Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI)
- Phone
- (651) 266-8989
- Hours
- Permit desk 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Monday - Friday; building inspectors 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.; electrical inspectors 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Minnesota
Saint Paul, MN permit fees and requirements
Saint Paul prices a building permit from a 103-row valuation table that resolves to one continuous arithmetic — $36.00 for the first $500 plus $5.00 per $100
then $21.00, $15.00 and $11.00 per $1,000 through $1,522 at $100,000 — with three printed open bands above it, a 65% plan check on valuations over $1,000, and the state surcharge § 326B.148 states. Plumbing is the shortest table in the dataset: $92 plus $36 a plumbing unit, $6 a water unit, $34 a gas unit and $15 per 100,000 BTU above the first. Electrical is the City's own — $85 a service, $15 a circuit, and a table per sub-permit.
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 Saint Paul permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Saint Paul building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Saint Paul electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Saint Paul plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Saint Paul
The building table is where Saint Paul is most like a spreadsheet and least like a fee schedule. Pages 1 and 2 print 103 rows — $100 wide up to $2,000, $1,000 wide from there to $100,000 — and every one of them is the same shape: a base plus a rate per step of the table's own width, with the step doubling as the "or fraction thereof" boundary the open bands state in words. Read as four segments ($36 + $5/$100 to $2,000; $106 + $21/$1,000 to $25,000; $591 + $15/$1,000 to $50,000; $972 + $11/$1,000 to $100,000) the arithmetic reproduces 102 of the 103 rows exactly, and the one it does not is the sheet's own $1,369 for $85,001–$86,000, which all its neighbours say should be $1,368. The sheet also drops its $81,001–$82,000 and $83,001–$84,000 rows entirely. Those three defects are named on the page rather than smoothed over, because a reader who opens the PDF should see why the calculator says $1,368.
Above $100,000 the sheet stops tabulating and starts printing bases, and the bases step down: $1,499 at $100,001 against the $1,522 the table reaches at $100,000, then $4,899 and $8,463. It is the same seam Minneapolis's schedule contains at $25,000 — a printed figure that its own arithmetic does not reach — and it is charged as printed. The plan check is 65% of the permit fee on valuations above $1,000, and the surcharge is the statute's: one-half mill to $1,000,000, then $500 plus two-fifths mill to $2,000,000 and four more bands after that, with the sheet's own $0.50 floor for the smallest jobs.
Plumbing is the opposite kind of instrument: six rows, no brackets, no minimum. `$92 to begin, then $36, $6 and $34 per unit depending on whether the unit is plumbing, water or gas, and $15 for every 100,000 BTU a unit is rated above the first 100,000. The schedule's own division of a plumbing job into three counts is why the dataset counts them three ways: a water heater is a water unit and not a fixture, and a gas range is a gas unit and not either. The state surcharge is a flat $1.00 here — the same dollar the electrical pages call a minimum.
And electrical is where the two Minnesotan cities in this dataset face opposite ways. Minneapolis publishes no electrical schedule at all, because the State's Electrical Act gives the permit to DLI; Saint Paul's DSI Electrical Inspection Department prices six sub-permits itself — services and circuits, appliances, capacitor/generator/transformer, low voltage, fire alarm, and solar PV — each on its own page with its own table, its own minimum ($85, except fire alarm's $78) and the same $1.00 minimum state surcharge. Same statute, same state, same river, two different authorities.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
The basis for building work is the total valuation of the work, and the table reads it in 103 rows that are one arithmetic. Below $2,000 the step is $100 ($36.00 for the first $500, then $5.00 per $100); above it the step is $1,000, with $21.00, $15.00 and $11.00 per step in turn. Every row is a band, so a valuation inside a step buys the whole step — $1,501 of work is priced as $1,600 — and the open bands above $100,000 say the same thing in words: "plus $Z for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof".
The plan check reads a different basis: 65% of the permit fee, not of the job, and only where the valuation exceeds $1,000. The state surcharge reads the valuation again but not the permit fee, and its rate falls as the job grows — one-half mill to $1,000,000, two-fifths above it, down to one-twentieth mill above $5,000,000 — which is the statute's own design and the reason the surcharge cannot be stated as one percentage.
Neither the electrical tables nor the plumbing table reads a valuation at all. Electrical reads counts and capacities — services, circuits, appliances, panels, devices, KVA and kilowatts — and plumbing reads counts of units and blocks of BTU. Nothing in Saint Paul derives a fee from square footage.
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 Saint Paul's building, electrical and plumbing permit fees. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- SAC, parkland dedication, zoning and other miscellaneous fees — the building schedule's own closing note: "This calculation is for the building permit fee only and does not include other fees that may be included to obtain your building permit."
- The demolition, fence, grading and stucco/plaster rows on the same site — other permits with other bases: demolition at "$5.00 per one thousand (1,000) cubic feet or fraction thereof" with an $85.00 minimum and a $90.00 zoning review; fences at "$45 for the first 200 lineal feet or fraction thereof and $15 for each additional 100 lineal feet"; stucco and plastering at "1% of the estimated job cost, with a minimum fee of $85".
