Hard court costs · verified 2026-08-20
What a Georgia divorce actually costs to file.
Not a range, not an estimate, not a lawyer’s blog. Every figure below is traced to a statute, a court fee schedule, or a clerk’s own published page — and linked to it.
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It costs $218.00 to file for divorce in Georgia. Below is where that money goes, what it does not cover, and what to do if you do not have it.
What it costs to file
$218.00
$220.00
O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77 base, plus mandated add-ons under §§ 15-6-77.2, 15-6-77.4, 15-21A-6, 15-21A-6.1, 15-23-7, 36-15-9(a), 47-16-61(a)
Schedule dated
No date printed
The official source carries no effective or revised date. The figure is what is published today; how long it has been published is unknowable from the page itself.
Worth knowing before you file. Fulton and Gwinnett charge exactly $5 more for a divorce than for any other civil case. Cobb does not break divorce out at all, so a Cobb divorce is $2 cheaper than one filed a few miles away in Fulton.
Where the money goes
Georgia does not break this down
Each Superior Court clerk publishes its own total built from the statutory base plus mandated add-ons. No statewide breakdown exists.
How it changes by county
There is no statewide Georgia divorce filing fee. Each Superior Court clerk publishes its own total.
The floor everywhere in Georgia
$203.00. That is the $58.00 statutory base plus the $5.00 Sheriffs' Retirement fee, $15.00 POPIDF-B and $125.00 Judicial Operations Fund fee that every one of Georgia's 159 counties must collect. Everything above $203.00 on a county's schedule is the local law library fee (up to $5.00), the local ADR fee (up to $10.00), and the $5.00 Children's Trust Fund fee on divorces.
Divorce is filed in Superior Court, and the number on the counter is part state, part county. The state fixes the big pieces: O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(e)(2) sets the clerk's base filing fee at $58.00 for every civil case, and that specifically names 'actions for divorce, domestic relations actions.' Stacked on top by statute are a $5.00 Sheriffs' Retirement Fund contribution (O.C.G.A. § 47-16-61 — it was $1.00 until Senate Bill 322 raised it effective July 1, 2024, which is why nearly every Georgia fee schedule jumped exactly $4.00 that day), a $15.00 Peace Officers' and Prosecutors' Indigent Defense Fund-B charge (O.C.G.A. § 15-21A-6), and a $125.00 Judicial Operations Fund fee (O.C.G.A. § 15-21A-6.1(a)). Those four are not negotiable anywhere in Georgia. What the county controls is small but real: the board of commissioners may add a county law library fee of up to $5.00 (O.C.G.A. § 36-15-9) and the court may add an alternative dispute resolution fee of up to $10.00 (O.C.G.A. § 15-23-7). Divorce cases also carry a $5.00 Children's Trust Fund fee under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77.4 — some clerks publish that as a separate, higher 'Divorce' line, others fold it into one number. The Georgia Superior Court Clerks publish a fill-in-the-blank statewide cost schedule template with $218.00 as the maximum, and each county fills in its own total.
