Information, not legal advice. The Cusp is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. These are published court fees as we read them, not a recommendation about what to do in your case. Fees change and counties vary, so confirm with your court clerk before you file.

The headline finding

Cheapest: Virginia, $83. That figure applies only in Amherst, Essex, Northumberland and Roanoke County; 31 of Virginia’s 120 circuit courts charge $94. Most expensive: Ohio, $550, the top of Ohio’s range in Hancock County, charged as a deposit against costs. $550 is about 6.6 times $83.

A narrower view: the cheapest single statewide fee is South Dakota’s $97. California’s range is $435 to $450, so its low end is about 4.5 times $97. Louisiana’s $600 parish deposit (Jefferson Parish, for a divorce filed together with a rule and a TRO) is not a plain-divorce figure, so it is not used above.

Verified 50 of 50. Every one of the 50 state pages carries a dated “Hard court costs · verified” marker. “Verified” here means the site’s own dated marker; it does not mean a schedule is dated or current today (see the section on undated schedules). Alaska’s marker is dated 17 October 2026; see the note on its row about fees not included in the $250.

All 50 states, lowest to highest

Static table, ordered by the lowest figure in each row; Louisiana, which has no statewide fee, is last. Figures are those on the by-state table, which shows the same figures as the divorce costs page.

# ▲StateFiling fee or rangeVerified?Source
1Virginia$83–$94Verified: 6 October 2026State page and sources
2Pennsylvania$93–$398, by countyVerified: 20 August 2026 · Potter, Berks, Philadelphia and Bucks re-read 13 October 2026State page and sources
3South Dakota$97Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
4Missouri$97.50–$197.50, by countyVerified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
5Maine$120Verified: 12 October 2026State page and sources
6Rhode Island$120Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
7West Virginia$135Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
8New Mexico$137Verified: 4 October 2026State page and sources
9Mississippi$148–$168Verified: 20 August 2026State page and sources
10South Carolina$150Verified: 13 October 2026State page and sources
11Indiana$157–$177Verified: 4 October 2026State page and sources
12North Dakota$160Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
13Wyoming$160Verified: 3 October 2026State page and sources
14Arkansas$165Verified: 2 October 2026State page and sources
15Maryland$165Verified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
16Montana$170Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
17Delaware$175Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
18Michigan$175 ($255 with children)Verified: 20 August 2026State page and sources
19Alabama$192–$324, by countyVerified: 15 October 2026State page and sources
20Kansas$195Verified: 5 October 2026State page and sources
21Nebraska$200Verified: 9 October 2026State page and sources
22Ohio$200–$550, by countyVerified: 20 August 2026State page and sources
23Idaho$207Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
24New York$210Verified: 30 September 2026State page and sources
25Georgia$213–$220Verified: 20 August 2026 · key counties re-read 13 October 2026State page and sources
26Hawaii$215 ($265 with a minor child; our sum of statutory line items)Verified: 16 October 2026State page and sources
27Massachusetts$215 ($220 for a complaint)Verified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
28North Carolina$225Verified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
29Kentucky$228 statewide minimum; counties add moreVerified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
30Tennessee$234.50–$356.50 ($309.50–$431.50 with minor children)Verified: 20 August 2026 · Davidson and Shelby re-read 14 October 2026State page and sources
31Oklahoma$245.89–$258.39 (self-filed)Verified: 3 October 2026State page and sources
32Alaska$250
Note: a 3% processing fee on card payments applies at TrueFiling checkout (TrueFiling support, email to The Cusp, 21 October 2026: one charge; not confirmed by the court). It is not included in the $250 figure.		Verified: 17 October 2026State page and sources
33Colorado$260Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
34Arizona$261–$436Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
35Wisconsin$273 ($293 with a request for support or maintenance), from 1 November 2026Verified: 3 November 2026 (fee table effective 1 November 2026)State page and sources
36New Hampshire$280Verified: 2 October 2026State page and sources
37Nevada$284–$299Verified: 10 October 2026 · Washoe and Clark re-read 13 October 2026State page and sources
38Iowa$285Verified: 7 October 2026State page and sources
39Vermont$295 ($90 with a stipulation)Verified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
40New Jersey$300Verified: 11 October 2026State page and sources
41Oregon$301 (charged to both sides)Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
42IllinoisSet by county: roughly $306 to $388 for the base filing fee (Cook $388); Kane $459 with childrenVerified: 20 August 2026State page and sources
43Utah$350Verified: 14 October 2026State page and sources
44Texas$350–$401Verified: 10 October 2026State page and sources
45Connecticut$360Verified: 1 October 2026State page and sources
46Washington$364 (local fees not yet mapped)Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
47Minnesota$390 plus county law library fee ($402 Hennepin, $405 Ramsey)Verified: 16 October 2026State page and sources
48Florida$397.50–$409.00Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
49California$435–$450Verified: 23 September 2026State page and sources
50Louisiana$240–$500 (advance deposit for a plain divorce with one service; no statewide fee)Verified: 20 August 2026 · eleven parishes re-read 13 October 2026State page and sources

