What does the USPTO charge to file a patent, and when are the deadlines?

What does a nonprovisional utility application cost?

Under 37 C.F.R. § 1.16, basic filing, search, and examination fees total $2,000 for a large entity ($350, $770, $880) and $400 for a micro entity ($70, $154, $176). A small entity pays $308 and $352 for search and examination, and its $140 basic fee drops to $70 when filed electronically, for $730.

The fee schedule adds $400, or $200 for small and micro entities, to paper filings, and $430, $172, or $86 when a utility application's specification, claims, or abstract isn't in DOCX.

Which fees grow with claims and pages?

Under 37 C.F.R. § 1.16(h) and (i), each independent claim over three costs $600, $240, or $120 by entity tier, and each claim over 20 costs $200, $80, or $40. Neither fee applies to a provisional.

Under 37 C.F.R. § 1.16(s), pages cost extra past 100 sheets: $450, $180, or $90 for each 50 sheets or fraction over 100, and provisionals pay it too. For electronic filings, 37 C.F.R. § 1.52(f)(2) counts 75% of the specification and drawing sheets as the USPTO system renders them.

Invented example: an ML application with 5 independent claims, 30 claims in total, and no multiple dependent claims renders to 180 sheets, counted as 135. At small-entity rates: $730 + $480 (two extra independent claims) + $800 (ten extra claims) + $180 (one size increment) = $2,190. At 130 rendered sheets the count is 97.5, so no size fee applies: $2,010.

What fees come after filing?

After allowance, the utility issue fee under 37 C.F.R. § 1.18(a) is $1,290, $516, or $258. At small-entity rates, the provisional, filing, and issue fees total $1,376 ($130 + $730 + $516), a partial subtotal, not the price of a patent. It leaves out extra claims, size fees, surcharges, petitions, extensions, appeals, and maintenance fees due 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after grant.

How is a provisional different from a nonprovisional?

The USPTO provisional application page says a provisional needs no formal claim or oath or declaration, that provisionals "are not examined," and that one provides "the means to establish an early effective filing date" in a later nonprovisional.

MPEP § 211.05 requires the earlier application to "provide adequate support and enablement for the claimed subject matter" of the later one, "except for the best mode requirement." Write the provisional like a full patent specification.

For a patent from a separate nonprovisional that claims provisional benefit, MPEP § 201.04 says the domestic priority period "will not count in the measurement of the 20-year patent term." Converting the provisional itself is different: under 37 C.F.R. § 1.53(c)(3), the term is then "measured from at least the filing date of the provisional application." Other term rules can change expiration.

How long do you have after filing a provisional?

Ordinarily, twelve calendar months. Under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), the later application must be "filed not later than 12 months after" the provisional and properly claim its benefit. Timely filing and a reference alone are insufficient: the disclosure, inventorship, and other requirements of § 119(e) and 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(a) must also be met. The USPTO's provisional page says that 12-month pendency "cannot be extended."

If the anniversary falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or D.C. federal holiday, 37 C.F.R. § 1.7(b) extends the period to the next business day. A provisional filed Friday, January 16, 2026 reaches its anniversary on Saturday, January 16, 2027; with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday the 18th under 5 U.S.C. § 6103, the deadline is Tuesday, January 19, 2027.

Name the provisional in the application data sheet when you file. For an ordinary nonprovisional filed under 35 U.S.C. § 111(a), 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(a)(4) requires the reference while the application is pending and within the later of four months from its actual filing date or sixteen months from the provisional filing date.

What if you miss the 12-month deadline?

If the 12-month period was missed unintentionally, file the nonprovisional within two calendar months after it expires, applying the same weekend and D.C. federal-holiday adjustments. Under 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(b), restoration requires a granted petition in that application, the benefit reference in an application data sheet unless already submitted, the required fee, and an unintentional-delay statement. The fee under 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(m)(3) is $2,260, $904, or $452.