| County | What you pay to file | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Fulton | $220.00 | $50.00 sheriff service fee per service. Sheriff subpoena service $10.00; civil subpoena issued by the clerk $5.00. |
| Gwinnett | $220.00 | Not published as a dollar figure on the fee page. The page says out-of-county service must be paid by separate check payable to the serving official. Family Violence petitions carry no filing fee at all. |
| Cobb | $218.00 | $50.00 per party, and the clerk warns the address must be inside Cobb County lines. Subpoena $5.00. |
| DeKalb | $217.00 | $50.00 per service by the DeKalb Sheriff. Out-of-county service is paid directly to that county's serving official, not to DeKalb. Each additional party beyond plaintiff and defendant is $8.00. Subpoenas $5.00 each. |
| Chatham | $218.00 | $50.00 plus $0.50 per page, plus the actual cost of the document copies. Subpoena issuance $5.00, subpoena service $10.00. |
| Cherokee | $218.00 | Not itemized on the front page of the schedule; the schedule says 'plus applicable service fees.' Subpoenas are $5.00 each. |
| Muscogee | $218.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees' — the schedule cross-references the sheriff's fee table rather than printing a divorce-specific number. |
| Hall | $218.00 | $50.00 per copy served, general; $50.00 for an action from another county. The Hall County Sheriff's Civil Unit confirms $50 per service, per person, per address. |
| Bulloch | $218.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees.' Family violence petitions are no fee. |
| Dougherty | $218.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees.' |
| Burke | $218.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees.' |
| Harris | $218.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees.' |
| Coweta | $215.00 | $50.00 per defendant — and Coweta's page adds a catch: that rate is for Coweta County addresses only. |
| Paulding | $215.00 | 'Plus applicable service fees.' |
| Bibb | $219.00 as last published — treat it as roughly $223.00 today | $50.00 per defendant. Per copy served, general $50.00. Per tenant in a dispossessory $50.00. |
| Dade | $213.50 | $50.00 per copy served, general; $50.00 for an action from another county; $10.00 to summon each witness. |
| Webster | $213.00 | $50.00 per copy served, general; $50.00 for an action from another county; $10.00 to summon each witness. |
| Upson | $211.50 as last published — expect about $215.50 today | 'Plus applicable service fees.' |
The spread: Among schedules currently dated July 2024 or later, the cheapest confirmed is Webster County at $213.00 and the most expensive are Fulton and Gwinnett at $220.00 — a spread of only $7.00. Two counties post older schedules that read lower (Upson $211.50 from January 2020, Bibb's civil line $214.00 from 2020) but almost certainly cost about $4.00 more today. The floor no Georgia county can go below is $203.00.
What makes up each of these numbers
- Fulton — The clerk publishes two separate lines: General Civil Action $215.00, and Divorce $220.00 — the extra $5.00 is the Children's Trust Fund fee, and the clerk's own schedule cites O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77.4 next to it. Additional parties are $0.00. source
- Gwinnett — The clerk's fee page lists 'Divorce: $220.00' as its own line, above 'New Civil and Family Cases: $215.00.' The $5.00 gap is the Children's Trust Fund fee on divorces. source
- Cobb — One line covers it: 'General Civil (including Adoptions, Divorces, and Name Changes) $218.00.' That is the $203.00 statutory floor plus Cobb's full $5.00 law library and $10.00 ADR add-ons. source
- DeKalb — The clerk's civil and family page carries a dated update: 'Effective 7/1/2024: Divorce Filing Fee increases to $217.00.' The prior published schedule had divorce and annulment at $213.00 effective 7/1/2023, so this is the Senate Bill 322 sheriffs'-retirement bump of $4.00. source
- Chatham — The Civil Intake Fees page lists General Civil and Domestic at $218.00 plus applicable service fee, effective July 1, 2024. Divorce is not broken out separately; it sits inside the domestic category. source
- Cherokee — Cherokee posts the standard Superior Courts of Georgia cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $218.00, described as including a law library fee up to $5.00 and ADR fees up to $10.00. source
- Muscogee — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $218.00, including law library up to $5.00 and ADR up to $10.00. source
- Hall — Cost schedule revised 5/17/2024, effective July 1, 2024: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $218.00, including law library fee up to $5.00 and ADR up to $10.00. source
- Bulloch — Cost schedule effective July 1, 2025: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $218.00. Bulloch's schedule spells out that its current ADR fee is the full $10.00 in Superior and State Court. source
- Dougherty — Cost schedule effective January 1, 2025: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $218.00, including law library up to $5.00 and ADR up to $10.00. source
- Burke — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: $218.00 for civil, modification and garnishment. source
- Harris — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: $218.00. source
