Publication
Newspaper pricing is commercial rather than a statewide fee.
North Dakota court costs
North Dakota probate filing cost: $160
N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1)(a) directs the clerk of the district court to charge, in civil cases, "For filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars." A formal or informal probate proceeding is a case commenced for decision in district court, so the opening fee is $160. The statute lists the fee by case type rather than naming 'probate'; the § 30.1-23-01 affidavit route requires no court filing.
$160 is the amount the statute states. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
What the statute charges
North Dakota states one statewide amount rather than a schedule of components, so there is no line-by-line breakdown to compute. The figure above is that amount. It is a court charge only, and it is not an estimate of the total cost of settling an estate.
North Dakota publishes no component breakdown for this cost.
The statute states one statewide amount rather than a schedule of parts, so there is nothing to itemise. The figure shown above is that amount, and the linked source is the text that sets it.
What the $160 is made of
North Dakota’s $160 figure is a single statutory charge, not a total assembled from parts. It is shown here with its own provision named, and with the neighbouring charges the North Dakota schedule prices separately — the ones a filer is most likely to add to it by mistake, or to be quoted alongside it.
- $160Civil case filing fee, N.D.C.C. s 27-05.2-03(1)(a)
Added together, these come to $160 — the figure this page headlines. If any component changed in the source, the sum would no longer match, and the build withholds the total rather than publishing a number whose parts no longer add up.
Charges the $160 figure leaves out
These amounts appear in or beside the same North Dakota schedule, so a reader can easily mistake one for part of the fee. Each is held out of the figure above for the specific reason given, which is the difference between an honest total and an inflated one.
Money already inside the total
- Internal distribution of the $160 among state funds, subdivision (1)(a)(1)-(2)
- the $160 fee is distributed by statute as "Thirty dollars of this fee ... civil legal services fund" plus "One hundred thirty dollars of this fee ... state general fund"; the two parts sum to the $160 exactly and are inside it, not additional charges the filer pays.
A value boundary, not a charge
- Biennial ceiling on the civil-legal-services fund share, subdivision (1)(a)(1)
- the "nine hundred thousand dollars in any biennium" is an aggregate ceiling: fees collected under this paragraph above that amount in a biennium are redirected from the civil legal services fund to the state general fund. It is a fund-allocation cap, not a filing charge anyone pays.
Costs no statute prices
These are the costs executors most often meet after the filing fee. None of them has a statewide statutory amount, so this site does not estimate them.
Bond
Premiums depend on the bond amount, the estate, and the applicant.
Copies and local charges
Certified copies, recording, inventory, accounting, and county surcharges are billed separately.
Professional fees
Attorney, accountant, and appraiser fees are negotiated or court-reviewed.
State-specific limits
Use this as a starting point.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
How to verify the amount for this case
Name the proceeding before asking for a total. A small-estate affidavit, an application for letters, formal administration, a later inventory or account, and a certified copy can each carry a different charge. Asking only “what does probate cost?” invites an answer for the wrong filing.
- Identify the county where the proceeding will be filed.
- Identify the exact route or petition you expect to use.
- State the value basis the schedule uses; it is not always the gross estate value.
- Ask the clerk to separate the opening fee, mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
- Record the schedule date or rule cited.
- Record whether payment is due at filing.
Keep that clerk quote with the estate record and compare it with the itemised statutory lines above. For the broader budget, use the probate cost-line guide; court filing is only one category.
Which North Dakota filing fee a probate attracts depends on what is being filed
N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1) is a civil fee schedule with a catch-all, and North Dakota probate work can land on either side of it. Subdivision (a) charges "for filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars." Subdivision (f) charges "for filing any matter authorized to be filed in the office of the clerk of court other than under subdivision a, b, or c, twenty dollars."
The gap between $160 and $20 is therefore about whether the clerk is receiving a case for decision or a filing that is not one. This site does not assert which subdivision a given informal North Dakota appointment falls under, because the section does not name probate at all; the clerk of the district court in the county of venue is the authority on that classification.
Subdivision (c) charges one hundred dollars "for filing an answer to a case other than under subdivision d or e," so a contested North Dakota matter adds a responding-party fee. Subdivision (g) charges twenty dollars "for preparing, certifying, issuing, or transmitting any document, or a lesser fee as may be set by the state court administrator" — which is the line that letters and certified copies run through.
Subsection (2) removes the fee entirely for public parties: the clerk "may not charge or collect any fee, prescribed by this or any other section, from the state or an agency thereof or from a political subdivision or agency thereof."
