What California Notaries Can Charge

Charging a dollar over the schedule is not a billing dispute in California. It is a ground on which the Secretary of State may refuse to appoint you, or revoke or suspend the commission you already hold. Government Code section 8214.1 lists it at subdivision (h): "Charging more than the fees prescribed by this chapter". Section 8214.15(b) attaches money to it — a violation of subdivision (h) "is punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed seven hundred fifty dollars ($750)" — and that subdivision opens "In addition to any commissioning or disciplinary sanction", so the penalty and the commission action are not alternatives.

Which makes the schedule worth knowing exactly. It is short: six subdivisions, two of which set the fee at zero.

This guide covers what you may charge the public, and what you may not charge for at all. It is not about what it costs to become a notary — the application, examination, bond and Live Scan side is in How to Become a Notary in California. And it is not about income. The California Notary Public Handbook is a legal reference that states maximum fees and never discusses earnings, volume or demand, so any number you have read about what notaries make did not come from the state.

Everything below is drawn from the California Notary Public Handbook, January 2026 edition, published by the Secretary of State, and from the code sections that handbook reproduces.

The schedule, in the statute's own words

Update, September 14, 2026: Assembly Bill 1597 changes the dollar amounts in subdivisions (a), (b), (c) and (e) on January 1, 2027, and leaves the opening sentence and subdivisions (d) and (f) as they are. Until then, the section 8211 amounts quoted below are the law. The new amounts, and where the date comes from, are in California's Maximum Notary Fees Rise on January 1, 2027.

Government Code section 8211 opens with the rule that governs every line beneath it: "Fees charged by a notary public for the following services shall not exceed the fees prescribed by this section."

Three things about reading it.

Subdivision (a) is priced per signature, not per document. A grant deed signed by two people is two acknowledgments. Nothing else in the section is priced that way.

Subdivision (c) is three figures, not one. Thirty dollars for the services rendered in connection with the deposition, seven for administering the oath to the witness, seven for the certificate. Where all three apply that comes to forty-four dollars — but the forty-four is arithmetic on the statute's own numbers, not a figure section 8211 states anywhere. Subdivision (c) also reaches beyond notaries: Code of Civil Procedure section 2093(b)(1) provides that a certified shorthand reporter "is entitled to receive fees for services rendered during a deposition, including fees for deposition services, as specified in subdivision (c) of Section 8211 of the Government Code."

One notary fee maximum is not in section 8211 at all. Entering client data on immigration forms is capped by Government Code section 8223, and it comes with a qualification that has nothing to do with your commission — see Immigration forms below.

The same schedule appears in condensed form in the eligibility guide's Fees you may charge section. The quotations above are the statute itself, which is the version to rely on.

A ceiling is not a price

Unless your fees must be remitted to a public agency — an arrangement described further down, and one that turns on facts about your employer rather than on where you work — nothing in California law obliges you to charge the maximum, or to charge anything. The handbook states the discretion in as many words: "a notary public may decide to charge no fee or an amount that is less than the maximum amount prescribed by law. The charging of a fee and the amount of the fee charged is at the discretion of the notary public or the notary public's employer, provided it does not exceed the maximum fees."

Read the second sentence twice. The discretion belongs to the notary public or the notary public's employer — which is why an employed notary can be told what to charge, and, in the arrangements described further down, told where the money goes.

Waiving the fee does not waive the paperwork. The handbook: "The notary public is required to make an entry in the notary public journal even if no fee was charged, such as 'no fee' or '0.'" The underlying rule is statutory — Government Code section 8206(a)(2)(F) makes "The fee charged for the notarial service" one of the items each journal entry shall contain. An empty fee column is a defective entry whether or not any money changed hands; everything else an entry has to carry is set out in California notary journal requirements.

This guide is free information, and it is not legal advice. It is general information about California notary law, drawn from the Secretary of State's handbook. It is also not the course: reading it does not count toward California's education requirement — six hours for a first commission, three for a refresher — and cannot. That requirement is satisfied only by completing a course of study the Secretary of State has approved and receiving that vendor's Proof of Completion certificate.

