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How much does it cost to file for custody in Pennsylvania?

Filing a new custody complaint in Pennsylvania costs $155.25 in Erie County, and the petitions that keep a custody case alive afterwards — modification, contempt and special relief — cost $50 each there. Pennsylvania custody fees are set county by county by each prothonotary, and published schedules for other counties land close by: $152.80 for custody on one county schedule effective January 1, 2026, and $187.50 for a standalone custody action in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania custody fees at a glance

Every figure above comes from a published county schedule, which is the only honest way to present Pennsylvania custody costs: the Commonwealth sets the framework (42 Pa.C.S. §1725 authorises prothonotary fees, and §1725.1 adds a $5 custody-case cost that funds criminal-history information in custody proceedings) but the totals are local. Erie's prothonotary publishes its custody fees as a standalone sheet — complaint $155.25, each follow-on petition $50 — and expressly notes the parenting seminar fee is not due at filing. Note the structural saving visible in the Bulletin schedule: custody pleaded as a count inside a divorce costs $51.25 on top of the divorce complaint, against $152.80 standalone — parents who are divorcing anyway should plead custody inside the divorce. The national overview is on the child custody filing costs hub; the state picture is on the Pennsylvania court costs guide.

Standing and where the case belongs

A custody case opens in the Court of Common Pleas of the county where the child has lived for the six months before filing — Pennsylvania's home-county rule under 23 Pa.C.S. ch. 53. Standing — who may file at all — is defined by §5324: parents may always file; grandparents and great-grandparents may file in the circumstances §5324 and §5325 describe, including where a parent is deceased, where the parents' relationship has been dissolved for at least six months, or where the child has lived with the grandparent for at least 12 consecutive months; and a person who has stood in loco parentis to the child may file for physical or legal custody. File without standing and the case is dismissed with the fee unrefunded — Allegheny County's custody centre warns filers of exactly that on its custody pages — so a non-parent filer should test standing before paying the prothonotary, not after.

What the court decides: the §5328 factors

Pennsylvania decides custody on the sixteen best-interest factors in 23 Pa.C.S. §5328(a) — from which parent is more likely to encourage frequent and continuing contact, through each party's availability to care for the child, the child's adjustment and sibling relationships, any history of abuse (weighted heavily, with its own §5329 risk assessment), to the mental and physical condition of each party. The procedural path reflects that weight: most counties route a new complaint first to a custody conference or conciliation — Philadelphia's schedule prices a conciliator appointment at $140 — and only then to a hearing or trial before a judge. Relocation has its own statute, §5337, with a mandatory notice and counter-affidavit process that generates its own filings. None of this enlarges the filing fee itself, but it is why a custody case's real cost is measured in conferences and petitions after filing, each at the county's petition rate.

How the case runs

1. Confirm the child has lived in your county for six months and that you have standing under §5324; complete the complaint for custody and the criminal-history and abuse-history verifications Pennsylvania requires of every filing household member
2. File with the prothonotary (in Philadelphia, the Clerk of Court) and pay the complaint fee $155.25 in Erie County
3. Serve the other parent within the period your county's rules set, and file proof of service
4. Attend the custody conference or conciliation and the required parenting seminar where your county orders one $100 in Erie County, not due at filing
5. If conference does not settle the case, proceed to a hearing or trial under the §5328 factors; later changes are by modification petition $50 in Erie County

What custody really costs beyond the clerk

The complaint fee is the smallest predictable number in a contested Pennsylvania custody case. Custody evaluations and psychological assessments are ordered by the court and priced by the evaluator; mediation is priced by the mediator; supervised visitation, where ordered, is priced by the provider. This page names those costs without figures because no prothonotary schedule publishes them. What the schedules do let you budget exactly is the petition traffic a long case generates — modification, contempt and special relief at $50 each in Erie — and the seminar fee that counties with a mandatory programme add. Parents already divorcing should note the divorce-route saving again: the custody count inside a divorce on the Bulletin schedule costs about a third of a standalone complaint. Compare Ohio custody costs and Texas custody (SAPCR) costs, and the divorce side in Pennsylvania divorce costs.

Can't afford the fee?

Pennsylvania's route is a petition to proceed in forma pauperis under Pa.R.C.P. 240, filed with the complaint. The court decides on the petitioner's affidavit of income and assets; a granted petition waives the prothonotary's filing fees for the case. Allegheny County's custody centre, for example, assesses waiver applicants by appointment and notes waivers are generally granted to filers receiving cash benefits or SSI with no other income, with paystubs and tax returns required for working applicants. The general mechanics are explained in the fee waiver guide.

Sources: Erie County Prothonotary / Courts — Current Custody Fees (2026) (new complaint $155.25; modification petition $50; custody contempt $50; special relief $50; Children Cope seminar $100, not due at filing) · County prothonotary fee schedule published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, effective January 1, 2026 (custody $152.80; modification of custody $26.40; custody as an additional divorce count $51.25; divorce with custody count $179.05) · First Judicial District (Philadelphia) fee schedule published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin (standalone custody $187.50; conciliator appointment $140) · 23 Pa.C.S. §§5324–5325 (standing), 5328 (best-interest factors), 5337 (relocation) · 42 Pa.C.S. §§1725, 1725.1 · Pa.R.C.P. 240 (in forma pauperis). Last verified: October 2026 — confirm current figures with your county prothonotary.