Guide

What an FBI Background Check Costs

Q: How much does an FBI background check cost?

The FBI charges $18, and that is the same on every route. If a foreign government needs the result apostilled, the U.S. Department of State charges $20 per document. Everything else — fingerprinting, postage, a Channeler's fee, translation — is charged by private parties who set their own prices, and no government publishes those.

The two fees that are fixed in federal regulation, the costs that are not published by anyone, and the fee waiver almost nobody mentions.

Last updated 2026-08-01 · 6 min read

The short answer

How much does an FBI background check cost?

$18 to the FBI per request. [1] Add $20 per document if the Department of State has to apostille it. [2] Everything else is privately priced and varies.

Basis: Both figures are read from the regulations that set them — 28 CFR 16.33 for the FBI fee [1] and the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services at 22 CFR 22.1, Item 46, for authentication [2] — rather than quoted from an agency web page. Read on 1 August 2026.
Caveat: Nobody publishes a total, because most of the total is set by whoever takes your fingerprints and whoever carries your post. Any single all-in price you are quoted is a company's price, not the government's.

Every cost in the process, and who sets it

Cost	Who sets it	Published?	What it is
FBI fee for the record	Federal regulation	Yes	$18 per request, identical on all three routes [1]
Fingerprinting	Whoever takes your prints	No	A police department, a commercial fingerprinting service, or an electronic capture site each set their own price
Postage	Your postal operator or courier	As published rates	One leg if you apply online and mail the card; two legs if you apply entirely by post
Channeler fee	The Channeler	No	Charged on top of the $18, by a private company, only if you are eligible to use one [3]
Apostille	Federal regulation	Yes	$20 per document from the Department of State's Office of Authentications [2] [4]
Consular legalization	The destination's embassy or consulate	Sometimes	Instead of an apostille, for destinations outside the Apostille Convention [5]
Translation	The translator	No	Only where the receiving authority requires one, and some require a specific kind of translator

Only the two rows marked published are government figures. See Apostille or Legalization for an FBI Background Check for whether the apostille row applies to you at all.

What the $18 actually buys, and why it is that number

The fee is not an arbitrary price. 28 CFR 16.33 sets it under the federal user-charge statute and states what it is calculated from: the clerical time beyond the first quarter hour spent searching for, identifying, and reproducing your record. [1] It buys the search and the copy — nothing else in this process.

Each written request for production of an identification record must be accompanied by a fee of $18 in the form of a certified check or money order, payable to the Treasury of the United States.

— 28 CFR 16.33 [1]

The same regulation lets the Director of the FBI revise the amount, with notice published in the Federal Register. [1] So $18 is current rather than permanent — it is worth re-reading the section itself, which is linked below, rather than trusting a figure printed on any site including this one.

How the FBI takes payment

A mailed request must be accompanied by a certified check or money order payable to the Treasury of the United States. [1] A personal cheque is not what the regulation describes, and this is a common reason a mailed request comes back.
A card payment is made on the FBI's credit card payment form, FD-1164, submitted with the request. [6]
An online request takes payment as part of the application in the FBI's eDO portal. [7]
A Channeler collects the $18 from you together with its own fee and forwards the submission. You do not pay the FBI separately. [3]

Common questions

Is it cheaper to go direct than through a Channeler?

Yes, in fee terms — a Channeler charges its own fee on top of the FBI's $18. [1] What you are buying with the difference is handling and, usually, electronic submission. Whether that is worth it is decided by eligibility and by where your prints will be taken, not by price. See Direct to the FBI or an Approved Channeler?.

Does the $18 include the apostille?

No. Authentication is a separate process at a separate agency with a separate fee of $20 per document. [2] Most people do not need it at all — only apply for it if the authority receiving your document asked for it. Apostille or Legalization for an FBI Background Check

Do I pay again if my fingerprint card is rejected?

The regulation ties the fee to each request for production of a record and does not, in the text, describe what happens on resubmission. [1] We are not going to guess at the FBI's operational practice: ask the FBI, or the Channeler that submitted for you, before you resubmit.

How much does fingerprinting cost?

There is no answer to this that would be true in two countries at once. No government publishes a figure, because the price is set by whoever takes the prints — a police station, a private service, or an electronic capture site. Ask locally, and get a written price before you attend.

