Step 1 — Entity Status
Applicant Entity Status
USPTO applies fee reductions for qualifying entities
Micro Entity — 80% fee reduction applies. Gross income ≤ $251,190 (Current limit, eff. Sept 9, 2025); ≤4 prior filed applications.
Step 2 — Claims
Claim Set Configuration
Utility (Non-provisional) · Base allowance: 20 total claims, 3 independent

Base 3 included free

Each refers to exactly one claim

⚠ Cost Impact: MDC Counting Rule Active

USPTO rule: Each claim referred to by an MDC counts as a separate claim for total-claim calculation.
Example: MDC "Claim 10 depends from claims 1–9" → enter 9 here. This claim adds 9 toward your 20-claim threshold, not 1.

Step 3 — Application Size
Application Page Count
Surcharge applies for every 50 sheets over 100 (total spec + drawings + claims)

No surcharge for 100 pages or fewer

COST WARNING: Multiple Dependent Claims Detected

Your MDC surcharge is $— and the additional MDC references push your effective total claim count to —, causing $— in excess-claim fees. See the detailed breakdown below.

Estimated Initial Filing Cost

$—

Large Entity · Utility Non-provisional

Basic Fees
$—
Claim Surcharges
$—
Other Surcharges
$—
Initial Filing Fee Breakdown
USPTO fees at filing (before prosecution or allowance)
Basic Filing Fee$—
Search Fee$—
Examination Fee$—
Independent Claims in Excess of 3 $—
— claims × $—/claim
Total Claims in Excess of 20 Eff. — claims $—
— excess claims × $—/claim
Multiple Dependent Claim Surcharge —
Application Size Surcharge $—
Total Initial Filing $—
Post-Allowance & Maintenance Fees
Due after allowance and during the 20-year patent term
Post-Allowance
Issue / Publication Fee
$—
Due within 3 months of Notice of Allowance
3.5-Year Maintenance
First Window (3yr–3.5yr)
$—
Late: 6-month window + 50% surcharge
7.5-Year Maintenance
Second Window (7yr–7.5yr)
$—
Late: 6-month window + 50% surcharge
11.5-Year Maintenance
Third Window (11yr–11.5yr)
$—
Final payment; patent expires year 20
Estimated 20-Year Lifecycle Cost
Initial Filing + Issue + All Maintenance Fees
$—

Filing vs. Lifecycle Cost Breakdown

Visual comparison of initial filing costs versus post-grant maintenance costs — amounts in USD

⚠ Disclaimer: This tool is for estimation purposes based on the current USPTO fee schedule and does not constitute legal advice. Fees are subject to change by the USPTO. Always consult a registered patent attorney or agent before filing. Entity status misrepresentation is a federal offense.

Quick Start

How to Use This USPTO Fee Estimator

This estimator translates the current USPTO fee schedule into a clear projection of what your patent will cost to file and to keep alive over its 20-year life. Set your entity status, describe your claim set, and add your page counts — the tool does the rest. Here is how each input shapes the estimate.

Entity status is the single biggest lever on your total cost, so set it first. Large Entity pays the full statutory fees. Small Entity — generally an individual, non-profit, or business with fewer than 500 employees — receives roughly a 60% reduction. Micro Entity, the most restrictive tier (income and prior-filing limits apply), receives roughly an 80% reduction. Because the discount flows through every filing and maintenance fee, choosing the correct status is the most consequential entry you make.
The USPTO includes a baseline of 3 independent and 20 total claims in the basic filing fee. Enter your independent-claim count and your total-claim count; the estimator charges the per-claim excess fee for every independent claim beyond 3 and every total claim beyond 20. Claim count is where applications quietly become expensive, so model your real drafting plan rather than a round number.
If your application contains even one Multiple Dependent Claim — a dependent claim that refers back to several earlier claims in the alternative — toggle it on. The USPTO applies a substantial flat surcharge, and for excess-claim counting an MDC is treated as though it were the number of claims it references, not as a single claim. This is the most under-appreciated cost in the schedule, and the warning the estimator surfaces here can save a great deal of money.
Add your specification page count so the tool can apply any application-size fee for filings beyond the page threshold. The estimator then returns your up-front filing cost, the issue fee, and a projected 20-year lifecycle total that includes the 3.5-, 7.5-, and 11.5-year maintenance fees at your entity rate. Adjust any input to see how claim trimming or an entity change moves the bottom line.
USPTO Fees Explained

