Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale electrical permit cost
Scottsdale publishes no electrical rate.
There is no per-outlet, per-circuit or per-panel figure anywhere in Exhibit A, and no electrical permit fee. Electrical work on a building project is paid for by that project's permit, which the City prices by area — $0.94 per square foot of air-conditioned area and $0.54 per square foot of covered area. For electrical permits taken out on their own the City publishes three flat figures: a temporary power pole is $121, a residential solar permit is $168, and a permit covering a single discipline carries a minimum permit fee of $121.
How this fee is calculated
These are the components the schedule defines for this permit, as they applied on 2026-09-28. A component only applies to your project if its conditions match — read that column before assuming a figure. Want a figure for your own project? Estimate this fee with the permit fee calculator.
| Component | Formula | Applies when | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stand-alone permit, one disciplinePermit fee | $121.00 flat fee | schedule item is not provided | — |
| Residential solar permitPermit fee | $168.00 flat fee | schedule item is residential solar | — |
| Temporary power pole permitPermit fee | $121.00 flat fee | schedule item is temporary power pole | — |
| Re-inspectionInspection fee | $121.00 flat fee | reinspection is true | — |
A real permit fee is these components added together. The department’s final calculation is the one that applies — this is the schedule it will be based on.
A worked example
Follow the arithmetic by hand. Every line is produced by the engine from the rules above, so the total cannot drift away from the schedule behind it.
Worked example
A temporary power pole permit on its own — the one electrical permit the City prices flat and in full, with no minimum and no area measurement behind it.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Occupancy class | Residential |
| Schedule item | temporary_power_pole |
Example total
$121.00
An estimate, not an official fee. It is calculated from the published fee schedule as it applied on 2026-09-28. The permit office’s own calculation is the one that applies, and your project may fall under rules this schedule does not describe.
Fee schedule as of 2026-09-28Rules applied 1Rules considered 4
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Temporary power pole permitPermit feeMiscellaneous Permit Fees — "Temporary Power Pole $121". A flat fee for a permit of its own; the schedule does not say whether it also attracts the one-discipline minimum, so the two are alternatives here rather than a sum.Show the working
| $121.00 flat fee | $121.00 |
| Total | $121.00 |
Fees that do not apply here
Listed so you can see what was considered and left out, rather than wondering whether something is missing. A rule can also be left out because it is not published for this permit at all, and that is stated where it matters.
- Stand-alone permit, one discipline — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Residential solar permit — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Re-inspection — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
Assumptions
- Calculated from 1 fee rule in effect on 2026-09-28.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, once, at the end of each component.
$121, published as 'Temporary Power Pole $121' in the Miscellaneous permit schedule. Nothing else applies: the one-discipline minimum is an alternative to this fee rather than an addition to it, and it is shown as excluded rather than added.
Two things to carry away from the arithmetic. The first is that this is a permit fee and not a project's total — a temporary power pole on a construction site usually sits alongside the building permit, which is priced by area on the building page. The second is that the schedule prices only the pole. Hiring a pole is not part of it, setting it is not part of it, and the Customer's own electric utility has charges of its own that are not in Exhibit A at all.
What is different in Scottsdale
Start with the floor, because it is the number most people are actually asking about and it is the one that needs the most care. Scottsdale's Miscellaneous schedule publishes 'Minimum Permit (one discipline) $121' and 'Minimum Combination (all disciplines) $379'. Those are the only figures in the whole of Exhibit A that speak to how a permit for one trade is priced. They are minimums, published as floors rather than as rates: the City does not say what area a one-discipline permit is measured against, so $121 is what the City publishes as a floor and not an estimate of what a given job will cost. Anything the City does price flat — the items below — is charged at that flat figure instead.
The electrical items it prices flat are short and specific. A temporary power pole is $121, which is one of the few things in Exhibit A priced per permit rather than per square foot. A residential solar permit is $168 — the electrified side of solar; the thermal side, a solar water heater, is a plumbing permit at $90 on the plumbing page. A re-inspection is $121.
Then there is what the City does not publish, and this is the part that matters when the numbers above look small. Electrical work carried out as part of constructing or remodelling a building is not charged on its own at all: it is inside the building permit, whose fee is driven by two areas — $0.94 a square foot with air conditioning and $0.54 covered — and which is the same amount whether the project contains one circuit or forty. A 2,500 square foot house is charged the same permit fee whatever electrical work it contains. If your question is what the electrical work adds to a project, the answer is nothing: the project's area sets the fee, and the electrical page you are reading is about permits taken out for electrical work on their own.
Finally, the temporary power pole and the $121 minimum do not add up here, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight. The schedule lists the pole as a fee of its own and never says whether it is also the one-discipline permit, so charging $242 for a permit the City prices at $121 would be inventing a sum the document does not contain. The rules on this page price one published item at a time.
What this figure does not include
Impact fees, utility connections and other departments’ permits are the usual omissions, and in some jurisdictions they are larger than the permit fee itself.
Not included in these figures
This estimate is a single fee published by the City of Scottsdale for the item selected, computed by this site's engine. It is not a total project cost, and it does not include:
- The building permit fee that carries electrical work on a construction or remodelling project. That fee is priced by area — $237 plus $0.94 per square foot with A/C and $0.54 covered — and is on the building permit page, not this one.
- The $379 minimum for a permit covering all disciplines. Published in the same row as the $121 minimum and not computed here, because it is a floor on the permit that covers every discipline, which is the building permit, whose fee is published in full.
