PCT · 35 U.S.C. §371 · 37 CFR §1.492

PCT U.S. National StageFee Estimator

Estimate the USPTO fees due when your PCT international application enters the U.S. national stage — basic national fee, search fee tier, examination fee, excess claims, and the late-translation fee.

30Month deadline
3Search fee tiers
80%Micro entity cut
3 / 20Free claim allowance

Step 1 — Entity status

1

Applicant Entity Status

Every fee below is scaled by this choice. Status is claimed at national stage entry.

Small entity generally means fewer than 500 employees with no obligation to assign to a non-qualifying party. Micro entity adds a gross income ceiling and a limit on prior U.S. applications. Foreign applicants qualify on the same terms — status turns on size and income, not nationality.

Step 2 — Basic, search & examination fees

2

Entry Fees

The basic national fee is fixed. The search fee depends on who searched your application first.

Basic national stage fee37 CFR §1.492(a) — always due $350.00

Search fee — 37 CFR §1.492(b)

Examination fee — 37 CFR §1.492(c)

Step 3 — Claim set

3

Claims Configuration

Three independent claims and twenty total claims are included. Everything past that is billed per claim.

First 3 included.

First 20 included (independent + dependent).

Amend before you pay. Claim fees are assessed on the claim set on file at entry. A preliminary amendment cancelling surplus claims, filed with the §371 papers, is the cheapest claim reduction available.

Step 4 — Additional fees

4

Timing Surcharges

Applies when a required item arrives after the 30-month date.

Total estimated USPTO fee $0.00 Large entity · official fees only

Line-item breakdown

Fee itemAmount
Same configuration as a small entity $0.00
Same configuration as a micro entity $0.00

Using the tool

How to read this estimate

The estimator covers the USPTO fees payable at §371 entry. It does not cover professional fees, translation vendor costs, or fees that fall due later in prosecution.

Status is asserted, not granted. If a licensee or assignee outside the definition holds rights in the application, the discount is lost — and an incorrect assertion made in good faith can be corrected, but a pattern of them is treated as inequitable conduct. Where a corporate parent is involved, price the estimate as a large entity and treat any discount as upside.
The middle tier requires that an international search report has been prepared and provided to the USPTO. For most PCT international applications the report reaches the Office through the International Bureau, but if your ISR is not on file at entry the Office charges the full search fee. Confirm the report is of record before you budget the discount.
"Total claims" means independent plus dependent. A multiple dependent claim triggers the surcharge and is counted as the number of claims to which it refers, so a single multiple dependent claim referring to five claims can push a 20-claim set well past the free allowance. PCT-style claim sets drafted for European practice are the usual source of surprise here.
Not included: attorney or agent fees, translation vendor charges, the surcharge for a late oath or declaration, IDS and extension-of-time fees, RCEs, appeal fees, the issue fee, and maintenance fees at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years. Budget the full lifecycle, not the entry ticket.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

The United States requires entry within 30 months of the earliest priority date. Unlike many offices there is no separate demand or Chapter II requirement to reach that date. Missing it is not automatically fatal — revival on a showing of unintentional delay exists — but the petition fee dwarfs everything in this calculator, so treat 30 months as hard.
It is applied against what the Office has on record. You identify the applicable tier on the transmittal when you pay, and the Office checks it against the file. If the ISR has not reached the USPTO, expect a notice requiring the balance. Paying the correct tier the first time avoids a response deadline you did not plan for.
A §371 entry continues the same international application into the U.S. A bypass continuation is a new U.S. application filed under 35 U.S.C. §111(a) claiming benefit of the PCT. The bypass route is priced from the §1.16 schedule instead of §1.492, which changes both the discount structure and your ability to amend at filing. It also forfeits the search fee tiering shown above.
Yes. Status is re-tested at each fee payment, so an applicant that grows past the threshold pays the higher rate going forward, and a company that qualifies later can claim the discount on subsequent fees. Micro entity status in particular must be re-certified — it is not sticky.
An applicant may act on its own behalf, but a foreign applicant almost always needs U.S. counsel in practice: correspondence address requirements, oath and declaration formalities, and the substantive response to the first Office action all sit in U.S. practice. The professional fee is usually a multiple of the official fee, which is exactly why the official fee should be optimised first.
No. This tool stops at national stage entry. Issue fees and the 3.5 / 7.5 / 11.5-year maintenance fees are modelled in our separate U.S. Patent Filing & Maintenance Fee Estimator.

