Frequent testing is likely to be central to the success of biomedical prevention approaches such as pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention (TasP) 20, 21, 22, 23, and in order to meet their challenges it is important that we are able to measure testing frequency. Self‐testing kits for HIV have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration 4, and in the UK regulations outlawing their sale were repealed in April 2014 and commercial products became available in April 2015. However, it remains to be seen whether self‐testing kits can increase HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy uptake, particularly among those who would benefit most from it. While an international systematic review of research regarding self‐testing has demonstrated its acceptability 24, there are problems concerning the generalizability of its findings; many of the contributing studies focus upon developing countries and MSM are under‐represented. Moreover, most studies relate to an earlier era in the HIV epidemic when PrEP and TasP were unavailable 25, 26. In this paper we explore the frequency of, and reasons for, HIV testing among three community‐based samples of MSM in the UK, presenting estimates of annual and more frequent testing for the first time. We examine the factors associated with frequency of testing to assess the implications for future HIV prevention efforts.