- Plan review, which for a building project is a second pair of area rates, $0.54 and $0.34 per square foot, with no base fee. It is computed on the building permit page. Where a project needs the review, that fee in the review schedule prices the review of the building, and the schedule does not price the review of a stand-alone electrical permit separately.
- Commercial solar, which is $331 rather than $168. This page prices the residential figure because that is the one in the schedule; the commercial figure is listed here and not offered as an option.
- Every other electrical-adjacent fee published in Exhibit A: off-hours inspections $379, plan review extension requests $379, permit extension requests $379, the annual facilities permit, industrial racking $379, and every miscellaneous or revision review at $121 an hour.
- Electric vehicle chargers, generators, fire alarm and low-voltage work, none of which the schedule prices by item.
- Fees on the City's other schedules — application fees, right-of-way annual fees, expedited plan review, in-lieu parking, records and stormwater management — and anything for property outside the Scottsdale city limits.
- Anything charged by Maricopa County, which is not described here because whether the county issues construction permits for unincorporated areas has not been verified against the county's own site.
What you need before applying
- Electrical work on a project is paid for by area, not by tradeRequired
The City publishes no electrical rate: no per-outlet, per-circuit, per-panel or per-device figure appears in Exhibit A. Electrical work carried out on a construction or remodelling project is covered by that project's building permit, whose fee is driven by two areas — $0.94 per square foot of area with A/C and $0.54 per square foot of covered area, behind a $237 base. Two projects of the same size pay the same permit fee whatever electrical work they contain, which is the opposite of Houston, where an electrical permit is priced per outlet and per circuit.
- The three electrical figures the City does publishRequired
A temporary power pole is $121 and a residential solar permit is $168, both flat fees in the Miscellaneous permit schedule, and a re-inspection is $121. The same schedule publishes a minimum permit fee of $121 for a permit covering one discipline and $379 for one covering all disciplines; the $121 is a floor rather than a rate, and where the City prices an item flat that flat figure applies instead. The temporary power pole and the one-discipline minimum are therefore alternatives here, never a sum: the schedule does not say the one-discipline permit is the pole permit, and charging both would decide a question the City left open.
Common questions
How much is an electrical permit in Scottsdale?
Scottsdale publishes a minimum permit fee of $121 for a permit covering a single discipline, and no electrical rate of any kind beyond that. Electrical work on a building project is paid for by the project's permit, which the City prices by area instead of by trade. A temporary power pole is a flat $121, and a residential solar permit is $168.
Does Scottsdale charge per outlet or per circuit?
No. There is no per-outlet, per-circuit, per-panel or per-lighting-fixture rate anywhere in the City's fee schedules. What the City charges for is area: $0.94 per square foot of air-conditioned space and $0.54 per square foot of covered space on the building permit. A project with ten outlets and a project with a hundred of the same size pay the same permit fee.
Is the $121 minimum the whole permit fee?
It is published as a minimum, not as a rate, so it is a floor rather than an estimate. Where the City prices an item flat — a temporary power pole, a water heater, a residential solar system — that figure applies instead. Where the work is part of a building project, the building permit's area-based fee applies. $121 is what the City publishes as its floor for a one-discipline permit, and the City does not say what area a trade permit is measured against.
Are electrical permits separate from the building permit?
Scottsdale issues them and does not price them separately for construction work. The area rate on the building permit covers the electrical work in the project — the same amount whether the job has one circuit or forty — and the schedule's one-discipline minimum is the figure it publishes for a permit taken out for a single trade on its own.
What does a solar permit cost in Scottsdale?
A residential solar permit is $168 and a commercial one is $331, both flat fees in the Miscellaneous permit schedule that replace the area-based permit fee rather than adding to it. Solar water heaters are a plumbing permit at $90.
What does a re-inspection cost?
$121, published as a single line in the Miscellaneous permit schedule. It is charged when a re-inspection happens, which is why no estimate on this site includes it by default.
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Permit Fee Schedule — Miscellaneous (Exhibit A)
Two pages, pages 12 and 13 of Exhibit A. Fetched 2026-09-24 (sha256 489d15a21aa3713a4aaca378c771db79398d51fa0d4c45fedef66b688c98da57, 126,332 bytes). Cited for the fees this site names and does not compute: certificate of occupancy $195, demolition $379 ($121 for a pool), water heaters $63, residential solar $168 and commercial solar $331, solar water heaters $90, temporary power pole $121, re-inspection $121, pools and attached spas $0.61 per sq ft plus the $237 base and a $195 planning inspection fee, stand-alone spas $142, signs from $26 to $363 per sign behind a $237 base charged once per application, and the two minimum permit fees. It also publishes the departmental-structure evidence for trade work: 'Minimum Permit (one discipline) $121' and 'Minimum Combination (all disciplines) $379'.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Permit Fee Schedule — Residential (Exhibit A)
Two pages, pages 10 and 11 of the City's 23-page Exhibit A, effective 1 July 2026 under Resolution No. 13661. Fetched from scottsdaleaz.gov on 2026-09-24 (sha256 6f43f6738e12f1258a92cf6c7bc82a4c7c9b27bed94bd612100d9072a8d9cb08, 123,060 bytes) and read locally with pdftotext -table, which is the mode that pairs each fee with its own row; -layout interleaves the label and amount columns on these pages and would misassign them. A later capture can be compared against that hash.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.