| Scenario | Government fee |
|---|---|
| 1 class, ID Manual | $350 |
| 2 classes, ID Manual | $700 |
| 1 class, free-form, 1,000 characters or fewer | $550 |
| 1 class, free-form, 1,001 characters | $750 |
| 2 classes, free-form, 1,000 characters or fewer in each | $1,100 |
Price your application — and 10 years of upkeep →
Fees checked against official USPTO pages on October 18, 2026. Verify before paying.
Trademark Fee Calculator (2026)
Choose your route, your classes, and how you describe your goods. The calculator adds the filing fee, the surcharges, and the later fees. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.
Your estimate
Trademark Filing Fees, Per Class
The USPTO charges $350 for each class of goods or services when your application meets the base requirements.
BASE FEE — what everyone pays: $350 per class on a Section 1 or Section 44 application.
A class is a category of goods or services. The USPTO’s own example: golf shirts, dress shirts, and T-shirts share one class, so that’s $350. Add custom T-shirt printing services and you have two classes, so $700.
Before January 18, 2025, you could pick TEAS Plus at $250 or TEAS Standard at $350 per class. The USPTO eliminated both and replaced them with one base application fee of $350 per class, plus the surcharges below. New applications are filed in Trademark Center.
Madrid applications (Section 66(a)) cost $600 per class. Paper applications cost a flat $850 per class and are allowed only in very limited circumstances. The ID Manual and information surcharges are for Section 1 and Section 44 filings, not these two routes.
Walking through the filing steps? See How to Trademark a Business Name.
| Fee | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Base application (Sections 1 and 44), per class | $350 | When the application meets the base requirements. |
| Insufficient information, per class | +$100 | Required information is missing at filing. |
| Free-form text box instead of the ID Manual, per class | +$200 | Charged for each class where free-form text is used. |
| Each extra 1,000 characters past the first 1,000, per class | +$200 | Free-form text only. Punctuation and spaces count. |
| Madrid (Section 66(a)), per class | $600 | Request filed through WIPO. |
| Paper application, per class | $850 | Flat fee; very limited circumstances only. |
The Surcharges — and How to Avoid Them
Three surcharges can push one class from $350 past $750, and you avoid most of them by choosing from the ID Manual and filling in every required field.
AVOIDABLE — surcharges you only pay if the application triggers them.
The insufficient information fee: $100 per class
This applies when a Section 1 or Section 44 application doesn’t include required information at filing. Examples: a domicile address, the legal entity type, a signed declaration, an English translation of non-English wording, or a color claim for a mark that uses color.
It’s charged for each active class, and an examining attorney can decide it’s owed during examination, not only at filing. Complete every required field before you pay.
The free-form fee: $200 per class
Search the ID Manual inside Trademark Center and pick your descriptions from it. Typing your own description in the free-form text box costs $200 for each class where you do it.
The excess character fee: $200 per extra 1,000 characters
A free-form class includes its first 1,000 characters. Each additional group of 1,000 characters in that class adds $200. Punctuation and spaces count.
The traps that catch careful people
An ID Manual entry with a fill-in-the-blank element can also trigger the free-form fee if the blank is misused: leaving it empty, inserting unrelated goods or services, or inserting clearly inappropriate information. An examining attorney can assess this during examination.
The USPTO’s own examples
These are the surcharges only. Add the $350 base fee per class to get your total.
- One class, 1,000 characters: $200 (free-form fee)
- One class, 1,001 characters: $400 ($200 free-form fee plus $200 excess characters)
- Two classes, 1,000 characters in each: $400 (free-form fee for two classes)
- Two classes, one of them 1,001 characters: $600 ($400 in free-form fees plus $200 excess characters)
Seeing the fee before you pay
Trademark Center shows an additional fee acknowledgment box when you use the free-form text box, and the box displays a character count at the bottom. If you see either one, stop and check whether the ID Manual has your goods.
Custom wording is sometimes worth $200, for example when the ID Manual has nothing for a new product. Make it a choice, not a surprise. Not sure which way to go? Our Intellectual Property Lawyer guide explains when professional help pays off.
Intent-to-Use: The Fees That Come Later
If you file before using the mark, you pay $150 per class later to show use, plus $125 per class for each extension you need.
LATER — fees that arrive after filing, on top of the filing fee and any surcharges.
- Amendment to allege use or statement of use: $150 per class
- Request for a six-month extension to file a statement of use: $125 per class, each request
After the USPTO issues a notice of allowance, you have six months to file the statement of use. You can ask for extensions in six-month steps, up to 36 months from the notice in total, which is at most five extension requests. After the first, each request needs a showing of good cause.
