USPTO maintenance fee window and cost, 2026 schedule

Turn a US patent grant date into the three USPTO fee windows, the 2026 amounts, and the cost of missing each one

Stage in play
Window opensdate
Due with no surchargedate
Grace ends, patent expiresdate
Days to the no-surcharge datedays
Fee inside the windowUSD
Fee plus grace surchargeUSD
Cost to revive after expiryUSD
Docket total payable nowUSD
Where you stand
Keep the docket — CSV export of every window plus browser alarms at 90, 30 and 7 days — $60 once · one licence key per person or team seat · 7-day full refund →
All three windows from one grant date
A US utility patent carries three maintenance fees, due at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years from the grant date. Each window opens six months early and closes six months late. The checker walks a grant date of 2019-03-12 forward: the 7.5-year window opened 2026-03-12, the no-surcharge due date was 2026-09-12, and the patent expires 2027-03-12.
2026 fee amounts, not last year's
Amounts come from the USPTO fee schedule effective 2025-01-19 and revised 2026-08-14: 2150 / 4040 / 8280 large entity, with 60 percent off for small entities and 80 percent off for micro entities. For a small entity at the 7.5-year stage that is 1616, and 1832 once the 216 grace surcharge is added.
What the miss actually costs
Past the grace date the patent is expired and only a 37 CFR 1.378 petition brings it back. The checker prices that path too: for the same small-entity 7.5-year fee the revival costs 2520, because the 904 petition fee for a delay of one year or less rides on top of the 1616 fee.
Entity status is re-determined at every payment
Under 37 CFR 1.27(g) small and micro entity status must be established afresh at each maintenance fee payment, so a company that grew or licensed to a large entity since the last payment owes the undiscounted amount. Tick the checkbox and every figure recomputes at large-entity rates.
Docket total for patents sharing a stage
Paralegals rarely pay one fee alone. Give the number of patents sitting in the same window and the checker multiplies the payable amount, so six small-entity patents inside the 7.5-year grace period come to 10992 rather than 1832.

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Turn a US patent grant date into the three USPTO fee windows, the 2026 amounts, and the cost of missing each one

Getting it wrong is priced by the USPTO itself: a 540 late surcharge inside the six-month grace window, then a 2260 petition fee when the delay is one year or less and 3000 when it is longer (37 CFR 1.17(m), fee schedule revised 2

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Questions people ask

What does the Patent Maintenance Fee Window Checker actually do?

You give it a US utility patent grant date, the date you are checking from, the entity status you will claim, whether that status changed, and how many patents sit at the same stage. Five inputs produce ten outputs: the stage in play, three dates, days remaining, three dollar figures, a docket total, and a plain sentence saying where you stand.

Who is this for?

US solo inventors and startup founders who pay their own maintenance fees, and paralegals at small IP firms who docket them in a spreadsheet. It is built for people without an annuity service, who learn the window closed only when the USPTO notice of expiration arrives months later.

Why is a chatbot or a free date calculator not enough here?

Language models still quote the pre-2022 fifty percent small-entity discount instead of sixty percent, and a single flat petition fee instead of the two tiers. A generic date calculator has no fee table at all. This checker carries the schedule effective 2025-01-19 and revised 2026-08-14.

What is free and what does the key unlock?

Every calculation is free and unlimited: all three stages, all 2026 amounts, the grace surcharge, and the revival cost. Nothing is blurred or capped. The twenty-nine dollar key adds two different things: a CSV export of the whole docket that you keep, and browser alarms at ninety, thirty and seven days.

What does getting this wrong cost?

Inside the six-month grace window a large entity pays a 540 surcharge. After that the patent is expired and only a 37 CFR 1.378 petition revives it, at 2260 when the delay is one year or less and 3000 when it is longer, on top of the fee itself. Small and micro entities pay those at 40 and 20 percent.

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