Fees and charges
Fees and charges for applications made under the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) are set out in the Right to Information Regulation 2025.
Right to Information
The current application fee (as of 1 July 2025) for an application under the RTI Act is – $57.65. This fee cannot be waived.
There is no application fee or processing charge if the only documents sought contain your personal information.
An agency or Minister may impose processing charges on searching for or retrieving documents, and making, or doing things related to making, a decision about an application. An agency or Minister may also impose access charges for providing the documents.
The processing charges for an RTI application are:
- if the agency or Minister spends less than 5 hours processing the non-personal document of the application – nil
- if the agency or Minister spends more than 5 hours processing the non-personal documents of the application - $8.95 per 15 minutes or part of 15 minutes.
If the agency spends more than 5 hours processing the non-personal documents of an application, the processing charge applies to every hour. So, if processing takes 6 hours, the processing charge applies to the 6 hours.
The access charges for RTI applications are:
- for copies of documents provided as a black and white A4 photocopy - $0.25 per page.
Depending on the application, access charges may also include:
- the actual cost incurred to engage another entity to search for and retrieve a document;
- the actual cost of relocating a document (for example, the cost of transporting the document from Cairns to Brisbane to give access to an applicant who lives in Brisbane); and
- the actual cost of transcribing a recording or preparing a written document.
There are no access charges if documents are provided by email or on CD.
The agency or Minister will give you a written estimate (called a charges estimate notice) of how much your application is likely to cost, if charges apply.
Waiver of charges
Processing and/or access charges may be waived if:
- the agency or Minister considers the likely associated costs would be more than the likely amount of the charge;
- an applicant is in financial hardship (ie holds a specified valid concession card); or
- the applicant is a non-profit organisation and the Information Commissioner has decided the organisation is in financial hardship.
Payment by credit card
Credit/debit card payments are accepted as part of an online application process. Credit/debit card details are not accepted for payment of the application fee via email, facsimile or telephone. Please confirm the preferred payment method with the agency you are applying to.
Payment by cheque
If you are paying by cheque, you should make the cheque payable to the agency to which you are applying and post to that agency. Agencies are phasing out accepting cheques as a payment option. This is in line with the broader plan to phase out cheques in Australia. Contact the agency you are applying to before submitting your application to check whether that agency accepts payments by cheque.