Example: two classes, one statement of use, three extensions. That’s $300 for the statement of use plus $750 for extensions, or $1,050 on top of the filing fee.
Keeping Your Registration: 10 Years of Fees
Keeping a registration costs $325 per class between years 5 and 6, then $650 per class at every 10-year renewal.
LATER — the trademark renewal fee schedule runs for as long as you keep the mark.
| Filing | When | Fee | Grace-period fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 8 declaration of use, per class | Between years 5 and 6 after registration | $325 | +$100 per class |
| Sections 8 and 9 renewal, per class | Every 10 years | $650 | +$100 per class for each section filed late |
| Section 15 incontestability, per class | Optional, after five years of continuous use | $250 | Not applicable |
One class, using the mark, no surcharges
- At filing: $350
- Years 5 to 6: $325
- Year 10: $650
- Government total through the first renewal: $1,325
- With optional Section 15: $1,575
Multiply by your number of classes. Attorney fees are separate.
Section 15 is optional. It’s available after five years of continuous use, costs $250 per class, and can be filed together with the Section 8 declaration for $575 per class.
Miss a deadline and you get a six-month grace period, with an added fee of $100 per class for each section filed late. If you don’t file before the grace period ends, the registration is canceled or expires. A deficiency fee of $100 applies if a filing needs correcting.
No Small-Business Discount for Trademarks
The USPTO charges every trademark applicant the same fees; small and micro entity discounts exist only for patents.
| Fee type | Small entity | Micro entity |
|---|---|---|
| Trademark fees | None | None |
| Patent fees | 60% off most fees | 80% off most fees |
Patent Fee Basics
A patent fee is far higher than a trademark fee, and it drops sharply for small and micro entities.
An electronically filed utility application (filing, search, and examination) is $2,000 at the standard rate, $730 for a small entity, and $400 for a micro entity. The patent costs that come after filing, including issue and maintenance fees, are in the table below.
Micro entity status needs more than low income. For fees paid on or after September 15, 2026, gross income can’t exceed $262,380, and there’s also a limit on how many earlier applications you’ve filed.
Show the patent fee summary for all three entity sizes
| Fee | Large | Small | Micro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provisional application | $325 | $130 | $65 |
| Utility filing, search, and examination (electronic) | $2,000 | $730 | $400 |
| Utility issue | $1,290 | $516 | $258 |
| Design, filing through issue | $2,600 | $1,040 | $520 |
| Utility maintenance, all three payments | $14,470 | $5,788 | $2,894 |
What Changed in 2026
We found no 2026 change to the USPTO’s domestic trademark application fees; the 2026 notices are narrow and mostly about patents.
The official fee schedule says it took effect January 19, 2025 and was last revised August 14, 2026. The big trademark overhaul, with the $350 base fee and the surcharges, took effect January 18, 2025.
A new revision date doesn’t mean every fee moved. Read what the notice changed before you assume your costs did.
| Date | Change | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 | A new dollar amount ($1,446) took effect for the PCT international search fee when the Israel Patent Office acts as the searching authority. | Applicants whose international (PCT) applications use that office as the searching authority. |
| July 20, 2026 | Patent applicants and owners outside the U.S. and its territories must be represented by a USPTO registered patent practitioner. A micro entity certification for them must be signed by that practitioner. | Foreign-domiciled patent filers, including those claiming micro entity status. |
| August 14, 2026 | For petitions based on unintentional delay filed after August 13, 2026, the USPTO now requires additional information for delays of more than one year, down from more than two years. Fee code descriptions for several petition and maintenance fees were also updated. | Patent applicants and owners filing petitions based on unintentional delay. |
| September 15, 2026 | The micro entity income limit rose to $262,380, up from $251,190. | Patent filers claiming micro entity status on the gross income basis. |
Fake USPTO Notices
The USPTO won’t ask for payment or personal information by phone, email, text message, or social media, so treat any such demand as suspect.
Here is how to check a notice before you pay anything:
- Look up your application or registration number in Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR). Official letters and requests for payment appear under its documents tab. If it isn’t there, it isn’t an official communication.
- Check the web address. Official USPTO sites end in .gov, and emails sent directly by the USPTO come from an @uspto.gov address.
- Pay only through official USPTO systems. New applications are paid in Trademark Center; other trademark forms are paid through Financial Manager.
- Never share your USPTO.gov password.
Read the USPTO’s pages on recognizing common trademark scams and non-USPTO solicitations. To report a suspicious message, forward it to TMScams@uspto.gov.
