Oregon
Portland, OR permit fees and requirements
Portland prices a building permit from the project valuation with a $167.00 minimum
adds a second table on the same valuation that the unincorporated county does not charge, then plan review at 65% of the permit fee and a 12% state surcharge. A $250,000 commercial project in the city comes to $4,159.54; the same project a mile outside the city limits in unincorporated Multnomah County comes to $3,508.63.
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 Portland permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Portland building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-24 |
| Portland electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-24 |
| Portland plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-24 |
Local context
What is specific to Portland
Portland Permitting & Development issues permits for the City of Portland and for unincorporated Multnomah County, and publishes a separate fee schedule for each. What makes this pair worth publishing together is how little the two documents differ. The Building Permit Fee table is identical in both — same five bands, same $167.00 minimum, same $3.59 for each additional $100 in the smallest band, same $5.63 per $1,000 at the top. The electrical schedules are identical in every amount, and so are the plumbing schedules. Only three things separate the city from the county: the two Development Services Fee tables, which exist in the city's document and not in the county's; two demolition rows, where the city charges $1,372.00 to demolish a commercial building and the county charges $1,038.00; and the title page.
The Development Services Fee is the whole of the difference in ordinary work, and it is charged on the *same valuation* as the building permit fee rather than on the fee itself. It comes in two published versions: a Commercial table and a Residential one, applied by occupancy, with the residential table for one- and two-family dwellings and the commercial table for everything else. On a $250,000 commercial project the commercial table adds $650.91, which is exactly what the unincorporated county does not charge.
The plan review percentage is not the same for a building permit and a trade permit in the same jurisdiction. A building plan review is 65% of the building permit fee — on a $250,000 project, $1,288.48 — while an electrical plan review is 25% of the electrical permit fee and a plumbing plan review is 25% of that permit's fee. OAR 918-050-0100 is why a percentage exists at all: a plan review fee "shall be based on a predetermined percentage of the permit fee set by the municipality". The percentage is local; the mechanism is a state requirement.
On top of all of it sits Oregon's 12% state surcharge, on every permit type and not only building: "A state surcharge fee of 12% is applied to all building permit types issued in the State of Oregon", covering building, mechanical, plumbing including fixtures, electrical including services, and structural permits. It is the same surcharge in the city and in the county, the same one in every other Oregon jurisdiction, and it is a large line — on a $250,000 project it is $237.87, more than a third of the plan review fee.
Two more things decide what a reader pays. The valuation itself is not the applicant's to choose: OAR 918-050-0100 requires a structural permit fee for new construction to be calculated from the ICC Building Valuation Data Table current as of April 1, multiplied by the square footage, and for commercial work says the value used is "the greater of either" that figure or the value as stated by the applicant. And a new house is priced by how many baths it has rather than by how many fixtures: $792.00 for one, $1,187.00 for two, $1,388.00 for three and $334.00 for each one after that, with 100 feet of water and sewer line included per utility connection. Every other plumbing permit, including an alteration to the same house, is $63.00 per fixture.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
The permit valuation is not the City's to define. OAR 918-050-0100 mandates the method: a structural permit fee for new construction and additions "shall be calculated using the ICC Building Valuation Data Table current as of April 1 of each year, using the occupancy and construction type as determined by the building official, multiplied by the square footage of the structure", with the square footage of a building, addition or garage "determined from outside exterior wall to outside exterior wall for each level". For commercial work the rule states the tie-break the City's schedule repeats word for word: "Valuation shall be the greater of either" the ICC figure or the value as stated by the applicant.
Neither document prints the valuation table itself, so the pages here compute from the valuation you enter rather than reproducing ICC's figures. What they cannot tell you is which figure the building official would use for a given building: the schedule prices the consequence of the method, not the method's inputs, and a carport, covered porch, patio or deck is calculated separately at 50% of the value of a private garage per the same rule.
One consequence is worth stating plainly, because it is the opposite of a fee table. On a commercial project the greater of the two figures is used, so submitting a low valuation does not lower the fee — it just means the ICC-based figure is the one charged, and the market-value basis applies to alterations and repairs in the same way.
