Probate Application Fee: What You Pay and When

Applying for probate in England and Wales costs £526 if the estate is worth more than £5,000. If the estate is worth £5,000 or less, there is no fee at all¹. On top of the application fee you pay £2 for each extra official copy of the grant, and you need one copy for every bank, share registrar or other asset holder that asks to see it¹.

The fee is a court fee, not a tax. It does not change with the size of the estate above the £5,000 line, and it is not a percentage of what the person left. It is also separate from Inheritance Tax, which has to be paid before probate can be granted³.

The fee is normally paid out of the estate's money rather than by the executor personally, and some banks will settle it directly from the account of the person who died⁵. This page sets out what the fee is, when it does not apply, what the extra copies cost, when probate is not needed at all, and how the payment works when you apply through GOV.UK.

What the probate application fee is

Probate is the legal process that confirms who has the right to deal with a person's estate after they die. In England and Wales the document you apply for is a grant of probate if there is a will, or letters of administration if there is not. In Scotland the equivalent is confirmation⁶.

The application fee is what the court charges to issue that grant. For an estate worth more than £5,000 it is £526¹. It is a flat fee: the court's charge does not rise with the size of the estate. What changes with the size of the estate is Inheritance Tax, which is a separate matter and must be paid before probate can be granted³.

The fee is not the only cost of dealing with an estate. If you use a solicitor, their charges are separate and are usually based on how much time they spend on the case, so ask for an estimate before you start and be aware the bill can rise as the work goes on⁷. Some providers charge an arrangement or application fee of around £500 or £600 for related work, and not all of them charge one⁸.

Before you apply, the estate has to be valued. That valuation must be done before applying for probate, if probate is needed⁹.

No fee for estates of £5,000 or less

There is no probate application fee if the estate is valued at £5,000 or less². The same threshold appears in guidance on letters of administration for England and Wales: if the value of the estate is less than £5,000 there is no fee¹.

That £5,000 line does two things at once. It removes the fee, and it usually removes the need to apply at all. Guidance for smaller estates puts the figure at usually less than £5,000¹, and separate guidance describes a small estate as one valued at less than £5,000⁶. Where the estate is worth less than £5,000, or the person only had savings or shared money and property with others, you will likely not need to apply for probate or confirmation⁵.

The threshold is not the only test, though. An estate can be worth more than £5,000 and still avoid probate if everything was held jointly, and an estate can be worth less than £5,000 and still need a grant if a particular institution insists on one. Each financial institution has its own rules and policies on whether probate will be needed to access assets¹⁰.

Extra official copies of the grant

Each extra official copy of the grant costs £2¹. You need a copy for each asset holder, so the number to order depends on how many banks, building societies, share registrars, pension providers or insurers the estate has to deal with¹.

Ordinary photocopies will not be accepted, so the extra certified copies have to come from the Probate Registry⁶. That is why it is worth working out at the start how many institutions will need to see the grant, rather than ordering one copy and going back for more later.

Institutions do ask for different documents depending on what they hold. A building society, for example, may ask for a grant of probate, letters of administration, or a certificate of confirmation in Scotland, depending on where the person lived and whether there was a will¹¹.

When you may not need probate at all

Applying for probate may not be necessary in several common situations: where there are no assets, where the estate is small (usually less than £5,000), or where all the assets were held as joint tenants and passed automatically to the surviving owner³.

Money held in certain products can also pass outside the estate. Where a life insurance policy is written in trust, the family does not need to go through the probate process to receive the insurance money¹². Funds from someone's property, by contrast, may require a grant of probate before they can be released, so the position depends on what the person owned and how it was held¹⁰.

The practical step is to ask. It is not always needed, and you can check with any financial institutions, such as banks or mortgage companies, to find out what they will require before releasing money¹⁰. If the answer is that no grant is needed, there is no application and therefore no fee.

If you do need to apply, you can do it yourself. Applications can be made by post or online¹, and there is free help available if the paperwork is unfamiliar.

Paying the fee when you apply through GOV.UK

You can apply for probate through GOV.UK, and you can either apply by post or online¹. The fee is paid as part of the application.

The money normally comes from the estate. Some banks will pay the fee for probate directly from the account of the person who died, which avoids the executor having to find the money up front and reclaim it later⁵. Funeral expenses are treated similarly in Scotland, where they should always be paid from the deceased's moveable estate first¹³.

Inheritance Tax sits in front of probate in the order of events. It must be paid before probate can be granted³, so the estate's money may already be committed before the £526 is paid. That sequencing matters if the estate has limited cash and most of its value is tied up in property.

What happens if the estate cannot cover the fee

The fee is charged on the estate, and the estate is expected to pay it. Where the estate has money in a bank account, that account is often the source, and some banks will pay the probate fee directly from the account of the person who died⁵.

Where the estate has little cash, the executor may need to pay the fee and recover it from the estate later, or wait until assets are released. Funeral expenses come first in Scotland, where they should always be paid from the deceased's moveable estate first¹³, and the same principle of paying essential costs from the estate applies in practice elsewhere.

There is no general fee waiver for probate set out in the material here. Fee reductions and exemptions do exist in other parts of the court and public service system: you may not have to pay certain Court of Protection fees if you are on means-tested benefits or a low income¹⁴, and court fee remission in Northern Ireland covers Income Support, Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit¹⁵. Those are different processes, and the probate fee rule is the £5,000 threshold rather than a means test.

If money is tight, free help exists. You do not need to pay for debt advice¹⁶, and there are free advice services that can help¹⁷. Free legal help is also available at court from duty advisers¹⁸.

Where to get free help

You can apply for probate yourself, by post or online¹, and free guidance is published by several organisations. Age UK's probate guidance was last updated on 21 September 2026¹, and Independent Age publishes advice on what to do after a death⁵.

Free advice services can help with the money side, including debts left behind¹⁷. You do not need to pay for debt advice¹⁶, and free legal help is available at court from duty advisers¹⁸. Charities such as Contact publish guidance on dealing with debt for families¹⁹, and Shelter Scotland and Shelter England both offer money and housing advice²⁰.

If you are dealing with a court process more generally, AdviceNow publishes guidance on enforcing and dealing with county court judgments²², and StepChange sets out court fees for debt processes²³. These are not probate services, but they are free starting points when the estate's money and the paperwork overlap.

For the wider process, the site's guides on applying for probate in England and Wales, confirmation in Scotland and probate in Northern Ireland cover what happens after the fee is paid. If the estate is small, when you don't need probate for a small estate sets out the alternatives, and valuing an estate after a death explains the valuation that has to happen before you apply.