Continuation surcharge calculator
The USPTO charges a continuing application fee when a continuation, divisional or CIP is filed more than 6 years after its earliest benefit date: $2,700 for a large entity, $1,080 small, $540 micro. After 9 years it is $4,000, $1,600 or $800. Enter your dates to see the day each fee starts.
Source: 37 CFR 1.17(w), effective Jan 19, 2025. Runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How the continuing application fee works
Since Jan 19, 2025, a benefit claim in a continuing application carries a fee once the application is filed more than 6 years after its earliest benefit date. The fee is set in 37 CFR 1.17(w) and is paid with the benefit claim, normally at filing.
What counts as the earliest benefit date
It is the earliest filing date claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c). That means the earliest US nonprovisional, PCT or Hague application in the chain. Provisional and foreign priority dates are left out. For utility applications, it is the same date the 20-year term runs from (CAF Guide Q4).
How the years are counted
The test is “more than six years” and “more than nine years”. Count to the same month and day. Filing on the anniversary itself is still within the lower tier, and the higher fee starts the next day. What matters is the actual filing date of the new application.
For a Feb 29 earliest benefit date, this calculator counts the anniversary as Feb 28 in years without a Feb 29. That is the conservative reading; the USPTO has not said whether it uses Feb 28 or Mar 1.
The weekend and holiday rule
If the 6-year or 9-year anniversary falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday within the District of Columbia, a continuation filed on the next business day owes no fee, or only the 6-year fee at the 9-year mark (CAF Guide Q14–15; 35 U.S.C. 21(b); 37 CFR 1.7(a)). The calculator applies this rule using the Federal holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103, including observed dates and Inauguration Day. It does not include one-off closures.
The filing date is the Eastern Time receipt date that Patent Center gives, even on a weekend or holiday (37 CFR 1.6(a)(4), quoted in MPEP 502.05).
Examples
- Earliest benefit date Mar 2, 2020, large entity, filed Jul 1, 2026: the fee is $2,700. Open this example
- Same family, filed Jul 5, 2029, with the 6-year fee already paid in that application: $4,000 less $2,700, so $1,300. Open this example
- Earliest benefit date Feb 2, 2021, filed Jul 1, 2026: no fee. Open this example
Don’t know the earliest benefit date?
The continuation window checker reads the family’s continuity data from the USPTO, finds the earliest benefit date, and shows which members are still pending.
Find your earliest benefit date automatically →Frequently asked questions
When does the USPTO continuing application fee apply?
When a continuation, divisional or continuation-in-part is filed more than 6 years after its earliest benefit date. The fee is $2,700 for a large entity, $1,080 for a small entity and $540 for a micro entity. More than 9 years after, it is $4,000, $1,600 or $800. It applies to benefit claims presented on or after Jan 19, 2025 (37 CFR 1.17(w); CAF Guide Q6).
Does a provisional or foreign priority date start the clock?
No. The earliest benefit date is the earliest filing date claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c). Claims to a provisional under 119(e) and foreign priority under 119(a) or 365(b) do not count (CAF Guide Q4). A PCT application claimed under 365(c) does count.
Is filing on the 6-year anniversary itself free?
Yes. The rule charges the fee for filings "more than six years" after the earliest benefit date, so the anniversary is the last free day. If the anniversary falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday, filing on the next business day is still free (CAF Guide Q14–15; 35 U.S.C. 21(b)). The same applies at 9 years.
Do the 6-year and 9-year fees add up?
No. The 9-year fee is the total. If the 6-year fee was already paid in the same application, you pay the difference: for a large entity, $4,000 minus $2,700, which is $1,300 (37 CFR 1.17(w)(2); CAF Guide Q12–13).
What happens if the fee is not paid?
The benefit claim is not entered, and the application loses that earlier date. There is no surcharge-and-continue path. A benefit claim added later under 37 CFR 1.78(e) needs the continuing application fee plus the petition fee under 1.17(m) (CAF Guide Q3, Q10–11).
Are divisionals exempt?
No. The fee applies to continuations, divisionals and continuations-in-part alike, in utility, plant and design applications. A 371 national stage also owes it if the PCT application claims a US nonprovisional (CAF Guide Q1, Q7).
Have a pending family and a competitor product in mind?
Send us the application number and a link to the product. We check whether the as-filed specification may support claims covering it, and reply by email within 48 hours. The first reviews are free.