States where the fee varies by county

The site’s own tally is 29 states with one statewide figure, 14 with a state base plus local add-ons, and 7 where each county or circuit sets its own. The seven, as the site documents them:

  • Georgia: $213 to $220 for a plain filing, Webster to Fulton and Gwinnett. The fee is almost entirely statutory, with a $203.00 floor no county can go below.
  • Illinois: no statewide filing fee. Base filing fees run about $306 to $388 across the 16 counties confirmed (Cook $388, DuPage $355, Kane $369); Kane charges $459 when children are involved. The statutory ceilings are $371.00 in Cook and $321.00 in every other county, and the totals clerks publish run higher because of separate add-ons.
  • Louisiana: no statewide figure. Parish advance deposits run from $150 (East Baton Rouge, no service) to $600 (Jefferson, with a rule and a TRO).
  • Mississippi: uncontested complaints are $148 everywhere except Harrison ($168); contested complaints are $158 in seven of eight counties read and $163 in Harrison.
  • Missouri: deposits of $97.50 to $197.50 (with children), Buchanan to Clay; $177.50 is the top without children.
  • Ohio: $200 to $550, Cuyahoga to Hancock, the widest spread of any state at 2.75 times.
  • Pennsylvania: $93 to $398 for a one-count divorce complaint, Potter to Bucks, across 16 counties confirmed.

Other states let counties add to a state base (for example Alabama, $192 to $324: of 67 counties checked, 43 publish a domestic relations filing figure and 24 publish none). For those the site marks the county detail “varies locally, not yet mapped” where it has not confirmed it, and we do not fill the gap. Alaska, by contrast, has no counties and no local filing fee; one rule sets $250 for the whole state. A 3% processing fee on card payments applies at TrueFiling checkout (TrueFiling support told The Cusp by email on 21 October 2026 that it is one charge; the court has not confirmed this) and is not included in that $250.

Where the official schedule carries no printed date

The site says it states plainly when a source prints no date, and that most fee schedules carry no date at all. On the state pages, the schedule-date row reads “No date printed” for: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New York, South Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming. Some states are partly dated: in Alabama only 8 of 43 county schedules print a date. For an undated figure we cannot say when it took effect, so treat it as needing a call to the clerk.

Methodology

This page compiles only what The Cusp already publishes: the by-state table, the divorce costs page, and each state’s own cost page, read on 17 October 2026. Each site figure is taken from a statute or a court or clerk’s own published fee schedule. We did no new fee research for this page. A state counts as verified if its page carries a dated “Hard court costs · verified” marker; the date shown is that marker, including any later re-read the marker names. All 50 state pages carried such a marker when read; Alaska’s is dated 17 October 2026, and a 3% processing fee on card payments at TrueFiling checkout (one charge per TrueFiling support, not confirmed by the court) is not included in the $250 figure. Where a state’s own page supports a range, the table shows the range. The site’s corrections page records fixes.

County-level pages. For county-by-county fees where we have them, see Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

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  3. Show the date the figures were last checked. Filing fees move — Wisconsin’s rise on 1 November 2026 — and a figure without a date is a figure nobody can rely on.

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Information, not legal advice. The Cusp is not a law firm.

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