Boston, MA
Boston electrical permit cost
A Boston electrical permit is $20.00 to apply plus a usage rate that follows what the job does:
$0.25 an ampere where the service is new or upgraded at 240 volts or less and $0.75 above that voltage, a dollar for each fixture, plug or outlet plus $5.00 for the meters where the service does not change, and $10.00 for each $1,000 of estimated cost where neither applies. Fire Alarm and Low Voltage are their own $20.00-plus-$10.00 rows, and Temporary Service replaces the application fee with $25.00.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical permit — application fee, $20.00Permit fee | $20.00 flat fee | not (electrical scope is temporary service) | — |
| Electrical permit — priced on cost where no branch above applies, $10.00 per $1,000Permit fee | $10.00 per $1,000 of project valuation | not (service change is true) and not (electrical units is provided) and electrical scope is none of fire alarm, low voltage, temporary service | — |
| Electrical permit — fixtures, plugs and outlets at $1.00 each (no service change)Permit fee | $1.00 per electrical unit | not (service change is true) and electrical scope is none of fire alarm, low voltage, temporary service | — |
| Electrical permit — fire alarm, $20.00 plus $10.00 per $1,000 of estimated costPermit fee | $10.00 per $1,000 of project valuation | electrical scope is fire alarm and not (service change is true) | — |
| Electrical permit — low voltage, $20.00 plus $10.00 per $1,000 of estimated costPermit fee | $10.00 per $1,000 of project valuation | electrical scope is low voltage and not (service change is true) | — |
| Electrical permit — meters approved, $5.00Permit fee | $5.00 flat fee | not (service change is true) and electrical scope is none of fire alarm, low voltage, temporary service and meters is provided | — |
| Electrical permit — new or upgraded service at 240 volts or less, $0.25 per amperePermit fee | $0.25 per ampere | service change is true and not (service voltage over 240) | — |
| Electrical permit — new or upgraded service above 240 volts, $0.75 per amperePermit fee | $0.75 per ampere | service change is true and service voltage over 240 | — |
| Electrical permit — temporary service, $25.00Permit fee | $25.00 flat fee | electrical scope is temporary service | — |
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 service upgrade to 200 amperes at 120/240 volts — the ordinary residential service change — with no other branch on the application.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Service amperage | 200 A |
| Service change | Yes |
| Service voltage | 240 |
Example total
$70.00
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 2Rules considered 9
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Electrical permit — application fee, $20.00Permit feeISD's sheet: "$20.00 Application fee" opens the service branch, the no-service-change branch, the fallback branch, the Fire Alarm row and the Low Voltage row alike; boston.gov heads the page "$20 + usage-based rate". Charged once for the application, and not charged where the sheet replaces it with Temporary Service's $25.00 primary fee.Show the working
| $20.00 flat fee | $20.00 |
Electrical permit — new or upgraded service at 240 volts or less, $0.25 per amperePermit feeISD's sheet, first branch: "When upgrading service or installing new service; 1) $20.00 Application fee plus $.25 amp up to 240 Volts". The $20.00 is ELEC-APPLICATION, charged once for the application; this rule is the $.25 an ampere above it, stated as an exact rate on the service's amperage (`custom.amperage`), so a 200-ampere service is $50.00 of rate and $70.00 in all. The band also matches a reader who gives amperage but no voltage.Show the working
| $0.25 per ampere | $50.00 |
| Total | $70.00 |
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.
- Electrical permit — priced on cost where no branch above applies, $10.00 per $1,000 — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — fixtures, plugs and outlets at $1.00 each (no service change) — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — fire alarm, $20.00 plus $10.00 per $1,000 of estimated cost — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — low voltage, $20.00 plus $10.00 per $1,000 of estimated cost — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — meters approved, $5.00 — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — new or upgraded service above 240 volts, $0.75 per ampere — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Electrical permit — temporary service, $25.00 — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
Assumptions
- Calculated from 2 fee rules in effect on 2026-09-28.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, once, at the end of each component.
The first branch, priced on the service: a $20.00 application fee plus $0.25 for each of the 200 amperes, which is $50.00 of rate. The permit is $70.00.
Voltage is what moves it. The same 200-ampere service above 240 volts is $0.75 an ampere — $150.00 of rate and $170.00 in all — and a 400-ampere service there is $300.00 of rate and $320.00. The sheet reads that tier as "up to 480 Volts" and boston.gov reads it as "over 480 volts"; this page charges it above 240 volts, the union of the two texts, and prints both.
The other branches price the same application differently: with no service change, twelve devices and two meters are $20.00 plus $12.00 plus $5.00 — $37.00 — and with neither a service nor a count, a $3,000 estimate is $20.00 plus $30.00, or $50.00. Temporary Service swaps the $20.00 application for its own $25.00 and adds nothing else here.
What is different in Boston
The three branches are the sheet's own words — "When upgrading service or installing new service", "When there is no change in service", "When none of the above apply" — and exactly one can price an application. A 200-ampere service at 240 volts is $20.00 to apply plus $50.00 of rate: $70.00. The same service above 240 volts is $170.00, and a 400-ampere service there is $320.00.
With no service change the schedule counts devices instead: twelve fixtures, plugs and outlets are $12.00 and two approved meters $5.00, so the permit is $37.00. Give it neither a service nor a count and it falls back to cost — $10.00 for each $1,000, so a $3,000 job is $50.00 in all — which is the row that also covers all Massachusetts state buildings.
One sentence disagrees with itself across the City's two texts: the sheet reads "$.75 amp up to 480 Volts" in a numbered two-tier list while boston.gov reads "$0.75/amp over 480 volts", which leaves 241 to 480 volts unpriced on either text alone. This page charges $0.75 above 240 volts — the union of both readings — and prints both wordings so a reader can see the disagreement rather than inherit it.
