Can you afford to file bankruptcy? Learn the court fee, the courses and published lawyer fees.
How Much Does It Cost to File Bankruptcy? Court Fees, Required Courses and Attorney Fees
Start with the court fee: $338 for Chapter 7 or $313 for Chapter 13, the same in every state, and you can pay it in up to 4 installments. A lawyer's fee is separate. Then learn about the two required courses and the attorney fees courts publish.
By the end you will know: the exact court fee, and how you can pay it in 4 installments or ask to waive it; why no course price is printed and who sets it; the Chapter 13 attorney fee 27 courts publish, median $4,600.
Quick answer
The court fee is $338 to file Chapter 7 ($245 filing fee, $78 administrative fee, $15 trustee surcharge) and $313 to file Chapter 13 ($235 plus $78), the same in every state. As an individual you can ask to pay it in up to 4 installments within 120 days, and if you file Chapter 7 with income under 150 percent of the poverty line and cannot pay even in installments, you can ask for a waiver. Each approved provider sets the price of the two required courses (credit counseling before filing, debtor education before discharge), and the courts do not publish it. A lawyer's fee is separate from the court fee and is where costs vary: many Chapter 13 courts publish a "no-look" fee, which can run from $3,500 to $12,000 across the 27 districts sourced here (median $4,600), while the only Chapter 7 attorney fee in the court documents read is the Western District of Missouri's flat fee ($3,600 below the median income, $4,100 above).
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Choose your state to see your court fee (a lawyer's fee is separate), how to split it into up to 4 payments, where your income sits against the waiver line, and the recorded Chapter 13 attorney fees for your district.
By the Legal Cost by State Editorial Team·Last updated and source-checked October 14, 2026
What to do next
Three things you can do before any money changes hands.
1
Find your bankruptcy court's fee page
Every district posts the $338 and $313 court fees and links Official Forms 103A and 103B; the Western District of Louisiana page under Sources is one example you can open.
2
If the fee is the problem, read the fee waiver guide in this section
Form 103A splits the court fee into up to 4 payments in either chapter; Form 103B waives it in Chapter 7 below 150 percent of the poverty line. That guide gives you the poverty figure for each household size.
3
Ask the counseling agency its price before you enroll
Your briefing must come from an approved agency within the 180 days before you file the petition, and the U.S. Trustee list under Sources names the agencies and prints no price.
The court decides every installment and waiver application; this page gives you the rules and the forms, not a verdict on any case.
What does the court charge? $338 for Chapter 7, $313 for Chapter 13
Federal law sets the filing fee, and the Judicial Conference sets the administrative fee and the trustee surcharge, so the court fee does not change from state to state. The current schedule took effect December 1, 2023. These are court fees only; a lawyer's fee is separate, and the free estimator shows you the court fee for your state and how you can pay it.
Court fees to open a consumer bankruptcy case, from 28 U.S.C. 1930(a) and the Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule.
Learn how you can pay the court fee in installments, and who can ask the court to waive it in Chapter 7.
With the court's permission, as an individual you may pay the fee in no more than 4 installments, the last due within 120 days of filing; for cause the court may extend that to 180 days (Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1006(b)). You can pay the administrative fee and the $15 surcharge in installments too. You ask on Official Form 103A.
The waiver is narrower. Under 28 U.S.C. 1930(f) the court may waive the Chapter 7 filing fee for an individual whose income is under 150 percent of the official poverty line for the household size and who cannot pay even in installments. You ask on Official Form 103B. Paragraph (f)(3) leaves courts room to waive fees for other debtors under Judicial Conference policy, but no Chapter 13 waiver rule appears in the sources read, so none is described here.
Learn when you must finish each required course, and why no course price is printed here.
Before you file: credit counseling from an approved agency within the 180 days before the petition, in an individual or group briefing, with the certificate filed in the case (11 U.S.C. 109(h)). Before discharge: an approved financial management course. Skipping it is a ground to deny a Chapter 7 discharge, and the Chapter 13 discharge requires it where courses are available (11 U.S.C. 727(a)(11) and 1328(g)).
The U.S. Trustee Program lists the approved agencies and providers. Neither that list nor uscourts.gov states a price, so none is printed here; ask the provider its price before you enroll.
Learn the flat Chapter 13 attorney fee each of 27 courts accepts, with the order it comes from.
Many bankruptcy courts set a flat Chapter 13 attorney fee that the court approves without a detailed fee application, called a no-look, presumptively reasonable or standard fee. It is a lawyer's fee, separate from the court fee, and a ceiling on what the court allows without itemized time records, not a price list. The 27 sourced amounts can run from $3,500 (N.D. Texas, under a 2014 notice) to $12,000 (E.D. California, a flat fee for a nonbusiness case under its 2025 general order); 17 of the 27 sit between $4,500 and $5,500, and the median is $4,600.
