagnosed by a licensed clinician after a full evaluation. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or go to your nearest emergency room. The AQ-10 was developed by Allison, Auyeung & Baron-Cohen (Cambridge Autism Research Centre, 2012).
A complete guide to the AQ-10 and adult autism
The Autism Spectrum Quotient short form (AQ-10) is the most widely used adult autism screener in primary-care and psychiatric practice. Developed by Carrie Allison, Bonnie Auyeung, and Simon Baron-Cohen at the Cambridge Autism Research Centre in 2012, it’s the validated short-form derived from the original 50-item AQ.
NICE (the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) recommends the AQ-10 as the first-pass adult autism screener in CG142. Validated cutoff: 6 or more agree-direction responses on the 10-item Likert.
How accurate is a free adult autism test?
The Allison 2012 validation study found the AQ-10 had sensitivity of 0.88 and specificity of 0.91 for identifying adults who would meet diagnostic criteria when assessed by a structured clinical interview.
That makes it excellent for population-level screening — but the most consistent failure mode is in high-masking adults, especially women and AFAB people who’ve learned to perform neurotypical behavior. A negative AQ-10 doesn’t rule autism out. A positive AQ-10 means a clinical evaluation is warranted, not that you have autism.
Adult autism vs childhood autism: why the picture is different
The classic image of autism — a non-verbal child with obvious sensory differences and visible stims — is a narrow slice of the actual spectrum.
Adults presenting for first-time evaluation typically have had autistic traits since childhood that went unnoticed, masked, or were misattributed to anxiety, ADHD, or “being shy.” By adulthood, the visible behaviors are often masked, but the underlying neurology is intact: sensory sensitivity, deep focus, social-processing differences, exhaustion from unsustained masking.
Female autism and late-diagnosis: why the AQ-10 misses some adults
Diagnostic frameworks for autism were built largely on data from boys studied in the 1980s and 1990s. As a result, the standard adult AQ-10 catches the male-pattern autism profile reliably but undercounts adults who present with the female-pattern profile — deep interests in people and narrative rather than systems, social fluency-through-mimicry, exhausting masking, late-emerging burnout.
The current understanding is that the male-to-female ratio is closer to 3:1 (down from earlier estimates of 4:1 or 10:1). The Wikipedia entry on autism in women and girls has a deeper overview.
Masking and the CAT-Q connection
The AQ-10 measures observable autistic traits. The CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire) measures how much effort you put into hiding those traits. Hull and colleagues at University College London developed the CAT-Q specifically to catch the autistic adults the AQ misses. If you scored low on the AQ-10 but suspect masking, take the CAT-Q next.
What adult autism support actually looks like
Unlike most psychiatric conditions, autism isn’t treated as an illness — it’s supported as a neurological difference. The most helpful adult autism support is individualized but usually includes:
- Psychoeducation — understanding your own neurology. For many late-diagnosed adults, this is the single highest-impact intervention.
- Therapy for comorbid conditions — anxiety, depression, complex PTSD, OCD, and ADHD all co-occur frequently with autism. The NIMH autism overview has detail on co-occurring conditions.
- Accommodations and sensory regulation — workplace and home environmental adjustments, sensory tools, scheduling that respects recovery needs.
- Unmasking work + autistic-affirming therapy — reducing the cognitive load of constant performance. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) has resources from autistic-led organizations.
Medication can address comorbid anxiety, depression, ADHD, or OCD but doesn’t “treat” autism itself.
Finding adult autism evaluation in NY, FL, or NJ
Psychiatry in Motion is a Brooklyn-based private psychiatry practice serving New York, Florida, and New Jersey via telehealth. Dr. Ahmed Al-Katib is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and specializes in adult ADHD, autism, OCD, and burnout. The AQ-10 you just took is the same screener we use in session at the start of an adult autism evaluation. Intake Director Leann returns calls within one business day.
If you scored 6 or higher and want to talk it through with a psychiatrist who actually evaluates adult autism, match with care. If you live outside our direct-care states, we’ll share your contact info with a vetted colleague in your area — with your explicit written permission.
Related screeners worth taking
Adult autism overlaps with several other conditions. If your AQ-10 result resonated — or didn’t — these are the next stops worth knowing about:
- If that resonated: Adult ADHD & autism evaluation — a real evaluation for adults who were missed — especially high-maskers.
- Start here if you’re unsure: What’s going on with me? — our 5-question triage that routes you to the right screener, the right resource, or the right kind of help based on what you describe.
- AQ-50 (full Autism Spectrum Quotient) — more detailed than the AQ-10; gives subscale breakdown across social skill, attention switching, attention to detail, communication, and imagination.
- CAT-Q masking screener — if you scored low here but mask heavily, this catches what the AQ misses.
- ASRS adult ADHD screener — ADHD and autism frequently co-occur; missing one can make treatment for the other less effective.
- Burnout eligibility check — sustained masking is a leading driver of burnout in late-diagnosed autistic adults.
For the full library of free, validated screeners we use in clinic, see The Vault.
When to seek help right now
If autism-related challenges are causing significant distress, interfering with work or relationships, or you’ve been managing the pattern alone for years, that’s reason enough to seek evaluation — your AQ-10 score alone isn’t the threshold.
If you’re in crisis, call or text 988 (the U.S. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), or go to your nearest emergency room. More background on adult autism is available at the Wikipedia entry for autism spectrum and the NIMH autism topic page.
Last clinically reviewed: 2026-05 · Curated by Dr. Ahmed Al-Katib, MD, ABPN-board-certified psychiatrist