Can I pay in a currency other than U.S. dollars?

The regulation describes payment to the Treasury of the United States in the form of a certified check or money order. [1] Practically, applicants abroad usually use the online portal, which handles the payment, precisely to avoid this problem. [7]

Next decision

How do I get an FBI background check?
There are three ways, and all of them start with your fingerprints. You can apply online to the FBI, mail a paper request to the FBI, or go through an FBI-approved Channeler. The FBI's own fee is $18. Channelers add their own fee and can only serve U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Should I apply to the FBI myself or use an approved Channeler?
If you are not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident located in the United States or its territories, you cannot use a Channeler at all — you apply directly. If you are eligible, a Channeler costs more than the FBI's $18 and sells you speed and handling. The FBI publishes processing figures for its own routes but none for Channelers, so treat any speed claim as the vendor's own.
Does my FBI background check need an apostille, and who issues it?
Only if the authority receiving it asked for one. If it did, and the destination is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the apostille comes from the U.S. Department of State — never from a state Secretary of State, because the FBI summary is a federal document. The Department's fee is $20 per document. If the destination is not a party, you need consular legalization instead.

In depth

The reference layer, where these facts are set out at length and cited in full. You do not need any of it to act on this guide.

How to Request Your Identity History Summary
Three channels exist: direct electronic submission to the FBI, direct submission by mail, and submission through an FBI-approved Channeler. They differ in eligibility, cost, delivery, and — critically — in whether particular foreign authorities will accept the result.
FBI-Approved Channelers, Explained
A Channeler is a private company the FBI has approved to submit noncriminal-justice fingerprint requests and return results. This article sets out what a Channeler does, who may use one, and the documented cases where a Channeler-delivered summary is not accepted.
Apostille and Authentication of an FBI Identity History Summary
Because the Identity History Summary is a federal document, it is authenticated by the U.S. Department of State — not by a state Secretary of State. This article explains that distinction, the Hague Convention fork, and what happens when the destination is not a Convention party.

References

Every source below is a primary publication of the body that controls the fact it supports. See the citation policy.

[1]28 CFR 16.33 — Fee for production of identification record — Office of the Federal Register (eCFR). Reviewed 2026-08-01.The $18 fee is set here, in regulation. Cited in preference to the FBI's web pages because the regulation is the instrument that fixes the amount.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-I/part-16/subpart-C/section-16.33
[2]22 CFR 22.1 — Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Item 46 — Office of the Federal Register (eCFR). Reviewed 2026-08-01.Item 46 reads: “Authentications (by the Office of Authentications domestically): (a) Each basic authentication service $20.” Cited in preference to the Department's web pages because the regulation is the instrument that fixes the amount. The same schedule sets no fee for several categories of requester, listed at Item 45.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-22/section-22.1
[3]List of FBI-Approved Channelers — Federal Bureau of Investigation. Reviewed 2026-08-01.The list itself could not be retrieved — fbi.gov returns 403 and no usable archived copy was found. It is cited only for the fact that the FBI maintains such a list at this address. What this site says about channeler eligibility and cost comes from the main Identity History Summary page, which was verified.https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/identity-history-summary-checks/list-of-fbi-approved-channelers
[4]Office of Authentications — U.S. Department of State. Reviewed 2026-08-01.https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/records-and-authentications/authenticate-your-document/office-of-authentications.html
[5]Status Table — Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents — Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Reviewed 2026-08-01.https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=41
[6]Credit Card Payment Form (FD-1164) — Federal Bureau of Investigation. Reviewed 2026-08-01.https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/credit-card-payment-form-1-4.pdf
[7]electronic Departmental Order (eDO) — Identity History Summary request portal — Federal Bureau of Investigation, CJIS Division. Reviewed 2026-08-01.The portal where an online request is completed and paid for. It is cited on this site only for that — it is a JavaScript application that publishes no prose, no fee schedule and no processing estimate. Every figure on this site comes from the FBI's Identity History Summary page instead.https://www.edo.cjis.gov/

Change log

2026-08-01First publication. Both government fees read from the regulations that set them; the indigency fee waiver at 28 CFR 16.33 surfaced.

Last updated 2026-08-01