How Much Does It Cost to File Bankruptcy?

What Filing Bankruptcy Costs, Fee by Fee

The federal court fee to file bankruptcy is $338 for Chapter 7 and $313 for Chapter 13. Both chapters also require two courses, and a fee of $50 or less for each is presumed reasonable. Every published attorney fee figure is higher than the court fee, and attorney fees vary by district.

The Chapter 7 attorney figures come from Upsolve, a nonprofit whose explainer, updated in January 2026, gives a $1,000 to $3,000 range. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) supplies the $1,078 average, which dates from 2007. The Chapter 13 range spans the presumed-reasonable fees set by five bankruptcy courts. It is not a national average, and each court sets its own figure.

Court Filing Fee Components by Chapter

The Chapter 7 court fee totals $338 and the Chapter 13 fee totals $313 under the Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule, which is marked effective December 1, 2023. Each total adds a filing fee set by statute to charges from the schedule.

• Chapter 7: a $245 filing fee under Title 28 of the United States Code (U.S.C.), section 1930, plus a $78 administrative fee and a $15 trustee surcharge, for $338.
• Chapter 13: a $235 filing fee under the same section plus the $78 administrative fee, for $313.
• Joint petition: only one filing fee and one administrative fee are charged.

One bankruptcy court's fee page lists the same $338 and $313 totals. The uscourts.gov basics pages for Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 show an older, lower administrative fee, so use the $78 figure from the fee schedule when you add up costs.

The Judicial Conference raised certain bankruptcy fees for inflation effective December 1, 2026, the first such adjustment since March 2023. The $338 and $313 filing totals are not among the fees changing. The increases apply to filings made later in a case. Amending schedules goes from $34 to $38, and a motion for relief from the automatic stay goes from $199 to $221. A notice of appeal goes from $307 to $372.

Separately, the Bankruptcy Administration Improvement Act, enacted in February 2026, raised Chapter 7 trustee pay per case. The law states that it will not alter the Chapter 7 filing fee.

A few other fees can come up after filing. Converting a Chapter 13 case to Chapter 7 costs $25 (the $15 surcharge plus a $10 conversion fee), and converting from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13 has no fee. If you are in Chapter 13 and weighing a switch, see how to get out of Chapter 13 early.

Reopening a closed case costs $245 for Chapter 7 or $235 for Chapter 13. That fee does not apply when the case is reopened to correct an administrative error, and the court should waive it if no additional assets are found.

Bankruptcy Fee Waiver and Installment Payments

If you cannot pay the court fee up front, Chapter 7 filers can ask the court to waive it. Filers in either chapter can ask to pay the fee in up to four installments.

Under section 1930(f), the court may waive the Chapter 7 filing fee if your income is less than 150% of the official poverty line for your family size. You must also be unable to pay the fee in installments. The court may also waive certain other court fees for those filers. The statute has no matching waiver for Chapter 13, because that subsection covers only Chapter 7 cases.

You apply for the waiver with Official Form 103B. Under Rule 1006 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the clerk must accept a Chapter 7 petition filed with a completed, signed Form 103B. You do not have to pay the fee before you file.

You sign Form 103B under penalty of perjury, declaring that you cannot afford the fee in full or in installments. The form also asks whether you have paid, or expect to pay, an attorney or a petition preparer for the case, and how much. Answer that question completely, since the whole form is signed under oath.

To pay in installments, file Official Form 103A. Rule 1006 allows up to four payments, all due within 120 days after filing. The court can extend a payment for cause, but the last one must be paid within 180 days.

Form 103A warns that your debts will not be discharged until the entire fee is paid, and that a missed payment can lead to dismissal. Installments also limit how you pay a lawyer. Until the filing fee is paid in full, Rule 1006 bars you or a Chapter 13 trustee from making any further payment to an attorney or anyone else helping with the case.

Some courts set stricter local terms for installment requests, and trustees and local rules vary too. A bankruptcy attorney, a legal-aid office funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), or a nonprofit credit counselor can apply these rules to your case.

Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Course Costs

Bankruptcy requires two separate courses, and federal rules presume a fee of $50 or less for each one is reasonable. The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) publishes the lists of approved agencies and providers. The USTP says credit counseling must be completed before you file, and debtor education is a separate course taken after you file. Credit counseling must fall within 180 days before your filing date.

The fee limits come from Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Under 28 CFR 58.21, a credit counseling fee of $50 or less is presumed reasonable, and a higher fee needs prior approval from the U.S. Trustee. 28 CFR 58.34 sets the same $50 presumption for the debtor education course.

You may not have to pay either fee. 11 U.S.C. section 111 requires approved providers to deliver services without regard to ability to pay. The regulations require a provider to waive the fee in whole or in part when you show you cannot pay. A household income under 150% of the poverty guidelines is presumed to show you cannot pay.

The USTP's frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on credit counseling says these services are available free or at a reduced rate based on ability to pay. For reference, Upsolve's explainer puts the required courses at $10 to $50, and GAO found in 2008 that fees for the two requirements typically totaled about $100.

