How much does probate cost?
19 Jul 2026
Probate costs come down to three things everywhere in the U.S.: the attorney’s fee, the executor’s fee, and the court’s own charges — and in every state, at least one of the three is fixed by law.
How much each one costs depends on your state, and the difference is not small. Seven states publish a fee schedule for the attorney in the statute itself; twenty-three publish one for the executor; the remaining states leave both to “reasonable compensation” that a judge reviews. The court’s own charge to open a case is the one thing fixed almost everywhere — among the twenty states that charge a single flat fee it runs from $45.00 in Alabama to $435.00 in California, and the rest scale it with the size of the estate. Every figure on this site is taken from the statute or the court’s own fee schedule, and carries the date a person last opened that source and checked it.
Figures on this page are carried from the fifty state pages below, each of which cites its own statute. The stamp shows the oldest verification date behind any figure quoted here.
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
Work it out on your own number
Pick your state and enter the estate’s rough value. Where your state publishes a fee formula, the calculator works it band by band and cites the statute underneath. Where it doesn’t, it says so plainly and shows what is fixed by law — the court fee, the bond, the creditor notice, the small-estate shortcut.
The calculator carries verified band data for every state in the country, works the schedule to the dollar, and stamps each result with the date the underlying statute was last checked. Where a state charges differently depending on the route you take — an informal probate rather than a formal one, a summary estate rather than a full one — it asks you which, because a single figure would be wrong.
What you’re actually paying for
- Attorney fee
- The fee for the lawyer who handles the court process. Seven states publish the formula in the statute — Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada and Wyoming. Those are the § chips marked in brass in the index below, and on their pages the number is worked, not estimated. Everywhere else, courts allow “reasonable compensation”: a fee the judge can review and cut. Either way, your state page says which rule applies and cites it.
- Executor fee
- What the person managing the estate — the executor, or personal representative, the court’s word for the same job — may be paid. Twenty-three states publish a rule for it, and several of those run on a base most people get wrong: Kentucky and South Carolina charge on the personal estate with real property left out entirely, while Georgia and North Carolina charge on the money that moves through the estate rather than on what the estate is worth, so no figure can be worked from a value at all. It is often waived inside families, but the law sets what may be charged, and that is what we publish.
- The court’s own charges
- A filing fee to open the case. Twenty states charge one flat amount whatever the estate is worth. The others scale it: New York runs a seven-band schedule topping out at $1,250.00, Iowa charges two-tenths of one per cent of the probate assets, Rhode Island one per cent of the personal property with a $30.00 floor and a $1,500.00 ceiling, and Virginia taxes probate rather than charging a fee at all. Seven states — Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia — publish no single statewide figure, because the price is set county by county or itemised step by step. We say so rather than inventing an average. Then come the smaller fixed items: publishing the notice to creditors, where the statute usually sets how often it runs and the newspaper sets the price, and a bond, where the court requires one.
The seven states that print the attorney’s number
On an estate of $500,000, worked band by band from each state’s own statute. Read the word beside each figure before you read the figure — it changes what the number means.
| State | What the statute calls it | Attorney fee |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | presumed reasonable | $15,000.00 |
| Arkansas | default, adjustable | $14,050.00 |
| Missouri | minimum | $14,050.00 |
| California | exact | $13,000.00 |
| Nevada | elective | $13,000.00 |
| Wyoming | minimum | $10,350.00 |
| Iowa | maximum | $10,120.00 |
Wyoming is the one to look at twice: it runs the same schedule again for the executor under a second section, so the true cost of the two roles together is $20,700.00, not $10,350.00. Reading one line alone underestimates it by half.
“Exact” means different things in different statutes
Even where a statute publishes a formula, it doesn’t always mean the same thing. Every fee on this site carries one of seven words, straight from how the statute reads:
- exactThe figure is fixed by law. California’s schedule is this.
- minimumA floor; the court must allow more where reasonable compensation exceeds it. Missouri’s and Wyoming’s are this.
- maximumA ceiling; the court allows a reasonable fee up to it. Iowa’s and Kentucky’s are this.
- default, adjustableApplies unless contracted otherwise; the court can move it either way. Arkansas’s attorney schedule is this.
- electiveAvailable only where the representative signs a written fee agreement and the court approves it. Hourly is equally available. Nevada’s is this.
