MuckRock survey of FOIA fees points to uneven picture across the US: From $2 in Washington state to $431 per request in Idaho

By Albert Serna Jr., MuckRock, December 20, 2023

Most requests filed under state Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) are relatively narrow in scope, take 20 days or less to compile, and are usually provided to journalists and the public free-of-charge.

But for roughly 20% of U.S. public-records requests a fee is charged. The reasons for FOIA fees vary from place to place: Some states, like Idaho and Tennessee, have ambiguous public-records laws that allow record custodians to charge fees when they deem it necessary. Others, like Colorado, have passed laws in recent years that allow local governments to recoup fees for processing requests; In Colorado, agencies can charge up to $33.58 per hour per employee, incentivizing them to invoice requestors.

Some groups pointed to egregious examples where governments charged exorbitant fees for records, like one state agency in Georgia that estimated that one of its datasets would cost a newsroom $17 million.