What It Costs to File Bankruptcy in Your State

The court fee and the installment and waiver rules come from the Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule (in force since December 1, 2023), 28 U.S.C. 1930 and Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1006; the medians from the U.S. Trustee Program table for cases filed on or after July 15, 2026; the poverty figures from the 2026 HHS guidelines, with higher amounts for Alaska and Hawaii; the Chapter 13 no-look fees from each district court's own order, rule or guide.

Your chapter picks the court fee, $338 or $313, and whether you see the waiver line, because 28 U.S.C. 1930(f) is written for Chapter 7. Your state picks the median row, the poverty set and the districts listed. Your household size picks the median column, with $11,100 added for each person above four, and the poverty row.

Both comparisons run in annual dollars: your band's lowest and highest monthly amounts times 12, set against the median or 150 percent of the guideline. If your whole band is under the figure, you see below; if your whole band is over it, you see above; and if the figure falls inside your band, you see too close to call, with the figure printed. The means test itself uses current monthly income as Official Form 122A-1 (Chapter 7) or 122C-1 (Chapter 13) defines it.

At or below the median, the presumption of abuse in 11 U.S.C. 707(b) does not arise in a Chapter 7 case; above it, the rest of the means test subtracts allowed expenses. In Chapter 13 the same median sets the plan length: three years below it and generally five above it, per uscourts.gov's Chapter 13 Basics page. The tool never tells you whether to file, or under which chapter.

The court fee is the court filing fee only, and a lawyer's fee is separate. Your result shows no estimate of what a bankruptcy lawyer charges: its only attorney figures are the Chapter 13 no-look fees district courts publish, for the 33 districts this dataset covers, 27 of them with an amount, and for Chapter 7 it tells you that only the Western District of Missouri's local rule states a figure. It shows no price for the two required courses, because no source read states one. It does not run the expense step of the means test, value your property or apply your state's exemptions; the exemptions chart covers what each state lets a filer keep.

The U.S. Trustee Program updates its medians about April 1 and November 1 (its July 15, 2026 update changed only the expense standards), the poverty guidelines change each year, and district no-look fees change by local order, several of them years old. Every figure was checked on October 14, 2026, and each line of your result links the page it came from.