Ask a Chinese agency for an estimate and you will usually get a range: "around USD 3,000 to 4,500, depending."
The "depending" is not evasive. It is honest — and it is exactly the problem.
At the moment a quotation is issued, several of the things that decide what a Chinese patent actually costs do not exist yet. The claims are not final, so the claim surcharge is unknown. The description has not been translated, so the page surcharge and the translation fee are unknown. Nobody knows how many office actions will follow, so the response cost is unknown.
A range is the only honest answer to a question asked that early. It is also useless for budgeting.
So the useful question is not "how much does a Chinese patent cost?" It is: which inputs drive the number, and can the number be computed from them instead of guessed around them?
1. Five inputs decide the cost. Only one of them is the agency fee.
| Cost driver | What it depends on | Amount (CNY, full statutory rate) |
|---|---|---|
| Filing fee | Patent type | ¥900 invention · ¥500 utility model · ¥500 design |
| Claim surcharge | Number of claims | ¥150 per claim from claim 11 onwards |
| Page surcharge | Description length | ¥50 per page, pages 31–300 · ¥100 per page from page 301 |
| Priority claims | Number of priorities | ¥80 each |
| Substantive examination | Invention only | ¥2,500 |
| Translation | English source word count | ¥400 per 1,000 words |
| Annuities | Years counted from the filing date | From ¥600 to ¥8,000 per year |
Read that table as a description of a quotation problem. Four of the seven rows are driven by numbers that only exist after the application is drafted. Anyone quoting before drafting is quoting from experience, not from data.
On a normal PCT case, the official fee alone can move by ¥2,500 purely because the claims grew from 10 to 20 and the description from 30 pages to 50. That swing happens inside the official fee — before the agency fee, before translation, before anyone has invoiced anything.
2. Three errors that survive all the way into the invoice
1. The annuity clock starts at filing, not at grant.
Chinese annuities are counted in years from the filing date. An invention that takes three years to grant arrives with three years of obligation already accumulated, and the first invoice after grant covers the years the client thought were still ahead. This is the single most common line item that appears in the invoice and not in the budget.
2. A divisional application is a new application.
Under the Examination Guidelines, a divisional is examined as a separate application. The filing fee, the claim and page surcharges — and the ¥2,500 examination fee for inventions — are all payable again, in full. A filing strategy that voluntarily divides one case into three has not saved official fees. It has tripled the base.
3. The registration fee has not existed since 2018.
The registration fee and the publication printing fee were abolished with effect from 1 August 2018 (CNIPA Notice No. 272). At grant, the only official payment is the annuity for the grant year. Quotations that still show a registration fee are working from a fee schedule that is eight years old — which is a small error in itself, and a worrying signal about the rest of the document.
3. What "accurate" means for a filing budget
It does not mean cheap. It means this: the number you were given is the number you pay, because both were computed from the same inputs.
That requires three things a PDF quotation cannot do.
It requires that the fee be computed from the case as filed, not from a template. It requires that official fees and agency fees be shown separately, so the client can verify one against the CNIPA schedule and treat the other as a commercial matter. And it requires that the fee basis be disclosed — what is counted, in what unit, rounded how.
4. The calculator: you set the inputs, the number follows
The China Patent Cost Calculator does exactly that, on one page.
- Choose the route. PCT national phase into China, or Paris Convention direct filing with a priority claim.
- Choose the type. Invention, utility model, or design. Designs exist only on the Paris route, and the tool will not let you select a combination that does not exist.
- Enter the case data the fee actually depends on. Claim count, description pages, number of priority claims, translation volume in thousands of English words. The claim and page surcharges are computed from those entries, on the CNIPA schedule — not looked up afterwards.
- Tick the services. Filing, translation, translation review, PCT Article 19/34 amendment translation, examination request, office action responses, restoration, extension of time, translation correction, PPH, divisional, reexamination, grant stage, annuity payment, recordals, register copies.
- Choose how responses are priced. A flat fee covering every response from first action through to grant or rejection, or a per-round fee if you expect a clean first action. The choice is yours, made in advance, not delivered by surprise.
- Take the number away. Copy it, print it to PDF as a quotation sheet with the fee basis printed on its face, or have it emailed to you. Your address is used only to send the quotation and reply to your enquiry.
- Annuity reminders at no charge on any case we handle.
5. A worked example, so you can check our arithmetic
PCT national phase into China, invention, examination requested with the filing: 18 claims, 42 description pages, 1 priority claim, 8,000 English words, granted in year 3.
| Line | Service fee | Official fee |
|---|---|---|
| Filing fee (invention) | — | ¥900 |
| Claim surcharge — 8 claims over 10 | — | ¥1,200 |
| Page surcharge — 12 pages over 30 | — | ¥600 |
| Priority claim × 1 | — | ¥80 |
| Substantive examination, filed with the application | — | ¥2,500 |
| Filing service | ¥3,000 | — |
| Translation, 8,000 words | ¥3,200 | — |
| Grant stage (grant-year annuity and certificate) | ¥300 | ¥900 |
| Total to grant | ¥6,500 | ¥6,180 |
Total: ¥12,680.
