Prices checked on Checkr's pricing page and passthrough fee page, October 31, 2026 · Research-based tool, not hands-on testing · Not legal advice
This background check cost calculator turns Checkr's published list prices into a per-hire and yearly screening budget: pick Basic ($29.99), Essential ($59.99) or Complete ($94.99), add the checks the job needs, enter how many people you hire a year and what you expect courts and DMVs to charge, and it adds any rescreening on top. If the calculator does not load in your browser, the tables under it cover the most common cases, already worked out.
Two results surprise most people who run the numbers. Complete is not always the cheaper way to get statewide and federal searches, and continuous criminal monitoring costs less per worker than re-running even the cheapest package once a year. Both are explained below with the arithmetic. For the full price list behind the tool, see our Checkr pricing breakdown; for other providers' prices, see the small business background check cost guide.
Prices the calculator uses
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- Packages: Basic from $29.99, Essential from $59.99, Complete from $94.99 per report
- Add-ons: 11 single checks, from $4.99 identity verification to $60 clinic drug tests
- Fees: court, DMV and database fees are extra, "passed through at cost with no markup"
Background check cost calculator
All prices are Checkr's list prices in US dollars as of October 31, 2026. Fees are your own estimate; the next section explains how to pick a number. Checks that a package already includes are not charged twice, and the result says which ones were skipped.
The calculator stays inside your browser and sends nothing anywhere. It does not replace Checkr's own fee estimator or a quote, because the real fees depend on the counties in your candidate's address history, which nobody knows before the order runs.
Choosing the fee number: what passthrough fees are
Every Checkr package price carries an asterisk that reads: "Standard third-party court and database access fees may apply, passed through at cost with no markup." The pricing page also says plainly that "Pricing does not include pass-through fees". Checkr's fee page explains where they come from: "Passthrough access fees are charged by courts, DMVs, and third-party databases to retrieve records for a background check," and they "vary based on your candidate's location history and record sources accessed."
That is why the calculator asks for an estimate instead of filling one in. Two candidates screened with the same package can have very different fees. Some reference points:
- $0: a candidate who has only lived in a county that charges nothing. Our Checkr pricing article priced a retail hire in Franklin County, Ohio, with $0.00 in fees.
- About $3 to $10: one or two typical counties. A Saazora count of Checkr's fee list in our cost guide found a median county fee of $2.71, and a median of $10 among the states that charge a statewide court fee.
- $22 or more: Checkr's own example is Pennsylvania: "The Pennsylvania State Police charges a $22 fee to access the Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History (PATCH) database."
- $95 per record: New York, where the state search and several county courts charge $95 each.
The calculator starts at $5 per hire as a middle value for candidates with one or two counties. Raise it if many candidates have lived in New York, Pennsylvania or Arizona, or if you order statewide searches. Driving records are separate: "all DMVs charge fees to retrieve driving records," so the MVR field has its own DMV fee, set to $11, the median state DMV fee in the same count. Employment verifications can add database fees that Checkr says "range from $17.95-$119.95"; if you verify past employers, add a share of that to the fee field.
The chart shows why the fee field matters more than the package choice for some employers. At $25 in fees per hire, 25 Essential hires cost $2,124.75, the same as 25 Essential hires with a 1-degree education check and a current-employer check at $0 fees.
Yearly cost by package, before add-ons and fees
If the calculator did not load, start here. These are list prices only, so treat them as the floor of your budget.
| Hires per year | Basic ($29.99) | Essential ($59.99) | Complete ($94.99) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $29.99 | $59.99 | $94.99 |
| 5 | $149.95 | $299.95 | $474.95 |
| 10 | $299.90 | $599.90 | $949.90 |
| 25 | $749.75 | $1,499.75 | $2,374.75 |
| 50 | $1,499.50 | $2,999.50 | $4,749.50 |
| 100 | $2,999.00 | $5,999.00 | $9,499.00 |
Saazora calculation from checkr.com/pricing, October 31, 2026. Each package is marked "Starting from". Court, DMV and database fees are not included.
Checkr's page heading is "Simple, pay-as-you-go pricing", and there is no subscription for the core packages, so the yearly figure scales directly with the number of hires. The only recurring charges on the page are the monitoring fees covered further down.
