Sacramento, CA
Sacramento electrical permit cost
A City of Sacramento electrical permit is a flat amount for a named scope
and there is no per-circuit, per-outlet or per-ampere table to add to it. One $105 residential minor electrical permit covers a main panel change-out, a new or replacement subpanel, a whole-or-partial re-wire and new branch circuits — one or more of them under the same permit. A safety inspection of an electrical or gas piping system is $107, and the electrical work in a sign is $216.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential minor electrical workPermit fee | $105.00 flat fee | electrical item is minor residential | — |
| Safety inspection of an electrical or gas piping systemPermit fee | $107.00 flat fee | electrical item is safety inspection | — |
| Sign — electrical fee (building)Permit fee | $216.00 flat fee | electrical item is sign | — |
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 house in the City of Sacramento having its main electrical panel changed out and a portion of its wiring re-wired, permitted as one residential minor electrical permit.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Occupancy class | Residential |
| Type of work | Alteration |
| Electrical item | minor_residential |
Example total
$105.00
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 3
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Residential minor electrical workPermit feeTable B.1: "Residential Minor Electrical Work — $105". The sheet says a permit under this category "may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit: replacement of a main electrical panel, installation of a new or replacement subpanel or both, and/or re-wiring of an entire house or accessory structure or a portion of a house or accessory structure, and/or installation of new branch circuits, reconfiguration of existing branch wiring or both."Show the working
| $105.00 flat fee | $105.00 |
| Total | $105.00 |
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.
- Safety inspection of an electrical or gas piping system — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Sign — electrical fee (building) — 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.
One permit, $105.00. The two scopes are not charged separately: Table B.1 says a permit under the Residential Minor Electrical Work category "may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit", and lists the panel change-out and the partial re-wire among them alongside new branch circuits and a new subpanel. The flat amount is the whole fee for the electrical work, and adding the branch circuits to the same job does not change it.
Two variations show the edges of the row. A safety inspection — an inspection of an electrical or gas piping system before a utility connection is reactivated, authorising no work — is $107.00, and the electrical work in a sign is $216.00, which is charged alongside the sign permit fee rather than in place of it. Solar photovoltaic and solar water heater systems are none of these: the sheet sends them to the City's separate streamlined solar permit, so they are not priced here.
What is different in Sacramento
The $105 permit is the row most jobs fall on, and what makes it unusual is how much it covers. Table B.1 lists the scopes a single permit under this category may authorise — "replacement of a main electrical panel, installation of a new or replacement subpanel or both, and/or re-wiring of an entire house or accessory structure or a portion of a house or accessory structure, and/or installation of new branch circuits, reconfiguration of existing branch wiring or both" — and it charges $105 for the permit rather than a rate per item. A panel change-out and a partial re-wire in the same house is one $105 permit here, not two charges.
That is the opposite of the shape the other California jurisdiction on this site uses. San Diego's electrical schedule prints a service charge per dwelling unit and per-item rows for a generator, a temporary pole or a specialised occupancy; Sacramento prints none of those, because the work they describe falls inside the flat scopes. It also means there is no rate to scale: a hundred new branch circuits and one new branch circuit cost the same $105, which is a fact a reader comparing quotes should know before assuming a big job is charged proportionally.
Two other rows complete the electrical schedule. A safety inspection is $107 and is the one electrical row that authorises no work at all — the sheet describes it as an "inspection of an electrical system or gas piping system for compliance with California Building code prior to reactivation of SMUD connection or PG&E gas supply", which is what a reader needs when a utility connection has been shut off. The electrical fee for a sign is $216, separate from the sign permit fee itself.
One thing the $105 row is easy to misread: it is a building permit. Sacramento's Building Division issues it, its plan review column prints N/A, and the sheet recommends the "Web-Minor Electrical Record type" for it — so it is applied for like any other permit rather than granted over the counter without paperwork.