There is one more line about money in the journal, and it is the only place in the handbook that mentions travel at all. In the list of what each entry contains, immediately after the fee charged, it adds: "Note: Travel fees, if any, should be identified, separately." That is the whole of it. No maximum, no conditions, nothing further. So if you charge for travel, record it on its own line and never let it merge into the notarial fee, because the notarial fee is the figure section 8211 caps and the one an investigator will measure.

Where the handbook's summary table and the statute do not line up

The handbook prints its own summary table of maximum fees a page after the Fees discussion. On one point that table and section 8211 do not read the same way — and the fifteen dollars at stake sit on the jurat, which the handbook itself introduces as "The second form most frequently completed by a notary public".

The table gives two separate rows. One is headed Oaths/Affirmations, described as "Administering an oath or affirmation to one person", at $15. The next is headed Jurats, described as "Executing the jurat including the seal", also at $15.

Section 8211(b) is a single subdivision that covers both halves at one price: "For administering an oath or affirmation to one person and executing the jurat, including the seal, the sum of fifteen dollars ($15)."

Read the statute. The oath is not a service adjacent to the jurat; it is part of executing one. Government Code section 8202(a): "When executing a jurat, a notary shall administer an oath or affirmation to the affiant and shall determine, from satisfactory evidence as described in Section 1185 of the Civil Code, that the affiant is the person executing the document." Administering the oath and executing the jurat for one person is exactly the act section 8211(b) describes, and section 8211(b) prices that act at fifteen dollars. Two adjacent table rows at $15 each can be misread as thirty dollars for a single jurat — and thirty dollars for a single jurat is more than the fee prescribed by the chapter, which is subdivision (h) of section 8214.1, the ground this article opened with.

The handbook does not say which of its two presentations controls. Treating the statutory text as the operative one is a reading, and it is mine rather than the handbook's; it is also the only reading that cannot cost you anything.

Which line of the schedule applies depends on which certificate the document calls for — and picking it on the signer's behalf is not yours to do. The handbook counts "the preparation, drafting, or selection or determination of the kind of any legal document" among the acts constituting the practice of law, which California notaries are prohibited from performing. The distinction between the two certificates is worked through in Acknowledgment vs. jurat.

The five no-fee exceptions the handbook lists together

Immediately after the discretion paragraph, the handbook prints a numbered list of exceptions, 1 through 5. Here are all five, each with the section it rests on.

1. Notaries appointed to military and naval reservations. The handbook: "Pursuant to Government Code section 8203.6, no fees shall be collected by notaries appointed to military and naval reservations in accordance with Government Code section 8203.1". Section 8203.6 itself carries a limit the summary leaves out: "No fees shall be collected by such notaries public for service rendered within the reservation in the capacity of a notary public." The bar attaches to service within the reservation — and section 8203.2 separately authorizes those notaries to act only within its boundaries, so in practice the two lines meet.

2. Nomination documents and circulators' affidavits. The handbook: "Pursuant to Elections Code section 8080, no fee shall be collected by notaries for verifying any nomination document or circulator's affidavit". Elections Code section 8080 is written more broadly than that summary: "No fee or charge shall be made or collected by any officer for verifying any nomination document or circulator's affidavit."

3. Pension paperwork by a notary working for a public entity. The handbook: "Pursuant to Government Code section 6106, no fee shall be collected by a notary public working for a public entity for services rendered in an affidavit, application, or voucher in relation to the securing of a pension". Section 6106 names its actors more narrowly and its subject matter more widely: "Neither the State, nor any county or city, nor any public officer or body acting in his official capacity on behalf of the State, any county, or city, including notaries public, shall receive any fee or compensation for services rendered in an affidavit, or application relating to the securing of a pension, or the payment of a pension voucher, or any matter relating thereto." Note how that sentence ends. Any matter relating thereto is not a three-item list.