Expert analysis

SK
Simon K., Borderless Founder & IP Professional Cross-border filing strategy · U.S. national stage practice

Expert Analysis: Direct U.S. Filing vs. PCT National Stage Entry

For a founder based outside the United States, the choice between a direct §111(a) filing and a §371 national stage entry gets framed as a deadline question. It is really a fee-architecture question. The two routes are priced from different sections of the fee schedule — §1.16 for direct filings, §1.492 for national stage entry — and the two schedules do not mirror each other. The gap runs into four figures before a single professional hour is billed.

1. The search report discount is the largest single lever

At the national stage, the search fee is tiered by how much searching has already been done. If the USPTO itself acted as the International Searching Authority, the search fee falls to $150 for a large entity. If a different ISA prepared an international search report and that report was provided to the Office, the fee is $580. With no usable report on file, you pay the full $770. That is a $620 spread on one line item, claimed by identifying the correct tier when you pay — not by argument. A direct non-PCT filing has no equivalent: the search fee is charged in full regardless of what any foreign office already found.

2. Your ISA election is a downstream cost decision

Applicants filing through a receiving office such as the KIPO can usually elect among several competent authorities. Electing the USPTO produces the deepest national stage discount and, where the U.S. also served as IPEA and every claim satisfies PCT Article 33(1)–(4), can zero out the examination fee entirely. Electing the EPO typically costs more upfront but can spare a supplementary European search later. The right answer depends on where the family actually lands: if the U.S. is the primary market, choosing the U.S. as ISA converts an international fee into a domestic discount. Deciding after the search report issues is deciding too late.

3. The discount structures are not symmetrical

The 60% small entity and 80% micro entity reductions apply on both routes, but the underlying line items differ in ways most estimates miss. The clearest example sits in the basic filing fee: §1.16(a) grants a small entity an additional reduction when the application is filed through the electronic filing system, taking the basic fee to $70. The basic national fee under §1.492(a) has no such provision — a small entity pays $140 whichever way the papers arrive. The direct route, in exchange, carries surcharge exposure the national stage does not. Read the two schedules side by side rather than assuming one discount logic governs both.

How I actually decide

Excess claim fees are identical on both routes — $600 per independent claim over three, $200 per claim over twenty, $925 where a multiple dependent claim appears — so trim the claim set before comparing anything else. Then model two scenarios: a §371 entry with a favourable search report, against a bypass continuation under §111(a) that forfeits the search fee tier but restores direct-route flexibility and amendment practice. The cheaper route is rarely the one intuition picks.

Cost elementDirect filing (§111(a) / §1.16)National stage (§371 / §1.492)
Basic fee (large)$350$350
Small entity basic fee$140, or $70 filed electronically$140 — no electronic reduction
Search fee (large)$770 flat$150 / $580 / $770 by tier
Examination fee (large)$880$880, or $0 where §1.492(c)(1) applies
Excess claim feesIdenticalIdentical
Practical deadlinePriority year (12 months)30 months from priority

The one number worth re-checking

Before you wire funds, confirm the international search report is of record at the USPTO. The middle search fee tier depends on it, and an ISR that has not reached the Office turns a $580 line item into $770 plus a response deadline you did not budget for.

Methodology and limitations Figures follow the USPTO fee schedule effective January 19, 2025 (37 CFR §1.492(a)–(f) and (i)). Official fees change by rulemaking; verify the current schedule at uspto.gov before relying on any figure. This estimator covers USPTO official fees at national stage entry only — attorney and agent fees, translation vendor costs, late oath or declaration surcharges, information disclosure statements, extensions of time, requests for continued examination, appeal fees, issue fees and maintenance fees are outside its scope. Nothing here is legal advice, no attorney–client relationship is created, and outcomes in any individual matter depend on facts a calculator cannot see. Confirm your position with a registered U.S. patent attorney or agent before filing.

Fee data reviewed against the USPTO fee schedule · Last updated August 2026

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