Delaware puts a single dollar figure in the carry-license statute. 11 Del. C. § 1441(a)(4): "At the time the application is filed, the applicant shall...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Delaware puts a single dollar figure in the carry-license statute. 11 Del. C. § 1441(a)(4): "At the time the application is filed, the applicant shall pay a fee of $65 to the Prothonotary issuing the same." Renewal costs the same. Section 1441(a)(5)a. lets a licensee renew "upon payment to the Prothonotary of a fee of $65."
The Superior Court's posted instruction sheets carry the same number. The sheet for new applications states, "Filing fee of $65.00 must be paid at the time of filing," and the renewal sheet states the same at item 2. The sheets restate the statutory amount. The fee itself is set by 11 Del. C. § 1441(a)(4), and Superior Court Rule 3 calls it the statutory filing fee, so it changes only when the Code changes. Other line items on the sheets, such as photo specifications and fingerprint service codes, can be revised by the court, so pull the current sheet before you file.
Both instruction sheets describe payment the same way, and the weapons page repeats the mail rule. Hand-delivered applications may be paid by cash, money order, or personal check made payable to "PROTHONOTARY." Applications filed by mail must not include cash and must include a money order or personal check.
Superior Court Rule 3 requires applications and renewal affidavits to be filed "along with the statutory filing fee." That is the court's entire share. Every other cost below is charged by someone else, and none of those prices appears in the statute or the court's materials.
Section 1441(b) puts publication on the clerk: the Prothonotary "shall cause notice of every such application to be published once, at least 10 days before the next term of the Superior Court," in a newspaper of general circulation published in the county. Rule 5 adds only that "Publication shall be made pursuant to 11 Del. C. § 1441(b)."
The court's instruction sheet for new applications puts the work, and the bill, on the applicant. Step 1 tells you to arrange with a newspaper of general circulation in your county, publish your application once at least 10 business days before you file, obtain an affidavit from the newspaper company stating the requirement has been met, and attach it to your application. The sheet lists the acceptable papers by county, keyed to zip codes in New Castle County, and states that the paper must have a circulation of at least 35% of the population in your zip code.
Flag the mismatch before you budget. The statute assigns publication to the Prothonotary on a clock tied to the next term of court; the sheet assigns arranging and proving it to the applicant on a 10 business day clock before filing. Follow the sheet and ask the Prothonotary how your county handles it.
Newspapers set their own legal-notice rates, and neither the statute nor the sheet names an amount or says who pays. Since you contract with the paper and return with its affidavit, plan on paying that paper's rate directly. The renewal sheet contains no publication step.
The weapons page and the new-application sheet both state that fingerprints "must be taken by State Bureau of Identification within 45 days prior to filing the application," scheduled through IdentoGO using the service code for your filing county: New Castle County 27S7Q4, Kent County 27RV9F, Sussex County 27S7RK. The sheet adds, "You are required to submit proof of payment for your fingerprinting at the time of filing."
Proof of payment is required, but neither the weapons page nor the instruction sheets posts the amount. Get the current price from IdentoGO when you book. The sheet also notes that an applicant who has been a Delaware resident for less than five years should submit a certified driving record from each previous state of residence, which you obtain from each of those states directly. The renewal sheet has no fingerprint step.
Both instruction sheets say the same thing: "A notary is available at each Prothonotary's Office. (There is no fee for this service)." The new-application sheet requires the completed application to be notarized, and the renewal sheet states that "Applications must be notarized."
That free notary does not necessarily reach every notarized document in the file. Section 1441(a)(3) requires, before an initial license issues, a separate "notarized certificate signed by an instructor or authorized representative of a sponsoring agency, school, organization or institution," and that certificate is notarized wherever the instructor signs it.
The new-application sheet calls for two color 2" x 2" official passport photographs on photo stock paper, taken within the six-month period immediately preceding filing, and warns that out-of-focus, grainy, wrongly sized, or non-photo-paper submissions are rejected. The renewal sheet calls for two color passport-style photographs on the same six-month clock. Rule 3 describes the photographs as 1.5" x 1.5" for both filings, so the rule and the sheet do not match. Use the size on the current sheet.
The price is set by the vendor, and the six-month recency rule brings this cost back at every renewal.
Section 1441(a)(3) requires the instructor certificate before an initial license issues, names the acceptable sponsor categories, and lists ten required course elements, including "Live fire shooting exercises conducted on a range, including the expenditure of a minimum of 100 rounds of ammunition."
Course price is set by the instructor or school. Section 1441 does not set, cap, or estimate it, and neither do the court's materials. The 100-round floor is a second private cost, depending on whether the course includes ammunition. The Attorney General publishes the list of approved firearm instructors that the court's sheet points applicants to.
