New York Notary Fees Explained: The $2 Maximum, the Protest Math, and What You May Charge
Every dollar a New York notary may charge is written down in one place, Executive Law §136, and the numbers are exact. The short version:
- $2 is the default maximum: for administering an oath or affirmation, for an acknowledgment, for a proof of execution, for swearing a witness.
- The fees are maximums, not mandates. You may charge less, or nothing. What you may never do is charge more. The signer’s consent is not a defense.
- The protest is the exception with math: 75 cents for the protest plus 10 cents per notice of protest, capped at five notices, a $1.25 ceiling (Executive Law §135, booklet pp. 7-8).
- People, not pages: a document signed by four people costs $2 per person, so $8, not $2 per document.
- Electronic acts are different: $25 per act, set by the Secretary of State by regulation under §136(3), not by the statute’s schedule.
- Travel fees are separate from notarial fees: agreed in advance and itemized apart, never folded into the statutory fee.
Fee questions are the easiest points on the state exam if you know the numbers cold, and the fastest way to a disciplinary problem in practice if you don’t. The full schedule, decoded, is below.
The $2 default: what it covers
Section 136’s schedule (booklet p. 10, restated at p. 22) puts a $2 ceiling on each of the core acts:
- Administering an oath or affirmation and certifying it: $2
- Taking an acknowledgment, per person: $2
- Taking a proof of execution, per person: $2
- Swearing a witness: $2
The trap in every one of those lines is the unit. Acknowledgments and proofs are charged per person named in the instrument, so a two-signer acknowledgment is $4 and a four-signer acknowledgment is $8. Oaths are charged per administration. Nothing in the schedule is charged per page, per stamp, or per document. The exam builds wrong answers out of exactly that confusion.
May charge vs. must charge
This is the framing most summaries skip: the statutory fees are a ceiling, not a floor, and not a price list. A notary may always charge less than the maximum or waive the fee entirely. Bank-employee notaries and shipping-store notaries perform free notarizations as a customer service, and that is perfectly lawful. (So do county clerk offices: their staff notaries serve the public free during business hours.)
The rule runs one way only. Charging more than the statutory amount is a violation even if the client agreed to the higher fee. Consent is no defense. Overcharging is grounds for discipline by the Secretary of State, up to suspension or removal, and the notary remains liable to the overcharged party. The exam quotes a plausible number ($5 for an acknowledgment, $3 for an oath) and asks whether it is lawful. It is not.
The protest: the one calculation you must be able to run
Protests of notes and bills for non-acceptance or non-payment are governed by §135, and the exam loves the arithmetic (booklet pp. 7-8):
- Base fee for the protest: $0.75
- Each notice of protest: $0.10, maximum five notices, so the notice portion can never exceed $0.50
- Ceiling for one protest with the full five notices: $1.25
With three notices, $0.75 + $0.30 = $1.05. The numbers are small, which is precisely why test-takers miss them. Slow down when you see “protest.” Two related rules from the same page: a notary with a seal must, when requested, affix the seal to a protest free of expense; and an attorney-notary has a discretion non-attorneys lack: administering an oath or taking the affidavit or acknowledgment of the attorney’s own client.
Travel fees: separate, disclosed, itemized
Mobile notaries add a travel charge, and the law treats it as something other than a notarial fee: travel fees are not part of the §136 schedule at all. Three working rules:
- Agree on the travel fee in advance, before you drive, not at the door.
- Keep it separate from the notarial fee. The $2 acknowledgment is the statutory charge; the travel charge is a distinct service fee, not counted toward the $2 maximum.
- Itemize both on the receipt or invoice so the signer can see exactly what each component is.
What you may not do is use a “travel fee” as a laundering device for notarial overcharges: a $30 “travel fee” attached to a required notarization, presented as the price of the notarization itself, is the kind of structure that draws complaints. The notarial line stays at or under the statutory fee, honestly labeled.
The electronic contrast: $25 per act
Electronic notarial acts are the deliberate exception to §136’s dollars-and-cents schedule. §136(3) delegates the electronic fee to the Secretary of State, and the regulation at §182.11(g) sets it at $25 per electronic notarial act, inclusive of all costs incurred by the notary. Two exam-grade points hide in that sentence: the *amount* ($25, not $2), and the *source* (regulation under §136(3), not the statute itself). The full registration-and-rules walkthrough is in how to register as an electronic notary in New York.
The fees you pay, kept straight from the fees you charge
The exam tests both directions, and mixing them is the classic error. You charge under §136. You pay these, under §131 and §182.11:
| Fee | Amount | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Application (original commission) | $60 | §131(3) |
| Reappointment (renewal) | $60 | §131(9), §182.11(c) |
| Exam sitting (each) | $15 | §182.11(d) |
| Electronic-notary registration | $60 | §182.11(b) |
| Name/address change | $10 | §131(12) |
| Duplicate ID card | $10 | §131(13) |
| Certificate of Official Character (statutory) | $1 | §132; clerks’ local fees typically $5 to issue, $10 to file |
| County clerk authentication | $3 | §133 |
The practice side of these fees
This page decodes what the law allows you to charge. For the practice-side picture (building a mobile or signing-service business around those fees, what to charge for travel in real markets, and how New York’s fee caps compare with what signing agents actually earn), our sibling site NotaryStyle publishes a New York guide we recommend. Full disclosure: NyNotaryExamPrep and NotaryStyle share ownership. The guide: How to Become a Notary in New York (NotaryStyle).
For the exam-prep side, fees are pure memorization (the schedule, the protest math, the pay-vs-charge split), and our course drills every number until they are automatic. Start with the free NY notary practice test: 20 questions, instant scoring, topic breakdown, and the booklet page cited for every answer. The section-by-section map of the fee law is in the booklet companion.
NY notary fee FAQ
How much can a New York notary charge?
$2 for an oath or affirmation, $2 per person for an acknowledgment or proof of execution, and $2 for swearing a witness, all maximums under Executive Law §136. A protest is $0.75 plus $0.10 per notice, capped at five notices: $1.25 at most.
Is $2 the required fee or the maximum?
The maximum. You may charge less or nothing. Charging more is a violation even if the signer agrees to it. Consent is not a defense, and overcharging is grounds for suspension or removal.
Can a NY notary charge a travel fee?
Yes, as a separate service charge agreed in advance and itemized apart from the notarial fee. Travel fees sit outside the §136 schedule; they must not be used to disguise an overcharge for the notarial act itself.
How much does an electronic notarization cost?
The notary may charge up to $25 per electronic notarial act. The fee is set by the Secretary of State by regulation under §136(3) and 19 NYCRR §182.11(g), inclusive of the notary’s costs.
What does a notarization cost at a county clerk’s office?
Nothing. County clerk offices provide free walk-in notarization during normal business hours through staff notaries.
Is the fee schedule the same for renewals?
The fees you pay recur ($60 at each four-year reappointment), but the fees you may charge are unchanged by renewal. See the New York notary renewal guide.
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*NyNotaryExamPrep.com is an independent exam-prep publisher. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the New York State Department of State. Fee amounts are set by Executive Law §§131-136 and 19 NYCRR §182.11 as reprinted in the current Notary Public License Law booklet (March 2026 edition), which controls. Test your fee knowledge with the free NY notary practice test.*