Bankruptcy Attorney Cost for Chapter 7 and Chapter 13

When we reviewed the published research, we found no current national average for bankruptcy attorney fees from a government or academic source. The newest government figures are in GAO's 2008 full report.

GAO estimated the average Chapter 7 attorney fee at $712 for February and March 2005. By February and March 2007, its estimate was $1,078. For Chapter 13, it found that court-set standard fees rose 55% or more in more than half of the instances it reviewed.

Upsolve's explainer, updated in January 2026 and written by an attorney, gives a Chapter 7 range of $1,000 to $3,000. It says Chapter 13 fees are generally higher but gives no dollar range.

Upsolve says the remaining Chapter 13 attorney fees get paid through the repayment plan. GAO notes that approved Chapter 13 attorney fees are paid from the debtor's estate as an administrative claim. 11 U.S.C. section 1326 requires those claims to be paid before or at the time of each payment to creditors. In the Northern Division of the Northern District of Alabama, the Chapter 13 trustee pays up to $3,500 of the fee from post-confirmation plan payments. That cap is reduced by anything paid before filing, and the trustee pays the rest in fixed monthly amounts.

The same plan payments carry the standing trustee's percentage fee, which 28 U.S.C. section 586 caps at 10% of plan payments for filers who are not family farmers. The statute sets only the cap, so ask a bankruptcy attorney in your district what rate the local standing Chapter 13 trustee charges.

Each bankruptcy court sets its own presumptively reasonable Chapter 13 fee by local rule or general order. Five examples:

• Southern District of Indiana: up to $5,000 for cases filed on or after December 1, 2025, plus $500 for each adversary proceeding to avoid an unsecured mortgage.
• Northern District of Indiana: $4,500 for a routine consumer Chapter 13 case, under an order dated July 27, 2026.
• Eastern District of Wisconsin: $5,500 through at least plan confirmation for cases filed on or after May 1, 2024, or $6,000 with the court's mortgage modification mediation program.
• Middle District of North Carolina: $5,200 for below-median-income filers and $5,500 for above-median filers, or $5,700 and $6,000 if the lawyer has 7 hours of bankruptcy continuing legal education. The fee is capped at $2,500 when total plan payments are under $7,000.
• Northern District of Alabama (Northern Division): up to $4,500 without a detailed fee application, for cases filed on or after October 1, 2022.

A Chapter 13 fee can be owed even if the case ends early. In the Eastern District of Wisconsin, a $1,500 presumed fee may be allowed if the case is dismissed before confirmation. The Chapter 13 trustee can deduct that fee before returning any funds to the debtor.

Fees vary by district, so get written quotes from more than one bankruptcy attorney and compare what each quote covers. To weigh the two chapters, see Chapter 7 vs Chapter 13 bankruptcy and the steps in how to file Chapter 7. The USTP's means testing page posts the data used on the means test forms (122A and 122C). Its median income figures apply to cases filed on or after April 1, 2026.

Free and Low-Cost Ways to File Without a Lawyer

You can file bankruptcy without an attorney, which the federal courts call filing pro se, and the official bankruptcy forms are free. The courts' filing without an attorney page strongly recommends a qualified attorney and says Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings take careful preparation and an understanding of legal issues.

The same page says people who cannot afford an attorney may qualify for free legal services. LSC funds 129 independent nonprofit legal aid organizations in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, and its site has a locator for the nearest one.

Upsolve's home page describes it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose tools are 100% free. According to its FAQ, Upsolve serves only individual Chapter 7 filers with simple cases. It does not help couples filing jointly, homeowners, people earning above their state's median income, or people who currently or recently owned a formal business entity.

The Upsolve FAQ also says Upsolve is not a law firm, is not your lawyer, and is not a bankruptcy petition preparer. If Upsolve does not take your case and you cannot afford an attorney, an LSC-funded legal aid office may provide free legal services.

A bankruptcy petition preparer is someone other than your attorney who prepares bankruptcy documents for pay, as defined in 11 U.S.C. section 110. By law, a preparer can only enter information into forms, cannot give legal advice, and cannot receive payment for court fees. The preparer must disclose fees received in the 12 months before filing.

The court must disallow any preparer fee above the value of the services and order it turned over to the trustee. A preparer who breaks the section's rules can be fined up to $500 for each failure.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says the three nationwide bureaus let you check your credit report from each once a week for free.

Comparing Bankruptcy Costs with the Alternatives

Weigh the court fee, the courses, and any lawyer against what your debts cost if you keep paying them. Enter your balances and rates in the credit card payoff calculator to see the interest and months a payoff takes. Test a lower-rate loan in the debt consolidation calculator, and check what you can spare each month with the budget calculator.

The bankruptcy alternatives guide covers options short of filing, and debt settlement vs bankruptcy compares the two side by side. If collectors are calling now, see how to deal with debt collectors.

To see how much it will cost to file bankruptcy in your case, add the court fee and course fees to each attorney quote you collect.

Frequently asked questions