- The Fire Engineering fire-alarm permit — the second table on the fire alarm page ($78 flat, $22 a control panel, $2 a device, 65% plan review over 100 devices), a Fire Department instrument filed beside the electrical permit rather than in place of it.
- The elevator, warm-air/ventilation and mechanical schedules — their own trade pages, priced on their own bases (the warm-air table at "1% of the total valuation" for commercial work and $85 per 100,000 input BTU for residential).
- The three table defects — the unprinted $81,001–$82,000 and $83,001–$84,000 rows and the printed $1,369 at $85,001–$86,000: the calculator charges the sheet's own arithmetic, and the page says so.
- The plumbing plan review requirement — the guidelines state when a review is required (commercial work, and residential work beyond five fixture-types in a minor remodel); no fee of its own appears on the plumbing table.
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
DSI Building Permit Fee Schedule (effective 2/25/2023)
Three pages, read 2026-09-25 with pdftotext. The header: "DEPARTMENT OF SAFETY & INSPECTIONS (DSI) BUILDING PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE ... Section 33.04 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code ... Effective: 2/25/2023". Pages 1 and 2 are the closed valuation table — "$0 to 500 = 36" then $100-wide rows to $2,000 and $1,000-wide rows to "$99,001 to 100,000 = 1,522" — and page 3 prints the three open bands ($100,001-$500,000, $500,001-$1,000,000, $1,000,000 & Up), the state surcharge block under "Minnesota Statute 326B.148", the plan check block ("Valuations ≤ $1,000 = no fee; Valuations > $1,000 = 65% of permit fee from table above"), and the closing note: "This calculation is for the building permit fee only and does not include other fees that may be included to obtain your building permit. An example would be SAC, Parkland Dedication, Zoning and other miscellaneous required fees)." The table omits its $81,001–$82,000 and $83,001–$84,000 rows and prints $1,369 for $85,001–$86,000 where its own arithmetic gives $1,368 — three defects recorded in the research record and named on the page.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25 as HTML. Saint Paul prices electrical itself: the trade hub links six fee-bearing subpages, each with its own table — "Per Service; New, Altered, or Repaired $85.00" and "Per Circuit ... $15.00" with an $85.00 minimum; the appliance table ("Per Unit Installed, Per Circuit $15", "Per Unit Installed, With Other Electrical Work, No New Circuit $0"); "Per unit installed $54.00" and "$1.00 for KVA or KVAR; or fraction thereof" for capacitors, generators and transformers; "Per Control Panel $85.00" and "Per Device $2.00" for low voltage; "Per Control Panel $78.00", "Per Device (Horn, Strobe, Pull Station, Etc.) $1.88" for fire alarm, beside a second Fire Engineering table; and the solar PV table ("0-20 kW System $138.00", "21-40 kW System $332.00", "Above 40 kW $315, plus $3.00 for every kW above 40 kW"). Every table ends with a "$1.00 minimum" state surcharge, and the pages carry no date of their own — they sit inside the PAULIE platform that launched September 17, 2025.
- Municipal codeStatePrimary source
Minnesota Statutes § 326B.148 — Surcharge (the state surcharge the building schedule defers to)
Read 2026-09-25 (2025 Minnesota Statutes). Subdivision 1: "a surcharge is imposed on all permits issued by municipalities in connection with the construction of or addition or alteration to buildings"; if the permit fee is fixed in amount the surcharge is "one-half mill (.0005) of the fee or $1, whichever amount is greater"; otherwise "(1) if the valuation ... is $1,000,000 or less, the surcharge is equivalent to one-half mill (.0005) of the valuation"; then four bands — $500 plus .0004 above $1,000,000, $900 plus .0003 above $2,000,000, $1,200 plus .0002 above $3,000,000, $1,400 plus .0001 above $4,000,000 — and "(6) if the valuation exceeds $5,000,000, the surcharge is $1,500 plus one-twentieth mill (.00005) of the value that exceeds $5,000,000". The City's schedule prints the first of those rows ($0.50 for $1.00-$1,000), the second (0.0005 × job value to $1,000,000) and the deferral ("> $1,000,000 = see statute").
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Plumbing application and inspection fees — the plumbing fee table
Read 2026-09-25 as HTML. The page is a single six-row table: "Initial permit fee $92", "Per unit - Plumbing $36", "Per unit - Water $6", "Per unit - Gas $34", "If unit BTU's greater than 100,000, additional fee for each 100,000 BTU's or fraction thereof $15", "State Surcharge $1". Beside it the plumbing trade's requirement pages: "When a Plumbing Plan Review is Required", the plumbing plan review guidelines PDF (which states when review is required — five or fewer fixture-types for a minor remodel — and no fee of its own), the Homeowner Affidavit, the inspectors' area map, and the categories the permit covers (Plumbing, Sewer, Gas Fitting, Radon Mitigation Systems).