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 what the City of Portland's own 2026 fee schedules publish, computed by this site's engine. They are not a total project cost. In particular they exclude:
- Construction excise taxes. Metro's construction excise tax and the City's Affordable Housing Construction Excise Tax are taxes imposed by other bodies, on permit valuation, and are not permit fees.
- The Fire and Life Safety Review Fee, which is 40% of the building permit fee and is charged by the Fire Marshal rather than by PP&D.
- Every hourly charge: additional plan review at $228.00 an hour with a $114.00 half-hour row, inspections outside normal business hours at $320.00 an hour, investigation fees where work started without a permit at $167.00, key-milestone meetings from $228.00 an hour, peer review at $228.00 an hour per discipline, and process management from $1,806.00 for the first five hours.
- Program registrations: the Facility Permit/Master Permit Program's annual registration from $255.00, the Field Issuance Remodel Program's $640.00 registration, the Major Projects Group's $112,687.00 project fee, the Emergency Quick Inspection Program's $229.00 enrolment, and the re-roof permit packets at $2,142.00 per packet of five.
- The deferred submittal fee at 10% of the building permit fee on the deferred portion, with a $570.00 minimum for one- and two-family and $912.00 for commercial, halved for submittals exempt from plan review under ORS 455.628.
- Phased-project plan review at 10% of the total building permit fee per phase, with a $3,936.00 per-phase maximum and $511.00 per phase.
- The re-inspection fee of $167.00 per inspection beyond a band's allowance — the building table caps inspections at three in the smallest band and seven in the band below the top, and charges $167.00 for each one after that.
- Exterior plumbing lines and site work: the plumbing schedule's rain, sanitary and storm drain rows and its water service row are $180.00 for the first 100 feet plus $137.00 per additional 100 feet, and it says its "Fees for Sewer Cap, Erosion Control, and Site Review fee will be added separately".
- The electrical rows not modelled: solar above 25 kVA at $15.52 per kVA, wind generation from $587.00, borderline neon at $309.00 per elevation, wall washing at $1.23 per square foot, the $324.00 additional electrical checksheet, and the appeal fees of $346.00 for one- and two-family dwellings and $721.00 for everything else.
- Mechanical permits, for which the City publishes a separate schedule that is not modelled in this release, and appliance and equipment permits generally.
- Anything the county charges that the city does not, and vice versa: a site outside the city limits is not a Portland permit even though the same department issues it.
- The cost of the work itself, and any tax on it.
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 and Other Permits Fee Schedule, City of Portland, effective July 10, 2026
Eleven pages, sha256 beginning 1f61bb394035119e, read 2026-09-24 in three pdftotext modes and compared line by line. Two things in it are load-bearing for this site. The Building Permit Fee table (page 1) is identical to the one in the county's document, row for row, which is the fact that lets one set of rules price both. And the two Development Services Fee tables (pages 2 and 3) exist in this document and not in the county's — so the same valuation, the same building permit fee and the same plan review percentage produce a different total depending on which side of the city boundary the site is on.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Electrical Permit Fee Schedule, City of Portland, effective July 10, 2026
Three pages, sha256 beginning 934b553c3f27, read in three modes. Its amounts are identical to the county's electrical schedule, which was checked by extracting every dollar figure from both documents and comparing the two multisets: they match exactly. The rows that matter most are the residential square-foot wiring package, the service and feeder bands, and the branch-circuit pair where the first circuit without a service fee costs $174.00 and the same circuit on a permit that bought a service costs $21.00.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Plumbing Permit Fee Schedule, City of Portland, effective July 10, 2026
Four pages, sha256 beginning 7388a9804250, read in three modes, and again identical in every amount to the county's plumbing schedule. It prices a new one- or two-family dwelling by how many baths it has — $792.00, $1,187.00, $1,388.00 and $334.00 for each one after that — and prices everything else at $63.00 per fixture or item across more than thirty named rows. Its plan review row prints "25% of total mechanical permit fee", a copy-and-paste slip in the City's own document; the row is read as 25% of the plumbing permit fee and the slip is recorded in `research/oregon/portland.md` and on the page.