What Does a Notary Cost in Texas? The 2026 Fee Guide

Texas is one of the states where you can look up the answer. The fee a notary may charge for the notarial act itself is set by statute, published, and capped. Everything else (travel, after-hours call-outs, printing, shipping) is a private service priced by the market.

Almost all the confusion about notary pricing comes from mixing those two things together. This guide separates them completely: what the State caps, what the market charges, and what the Secretary of State charges for an apostille.

Part one: the statutory maximums

Texas notarial fees are set by Tex. Gov't Code § 406.024. The section was amended in 2023 and the current amounts took effect on 1 September 2023. These are maximums, not prices: a notary may charge less, and may not charge more.

Two practical consequences follow.

First, a single notarized signature costs $10 in notarial fees, and that is the ceiling. A power of attorney with one signer, notarized at a desk, is a ten-dollar act. If you sign a document with your spouse, that is $10 for the first signature and $1 for the second: $11.

Second, these amounts are not permanent. Section 406.024 requires the Secretary of State to adjust the fees for inflation every five years using the Consumer Price Index. The next adjustment window falls around 2028. Any site quoting Texas notarial fees, including this one, has to be re-checked then.

Part two: online notarization

Remote online notarization has been legal in Texas since 19 August 2018, under Government Code Chapter 406, Subchapter C and 1 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 87. An online notary public may charge up to $25 per online notarization, and that is in addition to the § 406.024 fee for the act itself.

So the arithmetic for one signature notarized online is:

• $10: the notarial act under § 406.024
• $25: the online notarization fee
• $35 maximum in notarial fees

That is the statutory ceiling for a single online signature in Texas. National RON platforms commonly publish $25 per single-document notarization, which sits inside that cap.

The $25 is not a surcharge for convenience. An online notary public must hold a separate Texas commission on top of a traditional one, run an approved platform, maintain an x.509 digital certificate and electronic seal, perform identity proofing and knowledge-based authentication on every signer, and retain the audio-video recording of the session for five years. The fee pays for that apparatus.

Part three: travel fees, and the rule that actually matters

A travel fee is legal in Texas, uncapped, and completely separate from the notarial fee. A mobile notary is selling two different things in one appointment: a statutory act priced by the legislature, and transport priced by her.

The rule is about bookkeeping, and it has teeth. The travel fee must be quoted and itemized separately, and must never be recorded as a notarial fee. A notary who charges $50 for a house call and records the whole $50 as a notary fee has, on paper, charged five times the statutory maximum, and charging above the § 406.024 maximum as a notarial fee is prosecutable and can cost the commission. The same notary charging $10 notarial plus $40 travel, on two lines, has done nothing wrong at all.

This is why a properly run mobile notary always sends you two numbers before she drives. If a quote arrives as one undifferentiated figure, ask for the split.

What the Dallas–Fort Worth market actually charges

The figures below are collected from prices published by mobile notary businesses across the metroplex. They are market context, not a quote. Gwen quotes your specific appointment in writing before it is booked, and you can see her published rates on the pricing page. Her own prices: one visit fee per visit, never per signature, and it is not a notarial fee: $5 when you meet her at her Addison meeting spot (weekdays 9 am to 6 pm, by appointment), $15 anywhere in Addison, $25 in Zone 2 (about 10 driving miles), $45 in Zone 3 (about 10 to 20 driving miles), and a quote before booking beyond about 20 driving miles. Your ZIP code decides the zone, and the written quote confirms it. On top of that is the $10 State fee per notarization (the § 406.024 maximum), so one signature totals $15 at the meet-up spot or $25 at your door in Addison. Businesses have separate visit-size pricing on the business pricing page. An online notarization is $35 ($10 + $25), with no visit fee.

Read that table alongside the statutory one and the structure becomes obvious. A typical weekday house call in Carrollton or Richardson for a single power of attorney is a travel fee in the $35 to $60 range plus $10 of notarial fee. The notarial part is the small part.

Loan signings are priced differently because they are different work: a hundred-page package, often printed twice, page-checked, shipped back the same evening, with the signer taken through every tab. From about $150 is the market entry point, and roughly $250 is where full-service printing and overnight shipping lands.

Part four: apostilles

If a notarized document is going to be used in another country, notarization is only the first step. The document then needs an apostille, and in Texas only the Texas Secretary of State can issue one. No notary, no private service and no county office can.

• $15 per apostille, paid to the Texas Secretary of State.
• $10 per document for adoption-related documents, capped at $100 per child's adoption.
• In-person service is available, with a maximum of ten documents per transaction.
• Mail requests are handled first come, first served.

One thing deliberately not stated here: a turnaround time. The Secretary of State guarantees no turnaround: its website says mailed requests can take up to two weeks from receipt and that actual times vary, so any website promising you a specific number of days for a Texas apostille is promising something the State has not committed to. Private couriers charge for handling and delivery, commonly $75 and up in Dallas, but that money buys logistics, not speed from the State.

Putting it together

Three worked examples, using statutory maximums plus mid-market travel.

• One power of attorney, signed at home in Plano on a Tuesday afternoon. $10 notarial + travel fee. The notarial piece is capped; the travel piece is quoted in advance.
• Refinance package signed at a kitchen table in Coppell. Priced as a loan signing package, from about $150 in this market, because the work is the package rather than the individual seals.
• One signature notarized online, from wherever the signer is. $10 + $25 = $35 maximum in notarial fees, no travel at all, but note that wills, codicils and testamentary trusts cannot be notarized remotely in Texas and must be signed in person. The comparison guide explains where that line falls.

Questions worth asking any notary

• What is the notarial fee, and what is the travel fee, as two separate numbers?
• Is the travel fee flat, or does it change by distance, time of day or day of week?
• Is there a wait-time charge, a rush charge or a cancellation charge?
• For a loan signing: does the quote include printing, and does it include return shipping?
• Will I get the split in writing before you travel?

A notary who cannot answer those quickly is a notary whose bookkeeping you have not seen.

Gwen publishes her rates on the pricing page and quotes every appointment in writing, with the statutory fee and the visit fee shown separately, before she books it. If you want to see what a visit involves, read what a traveling notary does; for the underlying rules, start with what a Texas notary can and cannot do. When you are ready, send the details.

State notarial fees are set by Texas Government Code § 406.024 and § 406.111. Travel and convenience fees are separate and are not notarial fees. Gwen is a Texas notary public, not an attorney, and cannot give legal advice or tell you which document you need.