Georgia gives you free, anonymous HIV testing through community organisations and the state AIDS Center — no name, no insurance, no bill, result in about 15 minutes. It is one of the genuinely good parts of the system. The catch is what the free route leaves out: the throat and rectal swabs a gay or bisexual man actually needs. Understand the gap and you can pair the free service with a private lab to get the full picture.
🩸 Where to Test for Free
All of these offer free, confidential or fully anonymous HIV testing, and most add syphilis and hepatitis:
| Service | Where / When | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| AHF Checkpoint Tbilisi | 2 Marie Brosset Street, 0108 Tbilisi. Tel +995 32 2 228 040. Mon–Fri 15:00–19:00 | Free rapid HIV (15 min), plus free hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis testing. Walk in. Confidential. Free condoms. |
| Equality Movement | Ia Kargareteli Street #2, Tbilisi. Tel 032 247 97 48. Mon–Fri 12:00–19:00 | Free rapid HIV test, pre- and post-test counselling, gay-friendly. Enrol under a 15-digit anonymous code. Also runs resource centres in Zugdidi and Telavi. |
| Tanadgoma | Community centres in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Telavi | Free HIV testing and rapid self-test kits, counselling, condoms, referral to STI clinics. |
| AIDS Center (Tengiz Tsertsvadze Center) | Lubliana Street #70, Tbilisi. Counselling line +995 551 82 66 66 | Free anonymous / confidential HIV counselling and testing; the state clinical hub. |
- Cost: Free.
- Anonymity: Full at the community services — Equality Movement and Tanadgoma work through codes, no ID needed.
- Results: Rapid HIV results in around 15 minutes; a reactive rapid result is confirmed with a follow-up blood test at the AIDS Center.
Window periods matter. A standard HIV test is reliable from about 4 weeks after a risk and fully conclusive by 3 months. Test too soon and a negative doesn't yet clear you — ask the counsellor when to come back.
🔬 The Blind Spot: Three-Site Swabs
A full screen for a gay or bisexual man checks blood-borne infections (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis) and takes swabs from three sites — throat, rectum, and urethra — because gonorrhoea and chlamydia often sit in the throat or arse with no symptoms, and a urine sample alone misses them.
The free community services are built around HIV, syphilis and hepatitis. They generally do not do throat and rectal swabbing for gonorrhoea and chlamydia. To close that gap you use a private laboratory.
- Synevo — a large private lab chain with branches across Tbilisi and other cities. Its STI PCR panel (gonorrhoea, chlamydia, trichomonas, mycoplasma) runs around 380 GEL (standard list price 660 GEL; couples roughly 285 GEL each). Book online or walk in.
- The thing you must ask for: by default a lab takes a urethral or urine sample only. If you have receptive sex, you must explicitly request throat and rectal swabs as well, or the infection gets missed. The vocabulary guide below has the exact phrase.
So split it: a free community checkpoint for your HIV/syphilis/hepatitis baseline, and a private lab for three-site gonorrhoea/chlamydia swabs.
🌍 Outside Tbilisi
Tanadgoma's community centres in Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Telavi run free HIV testing, and the regional AIDS centres in Kutaisi, Batumi and Zugdidi provide clinical testing. Private labs like Synevo have branches in the larger cities. The regional guide below has the detail.
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