The cost to copyright a book in the U.S. is either $45 or $65 when you file online with the U.S. Copyright Office, depending on whether your book qualifies for the cheaper Single Application. Paper filing costs $125. Everything else — attorney help, expedited processing, corrections, extra certificates — is optional or situational, but any of them can push your total well beyond the base fee.
The Two Online Fees
Most authors registering a book will pay one of two amounts through the Copyright Office’s online portal.1U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
- $45 — Single Application. Available only when the book has one author who is also the sole copyright owner, and the work is not a work made for hire. This is what most individual authors use for a self-published book or an unpublished manuscript.
- $65 — Standard Application. Required when a book has multiple authors, when the author and the copyright owner are different people, or when the book is a work made for hire (common when a publisher commissions it).
Both fees are paid at submission through Pay.gov, which accepts credit cards, debit cards, and electronic checks. The fee is nonrefundable once the Copyright Office begins examining your claim; if the office refuses your registration because the work doesn’t qualify or the claim is invalid, you don’t get the money back.2eCFR. 37 CFR 201.6 – Payment and Refund of Copyright Office Fees
Paper Filing Costs More
Registering by mail using Form TX costs $125.1U.S. Copyright Office. Fees The Copyright Office discourages paper filing, and there’s no procedural advantage — it takes longer and costs more than filing the same information online. For a book, there’s rarely a reason to choose it.
Fees Are Set to Change
The Copyright Office published a proposed rulemaking in March 2026 that would eliminate the $45 Single Application, raise the Standard Application from $65 to $85, and increase paper filing from $125 to $185.3Federal Register. Copyright Office Fees The changes are not final. If you’ve been putting off registration, the current fees are a reason to file sooner.
Expedited Processing: $800 Extra
Standard online registration takes about two months for a clean filing, and roughly four months if the examiner has questions.4U.S. Copyright Office. Registration Processing Times If you need the certificate faster, you can request special handling for an additional $800 on top of the regular filing fee.1U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
You have to provide a qualifying reason. The Copyright Office limits eligibility to pending or prospective litigation, customs matters, or contract and publishing deadlines.5U.S. Copyright Office. Special Handling Wanting the certificate quickly for peace of mind is not a qualifying reason.
One detail worth knowing before you spend the $800: the effective date of your registration is the date the Copyright Office received your complete application, fee, and deposit — not the date the certificate issues.6U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Law of the United States, Chapter 4 – Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration For most legal purposes, that submission date is what counts.
Optional and Situational Costs
Attorney Fees
Most book registrations don’t need a lawyer. The online form isn’t complicated, and the Copyright Office publishes detailed instructions. An attorney can be worth the money when your book has multiple contributors, adapts pre-existing material, or raises work-for-hire questions. Flat fees for a straightforward filing typically start around $500, and complex ownership or co-authorship situations run higher.
Third-Party Filing Services
Companies will file your application for you, using the same online form you’d use yourself, for roughly $100 to $200 on top of the government fee. For a simple book registration, the convenience rarely justifies the added cost.
Corrections After Filing
A mistake on your application — a misspelled name, wrong publication date, incorrect claimant — requires a supplementary registration to fix. That costs $100 electronically or $150 on paper.1U.S. Copyright Office. Fees Getting it right the first time is the cheapest path.
Extra Certificates
You receive one certificate of registration when your claim is completed. Additional certified copies — for a publisher, a foreign rights deal, or your own file — are $55 each.1U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
The Library of Congress Deposit Requirement
This one catches authors by surprise. Within three months of publishing a book in the United States, the copyright owner must deposit two copies of the “best edition” with the Library of Congress, whether or not you register the copyright.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 407 – Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for Library of Congress It’s separate from the deposit copy you upload with your registration application.
Registering through the eCO portal can satisfy both requirements in some cases, but if your book was published in physical form, the Copyright Office generally expects physical copies even when a digital version exists.8U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 2 – Copyright Registration The cost is two copies of your own book plus postage.
Ignoring a written demand for deposit copies can bring a fine of up to $250 per work plus the retail price of the copies owed, with an additional $2,500 fine for willful or repeated refusal.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 407 – Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for Library of Congress Enforcement in practice focuses on commercially distributed books rather than small-run self-published titles, but the legal obligation applies to both.
Why Pay to Register at All
Your book is protected by copyright the moment you fix it in tangible form. Registration is not a condition of protection, and federal law is explicit on that point.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 408 – Copyright Registration in General So why spend anything?
Two reasons. First, you cannot sue for infringement in federal court until the Copyright Office has granted or refused your registration.6U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Law of the United States, Chapter 4 – Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration The Supreme Court confirmed in 2019 that simply submitting an application is not enough; the registration process has to be complete before a claim can go to court.
Second, registration determines what remedies you can recover. Without timely registration, your only option in an infringement case is proving your actual financial losses, which is hard and expensive for self-published authors. With timely registration, you can instead elect statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, or up to $150,000 if the infringement was willful.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits You can also recover attorney’s fees.
“Timely” has a specific meaning: you need to register before any infringement begins, or within three months of first publishing the book.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement Miss that window, and an infringer who started copying after publication but before your registration can only be held liable for actual damages. No statutory damages, no attorney’s fees. That’s the practical stakes behind a $45 fee.
You Don’t Need to Pay for International Registration
You don’t need to register separately in other countries. The United States is a member of the Berne Convention, and copyright protection is automatic in all member countries, which covers most of the world.12WIPO. Copyright
Be cautious of companies charging fees for “international copyright registration.” WIPO warns that registration with unofficial entities does not confer copyright protection or international recognition.12WIPO. Copyright If someone is selling you international registration, they’re selling something that doesn’t exist the way they’re describing it.