Chapter 13 no-look attorney fee by district, the filing date or order it applies to, and the court document it was read from. Checked October 14, 2026.
District
No-look fee
Applies to
Source
N.D. Alabama (Northern Division)
$4,500
cases filed on or after 2022-10-01 (Administrative Order 22-03)
6 more districts have no amount to print: N.D. Georgia and D. Kansas appear to set no fixed fee (not confirmed in their orders), and the current orders of M.D. Alabama, N.D. California, D. Oregon and M.D. Tennessee could not be read. Some figures may be out of date (the Northern District of Texas notice is from 2014; the Southern District of Florida page could not be rechecked), so check a number against the linked order before you rely on it. Districts not listed have not been researched yet.
Learn the one Chapter 7 attorney figure a court publishes, and the dates a Chapter 7 case runs on.
Only one court document read for this site sets a Chapter 7 attorney fee: the Western District of Missouri's Local Rule 2016-1, a no-look flat fee of $3,600 in a below-median income case and $4,100 above the median; a larger fee needs the court's approval. No other district read states a Chapter 7 figure, and this site prints no estimate it cannot source. The court fee is the same everywhere, so the lawyer's fee is where the quotes you get can differ.
The case itself, from uscourts.gov: a meeting of creditors can come 21 to 40 days after you file, and in most cases a discharge 60 to 90 days after the date first set for that meeting. The timeline guide sets the two chapters side by side for you.
Learn which states file the most bankruptcies, ahead of the count for every state.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts counted 608,511 bankruptcy filings, business and nonbusiness, across the 50 states, DC and four territories in the 12 months ending June 30, 2026 (Table F-5A). California had the most at 58,111, then Florida (49,338) and Texas (42,229); the fewest were in Alaska (306) and Vermont (308). The table below gives every state's count with its source.
Filing volume does not change what your case costs; it is the one state-level bankruptcy figure the federal courts publish.
Bankruptcy filings by state, 12 months ending June 30, 2026
Updated October 14, 2026. Refresh: Table F-5A is published quarterly; the 12-month figures change with each release.
Total bankruptcy filings (business plus nonbusiness) by state in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2026, from Table F-5A of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Table F-5A also lists Puerto Rico (6,069), Guam (18), the Northern Mariana Islands (2) and the Virgin Islands (18).
Learn where each figure comes from and the date it was checked.
Every figure links the fee schedule, statute, court order or federal table it was read from, all checked October 14, 2026. 26 of the 27 no-look amounts come from the court's own document and 1 from a mirror, labeled secondary in the table. No figure is estimated.
No. The court fee is $338 for Chapter 7 and $313 for Chapter 13 in every bankruptcy court, set by 28 U.S.C. 1930(a) and the Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule. A lawyer's fee is separate.
No. uscourts.gov says that when you file a joint petition, only one filing fee, one administrative fee and one trustee surcharge are charged.
28 U.S.C. 1930(f)(1) authorizes the waiver in Chapter 7. Paragraph (f)(3) lets courts waive fees for other debtors under Judicial Conference policy, but no Chapter 13 waiver rule appears in the sources read. Installments are available in both chapters.
Neither uscourts.gov nor the U.S. Trustee Program's provider list states a price. The provider you choose sets its fee, so ask before you enroll.
A flat attorney fee a bankruptcy court approves in a Chapter 13 case without a detailed fee application, set by local rule, standing order or administrative order. It caps what the court allows without time records for the services named; for example, $5,000 in the Southern District of Texas under its Local Form 13-10.
It is the flat fee for a nonbusiness case in the court's General Order 25-02 (filed February 26, 2025), with $18,000 for a business case; counsel may agree to less. The rule adjusts the fee each year by the consumer price index for cases filed from the next January 1, and no adjusted figure is recorded here. It is far above the other districts and is marked for a recheck.
Only the Western District of Missouri publishes a figure in the court documents read: a no-look flat fee of $3,600 below the median income and $4,100 above it (Local Rule 2016-1). This site does not estimate one for any other district.
The fee schedule lists $245 to reopen a Chapter 7 case and $235 to reopen a Chapter 13 case, and the $15 trustee surcharge also applies when a case converts to Chapter 7.
Information on this page reflects laws and published figures as of October 14, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice, and not a prediction for any matter. Rules and fees change; check the court or agency page linked for each figure.
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