Six common hires, priced per person and per year
Most small businesses screen one or two kinds of role again and again. The table prices six typical builds at list price, then with the calculator's default fees ($5 in court fees per hire, plus $11 for the DMV on a driving record).
| Hire (Saazora example) | What gets ordered | List price per hire | With default fees | 10 hires a year | 25 hires a year | 50 hires a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail or hourly worker | Essential | $59.99 | $64.99 | $599.90 | $1,499.75 | $2,999.50 |
| Delivery driver | Essential + MVR | $69.49 | $85.49 | $694.90 | $1,737.25 | $3,474.50 |
| Office hire | Essential + current employer + 1 degree | $84.99 | $89.99 | $849.90 | $2,124.75 | $4,249.50 |
| Healthcare aide | Essential + FACIS Level 1 + professional license | $77.99 | $82.99 | $779.90 | $1,949.75 | $3,899.50 |
| Safety-sensitive role | Complete + clinic-based drug test | $154.99 | $159.99 | $1,549.90 | $3,874.75 | $7,749.50 |
| Short-term helper, one county | Basic + 1 county criminal search | $54.99 | $59.99 | $549.90 | $1,374.75 | $2,749.50 |
Yearly columns use list prices only. Saazora calculation from checkr.com/pricing, October 31, 2026. The drug test is "Starting from $60/test" for clinic-based tests and may cost more by panel; employment verification may add database fees.
The driver is the only build where fees change the picture much at default settings, because every MVR carries a DMV charge. For a deeper look at driving records, see our guide to MVR checks for drivers. If you are pricing drug tests on their own, our pre-employment drug test cost article compares test types. For office hires, the employment verification guide covers what each tier confirms.
When Complete costs more than building it yourself
Checkr sells the searches inside its packages as single add-ons too, and that creates two break-even points the calculator catches.
Basic plus county searches, or Essential?
A county criminal search is $25 on its own, and Checkr notes "This search is included in Essential and Complete packages." Basic plus one county search costs $54.99, which is $5 less than Essential. Add the $4.99 identity verification that Essential includes and the two are a cent apart ($59.98 vs $59.99). From two counties up, Essential is cheaper, and it searches every county that turns up in the candidate's address history, not only the ones you pick in advance.
Essential plus state and federal searches, or Complete?
Complete is $35 more than Essential and adds unlimited state criminal searches and a federal search. Bought separately, a federal search is $10 and a state search starts from $10. So Essential plus federal plus one state search is $79.99, and plus two states is $89.99, both below Complete's $94.99. Complete only becomes the cheaper route at three or more states.
Two caveats keep this from being a simple rule. State searches are priced "Starting from $10/check", so a pricier state moves the break-even earlier. And the fee side is the same either way: a state that charges a court fee charges it whether the search sits inside Complete or is ordered alone. Most candidates who have lived in one or two states are cheaper to screen à la carte, if your screening policy only needs those states.
Two inputs in the calculator are never charged on top of a package. The global watchlist search ($9) is part of all three packages, and identity verification ($4.99) is part of Essential and Complete. Leaving them ticked does not change the total; the result notes them as already included.
Rescreening: monitoring versus re-running a report
Many employers screen current workers again, either on a schedule or continuously. Checkr prices both. A scheduled recheck is "the price of the package and any additional passthrough fees as a result of completing the check." Continuous criminal search is "$1.70/individual per month", described as a way to "Monitor and learn about changes in workers' criminal records in real-time."
| Workers enrolled | Continuous criminal ($20.40 a year each) | Yearly Basic recheck ($29.99 each) | Yearly Essential recheck ($59.99 each) | Continuous MVR ($30 a year each) | Yearly MVR re-pull with $11 DMV fee ($20.50 each) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $204.00 | $299.90 | $599.90 | $300.00 | $205.00 |
| 25 | $510.00 | $749.75 | $1,499.75 | $750.00 | $512.50 |
| 50 | $1,020.00 | $1,499.50 | $2,999.50 | $1,500.00 | $1,025.00 |
| 100 | $2,040.00 | $2,999.00 | $5,999.00 | $3,000.00 | $2,050.00 |
Saazora calculation from checkr.com/pricing, October 31, 2026. Recheck columns exclude court fees; the MVR re-pull uses $9.50 plus an assumed $11 DMV fee.