Before You File
Run through these eight checks and your application has the best chance of costing only the base fee.
- 1. Count your classes. File only in classes you use or genuinely plan to use.
- 2. Pick every description from the ID Manual inside Trademark Center. Don’t paste it into the free-form box.
- 3. Watch fill-in-the-blank entries. Complete them as instructed.
- 4. If you must use free-form text, keep each class under 1,000 characters, or ask whether a separate application for the free-form goods saves money in your case.
- 5. Complete every required field to avoid the $100-per-class surcharge.
- 6. Intent to use? Budget $150 per class for the statement of use and $125 per class per extension.
- 7. Calendar years 5 to 6 and year 10 for maintenance filings.
- 8. Pay only through official USPTO systems, and check any “invoice” against your record in USPTO’s database.
FAQ
How much does a trademark cost at the USPTO in 2026?
It starts at $350 per class when the application meets the base requirements. Surcharges for missing information or free-form descriptions can add $100 to $400 or more per class, and later fees for intent-to-use filings and maintenance come on top.
Is the fee charged per class?
Yes. Almost all trademark fees are calculated per class, so two classes cost $700 at the base rate and surcharges multiply by the classes they affect.
Is TEAS Plus still available?
No. The USPTO eliminated TEAS Plus ($250) and TEAS Standard ($350) on January 18, 2025 and replaced them with a single base application fee of $350 per class.
Why can a $350 application cost $550 or more?
Because of surcharges. Describing your goods in the free-form box adds $200 per class, missing information adds $100 per class, and long free-form text adds $200 for each extra 1,000 characters.
What is the free-form text surcharge?
It’s a $200 fee per class when you use the free-form text box instead of the Trademark ID Manual to describe your goods or services. Picking descriptions from the ID Manual avoids it.
Does pasting an ID Manual description count as free-form?
Yes. Copying ID Manual descriptions and pasting them into the free-form box triggers the free-form fee, so select the entries inside Trademark Center instead.
How are the 1,000 characters counted?
Punctuation and spaces count. Once any free-form text is in a class, every character in that class counts, including ID Manual selections, and each extra group of 1,000 characters after the first 1,000 costs $200. For example, 2,500 characters in one class adds $400 in excess character fees.
What is the insufficient information fee?
It’s $100 per class, charged when a Section 1 or Section 44 application is missing required information at filing. Completing every required field avoids it.
How much is a statement of use?
$150 per class. An amendment to allege use costs the same, and both are part of the intent-to-use process.
How much is an extension to file a statement of use?
$125 per class for each six-month extension request. You can request extensions for up to 36 months from the notice of allowance, which is at most five requests.
What are the Section 8 and Section 9 fees?
The Section 8 declaration is $325 per class, due between years 5 and 6. At each 10-year renewal, the Section 8 and Section 9 filing together costs $650 per class. That’s the trademark renewal fee at the USPTO for a registration you keep using.
What if I miss the renewal deadline?
You have a six-month grace period, and filing in it adds $100 per class for each section filed late. If you miss the grace period, the registration is canceled or expires.
Is Section 15 required?
No, it’s optional. A Section 15 declaration of incontestability costs $250 per class and is available after five years of continuous use.
Do small businesses get a trademark discount?
No. Trademark fees are the same for a solo owner and a large company; small and micro entity discounts apply only to patents.
What are micro entity patent fees in 2026?
Micro entities get 80% off most patent fees. For example, an electronically filed utility application costs $400 instead of $2,000. For fees paid on or after September 15, 2026, the gross income limit is $262,380. The full table is in How Much Does a Patent Cost in 2026.
Are USPTO fees refundable?
Generally not. Under 37 CFR 2.209, the USPTO may refund a fee paid by mistake or in excess of the amount required, but a fee isn’t refundable just because you changed your mind or withdrew a filing. A refund request must be filed within two years of payment; see also TMEP section 405.04. There’s also a $50 processing fee if a payment is refused or charged back.
Last updated:
This article is general information, not legal advice. It covers government fees only, as listed by the USPTO on October 18, 2026. Fees change, so confirm them on the official USPTO schedule before paying. Attorney fees are separate.
Daniel Hayes is the founder and sole researcher at AdvoraHQ. He covers U.S. personal finance, insurance, and consumer law — working directly from IRS publications, federal and state statutes, court opinions, and SEC filings rather than secondary summaries. His focus is the gap between what readers think they know and what the source documents actually say. Daniel is not a licensed attorney, CPA, or financial advisor; his articles are educational and not personalized advice. Reach him at Daniel.Hayes@advorahq.com.
