Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer for Illinois: nobody publishes a reliable, state-specific median for what a will costs here, and the figures you will see quoted — including ours — are national. Anyone showing you a precise Illinois number is estimating. What is genuinely Illinois-specific, and what actually decides whether your will works, is how it has to be executed. The detail worth knowing before you sign anything: Illinois’s self-proving affidavit is one of the very few that does not require a notary, so the step that stalls people in other states does not apply here.
The honest position on Illinois pricing
We publish a national attorney median for a simple will of $625 (middle 50% $450–$1,000) and a DIY platform range of $129–$599. Attorney figures are the national medians from the LegalTemplates 2026 survey of 909 firms, verified July 23, 2026. They are national, not state-specific — see the note on state pricing below. Geographic multipliers are widely republished, but the primary source for them blocks automated verification, so we will not apply one to Illinois and present the result as an Illinois figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.
What Illinois law actually requires
This is the part that is genuinely state-specific, and the part that decides whether the document works at all. Every line below is read from the statute, with the citation attached:
- Witnesses: 2. 755 ILCS 5/4-3
- If a beneficiary witnesses it: the gift to that witness is cut down, but the will still stands (purging statute). 755 ILCS 5/4-6
- Notary required for the will to be valid: no. A notary is not what makes a will valid here — the witnesses are. 755 ILCS 5/4-3
- Self-proving affidavit: available. Signing one at the same time as the will is what saves your executor from tracking witnesses down years later. 755 ILCS 5/6-4(b)
The full 44-jurisdiction comparison is on what each state requires for a will to be valid.
Does Illinois give you a free form?
No. Only four states we can verify publish a complete statutory will form in their own code: California, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin. In Illinois your realistic routes are a DIY platform, a flat-fee attorney will, or an hourly engagement if the estate is complicated. New Mexico is often listed as a fifth statutory-form state; we could not reach its official code to confirm it, so we leave it out rather than repeat it.
What skipping it costs in Illinois
Illinois sets probate compensation using “reasonable” compensation with no percentage schedule. The two numbers that decide what an estate actually pays are the fee basis and the small-estate threshold.
A will does not avoid probate — it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by Illinois’s intestacy statute instead of by you, and it lets you name the executor rather than leaving the court to appoint one. The arithmetic on the other side is on what probate costs in Illinois.
If a DIY will is the right route for you in Illinois
Where the estate is straightforward and none of the complications above apply, a properly executed DIY will does the job, and how it is signed matters far more than where the document came from. LawDepot builds a state-specific last will and testament, which you then sign and witness under the Illinois rules above.
LawDepot pays us a commission if you buy through this link — it costs you nothing extra. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Affiliate Disclosure.
What a will costs nationally — every route priced, and the four situations where DIY fails.
Statutory text read at the state’s own legislature or official code site. Pricing figures are national and dated above. General information, not legal advice.