4.1 Notary Fees

The Statutory Fee Cap (ORC 147.08)

Ohio Revised Code 147.08 sets the maximum a notary public may charge for each notarial act. These are ceilings, not required prices — a notary may charge less, or nothing at all. Charging more than the cap is a violation of Chapter 147 and a ground the Secretary of State may use to deny renewal or revoke a commission.

The fee structure was last amended by House Bill 315, effective April 4, 2025. The current schedule:

The traditional and electronic caps have been $5.00 for years. The RON figures are the change applicants must memorize: the act itself is capped at $30, and a separate technology fee of up to $10 per online session may be added, for a combined ceiling of $40 per RON transaction.

The Technology Fee Trap

The RON technology fee has a feature exam writers love: it may be charged even when the notarial act is never completed. If a signer logs in, attempts credential analysis or knowledge-based authentication (KBA), and fails identity verification, the online notary may still bill up to $10 for that session — but no $30 act fee, because no act occurred.

Note the last row: the technology fee is per session, not per act, so a single online session covering two documents still carries only one $10 technology fee.

Per Act, Not Per Signature

The single most-tested fee concept is that fees attach to the notarial act, not to each signature or page.

Worked example: a married couple bring a refinance package; each spouse signs an acknowledgment on the mortgage and a jurat on a separate affidavit. That is two people × two acts = four notarial acts, so the cap is $20, regardless of how many pages or initials appear.

Travel Fees and Disclosure

A notary may charge a reasonable travel fee on top of the act fee, but only if the signer agrees to the amount in advance of the act. Travel fees are not capped by ORC 147.08, but they must be reasonable and disclosed; surprise or undisclosed charges are prohibited.

Prohibited Practices

Employers (banks, title companies) may prohibit their employee notaries from charging the public at all; that is a workplace policy, not an ORC right the notary can override. Notarizing for free is always permitted.

Worked Fee Calculations

Fee questions on the Ohio exam reward careful counting. Read every problem twice: count the number of acts, identify whether each is traditional or RON, and only then apply the caps. Three patterns recur:

• The grouped-signature trap. A single signer initials and signs a multi-page contract, all acknowledged in one act. Tempting answer: count the signatures. Correct answer: one act, $5 maximum. The number of pen strokes is irrelevant.
• The multi-signer document. A deed with four grantors, each acknowledging individually, is four acts at $5 each = $20 maximum. Each person's certificate is its own act.
• The mixed-document package. One signer brings a power of attorney (acknowledgment) and a separate affidavit (jurat). Two distinct acts = $10 maximum, because the documents and certificate types differ.

A reliable rule of thumb: count the notarial certificates you complete and sign. Each completed certificate is one act, and each act draws at most one act fee. This holds whether the certificate is an acknowledgment, a jurat, an oath or affirmation administered separately, or a copy certification.

Free Notarizations and Discrimination

Because the caps are maximums, an Ohio notary may always charge less or nothing. Many bank and credit-union notaries serve customers for free as an employee benefit, and government-employee notaries often cannot charge at all. What a notary may not do is use fees as a tool of unlawful discrimination — for example, waiving the fee for some members of a protected class while charging others for the identical service. Set a consistent fee policy and apply it uniformly.

Disclosing Fees in Advance

Good practice — and the rule for travel fees specifically — is to state the total cost before performing the act, so the signer can consent or decline. For a mobile or RON business this means quoting the act fee, any travel fee, and (for RON) the technology fee up front. Surprise charges added after the act are prohibited and invite complaints to the Secretary of State, which reviews fee abuse when deciding whether to renew or discipline a commission. Keeping a simple fee log, while not legally required for traditional acts, makes any later dispute far easier to resolve.