4. A veteran's benefit application or claim. The handbook: "Pursuant to Government Code section 6107, no fee shall be charged to a United States military veteran for notarization of an application or a claim for a pension, allotment, allowance, compensation, insurance, or any other veteran's benefit". Section 8211(f) carries this exception into the fee schedule as well. Section 6107 reaches wider than notarization: "A public entity, including the state, a county, city, or other political subdivision, or any officer or employee thereof, including notaries public, shall not demand or receive any fee or compensation for doing any of the following:" — and the list it then gives closes at subdivision (a)(4) with "Rendering any other service in connection with an application or claim referred to in paragraph (2) or (3)."

5. Vote-by-mail ballot identification envelopes and other voting materials. The handbook: "Pursuant to Government Code section 8211(d) no fee can be charged to notarize signatures on vote by mail ballot identification envelopes or other voting materials." This one is inside the schedule too, at subdivision (d), and the summary table shows it at $0.

Those five are what the handbook groups under Exceptions in its Fees section. They are not a survey of every no-fee rule in California law, and the handbook itself reproduces neighboring provisions that restrict public officers without appearing in that list — Government Code section 6108, for one: "No officer of a county or judicial district shall charge or receive any fee or compensation for administering or certifying the oath of office or for filing or swearing to any claim or demand against any county in the State." If you notarize as a county or judicial-district officer, the handbook's five-item list is where your analysis starts, not where it ends.

Immigration forms: the one row with a license attached

The immigration row in the handbook's fee table does not price a notarial act at all. It prices data entry — and whether you may charge for it turns on a credential that has nothing to do with your notary commission: a Chapter 19.5 immigration-consultant registration and bond.

Government Code section 8223(b) states the qualification and the fee in a single breath: "A notary public qualified and bonded as an immigration consultant under Chapter 19.5 (commencing with Section 22440) of Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code may enter data, provided by the client, on immigration forms provided by a federal or state agency. The fee for this service shall not exceed fifteen dollars ($15) per individual for each set of forms."

Three consequences follow, all of them in the statute.

• Without that qualification the work is not yours to do at any price. Section 8223(c): "A notary public who is not qualified and bonded as an immigration consultant under Chapter 19.5 (commencing with Section 22440) of Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code may not enter data provided by a client on immigration forms nor otherwise perform the services of an immigration consultant." The handbook's general information approaches it from the other side, naming who may assist a client in completing immigration forms: an attorney, a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice, or a person registered by the California Secretary of State and bonded as an immigration consultant under the Business and Professions Code.
• Notarial fees stack on top, at the section 8211 rate. The subdivision continues: "If notary services are performed in relation to the set of immigration forms, additional fees may be collected pursuant to Section 8211." The $15 buys the data entry. An acknowledgment or a jurat on the same set of forms is a separate item under section 8211.
• The cap does not bind an attorney. "This fee limitation shall not apply to an attorney, who is also a notary public, who is rendering professional services regarding immigration matters." The handbook puts the same rule the other way round: "A notary public may not charge any individual more than fifteen dollars ($15) for each set of forms, unless the notary public is also an attorney who is rendering professional services as an attorney."

The same section contains a trap that has nothing to do with fees and everything to do with keeping your commission. Section 8223(a): "A notary public who holds himself or herself out as being an immigration specialist, immigration consultant, or any other title or description reflecting an expertise in immigration matters shall not advertise in any manner whatsoever that he or she is a notary public." A violation of section 8223 is subdivision (m) of section 8214.1, and section 8214.15(a) puts subdivision (m) in the higher civil-penalty tier: a violation there "is punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500)."

If a public agency employs you, the fees may not be yours

Government Code section 8202.5 lets the Secretary of State commission state, city, county and public school district employees as notaries acting for the governmental entity that employs them. The handbook summarizes the money rule for those appointments this way: "Government Code section 6100 requires any notary public who is appointed to act for and on behalf of certain public agencies, pursuant to Government Code section 8202.5, to charge for all services and remit the fees received to the employing agency. Each fee charged must be entered in the journal."