For criminal records, monitoring is the cheaper option per worker, at $20.40 a year against $29.99 for the cheapest yearly recheck, and it reports changes during the year instead of once. For driving records it runs the other way. Continuous MVR is "$2.50 USD monthly per enrolled driver", and Checkr adds that "Some states also charge enrollment or annual fees," and that any change which "triggers a new MVR report is billed at standard MVR rates, including applicable state fees." A single yearly MVR re-pull at a typical DMV fee costs less, but it only shows the record on the day it is pulled. Which one fits depends on how much a mid-year change matters for the role.
Whatever the method, rescreening current workers still falls under the Fair Credit Reporting Act's disclosure and authorization rules. This is not legal advice; our guide on how to run an employee background check walks through the consent and adverse action steps.
Checkr and Certn list prices side by side
Certn publishes a US price list with a separate price for most checks, so it fits the same kind of calculation. The packages do not line up search for search, so read this as a rough check on the package line of your budget, not a full comparison. For the full side-by-side, see our Checkr vs Certn comparison.
| Check | Checkr (checkr.com/pricing) | Certn (certn.co/us/pricing) |
|---|---|---|
| Database criminal package | Basic, from $29.99 | US Core, $13.99; $9.99 more when Certn adds a county search "where applicable" |
| Package with county searches | Essential, from $59.99 (ID check included) | US Complete, $49.99; OneID ID check $3.50 extra |
| Statewide and federal searches | Complete, from $94.99 | Not in the self-serve list |
| Driving record | $9.50 plus DMV fee | $25.99; "an additional state fee may apply" |
| Employment and education verification | From $12.50 each | "Price Varies" |
| Drug test | From $10 per test | Not listed |
Both pages read on October 31, 2026. Certn's page says "Prices are accurate at the time of submission."
On these lists, Certn is cheaper for county-level criminal screening, and Checkr is cheaper once a driving record is added and is the only one of the two posting prices for statewide, federal, verification and drug-test add-ons. A driver hire at list price is $69.49 at Checkr (Essential plus MVR) against $79.48 at Certn (US Complete plus OneID plus MVR, to match the ID check inside Essential), before state fees at either.
Running the numbers on a real order
The calculator gives a budget; an order gives the real number. Checkr's public passthrough fee estimator, which our pricing article used for four sample hires, narrows the fees once you know where the candidate has lived. If the per-hire total from the tool fits your budget, the next step is to set up a Checkr account and price a single report (affiliate link). Our Checkr offers page keeps the current setup terms, and more screening and hiring guides are on the HR and hiring tools hub.
Questions about background check costs
How much does a background check cost per employee?
At Checkr's list prices on October 31, 2026, from $29.99 (Basic) to $94.99 (Complete) per report before add-ons and fees. With typical add-ons and a modest fee estimate, the six example hires above range from $59.99 to $159.99 per person.
Why is my invoice higher than the calculator?
Usually because of court, DMV or database fees. They are set by the record holder and depend on the candidate's address history, and they can exceed the package price for candidates who have lived in high-fee areas such as New York.
Are there monthly fees for Checkr?
Not for the core packages, which are pay as you go. The monthly items on the price list are monitoring: $1.70 per individual for continuous criminal search and $2.50 per driver for continuous MVR.
Does the calculator include tax?
No. It uses list prices plus your fee estimate. Tax on fees, where it applies, is not included.
Is a cheaper package enough for my roles?
That depends on your screening policy, the job and the laws where you hire, not on price. This page only prices the options. It is not legal advice; ask an employment lawyer which searches a role needs.
How we built this calculator
On October 31, 2026, we read Checkr's pricing page and its passthrough access fee page, and Certn's US pricing page, and recorded each price and fee sentence word for word. The calculator and every table on this page are Saazora's own calculations from those list prices; the $5 court fee and $11 DMV fee defaults come from our earlier count of Checkr's published fee list, described in the cost guide. Checkr's US state and county fee table did not load in the text we read on October 31, so this page does not quote individual county fees beyond the examples on Checkr's fee page and in our earlier articles. We did not order background checks or open an account, so this is a research-based tool, not a test. Prices change; check the date above and the vendor's page before you budget. More on our process: Saazora's review and research process.
Sources (checked October 31, 2026): Checkr, pricing page (checkr.com/pricing); Checkr, passthrough access fees overview (checkr.com/pricing/passthrough-fees-overview); Certn, US pricing page (certn.co/us/pricing). Fee medians: Saazora count of Checkr's fee list, October 17, 2026.
Research-based tool, not hands-on testing and not legal advice. Checkr did not pay for or review this page.