- presumedPresumed reasonable, not mandatory. The parties may agree otherwise and the court may raise or lower it. Florida’s is this.
- noneNo formula exists; the law entitles the fee-earner to reasonable compensation. Twenty-seven states are this, and their pages say so plainly rather than guessing a percentage.
The word appears next to every worked figure, so you always know whether you are looking at the number, a floor, or a ceiling.
Every state, one standard
All fifty states are published. Every page follows the same standard: exact figures where the law is exact, sourced ranges where it isn’t, a citation with a verification date on every number, and a plain statement of what is not fixed.
South Dakota carries no chip mark although it publishes a percentage, because the schedule applies only where the will is silent or there is no will, and the statute says the representative may be allowed it rather than shall. Marking it § would overstate what the law gives you.
Your estate may not need full probate at all
Forty-eight states publish a threshold under which a shorter process applies — an affidavit, or a simplified court administration, depending on the state. The spread is enormous: the line starts at $5,000 in Arizona and $15,000 in Georgia and Rhode Island, and runs to $200,000 in Iowa and $400,000 in Wyoming. California’s primary-residence route reaches $750,000, on its own separate ceiling. Maine and New Hampshire publish no number at all — Maine gives a formula and leaves the court to apply it. Several states also depend on the date of death rather than the date you file. Check yours in thirty seconds:
Three tools, in the order most people need them
When a figure changes, know first
Statutes get amended and fee schedules get updated. Once a month, we send a short note listing every figure that changed and every page we re-verified. Reference, not marketing.
Probate cost questions
How much does probate cost, roughly?
There is no honest national number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. The attorney fee alone runs from a published statutory formula in seven states to open-ended “reasonable compensation” in the rest. What can be said exactly: on a $500,000 estate the worked statutory attorney fee is $15,000.00 in Florida, $14,050.00 in Arkansas and Missouri, $13,000.00 in California and Nevada, $10,350.00 in Wyoming and up to $10,120.00 in Iowa. Your state page has your answer, cited.
What is the cheapest part of probate?
Usually the court’s filing fee. Twenty states charge one flat amount however big the estate is, from $45.00 in Alabama and $100.00 in Montana up to $399.00 in Florida and $435.00 in California. New Mexico’s county probate court takes an informal, uncontested estate for $30.00, the lowest figure in the country.
Which state is the most expensive?
For the court’s own charge, the states that scale the fee with the estate. On a $500,000 estate, Delaware is the highest in the country at $10,100.00 in New Castle County, where the opening fee is joined by a two per cent closing charge on the net personal estate; North Carolina reaches $2,120.00, Connecticut $1,865.00, Rhode Island its $1,500.00 ceiling and New York its $1,250.00 top band. Compare that with $45.00 in Alabama on the same estate.
Why do costs vary so much by state?
Because each state legislature wrote its own rule and nobody coordinated them. Some published a fee formula in the statute; most left it at “reasonable compensation” for the judge to police. Some charge the court fee flat, some scale it, some hand the decision to the county. The formula states are marked § in the index above.
Do these fees come out of my pocket?
Probate fees are paid from the estate — the deceased person’s assets — before anything is distributed. The executor does not pay them personally, but they do reduce what beneficiaries receive.
Can probate fees be avoided?
Sometimes the process itself can be shortened or skipped. Forty-eight states publish a small-estate threshold, and some assets pass outside probate entirely. What applies to your situation is a question for a licensed attorney in your state; our job is to show you what the process costs when it runs.
How these figures are verified
Every figure on this page is carried from a state page, and every figure on a state page was checked against the official source — the statute, the court rule, or the court’s own published fee schedule — on the date stamped beside it. No figure appears anywhere on this site that has not been opened and read at its source first. Where a source publishes no figure, we print that absence rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
The sources for each figure are listed on that state’s own page, with a direct link and a date. Our re-check cadence, and what we do when a statute changes, are set out at /methodology/.
Researched and verified by John Terra · Methodology
This page is information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and fee schedules change; every figure here was verified on the date stamped beside it. For advice about your own situation, consult an attorney licensed in your state. Full terms: /disclaimer/
All fifty state pages are published — use the index above, or start with the Statutory Fee Calculator.