Patent Cost: Average Fees Explained

A patent costs money at three points: when you file, when the patent is granted, and at intervals for as long as you keep it in force. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sets every one of those fees, and most of them depend on your entity size.

The fee amounts on this page come from the USPTO fee schedule, checked on Oct 11, 2026. The USPTO revises fees by rule, so confirm current amounts at uspto.gov/fees before you pay. This page lists fees; consult a licensed patent attorney or registered patent agent for advice about your invention.

A nonprovisional utility application owes three fees at filing: the basic filing fee, the search fee, and the examination fee. Utility patents cover how something works, such as machines, processes, and chemical compositions, and they are the most common type.

The headline range covers these three fees across entity sizes. It does not include attorney or agent fees, drawings, or extra fees for long applications or many claims.

The USPTO charges three fee levels. The tables below show the same three filing fees at each level, so you can compare them row by row.

Large Entity

Large entity is the default level. It applies to most companies and to any applicant who doesn't qualify for a reduction.

A large entity pays a basic filing fee of $350, a search fee of $770, and an examination fee of $880.

Small Entity

Small entity status is generally available to individual inventors, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and universities, as long as they haven't assigned or licensed rights to a large entity.

For a small entity, the same three fees drop to $140, $308, and $352.

Micro Entity

Micro entity status has stricter rules, including a gross income limit and a limit on how many earlier applications you have filed. Some applicants employed by a university may qualify through a separate route.

A micro entity pays $70 to file, $154 for the search, and $176 for examination.

Claiming a status you don't qualify for can put your patent at risk. Read the USPTO's entity status requirements, and ask a patent professional if you're unsure which level applies.

Filing fees are only the start. After the USPTO allows your application, you pay an issue fee to have the patent granted. Utility patents then require maintenance fees at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after grant to stay in force.

For a large entity, the issue fee is $1,290. Maintenance fees are $2,150 at 3.5 years, $4,040 at 7.5 years, and $8,280 at 11.5 years. Small and micro entities also pay reduced issue and maintenance fees; the USPTO fee schedule lists those amounts. If you skip a maintenance payment, the patent can expire early.

Our data doesn't include attorney fees, so we don't list a figure for them. Professional fees for drafting and prosecuting an application are often a large share of the total cost. They depend on how complex the invention is, how many claims the application has, and how many rounds of office actions the examiner issues.

Questions to ask before hiring:

• Is the drafting fee flat or hourly, and does it include drawings?
• What do you charge to respond to an office action?
• Are USPTO fees included in your quote or billed separately?
• Do you recommend a prior art search before filing?

A provisional application is a cheaper, informal filing that holds a filing date for up to one year. It is never examined and never becomes a patent unless you file a nonprovisional application in time. Design patents, which protect how a product looks, have their own fee lines. Neither set of fees is in our data; both appear on the USPTO fee schedule.