How Much Do Notaries Make in NY? An Honest Answer

You probably got here because a video told you notaries pull in five or six figures, and something about it felt off. So you typed “in NY” at the end of your search, hoping someone would tell you the truth for your state. Good instinct. New York is different, and most of the pages promising you a fat salary never mention that.

I’ve been a commissioned New York notary public and a working loan signing agent since 2020, so I’ll give you the version I’d give a friend who asked me over coffee.

Here’s the short version, and then I’ll show my work.

Quick answer: In New York, most notarial acts are capped at $2 by law, while an electronic notarial act pays $25. There is no official “notary salary” for the state. The real money comes from the role you’re in and the volume you do. The per-signature fee is almost beside the point. I’m not going to invent an average, because a real one doesn’t exist.

The number everyone quotes: the $2 cap (and why it’s real)

Start with the fee, because it’s the thing the salary sites bury.

New York’s Executive Law §136 sets the notary fee at $2.00 per act. That covers administering an oath, taking an acknowledgment (you’re confirming the person in front of you signed willingly), each additional person, and each witness sworn. The Department of State says the same thing in plain terms on its notary FAQ: $2.00 per act, with $2.00 more if someone needs a “papering out” certificate.

That $2 is a hard ceiling. You cannot legally charge a walk-in customer $20 to notarize a form the way a notary in another state might.

To put it in your pocket: it costs $75 to get commissioned in New York, which is a $60 application plus a $15 exam fee. At $2 an act, you’d have to notarize roughly 38 documents just to earn back the cost of getting your commission. That math alone tells you your income has to come from somewhere else.

And the $2 has been stuck for a long time. A 2025 bill, S6268, proposes raising it to $5 and points out the fee has sat unchanged for over twenty-five years. It’s still in committee, so for now, $2 is the law.

If you want the fee rules in full, we break them down in our guide to NY notary fee limits.

The number they forget: $25 per electronic notarial act

Here’s the part almost nobody Googling “notary salary” ever sees.

New York authorizes electronic and remote notarization, and the fee for it works differently. An electronic notary may charge up to $25.00 per electronic notarial act. That’s set through regulation by the Secretary of State rather than by the flat $2 statute, which is why it can be so much higher.

Twenty-five dollars is 12.5 times the in-person fee. The catch is that the $25 has to cover everything, so you can’t tack on separate convenience or transaction charges. It’s the most any New York notary can charge for a single act, and $25 is a hard cap, not a base you build on top of.

If you want to understand this path, start with how remote online notarization works in NY.

Where NY notary money actually comes from

So if the base fee is $2 and even the good digital one is capped at $25, where does the actual pay come from? Two real answers.

Employer roles

A huge share of New York notaries never charge a customer a dime directly. Their commission is a job requirement. Banks, law offices, real estate closings, and HR departments all keep notaries on staff, and the value shows up in the paycheck and the promotion. Many of these commissions are paid for by the employer, and the notary signs documents for free during work hours as part of the role.

If your goal is to add a skill your employer needs, this is the most reliable “income” a NY notary earns, and it has nothing to do with the $2.

Volume, and the travel fee

The other path is doing your own signings, and this is the mechanic the salary sites hide. A mobile notary’s real earnings come from a separately quoted travel fee, since the act itself is still just $2. From my own signing work, the travel fee is where the money is. The $2 act is almost an afterthought.

The statute doesn’t set a number for that travel fee, but it does set limits: it must be disclosed, agreed in advance, and reasonable. So you name the number yourself, but it has to be fair and agreed up front.

This is also where loan signings come in, which is a different job with its own certification and errors-and-omissions insurance. If that’s the direction pulling at you, read our roadmap for becoming a loan signing agent in NY before you count any money.

The NYC saturation question

I’ll say the thing the promo pages won’t. In New York City especially, notaries are everywhere. Between the banks, the law offices, and everyone working real estate closings, plenty of working people already hold a commission. That $2 cap plus a crowded field is exactly why the “quit your job and notarize” pitch doesn’t survive contact with the city.

None of that is a reason to skip it. Get commissioned with your eyes open about why you’re doing it. If you’re doing it as a side hustle you saw online, read our side-hustle reality check first so the expectations match the street.

Why there’s no real “notary salary” figure for New York

Now the part no ranking page seems willing to admit.

There is no official government wage figure for notaries. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has no dedicated occupation code for “notary public,” and its wage survey excludes the self-employed entirely. So the neat “average notary salary in NY” number you saw was never measured by anyone.

Most of those figures actually describe salaried employees whose job happens to include notary duties, bank operations staff, legal admins, paralegals, rather than what a commissioned notary earns per act. That’s why the salary sites disagree with each other so wildly. They’re modeling different jobs and stamping “notary” on top.

I could pick a number and format it to look authoritative. I’d rather tell you it doesn’t exist. That’s the honest answer I promised you up top.

Is it worth it for you?

Run yourself through this quickly:

• You want a skill your employer values. Worth it. The commission pays off in your role, and the $2 cap is irrelevant to you.
• You want steady digital work. Possibly. Electronic acts pay $25, which is real, and you’d build volume over time.
• You saw a video promising a big monthly income from stamping papers in NYC. Be skeptical. The $2 cap and a crowded field make that pitch fall apart fast.

Whichever bucket is yours, none of these numbers touch you until you pass the state exam and get commissioned. That’s the part you control. See how to become a notary in NY for the full path.

FAQ

Can a NY notary charge more than $2 per notarization? No. Executive Law §136 caps most notarial acts at $2.00, and the Department of State confirms it. The one legal exception is an electronic notarial act, which can be up to $25.00.

Is there an official average salary for NY notaries? No. The BLS has no occupation code for notaries and excludes the self-employed, so no measured government wage figure exists. Any “average” you see is a model or a self-report, usually describing salaried employees whose jobs include notary work.

How much does it cost to become a notary in NY? $75 total: a $60 application plus a $15 exam fee.

Will the $2 fee ever go up? Maybe. A 2025 bill, S6268, proposes raising it to $5 and notes the fee has been unchanged for over twenty-five years, but it’s still in committee, so $2 remains the law for now.

Where do notaries actually make money in NY, then? From employer roles where the commission is part of the job, from electronic acts at $25, and from the travel fee on mobile work, which must be disclosed and reasonable.

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