For a provisional filed Tuesday, March 3, 2026, the ordinary deadline is Wednesday, March 3, 2027, and the nonprovisional must be filed by Monday, May 3, 2027 to be eligible. Relief is not automatic.

Can you still file after a demo, paper, or launch?

In the United States, yes, within a year and with limits. Under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)(1)(A), a disclosure made one year or less before the effective filing date is not prior art if the inventor, a joint inventor, or someone who got the subject matter from them made it.

Your own public demo on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 starts a year that ends Thursday, June 10, 2027, or the next business day if that is a weekend or federal holiday, per MPEP § 2153.01(a).

The USPTO warns that such a disclosure, "although protected in the United States, may preclude patenting in foreign countries." Log each demo, post, and public repo with its date, as an invention disclosure does.

Do you qualify for small or micro entity fees?

Small entity status under 37 C.F.R. § 1.27 covers individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits that haven't assigned, licensed, or promised rights in the invention to an entity that wouldn't qualify. For a business, 13 C.F.R. § 121.802 caps employees, "including affiliates," at 500.

Among its conditions, the gross income route in 37 C.F.R. § 1.29(a) requires small entity status without relying on the government use license exception, and no applicant, inventor, or joint inventor named as an inventor on more than four counted prior applications. Foreign applications, provisionals, and international applications without a paid U.S. basic national fee don't count. Exclude a prior application from a person's count if that person assigned, or must assign under a contractual or legal obligation, all ownership rights in that application because of previous employment.

None may have assigned, granted or conveyed, or be obliged by contract or law to assign, grant or convey, a license or other ownership interest in the application to an entity whose gross income for the preceding calendar year exceeds the applicable cap. File the signed certification under 37 C.F.R. § 1.29(e)–(f) in the particular application before or with its first micro fee.

The USPTO micro entity page puts the cap at $262,380 as of September 15, 2026. Each person's prior-calendar-year gross income must not exceed it, and eligibility must be re-checked "each and every time a fee is paid," so a fee paid in October 2026 is tested against 2025 income. If micro eligibility is lost, 37 C.F.R. § 1.29(i) requires a signed loss-of-entitlement notice before or with the next fee payment; paying a higher amount alone is insufficient.

What should you bring to the filing decision?

Write down each public disclosure date, the provisional filing date, the adjusted 12-month deadline, and the restoration window's end. Add claim and rendered sheet counts and everyone with rights in the invention. This note is general information, not legal advice.

You built it. Now protect it. PatentAgents.ai turns your notes, diagrams, and code into a patent application built around what you actually invented. Bring this checklist and your technical source material to your practitioner.

Provisional deadline flow

Sources

• USPTO fee schedule (effective January 19, 2025, last revised August 14, 2026)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.16 (national application filing, search, and examination fees)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.52 (application size fee page counting)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.18 (issue fees)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.362 (maintenance fee payment periods after grant)
• USPTO provisional application for patent
• MPEP § 211.05 (sufficiency of disclosure in a prior-filed application)
• MPEP § 201.04 (provisional applications)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.53 (converting a provisional application and patent term)
• 35 U.S.C. § 119 (benefit of earlier filing date)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.78 (claiming benefit of earlier filing date)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.7 (deadlines on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday)
• 5 U.S.C. § 6103 (federal holidays)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.17 (processing fees, including the restoration petition)
• 35 U.S.C. § 102 (novelty and the one-year exception)
• MPEP § 2153.01(a) (grace period inventor-originated disclosure exception)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.27 (small entity status)
• 13 C.F.R. § 121.802 (size standard for reduced patent fees)
• 37 C.F.R. § 1.29 (micro entity status)
• USPTO micro entity status

Tradeoffs and limits

• A later claim receives the provisional's date only if the provisional supplies adequate written description and enablement for that claimed invention and the other benefit requirements are met. Best mode is excluded from this earlier-date benefit test. A thin disclosure may fail that test.