Virginia Speeding Ticket Cost: Fine, Court Costs and Points

A Virginia speeding ticket is priced by a formula, not by a judge’s mood. The prepayable fine is $6 for every mile per hour above the applicable limit under Va. Code § 46.2-878.3, and fixed court costs of $51 are added on conviction under Va. Code § 16.1-69.48:1. Most Virginia speeding tickets therefore land between $80 and $170, before any zone rate or surcharge.

What a Virginia speeding ticket costs, line by line

Every speeding bill in the Commonwealth is built from the same few parts. Two of them are fixed by statute and can be worked out from the summons before any hearing; the rest depend on what the driver decides to do.

Component	Amount	Set by
Prepayable fine	$6 per mile per hour above the limit	§ 46.2-878.3, through the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Uniform Fine Schedule
Fixed court costs, traffic infraction	$51	§ 16.1-69.48:1 (D)
Fixed court costs, misdemeanor	$61	§ 16.1-69.48:1 (B)
Extra fine, 81–85 mph where the limit is 65	$100	§ 46.2-878.3
Failure to appear	$35 added as costs	§ 16.1-69.48:1 (A)
Driver improvement clinic, if taken	No more than $100	DMV clinic rules
Insurance	Your insurer’s own decision	Not statutory

The first two lines answer the question for the overwhelming majority of drivers. A 12-mph overage is $72 in fine plus $51 in costs; the arithmetic is the same in Fairfax as in Wythe, because both figures are statewide.

The $6-per-mph rule in § 46.2-878.3

Section 46.2-878.3 does not set the fine directly. It tells the Supreme Court of Virginia what the Traffic Infractions and Uniform Fine Schedule must contain: “a fine of $6 per mile-per-hour in excess of posted speed limits provided for in this article” wherever prepayment is permitted. The same sentence sets higher rates for particular zones.

Where you were stopped	Per mile per hour	Notes
Ordinary highway, street or interstate	$6	The default for nearly every summons
School crossing zone	$7	Applies while the zone’s signs are in position or lit
Highway work zone	$7	Charged only where workers are present
Posted residence district	$8	Plus a flat $200 fine that the residence-district statute sets, none of which may be suspended unless the court orders 20 hours of community service

One further amount sits in the same section and surprises interstate drivers: anyone driving faster than 80 mph but below 86 mph on a highway posted at 65 mph pays an additional $100. That is not reckless driving — it is a speeding infraction with a surcharge — and it is the reason two drivers cited for the same overage can owe very different amounts.

Because the schedule is prepayable, the fine is knowable in advance. The Supreme Court’s schedule and the amounts currently in force are published with the courts’ own guidance on paying traffic tickets, and the schedule is amended from time to time, so the figure printed on the summons governs.

Court costs are fixed by statute, not by the judge

This is the part most sites hedge, and there is no reason to. Va. Code § 16.1-69.48:1 sets a single fixed fee for district court cases: subsection D assesses $51 in traffic infractions, which is what ordinary speeding is, and subsection B assesses $61 in misdemeanors, which is what reckless driving is. The statute apportions the money between the general fund, the Virginia Crime Victim-Witness Fund, courthouse construction and several others, but the driver pays one number.

Three details in the same section are worth knowing before you read your bill:

1. The fee is assessed on conviction, on a written guilty plea, on a trial in absence, and even where the court requires a driver improvement clinic in lieu of a finding of guilty. Paying by mail does not avoid it.
2. Charges from one incident are taxed the fixed fee once. If a second charge from the same stop carries a higher fixed fee, the court assesses only the difference.
3. Failing to appear adds $35 in costs unless the court finds good cause after a hearing.

Beyond the fixed fee, a case set for trial with witnesses can carry specifically authorized costs, and those genuinely do vary. The fixed fee does not.

Worked totals for a Virginia speeding ticket

Putting the two statutory numbers together gives the total a driver actually pays on an uncontested ordinary speeding charge.