- Coweta — The clerk's own Filing & Copy Fees page lists Divorce at $215.00 and general civil at $215.00, effective July 1, 2024. The page explains the increase in its own words: all civil Superior Court filing fees went up $4.00 on July 1, 2024 because Senate Bill 322 moved the Sheriffs' Retirement Fund contribution from $1 to $5. source
- Paulding — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: Civil, Modification, Garnishment $215.00. Paulding does not take the full local add-ons, which is why it sits $3.00 under the $218.00 statewide ceiling. source
- Bibb — Bibb is one of the few clerks that breaks divorce out on its own line: General Civil $214.00, Divorce $219.00. The $5.00 gap is the Children's Trust Fund fee. The catch is that the posted schedule predates the July 1, 2024 Senate Bill 322 increase, so add $4.00 and call ahead. source
- Dade — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: $213.50. Dade collects less than the full $15.00 in local law library and ADR add-ons, which is why it lands $4.50 under the ceiling. source
- Webster — Standard cost schedule, effective July 1, 2024: General Civil $213.00. Webster's schedule says it includes ADR fees up to $10.00 — and pointedly drops the law library language other counties carry, which is exactly the $5.00 difference from the $218.00 ceiling. Webster is one of Georgia's smallest counties, under 3,000 people. source
- Upson — Upson's posted cost schedule is the January 1, 2020 version and shows $211.50 for civil, modification and garnishment. It has not been reposted since the July 1, 2024 statewide increase, so add the $4.00 Senate Bill 322 bump. source
What catches people out
- Fulton charges $7.00 for every electronic envelope you submit through e-filing — not per case, per envelope — and adds a 2% credit card usage fee if you link a card to your account. File your petition, your summons and your domestic relations affidavit in three separate envelopes and you have paid $21.00 in envelope fees on top of the $220.00. Fulton Superior Court's own self-represented e-filing FAQ says this in writing.
- The $5.00 Children's Trust Fund fee under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77.4 applies to divorces and nothing else. Some clerks — Fulton, Gwinnett, Bibb — show it by posting a separate, higher 'Divorce' line. Others fold it into one number or add it at the counter. If your county's website says $218.00 and the clerk asks for $223.00, that is the reason. Bring the extra five dollars.
- Sheriff's service is a separate check, and in several counties the posted $50.00 only buys service at an address inside that county. Coweta says so outright: $50.00 per defendant, Coweta County residents only. DeKalb tells you flatly that out-of-county service is paid directly to the other county's serving official. If your spouse has moved one county over, budget for a second sheriff.
- If you cannot find your spouse and have to serve by publication, Georgia requires four consecutive weeks for a divorce under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-4(f)(1)(C). Hall County prices that at $15 per insertion for the first four insertions; Cobb's flat publication fee is $120.00 and must be paid by money order or certified check, plus $25.00 for the publisher's affidavit. That can nearly double what you thought a divorce cost.
- DeKalb tacks a 2% credit card surcharge plus $1.00 onto whatever you pay. DeKalb also charges $8.00 for each additional party beyond the plaintiff and defendant.
- If you file a motion 30 or more days after your divorce judgment — to enforce it, to fix something — most Georgia counties open a brand-new case number and charge you the $58.00 statutory base again. It is right there on the standard cost schedule.
- Family violence and stalking petitions are free to file everywhere in Georgia under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(e)(4), and contempt actions involving only child support or alimony carry no filing fee. If your situation is one of those, do not let anyone charge you $218.00.
What we could not confirm
- Clayton County’s clerk publishes a filing-fee page, but the whole county website sits behind a bot challenge we did not attempt to defeat. Two older official court documents are readable and they disagree with each other — $205.00 in a 2014 law library packet, $210.00 in a 2022 judge’s information sheet — so we are publishing neither. What we can confirm from the 2022 sheet: mediation runs $100 an hour capped at $400 a session, and the parenting seminar is $30 in person or $20 online, both waivable.
- Georgia does not require a statewide parenting seminar the way some states do — it is imposed circuit by circuit by local standing order, and the seminar providers set their own prices. We could not pin down a reliable per-county seminar cost from clerk sources, so if you have minor children, ask the clerk what the seminar is and what it costs before you assume the filing fee is your whole bill. We also could not confirm current, post-July-2024 numbers for Clayton, Richmond, Forsyth, Henry, Houston or Columbia Counties from those clerks' own published pages.
18 counties confirmed against the clerk’s own published schedule. Fee schedules change without notice — call before you drive over.
