Public Access to Court Electronic Records | PACER: Federal Court Records

Access to case information costs $0.10 per page. Depending on format, billable pages are calculated in two different ways. For HTML-formatted information, a billable page is calculated using a formula based on the number of bytes extracted (4,320 bytes = 1 billable page). For PDFs, the actual number of pages is counted (1 PDF page = 1 billable page). 

The cost to access a single document is capped at $3.00, the equivalent of 30 pages for documents and case-specific reports like docket report, creditor listing, and claims register. The cap does not apply to name search results, reports that are not case-specific, and transcripts of federal court proceedings.  

NOTE: If you accrue $30 or less of charges in a quarter, fees are waived for that period. 75 percent of PACER users do not pay a fee in a given quarter. 

The $0.10 per-page charge is based on the number of pages that result from each search and accessing each requested report or document online. The charge is not based on printing that search or document. Read some examples of how charges are generated:  

• Enter party name “johnson, t” and receive two pages of matches. The charge is $0.20. 

• Enter case number 01-10054 and select Docket Report. The docket is 10 pages, so the charge is $1. You may enter a date range to limit the number of pages by displaying entries for the date range rather than all entries in the report. 

• Select a link within the docket report to view a document. The PDF document is five pages, so the charge is $0.50. 

This charge applies to the number of pages that results from any search, including a search that yields no matches (a charge of $0.10, one page, for no matches). 

Read the fee schedule for electronic public access services. Find out when PACER is free, tips to limit fees, or options to access records if you cannot afford PACER fees.