Frequently Asked Questions

The USPTO reviews its fee schedule periodically and typically adjusts fees every few years through formal rulemaking, with the most recent broad adjustment taking effect in early 2025. Maintenance and filing fees tend to rise over time. Because the agency can change fees between your filing and your later maintenance payments, treat any long-range projection — including this one — as an estimate based on the current schedule rather than a locked-in cost.
The issue fee is a one-time payment due after your application is allowed, in exchange for the USPTO actually granting and publishing the patent. Maintenance fees are recurring payments required after grant — at the 3.5-, 7.5-, and 11.5-year marks — simply to keep an already-granted patent in force. Miss a maintenance window (and its grace period) and the patent lapses into the public domain, regardless of how much you spent to obtain it.
Maintenance fees are due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years measured from the patent’s grant date — not its filing date. Each due date carries a six-month grace period during which the fee can still be paid with a surcharge. There is no fourth payment: once you pay the 11.5-year fee, the patent stays in force for the remainder of its term with no further maintenance fees. The escalating size of these three payments is why portfolio pruning matters.
Two costs stack. First, the USPTO charges a flat MDC surcharge the moment your application contains any multiple dependent claim. Second, and more costly, for excess-claim purposes each MDC is counted as the number of claims to which it refers — so a single MDC pointing back to nine claims is treated as nine claims against your 20-claim allowance. A drafting shortcut meant to save claims can therefore trigger large excess-claim fees, which is exactly the trap the deep-dive below explains.
No. This estimator is an educational planning tool that applies the published USPTO fee schedule to the inputs you provide. It does not include attorney or agent fees, drawing costs, search fees, extensions, RCEs, appeals, or PCT / foreign-filing costs, and it cannot judge whether your claims are correctly classified. A registered patent attorney or agent provides a formal, situation-specific quote and the legal judgment this tool intentionally does not.
No. Everything here is provided for educational and informational purposes only, written from the perspective of patent-cost analysis rather than legal counsel. It gives you the quantitative foundation for IP budgeting and strategy, but it is not a substitute for advice from a licensed patent attorney or agent. Always confirm fees against the official USPTO schedule and consult a registered practitioner before making filing or maintenance decisions.

Deep Dive

Deep Dive: Strategic Patent Cost Management

Expert Analysis

The Hidden Trap of Multiple Dependent Claims

Based on over 20 years of expertise in the patent field, one of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of USPTO fee calculations is the treatment of Multiple Dependent Claims (MDCs). An MDC is a dependent claim that refers back to more than one preceding claim in the alternative — for example, "Claim 10: The device of any one of claims 1–9, wherein…". While this drafting technique conserves claim count on paper, the USPTO applies a specific rule that dramatically inflates the effective total-claim count for fee purposes.

The operative rule is this: each claim referred to by an MDC is counted as a separate claim. In the example above, Claim 10 does not count as 1 claim. It counts as 9 claims — one for each of the claims 1 through 9 it incorporates. If your application has 3 independent claims, 9 single dependent claims, and MDC "Claim 13" referring to claims 1–9, your effective total count for fee purposes is: 3 + 9 + 9 = 21, putting you one claim over the 20-claim threshold and triggering an excess-claim surcharge on top of the mandatory MDC surcharge.

Worked Example — "Claims 1–9" MDC Scenario (Large Entity)
Independent Claims3
Single Dependent Claims9
MDC References (Claim 10 → claims 1–9)9
Effective Total Claim Count (USPTO)21
Excess Total Claims (21 − 20)1 × $130 = $130
MDC Surcharge (mandatory)$925
Total MDC-Related Surcharge$1,055

The $925 MDC surcharge applies unconditionally the moment any multiple dependent claim appears in the application, regardless of whether you exceed the 20-claim threshold. For a Micro Entity, the equivalent surcharge is $185 — still a meaningful expense that surprises many first-time applicants. The practical lesson: draft MDCs only when the claim coverage benefit clearly outweighs the added fee burden. Many practitioners restructure claim sets to avoid MDCs entirely in cost-sensitive applications.

Cost Strategy

Managing Patent Lifecycle Costs Over 20 Years

The initial filing fee is only the beginning of a patent's financial story. A granted utility patent requires maintenance fee payments at the 3.5-year, 7.5-year, and 11.5-year intervals to remain in force for the full 20-year term. For a large entity in 2026, these three payments total $13,460 — considerably more than the initial filing package. Combined with the issue fee and any prosecution costs, the true cost of a single U.S. patent from filing to expiration routinely exceeds $30,000–$50,000 when attorney fees are included.

Startups and individual inventors should rigorously evaluate the commercial potential of each patent before paying maintenance fees. The USPTO's small entity and micro entity discounts — 60% and 80% reductions respectively — can translate to tens of thousands of dollars in savings over a patent's lifetime. Careful entity-status management and timely payment planning should be integrated into every IP budget strategy. Many portfolio owners allow patents of declining commercial relevance to lapse at the 3.5-year or 7.5-year window rather than pay escalating maintenance fees.

📋
Claim Optimization
Keep total claims at or below 20 and independent claims at or below 3 to avoid any excess-claim fees.
⏳
Window Timing
Each maintenance window has a 6-month late period with a 50% surcharge. Budget ahead to avoid surprise payments.
💼
Entity Verification
Entity status must be reassessed at each payment. Growth past qualifying thresholds requires upgrading to large entity status.
📉
Portfolio Pruning
Allow patents of low commercial value to lapse at any maintenance window to redirect budget to active assets.

The most cost-efficient patent strategies combine lean claim drafting, appropriate entity classification, and proactive portfolio management. Whether you are a solo inventor, an early-stage startup, or a mid-market technology company, a well-structured fee plan aligned to your commercialization timeline can dramatically reduce the total cost of IP protection. This estimator provides the quantitative foundation for those decisions, though we always recommend consulting a registered patent practitioner before making filing or maintenance decisions.

Professional IP intelligence tools for inventors, startups, and patent practitioners. USPTO-compliant fee data updated annually.