Colorado
Denver, CO permit fees and requirements
Denver prices a building permit from one valuation table — $20.00 up to $500 of valuation
then $35.00, then $35.00 plus $8.00 for each additional $1,000 — and prints plan review as a third column of the same table: 50% of the permit fee, and nothing at all below $2,000 of valuation. A separate permit is required for each trade, each priced from the value of that trade's work, so an electrical permit is not a share of the building fee.
Permit costs we have worked out
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Denver permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Denver building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-24 |
| Denver electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-24 |
| Denver plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-24 |
Local context
What is specific to Denver
Four things about this schedule decide the figure, and one of them is a dollar.
The first is that plan review is a column of the fee table, not a separate schedule. Every band above $2,000 prints "50%" in the review column, and the two bands below it print "0". That single fact answers the question most people arrive with — whether review is included — and it is why this site computes review as a percentage of the permit fee rather than as a second valuation table. The policy adds three review *modes* that replace the 50% figure rather than stacking on it: an express review is 20% with a $100 minimum, a type-approved permit is 10%, and a master plan is 50% of its own valuation — which the policy points out is the same arithmetic as the table's column.
The second is that the trades are priced like the building, not like a surcharge. "Once released, separate permits are required for each discipline... and the permit fee is based on the valuation of the work for that specific trade permitted under that specific permit." So four disciplines are four permits with four valuations, and an electrical permit for $25,000 of work costs the same as a $25,000 building permit. Compare Westminster, twenty minutes north, where a trade permit is a percentage of the building permit fee — the same state, two different ideas of what a trade permit *is*.
The third is that the table disagrees with itself by a dollar, and the page says so. Five of the six handovers close exactly: the band below produces precisely the figure the band above opens with at $2,000, $50,000, $100,000, $500,000 and $1,000,000. The sixth does not. The band covering $2,001 to $25,000 charges $35.00 plus $8.00 for each additional $1,000, which gives $219.00 at $25,000, and the band above opens at $220.00. Because the table also says "or fraction thereof", one cent past $25,000 moves the project into the band above and charges a whole additional $1,000 of increment, so the step from $25,000 to $25,001 is $9.00, not $1.00. Both readings are the City's; this site reproduces them instead of tidying the seam.
The fourth is what the valuation is, because it is not simply what the applicant says. Denver takes the higher of the ICC's published construction cost data and the applicant's own contract value, and the Building Official's determination is not subject to appeal. That makes Table No. 2 — which publishes square-foot prices for common quick-permit work — a valuation input rather than a fee: $5.25 per square foot for a residential shingle roof, $7.25 for a commercial low-slope roof, $60.00 for residential interior renovations. No page here ever applies one of those to a fee.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Denver takes the higher of two numbers: "Valuation shall be the higher of either the base data derived from the current International Code Council (ICC) building valuation data or the value of the work covered by the permit provided by the applicant at the time of permit application."
The valuation must include labour, materials, profit, overhead, finish work, roofing, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, elevators and any other permanent equipment, on top of what most contractors would call the contract price. For single-family and duplex projects it also includes shoring and excavation; commercial shoring and excavation is logged and permitted separately, so it is not part of the building permit's valuation.
Where the two numbers are disputed, the Building Official decides "using all resources available" and that determination is not subject to appeal. So the applicant's figure is an input that can be raised, and this site computes from the figure you give it — no square-foot rate is ever substituted for a valuation, because the ICC data table it would come from is published by the Code Council rather than by Denver and changes twice a year.
Who to contact
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
What these fees do not include
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are the fees published in the City and County of Denver's own Building Permit Policy, tables 1 and 2, computed by this site's engine. They are not a total project cost. In particular they exclude:
- Multi-phase surcharges. "Two Phase Construction Permits — Fee plus 25%" and "Three or More Phase Construction Permits — Fee plus 50%", applied by the policy to both the permit and the plan review fee. The policy does not say whether the surcharge on the review fee is taken before or after the surcharge on the permit fee, so no figure here includes one and the building page states that plainly.
- The Affordable Housing Linkage Fee and the Fee-in-Lieu alternative, established in Chapter 27 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code and adjusted annually.
- The affordable-housing permit-fee reduction — up to $6,500 or $10,000 per income restricted unit, capped at 50% of the construction permit fee. A reduction is not an exclusion, but a quoted figure here is the un-reduced one, so a project that qualifies will pay less than this site shows.
- Every hourly fee: additional plan review at $125.00 per hour for incomplete, deferred or modified drawings; re-inspection and out-of-hours inspection at $100.00 per hour, with a two-hour minimum prepaid after hours.
- Contractor licences (Table No. 3): $250.00 for a contractor licence every three years, $60.00 for a supervisor certificate, $40.00 for journeyman, engineer and operator certificates. A licence, not a permit.
- Shoring, benching, grading and demolition permits, which are separate permits on commercial projects rather than lines in this fee.
- Anything charged by another Colorado authority. Denver is a consolidated city and county with its own building department; a neighbouring city's schedule does not describe a Denver permit, and vice versa.
Official sources for this jurisdiction
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Building Permit Policy — Building and Related Fees (ADMIN 125 and 138)
Six pages, revision date 21 May 2024, replacing the policy dated 1 February 2024. Read 2026-09-24 in three pdftotext modes: `-layout` interleaves Table No. 1's three columns, `-table` pairs them, and `-raw` confirms the order of the rows. Table No. 1 is the valuation table, Table No. 2 is ICC valuation data and quick-permit square-foot prices, and Table No. 3 is contractor licence fees.
- City websiteCity
Building and Land Development Fees
The City's development fees landing page, recorded as the route to the policy rather than as a source of rates. No figure on this site is taken from it.