Both sections behind that summary state the duty conditionally, and the conditions are the part worth reading.

Section 8202.5 attaches the remittance duty to a specific arrangement rather than to the appointment as such: "Any fees collected or obtained by any notary public whose documents have been filed without charge and for whom bond premiums have been paid by the employer of the notary public shall be remitted by the notary public to the employing agency which shall deposit the funds to the credit of the fund from which the salary of the notary public is paid." The same section is what makes those two things possible in the first place. Where a certificate is filed showing the appointment is made for the employing entity's purposes, "no fees shall be charged by the officer for the filing or issuance of any document in connection with the appointment." And the entity "may pay from any funds available for its support the premiums on any bond and the cost of any stamps, seals, or other supplies required in connection with the appointment, commission, or performance of the duties of the notary public."

Section 6100 is where the obligation to charge comes from, and it is drafted as an exception to a permission: "This section shall not be construed to prohibit any notary public, except a notary public whose fees are required by law to be remitted to the state or any other public agency, from performing notarial services without charging a fee." An ordinary notary is free to work for nothing. A notary whose fees must be remitted is not.

So the duty to charge and the duty to remit travel together, and both are worded around the employer having carried the costs. The question a publicly employed notary has to answer is not whether they are a government employee but the one section 8202.5 actually asks: were my filings made without charge, and were my bond premiums paid by my employer. That is a question for the employing agency, not for an article.

Private employers have a parallel, and it is opt-in. Section 8202.7: "A private employer, pursuant to an agreement with an employee who is a notary public, may pay the premiums on any bond and the cost of any stamps, seals, or other supplies required in connection with the appointment, commission, or performance of the duties of such notary public." That agreement "may also provide for the remission of fees collected by such notary public to the employer, in which case any fees collected or obtained by such notary public while such agreement is in effect shall be remitted by such notary public to the employer…". No agreement, no remission duty. And where an agreement under section 8202.7 does exist, section 8202.8 lets the employer limit the notarial services the employee provides during the ordinary course of employment to transactions directly associated with the employer's business.

Whoever ends up with the money, the journal entry is still yours to make. None of this changes section 8206(a)(2)(F), and the handbook's own summary closes on exactly that point: "Each fee charged must be entered in the journal."

Advertise in another language and your fees become public

If you are not an attorney and you advertise notary services in a language other than English, your fee schedule stops being your own business. Government Code section 8219.5(a): "Every notary public who is not an attorney who advertises the services of a notary public in a language other than English by signs or other means of written communication, with the exception of a single desk plaque, shall post with that advertisement a notice in English and in the other language which sets forth the following:" — a statement that you are not an attorney and cannot give legal advice about immigration or any other legal matters, and, at paragraph (2), "The fees set by statute which a notary public may charge."

The notice "shall be printed and posted as prescribed by the Secretary of State", so the form of it is not yours to design either.

The consequence is not discretionary. Section 8219.5(d) says the Secretary of State "shall suspend for a period of not less than one year or revoke the commission of any notary public who fails to comply with subdivision (a) or (c). However, on the second offense the commission of such notary public shall be revoked permanently." Subdivision (c) is the separate prohibition on translating "notary public" into Spanish as "notario publico" or "notario" — a bar the handbook says applies "even if the prescribed notice also is posted." A violation of section 8219.5 is subdivision (p) of section 8214.1, which section 8214.15(a) also places in the $1,500 civil-penalty tier.

Thirty cents a page — the charge that is not for a notarial act

One more figure sits outside section 8211, and what it prices is not a notarial act either: photocopies out of your own journal.

Any member of the public may request a copy of a journal transaction in writing, and Government Code section 8206(c) requires you to supply "a photostatic copy of the line item representing the requested transaction at a cost of not more than thirty cents ($0.30) per page." The request has to name the parties, the type of document, and the month and year of the notarization. Section 8206.5 puts a clock on it: respond within 15 business days after receipt, and either supply the copy or acknowledge that no such line item exists.