A quotation of "about ¥9,500" would have been short by a quarter. One of "about ¥16,000" would have overstated it by a quarter. Both are the kind of range that gets issued every day, and neither survives contact with the actual filing.
Run the same case with 26 claims and 60 description pages and the official fee rises to ¥7,380 without a single additional hour of work. That is the part of the number no one can negotiate, and the part clients most often discover late.
6. Our service fees, stated on the same page as the official ones
| Service | Fee (CNY, official fees excluded) |
|---|---|
| Filing — invention (PCT or Paris route) | ¥3,000 per case |
| Filing — utility model / design | ¥2,000 per case |
| English-to-Chinese translation | ¥400 per 1,000 source words |
| Translation review of a client-supplied Chinese draft | ¥100 per 1,000 Chinese characters |
| Office action responses — flat through to grant | ¥3,000 (invention) · ¥2,000 (utility model) |
| Office action responses — per round | ¥1,500 (invention) · ¥1,000 (utility model) |
| Substantive examination request, filed separately | ¥500 |
| Grant stage | ¥300 per case |
| Annuity payment, any due year | ¥200 per year |
| Divisional application | ¥2,500 per case |
| Reexamination request | ¥4,000 per case |
| Assignment recordal | ¥800 per request |
| Licence recordal / pledge registration | ¥1,500 per request |
| Register copy / legal status certificate | ¥300 per copy |
| PCT Article 19/34 amendment translation | ¥500 (invention) · ¥300 (utility model) |
| PPH request | ¥1,000 |
| Annuity monitoring and reminders | Free |
The filing fee includes forwarding of notices, deadline monitoring, up to three corrective responses and a formal review of the Chinese draft. Priority claims carry no additional service charge.
7. What the calculator does not do
It does not replace an engagement contract, and it does not model fee reductions. Official fees are shown at the full statutory rate, because most applicants outside China do not qualify for reduction — so the official column is more likely to overstate your cost than understate it. Where a reduction does apply, the discount comes off the top.
What it does is remove the guesswork from the one part of the budget that never needed to be guessed.
8. Estimate your own case in about a minute
Open the calculator, set the route and type, enter your claim count and page count, tick the services. The agency fee and the official fee appear side by side as you go.
→ China Patent Cost Calculator
Hefei Zhihai Yida Patent Agency (General Partnership) · CNIPA agency code 34408
patent@zhihaiyida.com · +86 176 0560 8891 · www.zhihaiyida.com
FAQ
Q: Is the official-fee figure the exact amount I will pay?
A: Yes, for applicants paying the full rate, and subject to any CNIPA fee notice issued after the quotation. It follows the schedule currently in force.
Q: Why is there no registration fee at grant?
A: Because it was abolished on 1 August 2018 together with the publication printing fee (CNIPA Notice No. 272). Only the grant-year annuity is payable.
Q: Does the quotation cover annuities for the life of the patent?
A: No. It prices the grant-year annuity and any years you select. For an invention, years 10 to 12 cost ¥4,000 a year and years 16 to 20 cost ¥8,000 — worth budgeting for now, which is why the schedule is in the table above.
Q: How is translation counted?
A: On the English source, per 1,000 words, rounded up to the next full unit. Chinese character count is not the billing base. If you supply your own Chinese draft, review is billed instead, per 1,000 Chinese characters.
Q: How long is the quotation valid?
A: Until 31 December 2026. A CNY 100 deposit paid before that date holds the quoted service fees.
Related reading
- Paying Patent Annuities in China: Deadlines, Late Fees and Lapse Risk — why the annuity clock starts at the filing date, and how much a missed payment costs.
- Patent Annuity Rules Compared: China, the US, the EPO, Japan, Korea and Germany — the same comparison across six jurisdictions, for portfolio budgeting.
- Filing a Patent in China as a Foreign Applicant: The Complete Procedural Guide — the procedure and documents behind these fees.
Budgeting a portfolio rather than a single case? Our free patent annuity monitoring tracks every annuity deadline at no charge, and Zhihai Tools covers the formality checks that precede filing.
Contact us
| Item | Information |
|---|---|
| Firm | Hefei Zhihai Yida Patent Agency (General Partnership) |
| CNIPA agency code | 34408 |
| patent@zhihaiyida.com | |
| Phone / WeChat | +86 176 0560 8891 |
| Cost calculator | China Patent Cost Calculator |
All amounts are in Chinese yuan (RMB). Official fees follow the CNIPA administrative fee schedule and payment notices; annuities are counted in years from the filing date. Actual amounts are governed by the signed engagement contract and the CNIPA fee notice. This article is an informational overview and does not constitute legal advice.