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 Table B.1's residential electrical scopes and the listing's sign electrical fee. It excludes:
- Solar photovoltaic and solar water heater systems, which the sheet routes to the City's Streamlined Permit for Residential & Commercial Solar PV and Solar Water Heater Systems rather than pricing in Table B.1.
- The building permit on the same project and the plumbing and mechanical permits, none of which is included here; mechanical work is not priced anywhere on this site.
- Specialised occupancies and commercial electrical work beyond the sign row. The flat scopes in Table B.1 are written for residential work, and a commercial project is priced from project value or under the commercial sections of the sheet.
- The $175 HVAC cut-in or change-out permit, which the sheet lists among its residential rows but which is a mechanical permit.
- The electrical service itself: Sacramento's sheet prices a permit for electrical work, and the utility service and meter charges belong to the utility.
- Plan review where the City requires it, and the Technology Surcharge of 10% of the plan review and permit fees, for the same reason as on the building page.
What you need before applying
- One flat permit covers a list of electrical scopes, however many of them the job involvesRequired
Table B.1: "Residential Minor Electrical Work — $105. Permits issued under this category may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit: replacement of a main electrical panel, installation of a new or replacement subpanel or both, and/or re-wiring of an entire house or accessory structure or a portion of a house or accessory structure, and/or installation of new branch circuits, reconfiguration of existing branch wiring or both." There is no per-circuit or per-outlet rate to add to it.
Common questions
How much does a residential electrical permit cost in Sacramento?
A flat $105 for the Residential Minor Electrical Work permit, which the sheet says "may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit: replacement of a main electrical panel, installation of a new or replacement subpanel or both, and/or re-wiring of an entire house or accessory structure or a portion of a house or accessory structure, and/or installation of new branch circuits". Two other electrical rows exist: a safety inspection at $107 and a sign's electrical fee at $216.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Electrical Work
Am I charged per circuit or per outlet?
No. Sacramento prints no per-circuit, per-outlet or per-ampere electrical table in Table B.1 — the permit is a flat amount for the named scope, and the listed scopes are covered by it however many of them the job involves. That is a real difference from the other California jurisdiction on this site, where most electrical rows are a rate per item or per dwelling unit.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Electrical Work
Does a panel change-out and a re-wire need two permits?
No. Both are scopes within the same category, and the sheet says the permit "may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit". One $105 permit covers the pair, along with a new subpanel and new branch circuits if the job includes them.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Electrical Work
What is the $107 safety inspection for?
It is the row for "inspection of an electrical system or gas piping system for compliance with California Building code prior to reactivation of SMUD connection or PG&E gas supply. Authorizes no work only inspection." It is the permit to ask for when a utility connection has been shut off and an inspection is what stands between the owner and its restoration — and it authorises no electrical work, so any repair it uncovers is a separate permit.
Table B.1, Safety Inspection
Are solar panels priced here?
No. The sheet routes residential photovoltaic and solar water heater systems to a separate row — "Solar water heater systems (SWHS) 120 gallons or less refer to Streamlined Permit for Residential & Commercial Solar PV and Solar Water Heater Systems" — whose fee is stated as a reference to its own detail rather than as an amount in Table B.1. Commercial solar water heaters are sent to "a standard commercial remodel permit" instead.
Table B.1, Streamlined Permit for Solar PV and Solar Water Heater Systems
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-24. The document is the attachment the City's fee record for "Building Permit Fee" (fee 28 in its searchable listing) publishes: "Building-Permit-Fee-Tables-A-and-B.1_2025-0719.pdf", 1,341,269 bytes, sha256 beginning e1de2a29ae12011e. Table A carries the header "TABLE A — Effective July 20, 2020*" with a footer "Revised July 19, 2025", and Table B.1 is headed "Effective July 19, 2025"; the schedule is therefore recorded as effective 2025-07-19. Extracted in three `pdftotext` modes, because the first pass through Table A mis-paired the Commercial and Residential columns by one row for part of the page and produced a ladder in which the residential column ran ahead of the commercial one — the row-by-row mode is the one whose every bracket reproduces the document's own arithmetic, and it is the one modelled.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.