USPTO patent fees (2026)

Large, small and micro entity fees

Most USPTO patent fees come in three amounts. A small entity pays 60% less than a large entity and a micro entity pays 80% less. A small entity filing a utility application in Patent Center also gets the micro rate on the basic filing fee: $70 instead of $140 (37 CFR 1.16(a), 1.27(b)(2)). A few fees, such as the IDS size fee, have no discount.

Small entity

Under 37 CFR 1.27(a), a small entity is an individual, a business that has 500 or fewer employees counting affiliates (13 CFR 121.802), a university, or a nonprofit. None of them qualifies if it has assigned or licensed any right in the invention, or is obliged to, to a party that would not qualify itself. Every party holding rights has to qualify.

• How to claim it: a signed written assertion in the application. No form or set wording is required (37 CFR 1.27(c)(1)). Paying the exact small entity basic filing fee also counts as the assertion (1.27(c)(3)).
• Each application: status has to be asserted again in every continuation, divisional, continuation-in-part and reissue (1.27(c)(4)).
• Refunds: if you paid a full fee before asserting status, you can get the difference back only by asserting status and asking for the refund within 3 months of paying (37 CFR 1.28(a)).
• Losing it: once established, small entity fees can be paid until the issue fee or a maintenance fee falls due. Before or when paying the first of those after you stop qualifying, you must file a notice of loss of entitlement. Paying the full fee is not enough notice (1.27(g)).

Micro entity

Micro entity status is claimed by filing a certification: form SB/15A on the gross income basis or SB/15B on the institution of higher education basis (37 CFR 1.29(a) and (d)). On the gross income basis, the applicant must be a small entity, and no applicant, inventor or joint inventor may:

• be named on more than four earlier patent applications. Foreign applications, provisionals, international applications that never paid the US basic national fee, and applications assigned to a former employer are not counted (1.29(a)(2) and (b));
• have had gross income in the previous calendar year above $262,380, the limit for fees paid from September 15, 2026 (USPTO);
• have assigned or licensed the application, or be obliged to, to an entity whose income was above that limit.

Micro entity status has to be true on the date of each payment, not only at grant. A notice of loss must be filed before paying any fee after you stop qualifying (1.29(i)). That notice does not end small entity status unless it says so. Since July 20, 2026, applicants domiciled outside the United States must be represented by a registered patent practitioner, who also signs the micro entity certification.

Filing a utility nonprovisional application

Every utility nonprovisional pays three fees at filing: the basic filing fee, the search fee and the examination fee. Excess claims fees are charged when the claims are filed and again whenever an amendment takes the count past what has already been paid for (37 CFR 1.16(h) and (i)).

Provisional application

A provisional has no search or examination fee and no claims fees. It pays one filing fee, plus the size fee if the specification and drawings run past 100 sheets.

Read next: How to file a provisional patent application

During examination

These are the fees most applications meet between filing and allowance. The IDS size fee and the continuing application fee were added by the FY 2025 fee rule and apply from January 19, 2025.

Issue and maintenance fees

The issue fee is due within 3 months of the notice of allowance, and that period cannot be extended (37 CFR 1.311(a)). Utility patents then pay three maintenance fees.

Design and plant applications

Design and plant applications pay their own filing, search, examination and issue fees. Neither pays maintenance fees (37 CFR 1.362(b)), and the non-electronic filing fee does not apply to them.

How the newer fees work

• Application size fee. The specification and drawings together get 100 sheets. Each further 50 sheets, or part of 50, costs $450 (37 CFR 1.16(s)). A 160-sheet application pays the fee twice. Provisionals pay it too.
• Continuing application fee. A continuation, divisional or continuation-in-part filed more than 6 years after its earliest benefit date pays $2,700 (large entity); after 9 years the total is $4,000 (37 CFR 1.17(w)). The earliest benefit date counts only claims under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c). A provisional or foreign priority date does not start the clock.
• IDS size fee. Once the information disclosure statements in an application list more than 50 items in total, the IDS that crosses the line pays $200; crossing 100 brings the total to $500 and crossing 200 to $800 (37 CFR 1.17(v)). The count is cumulative over the life of the application, and an IDS filed without a required size fee is not considered (37 CFR 1.97(a)).
• Non-DOCX and paper filing. A utility application whose specification, claims or abstract is not in DOCX pays $430 more (37 CFR 1.16(u)). Filing on paper adds the $400 non-electronic filing fee ($200 for small and micro entities), and a small entity loses the $70 e-filing rate.

Extensions, RCEs and maintenance deadlines

Most Office actions set a 3-month period for reply. Under 37 CFR 1.136(a), you can extend it by up to 5 months on payment of the extension fee, but never past the 6-month statutory maximum, so a 3-month period can be extended by up to 3 months. The fee is set by the date the extension is filed, and a three-month extension costs $1,590 for a large entity. If prosecution is closed, a request for continued examination costs $1,500 the first time and $2,860 for each later one.

Maintenance fees are due 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant, counted from the grant date, not the filing date. Each can be paid without surcharge in the 6 months before its due date, from the 3rd, 7th or 11th anniversary of grant (37 CFR 1.362(d)). After the due date, a 6-month grace period runs to the 4th, 8th or 12th anniversary, with the $540 surcharge ($216 small, $108 micro). If nothing is paid by then, the patent expires at the end of that anniversary (1.362(g)). A petition to accept the late payment as unintentionally delayed costs $2,260 if filed within one year of expiry and $3,000 after that. For petitions filed after August 13, 2026, the higher fee starts after one year instead of two.

To check a patent's grant date, and so when its maintenance fees fall due, look it up in the free USPTO patent search.

Worked example: a small entity with 20 claims

A small entity files a utility application in Patent Center, in DOCX, with 20 claims, 3 of them independent, and 60 sheets of specification and drawings. It pays no excess claims fee and no size fee, so the filing fees are $70 (filing) + $308 (search) + $352 (examination) = $730. On allowance it pays the $516 issue fee, for $1,246 in USPTO fees from filing to grant if there is no extension or RCE. Keeping the patent for its full term adds $5,788 in maintenance fees, for $7,034 in total.

The same application with 25 claims, 4 of them independent, pays $640 more at filing: 5 claims over 20 at $80 and 1 independent claim over 3 at $240. A large entity filing the 20-claim version pays $2,000 to file, $3,290 to grant and $17,760 over the life of the patent.

More USPTO guides

• How to file a provisional patent application (US)

  What a US provisional must contain, the USPTO fees, the 12-month deadline under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), and when to skip it.

• Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India

  37 CFR 1.84, the EPO rules that replaced Rule 46 EPC, and Indian rule 15, compared side by side.

• How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India

  Claim structure and worked examples, then the claim rules and fees at the USPTO, the EPO and the Indian Patent Office, side by side.

• How to respond to a USPTO office action

  Reply deadlines and extension fees, 101, 102, 103 and 112 rejections, interviews, and options after a final rejection.

All guides, by patent office