Updated July 30, 2026. Quick answer: Probate court filing fees run about $50–$1,200 depending on the state, seven states set attorney and executor fees as a statutory percentage of the estate, and small-estate limits now reach $400,000. Below, the key probate-cost numbers for the United States, formatted for citation. Every figure below is drawn from Clear Money Guide’s statute-cited state tables — probate cost by state and small-estate limits by state — where each underlying statute is linked. All figures are free to cite with attribution (how to cite).
Headline statistics
- $50 to $1,200 — the range of probate court filing fees across the 50 states and DC.
- 7 states — Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada and Wyoming — set attorney and/or personal-representative compensation as a statutory percentage of the estate, so the cost is computable in advance.
- $26,000 — the combined statutory fee on a $500,000 California estate ($13,000 for the attorney and $13,000 for the executor), before court costs and extras such as bonds, appraisals and publication.
- Under $50,000 to $400,000 — the range of small-estate limits that let heirs skip or shorten probate; Wyoming’s $400,000 is the highest, and several states index their limits annually.
- 2025–2026 brought major small-estate increases: Arizona to $200,000 personal / $300,000 real property, California to $208,850, Wyoming to $400,000, Illinois to $150,000 of personal property, and Florida to $150,000 effective July 1, 2026 (from $75,000).
What estate planning costs, for comparison
The usual reason to plan around probate is cost, so the two sets of numbers belong together. Per a 2026 nationwide study of 909 law firms:
- $625 — median attorney fee for a simple will (middle half of firms: $450–$1,000).
- $2,475 — median for a revocable living trust package (middle half: $1,600–$3,000).
- $250–$400 per hour — typical attorney hourly billing for estate work.
- $0–$599 — the DIY platform range, from free wills to a couples’ trust plan.
Full pricing detail and sources: how much estate planning costs. To compute a specific state’s numbers: the probate cost calculator and the will vs trust breakeven calculator.
Cite this data
Free to cite with attribution and a link. Suggested citation: “Probate Cost Statistics,” Clear Money Guide, 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/probate-cost-statistics/.
The underlying dataset — statutory fee models, filing fees and small-estate limits for all 50 states and DC, with statute citations — is downloadable as a free CSV; the column schema is on the data page. Questions about the data: [email protected].
License: the datasets and tables published on this page are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, republish, and adapt them — including commercially — with attribution to Clear Money Guide and a link to clearmoneyguide.com. Statutes and primary-source citations remain public domain; the compilation, verification, and presentation are ours.