New York has one of the cheapest notary fees in the country, and it still manages to confuse everyone, because it counts something no other state counts: people.
Two dollars, per person, per instrument
The statutory fee is charged per person whose signature is taken, per written instrument. Three people acknowledging one document is $6. One person acknowledging three documents is also $6 — each instrument's acknowledgment is its own act. The paper count and the people count both matter, and the fee runs on their combination.
Fees
$2 for a notarial act — an oath, or an acknowledgment, per person.
Each additional person is another $2, as is swearing each witness — and the fee runs per person, per document: one person signing three documents is three fees. New York sets the lowest notarial fee of the states we publish.
§N.Y. Exec. Law §136(1)–(2)Cross-checked · NY DOS Notary Public License Law (March 2026)
Nobody's bill gets big from the $2. Which brings us to the actual bill.
The rest is the trip
A notary coming to you charges for coming to you. New York's fee statute sets its three fees and says nothing about travel at all — silence, which is neither permission nor prohibition.
Fees · Travel
New York's fee statute sets three fees and says nothing about travel.
The statute prices oaths, acknowledgments per person, and electronic acts — and stops there. It sets no travel rate and no rule about charging for one, so agree any trip charge with the notary in advance. Note the electronic fee runs the other way: $25 covers all the notary's costs.
§N.Y. Exec. Law §136Cross-checked · NY DOS Notary Public License Law (March 2026)
So when a $2 notarization shows up as $60, the $58 is the service of showing up, and you should know that number before anyone's in motion. Our policy is travel quoted and agreed before the appointment, every time.
The New York fee calculator does the per-person math for your actual signing party.
Electronic is a different animal
If your notarization is performed as an electronic notarial act, the fee changes shape entirely: a flat fee for each electronic notarial act, in place of the per-person computation rather than on top of it — and it's inclusive of every cost the notary incurs.
Fees · Electronic
An electronic notarization is $25, and that covers everything.
The rule makes the fee inclusive of every cost the notary incurs, so it is the whole price of the act. The amount sits in regulation rather than the statute, so it can change without a new law.
§19 NYCRR §182.11(g)Cross-checked · NY DOS Notary Public License Law (March 2026)
Three electronic acts can run $75 where three in-person acknowledgments ran $6. Same state, different mode, different law.
If you're deciding between having a notary come to you and doing it on screen, that price difference is real and worth checking both ways.
NotaryOT is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Notaries public are not attorneys and cannot advise on immigration or other legal matters. Each New York legal claim in this post carries its citation and was cross-checked against the source named on its card: NY DOS Notary Public License Law (March 2026).