Estate Probate Fee Estimator

Assumptions

• The UK court fee is the fee for a grant of representation: a grant of probate when there is a will, letters of administration when there is not. Banks and the Land Registry usually ask for the grant before they release anything above their own limits.
• The whole value you enter is treated as passing through probate. Assets held as joint tenants, such as most joint bank accounts, pass straight to the surviving owner without a grant, so the solicitor fee on an estate that has them can be lower than shown; a share held as tenants in common goes through probate. Either way the deceased’s share still counts toward inheritance tax, unless it passes to a spouse or civil partner.

Frequently asked questions

How much are probate fees in the UK?

The court fee is £526 when the estate is over £5,000 and nothing at £5,000 or less (GOV.UK; the fee is in force from 13 July 2026). The tool adds a solicitor fee on a marginal scale of 4.5% to £50,000, 3% to £100,000, 2.25% to £200,000, 1.5% to £500,000, 1% to £1,000,000 and 0.5% above, which has no official source, so get a quote; choose Do it yourself to see the court fee alone. Extra copies of the grant cost £2 each when you apply (GOV.UK). With a solicitor, an estate of £30,000 comes to £1,876, £250,000 to £7,276, £500,000 to £11,026 and £1,500,000 to £18,526. Inheritance tax is a separate estimate: for £500,000 it is £70,000 for a single person, or £0 with the £175,000 residence band.

How much is probate in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta?

Ontario charges nothing up to CAD 50,000 and CAD 15 per CAD 1,000 or part above it, so CAD 100,000 costs CAD 750 and CAD 240,000 costs CAD 2,850, the figure Ontario’s own example gives. British Columbia charges CAD 6 per CAD 1,000 from CAD 25,000 to CAD 50,000, then CAD 150 plus CAD 14 per CAD 1,000 above CAD 50,000 with no maximum, plus a CAD 200 filing fee over CAD 25,000: CAD 1,050 for CAD 100,000. Alberta charges a surrogate fee by band on the net value of Alberta property: CAD 275 for CAD 100,000 and CAD 525 above CAD 250,000. Quebec is in the list but is not calculated: the official page says a fee is paid to have a will probated by the Superior Court and prints no amount.

How much does probate cost in Australia?

Each state publishes a court fee for a grant of probate, effective 1 July 2026. For an estate of AUD 250,000 the tool gives AUD 1,303.00 in New South Wales, AUD 544.00 in Victoria, AUD 847.60 in Queensland, AUD 418.00 in Western Australia, AUD 2,038.00 in South Australia and AUD 1,074.08 in Tasmania. Queensland and Western Australia print one flat fee with no value scale, so their figure does not change with the estate. These are court fees only, with no legal or other costs.

Does the US charge probate fees, and how is estate tax estimated?

The tool does not calculate US probate fees, which are set state by state. It estimates estate tax instead. Federal estate tax is 40% of the amount above USD 15,000,000 for deaths in 2026 (the IRS filing threshold), so USD 20,000,000 gives USD 2,000,000 and USD 15,000,000 gives USD 0. For a state with an estate tax it applies one flat top rate above the state’s exclusion, an approximation of a graduated table: on USD 10,000,000 that is USD 801,856 for Washington D.C. and USD 0 for Connecticut. New York is not a flat rate: above 105% of its USD 7,350,000 exclusion the whole estate is taxed on its table, which gives USD 1,067,600 for New York. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky and Nebraska tax by the heir’s relationship, and Hawaii uses graduated rates, so none of the five is calculated.

Which estate and inheritance taxes does the estimator no longer apply?

It returns USD 0 for states whose tax has ended. Checked on a state page: Delaware’s estate tax (repealed for deaths from 1 January 2018), Georgia (none from 1 July 2014), North Dakota (repealed in 2017), South Carolina (none for deaths from 2005), Missouri (no return for deaths from 2005), Wisconsin (none after 2007), Utah’s inheritance tax (ended after 2004), Iowa’s inheritance tax (not applicable from 1 January 2025) and Virginia (no estate or inheritance tax). New Jersey’s estate tax ended for deaths from 2018, but its inheritance tax remains and is not calculated. For California, Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan the end of the tax rests on search summaries, so those rows are marked not verified.

How accurate is the estimate, and is it legal or tax advice?

Every result is an approximation and is not legal or tax advice. Each jurisdiction links to the official page where the current figures can be checked, and the page shows the as-at date that source prints. The UK court fee, US federal tax, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and the six Australian states were checked against an official page. The UK solicitor scale, Quebec and 15 US rows were not, and the page labels each of them. Get a quote from a solicitor or the court, and check the official page, before you rely on a figure.