Your quotes. Your assumptions.
Build your divorce budget
Start with your own quotes in US dollars. Blank fields count as zero in the sum and remain marked “Not entered.” A blank amount is an unknown cost, so a partial total is not your full budget.
Need your court’s fee? Find state filing-fee resources or read about requesting a fee waiver.
Entered-cost total
Enter costs to begin
Your total appears here when you enter an amount.
- Court fees
- Not entered
- Service of papers
- Not entered
- Attorney rate × hours
- Enter rate and hours
- Your mediation costs
- Not entered
- Other costs
- Not entered
This total adds only the costs entered. It does not predict your lawyer’s hours, choose a court fee, or apply a national average. Enter both an hourly rate and hours to include attorney costs.
Use expected attorney charges, not a retainer deposit plus the same hourly charges. Add any flat-fee legal quote to “Other costs” and enter 0 for hourly attorney inputs to avoid counting it twice.
Before you calculate
Gather six inputs for a useful divorce budget
Your court’s charges
Check the court where you plan to file. List the filing charge and any additional court charges you expect, with the amount and the step that triggers payment. Start with our divorce filing-fees guide.
Your service quote
Ask what the quote includes: travel, the number of attempts, and any follow-up paperwork. Enter the quoted total for your planned method. Confirm that the method fits your court’s instructions before paying.
Attorney rate and hours
Request a written rate and an estimate of hours for the work you want. Include preparation, negotiation, communications, and expected hearings in the hours input. Update it when the scope changes.
Mediation and other expenses
Enter your share of any quoted mediation bill, then add other expected charges such as financial experts, document help, or travel. Count every charge once and keep the supporting quotes.
The calculation
Every dollar comes from an amount you enter
Court fees + service + (attorney rate × hours) + mediation + other costs
The tool rounds each cost category to cents and adds those itemized amounts. It does not multiply your costs because a case is labeled contested, and it does not supply an average attorney rate or assumed number of hours. Blank fields contribute zero to the sum, so check for “Not entered” items before treating the result as a full plan.
Hypothetical example: a $3,000 entered-cost budget
These are sample assumptions, not national prices or a court fee schedule: $300 in court fees, $75 for service, $250 per attorney hour for 8 hours, $500 as your mediation share, and $125 in other costs. Attorney time is $2,000; adding the five categories gives $3,000. Replace every sample amount with a quote for your own case.
Use the result
Compare the same scope of work in each scenario
- Enter confirmed quotes first and note which expenses remain unknown.
- Record the total and the assumptions that produced it.
- Change the attorney hours or other quotes to reflect a second plan, then compare the itemized totals.
- Revisit the budget when you receive a new bill, quote, or court instruction.
The result does not calculate child support, alimony, property transfers, debt allocation, or the cost of running two households. Plan those separately. For local court-fee examples and state-specific cost explanations, open one of the state estimators below.
If paying court fees is a concern, read the fee-waiver guide and check your court’s application and decision before reducing a budget entry. This calculator cannot determine eligibility or approval.
Common budgeting questions
Divorce cost calculator FAQ
How much does a divorce cost in the United States?
This calculator does not assign a national average. It adds your own court fees, service costs, attorney hourly rate multiplied by expected hours, mediation, and other expenses. Use your court’s current fee schedule and quotes from the professionals you plan to hire.
Can I use the calculator if I do not have a lawyer?
Yes. Enter 0 for attorney rate and hours, then enter the court, service, and other expenses you expect. If you pay for a one-time consultation or a flat-fee service, include that quote in Other costs instead of counting it again as hourly work.
Does a blank field mean that expense is free?
No. Blank inputs contribute zero to the displayed arithmetic and are marked Not entered. The result is a partial budget until you enter each expense that applies. A displayed zero based on missing quotes does not mean your divorce will cost nothing.
How do I include a filing-fee waiver in my budget?
Keep the fees you may need to pay in your main budget while a waiver request is unresolved. For a separate approved-waiver scenario, enter only the court charges you will still pay under that court’s decision. The calculator does not decide waiver eligibility or which charges an order covers.
Should I add an attorney retainer to the hourly cost?
Do not count the same payment twice. Ask your attorney how a deposit is applied to billed work and what charges the agreement includes. This calculator uses hourly rate multiplied by expected hours; include separate quoted charges once, in Other costs.