That is a duty, not a service you market, and section 8206.5 contemplates discipline for missing it: it lets a notary facing "a disciplinary proceeding for noncompliance with subdivision (c) of Section 8206 or this section" defend a delayed response "on the basis of unavoidable, exigent business or personal circumstances." A separate obligation runs the other way, to the state rather than the public — section 8205(b)(1), "To furnish to the Secretary of State certified copies of the notary's journal." No fee is attached to that one anywhere in the handbook, and failing it appears in the handbook's list of grounds for denial, revocation or suspension — "failure to furnish the Secretary of State with certified copies of the notary public's journal when requested to do so or to provide information relating to official acts performed by the notary public". The journal rules generally are covered in more depth in the journal section of the eligibility guide.

What the handbook does not say about money

An honest fee guide has to include the silences, because the silences are where invented numbers come from. Each of these was searched for. Most came back empty; one came back with a single number in it and nothing else, and that one is flagged as such below.

• What a notary earns. Nothing — not a range, not an average, not a word about volume or demand. The handbook states maximums. Income does not appear in it, or in the code sections it reproduces.
• What you may charge for travel. The single journal note quoted above is the entirety of it. No maximum, no authorization, no conditions.
• A separate fee for remote online notarization. Section 8211 has no subdivision for it, and the Online Notarization Act provisions the handbook reproduces set none. What the handbook does say about timing is that a notary may not provide online notarization before registering with the Secretary of State and before the state's technology project is complete: "The Secretary of State shall complete the technology project no later than January 1, 2030, unless the Secretary of State informs the Legislature and the Governor in writing on or before January 1, 2029, that the technology project necessary to implement statues related to online notarization is incomplete."
• A line item for tangible copy certification. The handbook describes the notary's role in certifying a printed copy of an electronic record under Government Code section 27201.1 as completing a jurat for a disinterested custodian: "The certification shall be subscribed and sworn to, or affirmed, by the disinterested custodian before a notary public and accompanied by a jurat completed by the notary public and attached thereto pursuant to Government Code section 8202." Section 8211 prices a jurat. It does not name tangible copy certification as a service of its own.
• What the state charges you — one figure, and no others. This is the partial silence. The handbook does price the application: five of its frequently-asked-question answers instruct an applicant to submit, with the application and the passport photograph, "a check for twenty dollars ($20)". Every other charge is named without an amount. Section 8204.1 refers to "the examination, application, commission, and fingerprint fee" without stating a figure for any of them, and the Department of Justice, on fingerprint processing, "shall charge a fee sufficient to cover the cost of processing the requests described in this section" — again with no figure. Two things the handbook does price, at nothing: "There is no fee to request a Certificate of Authorization" for a replacement seal, and "There is no fee for the processing of address change notifications with the Secretary of State." The cost side is tabulated in what it costs to become a notary, which records the same twenty-dollar check and the same absence of every other figure.
• Any fee rule that changes as a commission nears its expiration date. There is none in the handbook: section 8211 has no time dimension, and nothing in the fee discussion turns on how much of a term is left. What does turn on that date is the education you owe for reappointment, and those dates are in How to Renew Your California Notary Commission.

Where a number matters to your invoice or your budget, confirm it against the statute or with the Secretary of State's Notary Public Section rather than against an article — this one included.

Official sources

• California Notary Public Handbook — www.sos.ca.gov/notary
• Government Code section 8211, the maximum fee schedule, together with sections 6100, 6106, 6107, 8202.5, 8202.7, 8214.1, 8214.15, 8219.5 and 8223, which supply the exceptions and the consequences quoted above — all reproduced in the handbook
• Notary Public Disciplinary Guidelines — the Secretary of State's guidelines for reviewing applications, investigating alleged violations and implementing administrative actions, available on the Secretary of State's website or mailed on request (Government Code section 8220)
• Secretary of State, Notary Public Section — Business Programs Division, P.O. Box 942877, Sacramento, California 94277-0001; (916) 653-3595