The published range
$218.00 – $220.00 across the counties we were able to confirm from official sources.
| County | Published fee | Schedule dated |
|---|---|---|
| Fulton | $220.00 | 01/01/2019official source |
| Gwinnett | $220.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Cobb | $218.00 | Effective January 1, 2020official source |
| Richmond | $211.00 (General Civil/Domestic — the schedule does not use the word divorce for the filing fee), plus applicable service fees. Sheriff service $50.00 per copy served. Publication for a divorce is a fixed $80.00, which is unusual — and it is paid to the legal organ, The Augusta Chronicle, not kept by the clerk. | Effective January 1, 2021official source |
| Forsyth | $218.00 (Domestic and Civil Actions through Judgment). That single charge covers the case through judgment. Sheriff service $50.00 per name served, so serving one spouse is $50.00. The schedule carries no printed effective or revision date, which is a real gap — treat the figure as current but unconfirmed as to date. | no date printedofficial source |
If you cannot afford to file
What it costs to file it electronically
- Portal fee
- Varies by circuit and provider. Fulton Superior: '$7 fee for every electronic envelope you submit'; 'There is never a charge for e-filing at the PAT' (public access terminal), though regular court filing fees still apply; filers with an in forma pauperis order are exempt from court and filing fees.
- If you pay by card
- Fulton Superior: '2% credit card usage fee'; waived when filing at a courthouse Public Access Terminal.
This sits on top of the filing fee above, and a percentage surcharge on a few hundred dollars is not small. Whether you have to e-file at all is on the Georgia kit.
We could not confirm how a fee waiver works in Georgia
Almost every state has a way to file without paying up front — usually called proceeding in forma pauperis — but we could not find Georgia’s procedure published on an official source, so we are not going to describe one. Ask the clerk directly: “What do I file to ask the court to waive the filing fee?” They are required to tell you.
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- The O.C.G.A. text itself we could not read from a free official source — Georgia publishes its official Code only through a LexisNexis JavaScript portal that returns no server-rendered text. The statute cites above are the ones printed on the clerks’ own schedules, not independently verified against the Code.
- Fee-waiver mechanism not confirmed from an official Georgia source.
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Everything above is a real limit on what Georgia’s own agencies publish, not an omission on our part.
How we know this
Every figure on this page came from a statute, a state court system, or a clerk’s own published fee schedule — never a law firm’s blog, a legal-forms company, or a fee aggregator. Where a state publishes no date on its fee schedule, we say so rather than implying the number is current. Where nothing is published, we leave it blank.
Court fees change, and they change without announcement. Confirm with your clerk before you write the check.
What people actually report paying
Everything above is the filing fee, traced to the statute. It is also the smallest number in a divorce. Here is the other side of it — and a warning about how to read it.
Self-reported · not sourced
We read hundreds of public accounts from people who have been through it. Three findings held up across nearly all of them:
- The total is bimodal, not an average. Self-filers cluster around $300–$500. Anyone with two lawyers and a real disagreement clusters around $20,000–$30,000. Almost nobody reports the middle, so “the average divorce costs X” describes almost no actual divorce.
- Cost is driven by the other person’s conduct, not by how complicated your assets are. People with millions who agreed to split evenly reported paying filing fees only. People with one house and one child reported $45,000 because the case got dragged out.
- Every large surprise is a third professional. The guardian ad litem, the custody evaluator, the forensic accountant, the QDRO preparer — all billed separately from both lawyers, and often introduced by the court before anyone had budgeted for one.
These are anecdotes, not prices. People post about a divorce cost when the number shocked them, so the high figures are heavily over-represented and the ordinary divorce is nearly invisible. Every figure on the full page is labeled with how many people reported it.
See what people report paying →Know someone in Georgia staring at this number?
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Now the part the fees don’t cover
The forms, the deadlines, the residency rule, and what actually happens next.
Or find someone to help
Georgia attorneys, mediators, CDFAs and therapists, credentials checked against the state’s own records. Nobody paid to be there.
Sources last checked20 August 2026
Page published20 August 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.