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Texas Used Car Cost Calculator

A used car priced at $20,000.00 in Texas will cost you between $1,333.50 and $1,363.25 in sales tax, title, and registration fees, on top of the purchase price.

Showing an example at $20,000 — enter your own purchase price below for a number that's actually yours.

That range isn't guesswork — here is exactly what moves it:

  • Registration: This state charges by vehicle weight. Enter the weight for an exact figure.
  • Certificate of title fee: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 501.138: $28 in most counties, $33 if your county of residence is a federal Clean Air Act ozone-nonattainment area or a Health & Safety Code Sec. 386.001 'affected county' -- this includes the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, San Antonio/Bexar, El Paso, and Austin-area counties, among others.
  • County road & bridge fee: Every Texas county collects its own local registration fee alongside the state fee, from $0 (e.g. Borden, Kenedy, Kent, King, Loving, McMullen, Sterling, and Ward counties) up to $21.50 (Bexar County), per TxDMV Fee Chart 1C (https://www.txdmv.gov/sites/default/files/body-files/FeeChart_1C.pdf). Look up your county's exact amount before budgeting.

Fee breakdown

ItemAmountNote
Sales tax $1,250.00
Processing and handling fee $4.75 Flat, TxDMV-mandated fee charged by the county tax assessor-collector on every title transaction, statewide. Previously cited to a single county tax office's own page (mctotx.org); repointed here to TxDMV's own 'Register Your Vehicle' page, which lists this same $4.75 fee as a statewide line item -- the correct authority for a fee TxDMV itself mandates, not a county-specific one.

Recalculate for your numbers

Sources

Every figure above is cited. Last checked on the date shown.