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 is the electrical row of ISD's fee sheet — the $20.00 application fee plus whichever branch the job falls in. It excludes:
- Temporary Service's monthly element: "$10.00 for each month up to six months then apply again", priced in months, a unit no per-unit kind here counts. The $25.00 primary fee is charged and the months are named.
- Electrical Yearly Maintenance at $320.00, and the Off Hour Application at $100.00 an event and Off Hour Inspection at $250.00 — rows on the same sheet for later acts rather than for the permit being priced.
- The DOUBLE FEE for work started without a permit or on an undervalued estimate, which doubles a fee rather than adding one.
- Fire alarm, sprinkler and gas work's other permits. The Fire Alarm row here is ISD's electrical price for the work; Fire Prevention runs its own permitting for alarms and sprinklers, and the permitting hub links there.
- Plan review, technology and state surcharges — none exist in this jurisdiction's text; no percentage appears on the sheet or the pages, and Massachusetts adds no levy of its own.
- Contractor licensing, which is a requirement rather than a fee: only a licensed contractor may apply, and must be the contractor doing the work.
What you need before applying
- A licensed contractor files the electrical permit and does the workRequired
The electrical page is unambiguous: "You must be a licensed contractor to apply for this permit", "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work", and a homeowner "must hire a licensed contractor to apply for the permit and complete the work". The same rule appears on the plumbing page, which is why neither trade can be permitted by an owner on their own behalf in this model.
- The fee's inputs are the service's size and voltage, or a device countRequired
The schedule prices electrical work from facts the applicant supplies rather than from a valuation in the ordinary case: the amperage of the service (and its voltage, which decides $0.25 against $0.75 an ampere) where the service changes, or a count of fixtures, plugs and outlets plus the meters approved where it does not. Only the third branch reads an estimated cost, and that branch applies when neither of the other two can. The permit page heads all of it "$20 + usage-based rate".
Common questions
How much is an electrical permit in Boston?
$20.00 to apply, plus whatever the job's branch costs: $0.25 an ampere for a new or upgraded service at 240 volts or less, $0.75 an ampere above that voltage, $1.00 for each fixture, plug or outlet plus $5.00 for the meters approved where the service does not change, or $10.00 for each $1,000 of estimated cost where neither applies. Fire Alarm and Low Voltage filings are $20.00 plus $10.00 per $1,000, and Temporary Service is $25.00 flat plus its monthly element.
What decides which rate applies — the service or the devices?
The schedule branches on facts rather than on price: "When upgrading service or installing new service" prices the permit from the service's amperage, "When there is no change in service" prices it from a count of fixtures, plugs and outlets plus the meters, and "When none of the above apply" falls back to $10.00 per $1,000 of estimated cost. Exactly one branch charges on an application, which is what the City's three-headed structure says and what this calculator enforces.
Why does the voltage matter?
Because the schedule prints two tiers of service rate and the City's two texts place the boundary differently: the fee sheet reads "$.75 amp up to 480 Volts" as the second entry of a numbered list, while boston.gov reads "$0.75/amp over 480 volts". This page charges $0.25 an ampere at 240 volts or less and $0.75 above it, the union of both readings, so that no voltage is left unpriced — and a 200-ampere service moves from $70.00 to $170.00 across that line.
Can I permit electrical work myself as a homeowner?
No. The electrical page states "You must be a licensed contractor to apply for this permit" and "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work", and tells a homeowner to hire a licensed contractor to apply and complete the work. The same rule applies to plumbing.
What does temporary service cost?
The sheet's own row: "Electrical Temporary Service: $25.00 primary fee; $10.00 for each month up to six months then apply again." The $25.00 replaces the ordinary $20.00 application fee rather than adding to it; the monthly element is priced in months, which this calculator does not count, so it is named on the page instead of charged.
Is there a plan review fee on an electrical permit?
Not in Boston's text. No plan review percentage, technology fee or state surcharge appears on ISD's fee sheet or on the electrical permit page, and searches for those phrases come back empty. What the sheet does charge beside the rates is the DOUBLE FEE for work started without a permit, and the City's pages add that all fees are due upfront.
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
ISD — Building Division Permit Fees (Rev. 2021), the two-page sheet every figure here comes from
Read 2026-09-25 as a two-page PDF of 263,477 bytes served from boston.gov's own file store, footed on both pages with the department's block: Inspectional Services Department, 1010 Massachusetts Ave. (5th Floor) Boston, MA 02118, www.boston.gov/ISD, (617) 635-5300, Rev. 2021. The two columns were extracted twice, because they are laid out as separate text blocks: pdftotext's table-preserving mode mispairs them — Plumbing picks up the Off Hour Inspection amount and Use of Premises picks up Sprinkler's rate — while the reading-order mode emits each row's cells together and pairs them correctly, and that is the transcription this site uses. Four rows are independently confirmed by the City's live permit pages, where each prints the same two numbers.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
ISD — Electrical Permit (the three usage branches, spelled out)
Read 2026-09-25 for the schedule's three branches in the City's own words: "When upgrading service or installing new service: $20 application fee, plus $0.25/amp up to 240 volts, or $0.75/amp over 480 volts. When there's no change in service: $20 application fee, plus $1 for each fixture, plug, or outlet, and $5 for each approved meter. When neither of the above applies (including all Massachusetts state buildings): $20 application fee, plus $10 per $1,000 of the estimated cost", under the heading "$20 + usage-based rate". This page is where the sheet's voltage wording differs from the web's — "up to 480 Volts" against "over 480 volts" — and both readings are quoted on the electrical page rather than reconciled in silence.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.