Source: N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
North Dakota filing-cost map
Separate the North Dakota filing charge from the estate budget
The North Dakota filing record prices a proceeding, not every cost of settling an estate. This map connects the published amount or schedule to its value basis and identifies the local items that still need a clerk or court schedule.
| Question | Recorded North Dakota answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Collection of personal property by affidavit (N.D.C.C. § 30.1-23-01) | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | personal probate property only; net of enforceable liens and encumbrances. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $100,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; North Dakota runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a three-month bar from the date of first publication and mailing of notice to creditors (§ 30.1-19-03(1)(a), notice under § 30.1-19-01); and an outer bar of three years after death where no notice to creditors has been given (§ 30.1-19-03(1)(b)). Publishing a single figure would mislead. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | $160 is the recorded statewide amount. | Ask the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | N.D.C.C. § 30.1-18-19 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for the personal representative's services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Filing record
What the North Dakota cost record can answer
North Dakota has no single statewide schedule in the accepted record.
N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1)(a) directs the clerk of the district court to charge, in civil cases, "For filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars." A formal or informal probate proceeding is a case commenced for decision in district court, so the opening fee is $160. The statute lists the fee by case type rather than naming 'probate'; the § 30.1-23-01 affidavit route requires no court filing. This page therefore names the local confirmation path instead of turning a base charge into a statewide estimate.
Case-file context
Keep the North Dakota answer with its neighboring conditions
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed North Dakota descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Route context
North Dakota is a Uniform Probate Code state. Personal property of a decedent whose estate (net of liens and encumbrances) does not exceed $100,000 can be collected by affidavit under N.D.C.C. § 30.1-23-01, thirty days after death, with no court filing. Probate proceedings are filed in the District Court, where the statewide civil filing fee is $160 under N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03. Personal representatives receive reasonable compensation under § 30.1-18-19.
North Dakota allows collection of a decedent's personal property by affidavit under N.D.C.C. § 30.1-23-01 when "the value of the entire estate subject to distribution or succession under chapters 30.1-01 through 30.1-23, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars", thirty days have elapsed since death, and no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted.
Compensation context
N.D.C.C. § 30.1-18-19 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for the personal representative's services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.
N.D.C.C. § 30.1-18-19 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for the personal representative's services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
Deadline context
North Dakota runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a three-month bar from the date of first publication and mailing of notice to creditors (§ 30.1-19-03(1)(a), notice under § 30.1-19-01); and an outer bar of three years after death where no notice to creditors has been given (§ 30.1-19-03(1)(b)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.
Court-material note: Probate in North Dakota is handled by the District Court. The court system publishes statewide informal-probate self-help resources and a district-court fee page. The operative filing fee is set statewide by N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03; the § 30.1-23-01 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing. The North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs at ndlegis.gov embed subset fonts that do not extract to machine-readable text; the section bodies are therefore sourced from the North Dakota Legislative Branch's official Century Code JSON API (ndlegis.gov/api/data/century_code.json), which serves the same codified text as clean strings.
Arithmetic illustration
See the North Dakota amount screen without mistaking it for a result
The recorded North Dakota ceiling is $100,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as net of enforceable liens and encumbrances. Counted that way, $75,000 sits below the North Dakota figure and $125,000 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what North Dakota counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the North Dakota ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $75,000 | Below $100,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $125,000 | Above $100,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Name the proceeding and ask for mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, and later filings separately.
- Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
- Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
- Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
- Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.
Official material
- North Dakota Courts — Legal Self-HelpNorth Dakota Court System
- North Dakota Courts — Informal ProbateNorth Dakota Court System
- North Dakota Courts — District Court FeesNorth Dakota Court System
Probate in North Dakota is handled by the District Court. The court system publishes statewide informal-probate self-help resources and a district-court fee page. The operative filing fee is set statewide by N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03; the § 30.1-23-01 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.
The North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs at ndlegis.gov embed subset fonts that do not extract to machine-readable text; the section bodies are therefore sourced from the North Dakota Legislative Branch's official Century Code JSON API (ndlegis.gov/api/data/century_code.json), which serves the same codified text as clean strings.
Source trail
Records used by this North Dakota map
- N.D.C.C. § 30.1-23-01N.D.C.C. § 30.1-23-01 (3-1201) — Collection of personal property by affidavit; reviewed August 9, 2026
- N.D.C.C. § 30.1-18-19N.D.C.C. § 30.1-18-19 (3-719) — Compensation of personal representative; reviewed August 9, 2026
- N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1)(a)N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03 — Fees to be charged by the clerk of the district court; reviewed August 9, 2026
- N.D.C.C. § 30.1-19-03(1)N.D.C.C. § 30.1-19-03 (3-803) — Limitations on presentation of claims; reviewed August 9, 2026
Filing-cost source
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1)(a)
Reviewed source note: A clerk of the district court shall charge and collect the following fees in civil cases: a. For filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars.
What this means: Served by the ndlegis.gov chapter-level PDF for N.D.C.C. ch. 27-05.2 (district court fees). $160 is the general civil case commencement fee under 27-05.2-03(1)(a); a formal or informal probate proceeding is filed as a case for decision. The statute lists fees by case type and does not use the word 'probate', so this maps the case-for-decision figure onto a probate filing.