How much is the SBA surety bond guarantee fee for contractors starting Nov. 30, 2026?

For Prior Approval bond guarantees approved on or after Nov. 30, 2026, the contractor fee is $7.29 per $1,000 of the contract amount, up from $6.00. Bid bonds carry no SBA fee.

Does the SBA surety fee increase apply to manufacturers?

No. Bond guarantees on projects under NAICS codes 31, 32 and 33, the manufacturing sectors, keep the $6.00 contractor fee and the 20% surety fee.

Are Preferred Surety Bond program fees changing?

No. The notice keeps the Preferred Surety Bond program at 20% of the bond premium for sureties and $6.00 per $1,000 of contract amount for contractors.

Why is the SBA raising surety bond guarantee fees?

The SBA says the Prior Approval program has run at a funding deficit since it cut fees in 2018, while the Preferred Surety Bond program has run a marginal surplus. The new Prior Approval rates match the ones in place before that cut.

Will a bond guarantee approved before Nov. 30 cost more?

The notice applies the new fees only to guarantees approved on or after Nov. 30, 2026. It says nothing about changing the fees on guarantees approved before then.

Need an SBA-Backed Bond to Win a Contract? The Guarantee Fee Goes Up Nov. 30 for Most Prior Approval Bonds

$1.29. That’s how much more the Small Business Administration will charge a small contractor for every $1,000 of contract value on most of its Prior Approval surety bond guarantees approved on or after Nov. 30 ^[1]. If you build, pave, wire or repair things on public jobs and you get your bonds with SBA backing, your next bid may need a new line. If you make things, keep reading too, because manufacturing projects are carved out ^[1].

What changed on Oct. 30

The SBA published a notice in the Federal Register setting new guarantee fees for its Surety Bond Guarantee program ^[1]. Some translation first. A surety bond is a promise from a surety company to a project owner that the contract will be finished and the subcontractors and suppliers will be paid ^[4]. Public owners often require them: federal construction contracts over $150,000 need performance and payment bonds ^[4]. When a surety won’t bond a small business on its own, the SBA can guarantee 80% to 90% of the surety’s loss if the contractor defaults ^[4].

The SBA charges two fees on each guaranteed bond other than a bid bond: one to the surety, figured as a share of the premium, and one to the contractor, figured per $1,000 of the contract ^[1]. For the Prior Approval program, where the SBA signs off on each bond before it’s issued ^[4], the notice sets ^[1]:

Surety fee: up from 20% to 26% of the bond premium.
Contractor fee: up from $6.00 to $7.29 per $1,000 of the contract amount.

Two groups keep the old rates ^[1]:

Bond guarantees on projects under NAICS codes 31, 32 and 33, the manufacturing sectors.
Every bond in the Preferred Surety Bond program, where approved sureties issue SBA-guaranteed bonds without the SBA’s prior sign-off ^{[1, 4]}.

The new rates apply to guarantees approved on or after Nov. 30, 2026 ^[1]. There’s no comment period; the SBA’s regulations say these fees are set by notice “from time to time” ^[1]. (The SBA’s August decision to stop voluntarily taking comment on loan and contracting rules, which I covered here, is a separate matter.)

Why the SBA says it needs more

This is a return trip, not new ground. Before Oct. 1, 2018, the Prior Approval rates were exactly 26% and $7.29 ^{[1, 2]}. The SBA cut them that year as a one-year test, extended the test, and in October 2020 kept the lower fees, saying the program’s yearly cash flow had stayed in surplus during the trial ^[2].

Six years on, the SBA reads the numbers differently. “Since implementation, the Prior Approval program has operated at a funding deficit while the Preferred Surety Bond program has operated at a marginal funding surplus,” the notice says ^[1]. By law, the SBA has to run the program “on a prudent and economically justifiable basis,” and the fees go into a revolving fund that covers claims and some program costs ^[1]. Congress hasn’t added money to that fund since fiscal 2010, according to the Congressional Research Service ^[4].

The program is busier than it has been in years. The SBA reported $10.6 billion in total contract value supported by guaranteed bid and final bonds in fiscal 2025, more than 2,200 small businesses helped and 75 bonds for manufacturers and fabricators, up 36% from the year before ^[3]. The notice doesn’t explain why manufacturing was spared, but it lines up with that emphasis.

Does this apply to you?

You’re affected if all of these are true:

You get bonds through a surety that uses the SBA’s Prior Approval program.
The bond is a final bond, meaning a performance or payment bond, not a bid bond ^{[1, 4]}.
The guarantee is approved on or after Nov. 30 ^[1].
The project isn’t classified under the manufacturing codes ^[1].

The contractor fee is paid to the surety, which sends it on to the SBA ^[4]. The surety’s fee to the SBA rides on the premium the surety charges you, which the Congressional Research Service says typically runs 1.5% to 3.0% of the contract ^[4]. Whether a surety passes its higher fee along is up to the surety, within state premium limits ^[4].

Hypothetical one. Say you run a hypothetical four-person concrete and sidewalk contractor bidding a $500,000 town job, and your surety uses Prior Approval. By this column’s arithmetic, the SBA contractor fee goes from $3,000 to $3,645, or $645 more ^[1]. If your premium is 1.5% of the contract ($7,500), the surety’s own fee to the SBA rises from $1,500 to $1,950 ^{[1, 4]}. That $500,000 job also fits within the SBA’s QuickApp, its short application for contracts up to $500,000 ^[3].

Hypothetical two. Now a hypothetical 12-person metal fabrication shop needs a bond on a $2 million job. If the project falls under the manufacturing codes, the fee stays at $6.00 per $1,000, or $12,000 ^[1]. If it’s classified as construction instead, it’s $14,580 at the new rate, $2,580 more by this column’s count ^[1]. The notice says the exemption covers “projects under” those codes, not businesses, and doesn’t say who decides the code ^[1]. That’s the question to ask your surety before you price the bid.

Hypothetical three. Same concrete contractor, but its surety is in the Preferred Surety Bond program. Nothing changes: 20% and $6.00 ^[1].

Here’s the short version: Prior Approval, non-manufacturing, approved on or after Nov. 30 means the higher fee.

What to do before Nov. 30

Call your bond agent and ask two things: which SBA program your surety uses, and when your pending guarantees are likely to be approved ^[1]. For bids going out now on jobs that won’t be approved until December, price the contractor fee at $7.29 per $1,000 ^[1]. If you do fabrication or other manufacturing work, get the project’s classification settled early ^[1]. The checklist has the steps.

What I’m keeping an eye on

S. 2232, the Expanding the Surety Bond Program Act of 2025. As reported by the Senate Small Business Committee on July 30, 2025, it would raise the program’s statutory contract limit from $6.5 million to $18 million, with a 33% cut to that limit in any year the SBA asks Congress for supplemental money for the program, and would require a yearly report to Congress on the revolving fund’s health ^[5]. The SBA’s current limits, set by regulation, are $9 million, or $14 million on federal contracts a contracting officer certifies ^{[3, 4]}.

How sureties respond after Nov. 30. The notice doesn’t say whether sureties will pass the 26% fee on in premiums, and that’s the number contractors will feel ^[1].

— Sally