Dealer doc fees in all 50 states and DC: the legal cap, state by state
The short answer
20 states cap the dealer documentation fee, and the middle cap is $271. Whatever your state, the doc fee is part of the price: negotiate the out-the-door total.
What the numbers show
- 20 states cap the fee. Caps run from $85 (California) to $800 (Maryland). In 2 of them the cap is a "presumed reasonable" amount a dealer can go over only by filing or justifying it. In 6, the amount is adjusted for inflation, so the table shows the year it's for. One amount comes only from secondary sources, not the state's own posting: treat it as a guide, not a legal limit. In 2, the amount changes each year or we couldn't confirm it.
- 11 states confirm there's no cap, and for 20 more we couldn't find a statute either way. We say "not confirmed" rather than guess.
| State | Legal cap Public record | Fee taxed? |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Alaska | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Arizona | No cap | No |
| Arkansas | $129 | Not confirmed |
| California | $85 | Yes |
| Colorado | No cap | Yes |
| Connecticut | No cap | Not confirmed |
| Delaware | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| District of Columbia | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Florida | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Georgia | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Hawaii | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Idaho | No cap | Not confirmed |
| Illinois | Capped (amount changes yearly or not confirmed) | Not confirmed |
| Indiana | $261.72 (for 2026; adjusted for inflation) | Yes |
| Iowa | $180 | Not confirmed |
| Kansas | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Kentucky | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Louisiana | $436 (for 2026; adjusted for inflation) | Not confirmed |
| Maine | No cap | Yes |
| Maryland | $800 | Yes |
| Massachusetts | No cap | Yes |
| Michigan | $280 (for 2026; adjusted for inflation) | Not confirmed |
| Minnesota | $350 | Not confirmed |
| Mississippi | $425 | Not confirmed |
| Missouri | $620.79 (for 2026; adjusted for inflation) | Not confirmed |
| Montana | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Nebraska | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Nevada | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| New Hampshire | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| New Jersey | No cap | Yes |
| New Mexico | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| New York | $175 | No |
| North Carolina | No cap | Yes |
| North Dakota | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Ohio | $398 (reported for 2026, not a confirmed legal limit) | No |
| Oklahoma | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Oregon | $250 | Not confirmed |
| Pennsylvania | $490 (for 2026; adjusted for inflation) | No |
| Rhode Island | $400 | Yes |
| South Carolina | $225 (presumed reasonable) | Not confirmed |
| South Dakota | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Tennessee | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Texas | $225 (presumed reasonable) | Not confirmed |
| Utah | No cap | Yes |
| Vermont | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Virginia | No cap | Yes |
| Washington | $200 | No |
| West Virginia | Capped (amount changes yearly or not confirmed) | Not confirmed |
| Wisconsin | No cap | Yes |
| Wyoming | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
How we got these numbers
We read each state's own statutes, regulations and agency pages for a cap on the dealer documentation fee, whether it's taxed, and what the dealer must disclose. A cap counts only with the statute or rule behind it; "no cap" counts only where the state's law says so. Where neither could be confirmed, the row says "not confirmed". The research was done on October 18, 2026.
"Typical charged" is shown only where a state statute, regulator or agency publishes it. We don't republish third-party survey averages (such as CarEdge's dealer survey) in this table or the CSV: we can't trace them to a state source, and they aren't ours to redistribute as a dataset. Those rows say "not confirmed". No dealer is named anywhere in this data.
The figures in "What the numbers show" are computed from the table: the middle value (median) and the lowest and highest. Every state with a page links to it, with each source listed; the CSV carries every source link, so you can check any row yourself.