Speed	Fine at $6 per mph	Court costs	Total	DMV points
5 mph past a posted limit	$30	$51	$81	3
10 mph past a posted limit	$60	$51	$111	4
15 mph past a posted limit	$90	$51	$141	4
19 mph past a posted limit	$114	$51	$165	4
84 mph where the limit is 65	$114 + $100	$51	$265	4

A single charge worked through end to end, with the points, the record and the insurance consequences attached, is set out on a single charge worked through end to end.

The number that sets the price has to be proved

Because the fine is arithmetic on the recorded speed, the recorded speed is the whole case. Va. Code § 46.2-882 limits where that number may come from: a laser device, radar, a microcomputer physically connected to an odometer cable, a microcomputer aboard an airplane or helicopter over an interstate highway, or an authorized photo speed monitoring device. A reading from one of those is prima facie evidence of the speed — strong enough to convict on, but open to challenge rather than conclusive.

The same section caps how long a device’s calibration lasts: no calibration or testing is valid for longer than six months, except for a photo speed monitoring device, where the limit is 12 months. It also makes a certificate of calibration admissible as evidence of what it states, and that rule runs in both directions — a repair shop’s certificate showing that the driver’s own speedometer reads low is admissible on the same footing. Knocking a few miles per hour off the charged speed lowers the fine by $6 a mile and can move a charge below a points threshold, which is why the certificate is often worth more than its cost.

Where the cost stops being a fine and becomes a criminal case

The formula has a hard ceiling. Under Va. Code § 46.2-862, driving 20 mph or more over the applicable maximum speed limit, or faster than 85 mph whatever the limit, is reckless driving rather than speeding. Reckless driving is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and Va. Code § 18.2-11 sets that punishment at confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both, with the $61 misdemeanor fee instead of the $51 one.

That is a different kind of case, not a bigger ticket. It cannot be prepaid, it carries a criminal conviction, and the fine is whatever the judge imposes inside the statutory range. Where the line falls, and what happens on the criminal side of it, is covered under where a ticket becomes a crime.

What a speeding ticket costs after the courthouse

The fine is usually the smallest part of the total. Three costs outlast it.

Insurance. A speeding conviction is reported to the DMV, and insurers use their own point systems, which are not DMV demerit points. The DMV notifies an insurer of convictions only on request, and whether a premium rises, and by how much, is the insurer’s decision rather than a published figure. Over three years, a rate increase routinely costs more than the ticket did.

Demerit points. Ordinary speeding carries 3 points for 1–9 mph above the limit, 4 points for 10–19, and 6 points at 20 or more, with the conviction sitting on the driving record for five years. The full schedule is on the page about demerit points for speeding.

A driver improvement clinic. The eight-hour DMV-approved clinic may charge no more than $100 and removes up to five demerit points, which can be worth more than the fine to a driver who is close to a DMV threshold.

Out-of-state drivers have one extra layer. Virginia is a member of the Driver License Compact, Va. Code § 46.2-483, so it reports the conviction to the home state, which then applies its own rules on points, surcharges and suspension. Virginia’s fine and court costs are the same for a nonresident; what the home state adds is a question for that state’s DMV.

What is not in the number on your summons

Four costs are real and none of them appear on the prepayment line: a lawyer’s fee if one is hired, a mechanic’s speedometer calibration if speed is being contested, the clinic fee, and the value of a day’s travel to a courthouse in the county where the stop happened. Weighing those against the fine is what the decision to prepay or appear actually turns on, and that decision — with the points and the chance of a reduction attached — is set out in what happens after the stop and what is actually arguable in court.

Next steps

Read the summons for the charged speed, the posted limit and the court named on it. Multiply the overage by $6 (or $7 or $8 if a zone applied), add $51, and you have the prepayment total; the court’s own figure controls if it differs. Then decide whether the points matter enough to appear instead of paying. A Virginia traffic attorney who practices in that court can tell you what a reduction is realistically worth in your case, which is the one thing a fine schedule cannot.