Sequence decides when you spend. Item 8 of the new-application sheet says that if your application is approved and you have not already submitted a gun course certificate, you must then complete an approved gun course and submit an original notarized certification of satisfactory completion. If no certification or proof of enrollment reaches the court within 90 calendar days of approval, the sheet says the court "will assume you no longer want to obtain a gun permit" and you start over. Training money can wait until after approval, inside that window.
The fee is the same $65, but the surrounding costs fall away. Section 1441(a)(5)a. closes the door on additions: "No requirements in addition to those specified in this paragraph may be imposed for the renewal of a license." The renewal sheet has three steps, which are photographs, the $65.00 filing fee, and a notarized application filed with a duplicate copy. No publication, no reference questionnaire, no fingerprints, no new training.
How often the fee recurs is less settled than it looks. Section 1441(a)(5)a. says the initial license is valid for 3 years and may then be renewed "for the further period of 5 years," with like renewal every 5 years after that. Rule 9 says the Prothonotary issues an initial license expiring June 1 of the second year next succeeding and a renewed license expiring June 1 of the third year next succeeding. Section 1441(e) describes a term expiring June 1 next succeeding approval. Those do not line up, so read the expiration date off the license rather than counting years from the statute. On timing, Rule 3 allows renewal affidavits after January 1 but no later than June 1 of the expiration year, while the renewal sheet says renewals may be filed as early as January 2 of the renewal year.
Section 1441(h) charges the same money on both tracks. An officer applying within 90 days of retirement "shall pay a fee of $65 to the Prothonotary in the county where that retired police officer resides" and presents an Attorney General certification plus a letter from the chief of the officer's agency. An officer applying more than 90 days but within 20 years after retirement also pays a fee of $65 and presents Attorney General certification forms covering good standing, criminal record review, and psychiatric commitment. The statute attaches no charge to those certifications.
Section 1441(a)(5)b. let a person whose license expired in 2020 or 2021 renew by satisfying conditions with the Prothonotary no later than December 31, 2022, including "Payment of the $65 fee required by paragraph (a)(5)a. of this section." That deadline has passed, though the text remains in the Code.
Section 1441(k) gives the Attorney General discretion to issue a temporary license to a nonresident with a short-term employment-related need to carry in Delaware. It expires 30 days from issuance, is not subject to renewal, may be followed by a second or subsequent temporary license, and no individual may receive more than 3. Neither that subsection nor § 1441(l) sets a fee, and the Superior Court materials do not price it, since the Attorney General rather than the Prothonotary handles it. Section 1441(k) gives that office authority to promulgate regulations for administering temporary licenses, so ask it what it charges.
This is the purchase permit, not the carry license. The federal court order in the challenge to the law, entered March 27, 2026, states that Senate Bill No. 2 and Senate Substitute No. 1 introduced a permit-to-purchase requirement and that the law went into effect on November 16, 2025 as 11 Del. C. § 1448D.
Section 1448D sets no fee. Subsection (b) directs the SBI to issue the permit on application to qualifying persons, subsection (d) prescribes the application contents, subsection (e) requires applications to be made available by the SBI and licensed dealers, and subsection (h) requires the SBI to investigate and grant or deny. None of those subsections mentions payment. The one place the section does mention money is § 1448D(m)(1)d., which provides that "A filing fee is not required to obtain a hearing" on a denial or revocation.
The Delaware State Police Permit to Purchase page describes the requirements as completing a firearms training course with a certified instructor, obtaining fingerprints by appointment with IdentoGO, and passing a background check. It posts no price for the permit itself. The costs it does put on the applicant are the private training course and the IdentoGO appointment, for which the required service code is 27S8N2. The page warns that any other code "will not be accepted, and you will have to pay to be fingerprinted again using the correct code."
The permit is valid for 2 years from issuance under § 1448D(j)(1), a shorter cycle than the carry license. A carry license takes you out of that cycle. Section 1448D(c)(2) provides that a person holding a valid license under § 1441 "is not required to apply for a handgun qualified purchaser permit under this section before purchasing a handgun," and the State Police page says the same in its CCDW tab.
One adjacent charge is capped by statute. Under 24 Del. C. § 904A(b)(5), a dealer asked to facilitate a transfer between unlicensed persons "may charge a reasonable fee for the service, which may not exceed $30 per background check performed under this section," and may not charge for returning a firearm to its owner where the transaction cannot be immediately and legally completed. Both versions of § 904A in the Code, the one effective until fulfillment of the contingency in 85 Del. Laws, c. 371, § 3 and the one effective on its fulfillment, carry the same $30 cap.
On the carry license itself, only the $65 is fixed by statute. The newspaper, IdentoGO, your photo vendor, and your instructor each set their own prices. Pull the current instruction sheet for new or renewal applications from the Superior Court weapons page, and call the Prothonotary's office in your county to confirm the filing fee and what proof of payment it wants at the counter.
This page covers one part of our Delaware concealed carry guide.
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