The court charges $338 to file a Chapter 7 and $313 to file a Chapter 13. Those are the same in every bankruptcy court in the country, and neither one goes to your lawyer.
If your household income is under 150 percent of the federal poverty guideline and you genuinely cannot pay in installments, the Chapter 7 fee can be waived entirely. If you are above that line, you can still split it into four payments after filing.
The three ways to handle the Chapter 7 fee
- Pay the $338 at filing, which is what most people do.
- Apply to pay in installments, up to four payments spread across 120 days after filing, which the court can extend to 180 days for cause.
- Apply for a full waiver under 28 U.S.C. 1930(f), which requires income under 150 percent of the poverty guideline and a showing that you cannot pay even in installments.
The waiver is discretionary. A judge can deny it, and a denial means you have a filed case and an unpaid fee, which the court will want handled promptly. In practice waivers are granted routinely for people living on Social Security, SSI or disability with nothing left at the end of the month.
Chapter 13 has no waiver, and this is not widely known
The fee waiver statute covers Chapter 7 only. A Chapter 13 filer pays the $313 no matter how low their income is. You can pay it in installments, but you cannot escape it. If you are genuinely destitute and looking at Chapter 13 to save a house, that $313 has to come from somewhere, and it is worth planning for a month ahead.
Miss an installment and the case can be dismissed
This is the failure mode nobody warns people about. You get your installment plan approved, you get the automatic stay, the garnishment stops, and then the second payment slips your mind. The court issues an order to show cause and dismisses the case for failure to pay. Now the stay is gone, the garnishment restarts, and the money you did pay is gone with it.
Set a calendar reminder for each installment date the day the order is entered. I do this with clients at signing, and it takes ninety seconds.
The course fees, and how to make them cheap
You need two courses. Credit counseling before you file, debtor education before you get a discharge. Both are done online in an hour or two, and approved providers charge roughly $10 to $50 each depending on who you use.
Every approved provider is required to have a fee waiver policy for low income filers, and many will waive the charge outright if you ask and show income. Almost nobody asks. Two minutes on the phone with the provider saves $40 or more, and that is real money to someone filing bankruptcy.
“The single cheapest mistake to avoid is taking the wrong course in the wrong order. Credit counseling has to be completed within 180 days before you file, and the certificate expires. I have had a client take the post-filing course first, by accident, and have to pay for both again.”
Naomi Reyes-AshfordThe 2026 fee amounts at a glance
| Chapter | Filing fee | Waiver available | Installments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 7 | $338 | Yes, under 150 percent of the poverty guideline | Up to 4 payments over 120 days |
| Chapter 13 | $313 | No | Yes, by application |
| Conversion from 13 to 7 | Additional fee applies | No | By application |
| Amending schedules to add creditors | Fee charged per amendment in most situations | No | Not applicable |
Questions we get asked
Does a fee waiver make my case look worse to the trustee?
No. It is a routine application, it is granted regularly, and no trustee treats a waived fee as a signal about anything other than income.
Can my attorney fee be waived too?
No. The waiver statute covers court fees. Attorney fees are a private contract, and any firm advertising free bankruptcy is either doing genuine pro bono through a legal aid organization or is not telling you the whole thing. Legal aid in Los Angeles does real Chapter 7 work for qualifying filers, and if you qualify I will point you there rather than take your money.
What if I already paid a fee and my case is dismissed?
The fee is not refunded, and refiling means paying it again. That is one of several reasons a dismissed case is expensive even though nothing happened.
Are there other court costs during the case?
Occasionally. Filing certain motions carries a fee, obtaining records after the case closes carries a small charge, and amendments that add creditors are typically charged. None of these is large in a routine case.
If you think you might qualify for the Chapter 7 waiver, gather proof of household income for the last six months, including benefit award letters, and bring it to the consultation. The application is decided on those documents.