PACER Fees Explained: What Federal Court Records Cost

PACER is not free, but most people who use it casually never pay a cent. Here is the whole fee system in plain English, straight from the judiciary's own fee schedule.

The three numbers that decide your PACER bill

Almost every question about PACER pricing comes down to three figures: ten cents, three dollars, and thirty dollars. Ten cents is the rate. Three dollars is the ceiling on any single document. Thirty dollars is the quarterly threshold below which the judiciary simply waives what you owe.

That last number is the one people miss, and it is a threshold rather than an allowance. PACER bills quarterly, and only if you accrued more than $30 during the quarter — but once you cross that line the entire balance becomes payable, not just the part above $30. In practice, a journalist who pulls a dozen filings a month or a law student writing a paper will often go a whole year without an invoice, because $30 covers 300 pages or ten full-price documents every three months.

The rate has been ten cents a page since the fee schedule took effect on January 1, 2020, and it applies the same way in district courts, bankruptcy courts, and the courts of appeals. It changes on January 1, 2027, which is the next section.

What changes on January 1, 2027

The judiciary has announced a temporary fee increase that takes effect on January 1, 2027 and stays in place for five years. Two of the three numbers above move:

• The per-page fee goes from 10 cents to 12 cents.
• The automatic quarterly exemption is raised from $30 to $40 per quarter.

The 30-page cap on documents is a page count rather than a dollar figure, so the ceiling on a single document tracks the rate. Everything on this page describes the fees in force today; we will restate the numbers when the new schedule takes effect.

Source: PACER: temporary fee increase effective January 1, 2027

What PACER counts as a page

A PDF is easy: the page count is the page count. Reports are stranger. When you run a docket sheet or a search, PACER is generating HTML rather than paper, so it converts the size of the response into billable pages. For HTML-formatted information, every 4,320 bytes extracted counts as one billable page.

Two consequences follow. First, a long docket sheet on a heavily litigated case can cost more than a single document, because the docket report itself keeps generating pages, and case-specific reports like the docket report, creditor listing, and claims register are subject to the same 30-page cap. Second, and this is the one that annoys everyone, a search is billed on the pages it generates even if it returns no matches at all. Sloppy name searches cost real money.

The practical habit is to narrow before you search: pick a specific court when you know it, add a date range, and use a case number when you have one. Our guide to finding a federal case walks through how to do that without burning pages.

Source: PACER Pricing FAQs.

The 30-page cap, and what it does not cover

The fee schedule caps charges for documents and case-specific reports at "the fee for thirty pages" — $3.00. A 400-page summary judgment exhibit costs the same $3.00 as a 30-page one. If you are pulling long filings, this cap is the single biggest reason PACER stays affordable.

There are two carve-outs worth knowing. Transcripts are billed at ten cents a page with no maximum, so a multi-day trial transcript can run into real money. And audio recordings of proceedings are $2.40 per file rather than per page.

Because the cap is per document, the cost of a case is roughly the number of filings you open, not how long they are. That is why we cap billable pages at 30 per document too — you should never be charged for page 31.

Free PACER access: every route that actually works

"Free PACER access" usually means one of five things, and all five are legitimate.

1. The $30 quarterly waiver

Registering costs nothing, and a quarter that totals $30 or less is waived in full. For light research this is the whole answer. A credit card is optional at registration: give one and access is immediate, skip it and PACER mails an activation code, which takes 7 to 10 business days. Either way, nothing is charged until you cross the quarterly threshold.

2. Written opinions

Judicial opinions are free in PACER, always. If what you need is the court's reasoning rather than the parties' filings, you can often get it for nothing.

3. The free look for parties

Attorneys and parties in a case get one free electronic copy of each document through the notice of electronic filing. Miss the free look and you pay like everyone else, which is why so many firms save every notice attachment the day it arrives.

4. Courthouse terminals

Viewing records at a public terminal in the courthouse is free. Printing is not. This is the old-fashioned answer, and for a sealed-adjacent or paper-only case it is sometimes the only answer.

5. The RECAP Archive

RECAP is a free archive of federal filings run by the nonprofit Free Law Project. When someone with the RECAP browser extension buys a document from PACER, a copy is donated to the archive, where anyone can read it for free. Tens of millions of filings are already there.

The catch is structural: RECAP has a document only because somebody already bought it. Quiet dockets and filings from the last few days are frequently missing. We check RECAP before spending a page on your behalf, and we explain the trade-offs on our CourtListener comparison.

Fee exemptions for researchers, nonprofits, and pro bono attorneys

Courts have discretion to exempt certain users from PACER fees: indigent parties, bankruptcy case trustees, pro bono attorneys, section 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and academic researchers. The exemption is granted by an individual court, must be narrow, and comes with a condition — exempted users generally must agree not to sell the data they obtain.

One common misunderstanding: being granted in forma pauperis status in your own case does not automatically give you free PACER access. You have to request the exemption separately.

Source: Can I get a PACER fee exemption for my research?

What a real case costs: a worked example

Say you are following a mid-sized federal civil case with about 220 docket entries, and you want to understand the posture before a hearing.

• Two name searches in the PACER Case Locator to find the case: a few pages each, so under $1.00.
• The full docket sheet: a long report, capped at $3.00.
• Twelve filings you actually read — complaint, answer, two motions, four briefs, four orders. Most are over 30 pages, so call it $3.00 each: $36.00.

That is roughly $40 for one case in one quarter at today's rate, which clears the $30 waiver and generates a real invoice. Follow three cases like that and PACER is a $120 quarter. This is the point where people start looking for something that bundles the pages, and it is why our subscription includes 150 pages a month.

How PacerPlus handles PACER pages

Pages are counted the way PACER counts them. One page here is one PACER page at ten cents, the 30-page cap per document is enforced, and we check the free RECAP archive before spending anything at all.

The $199.99 monthly subscription includes 150 PACER pages, unlimited federal case searches, 10 PacerAlerts, and unlimited judge analytics. Included pages are worth $15.00 at PACER's rate. If you run out in a heavy month, extra packs are $9.99 for 30 pages — that is more than the same pages cost at PACER, so the packs are a convenience, not a discount. Full detail lives on the pricing page.

The honest comparison: if you pull fewer than 300 pages a quarter and do not mind PACER's interface, PACER alone is cheaper than any subscription, including ours. Subscriptions start paying for themselves when you need the searching, the summaries, and the monitoring rather than just the documents.

Common questions about PACER fees

How much does PACER cost per page?

Ten cents a page for documents, docket sheets, and search results through December 31, 2026, with most single documents capped at 30 pages, or $3.00. The rate becomes 12 cents on January 1, 2027.

Is PACER free?

Registration is free, and any quarter totalling $30 or less is waived in full, so light users pay nothing. Cross $30 and the whole quarter is billed. The threshold rises to $40 on January 1, 2027.

Do I get charged for a search that finds nothing?

Yes. Searches are billed on the pages generated even when the result is no matches found, which is why a precise query matters.

Why did I get a PACER bill I did not expect?

Almost always because a quarter crossed $30. Charges accumulate quietly under the threshold, then the whole quarter becomes billable at once — including the first $30.

Does the 30-page cap apply to transcripts?

No. Transcripts are ten cents a page with no maximum, and they are added to PACER 90 days after production.

What about audio recordings?

Audio files are $2.40 each, priced per file rather than per page.