Finding a notary in Phoenix is easier than most newcomers expect, and becoming one is cheaper than most lifelong residents realize. The Valley sits at the heart of Arizona's notary economy, with hundreds of commissioned notaries working out of UPS Stores, FedEx Office locations, bank branches across Camelback and Scottsdale Road, AAA service centers, public libraries, and from inside their own SUVs as mobile notaries who will meet you at a Starbucks at nine on a Sunday night.
Behind all of that activity is one office: the Arizona Secretary of State, which commissions every notary in the state for a four-year term, sets the maximum fees they can charge, and authorizes the small number who perform remote online notarizations under Senate Bill 1241.
If you need a document notarized this week — a deed for a Maricopa County property closing, a parental consent form for a child traveling to Mexico, a small estate affidavit, a vehicle title transfer at the MVD — this guide tells you where to go, what it should cost, and what to bring.
If instead you are thinking about adding 'Arizona Notary Public' to your business card, the second half of this guide walks through the application, the $43 filing fee, the $10,000 surety bond, the supplies, and the optional training that most candidates choose to take before submitting paperwork to the Secretary of State.
Arizona is a friendly state for notaries. There is no exam requirement. The application processes in about two weeks. Demand from real estate, healthcare, and the relentless flow of snowbirds keeps the Phoenix market busy from October through April. Read on for the full picture.
Phoenix has the densest concentration of notaries in Arizona, and the cheapest place to find one is almost always already familiar to you. If you bank in the Valley — Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, BMO Harris, or one of the credit unions like Desert Financial or OneAZ — your account almost certainly comes with free notary service at most branch locations.
Call ahead. Many Phoenix branches have a notary on staff only on certain days, and the lone notary at a smaller branch can be out at lunch, on vacation, or simply assisting another customer for forty-five minutes when you walk in.
If you are not a bank customer, the next-cheapest option is the public library. Burton Barr Central Library downtown, several Phoenix Public Library branches, and many Maricopa County libraries offer free notary service one or two days a week on a first-come, first-served basis.
Hours change without much notice — always check the library's website before you drive over. AAA members get free notary service at any of the Phoenix-area AAA Arizona offices, including the locations on Glendale Avenue, Camelback Road, and in Mesa.
For paid options, UPS Store and FedEx Office locations across Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, and Chandler offer walk-in notary service at the state maximum of $10 per signature. UPS Stores typically have a notary on duty during all open hours; FedEx Office uses third-party notaries who keep posted schedules.
Bank account holders, AAA members, and library patrons all qualify for free in-person notarization across the Phoenix metro. Call the branch or library to confirm a notary is on duty before you drive over. If you do not qualify for free service, the state caps walk-in notary fees at $10 per signature — making UPS Stores and FedEx Office locations a predictable paid backup.
Mobile notaries are the right call when the signer cannot easily leave the house — an elderly parent in an assisted living facility in Sun City, a recovering patient at Banner Estrella Medical Center, a real estate closing that runs past business hours, or a small-business owner whose only free window is 7 a.m. before the warehouse opens.
A Phoenix mobile notary will meet you at your kitchen table, a hospital bedside, a Starbucks parking lot, or an attorney's office. Travel typically covers the entire metro area, from Anthem in the north to Maricopa in the south and out to Buckeye in the west.
Pricing breaks down predictably. The notarization itself is still capped at $10 per signature under Arizona law.
What changes is the travel fee, which Arizona regulates separately. The Secretary of State allows mobile notaries to charge mileage at a maximum of $25 per trip, plus the standard signature fee.
In practice, busy Phoenix mobile notaries charge $50 to $100 for the visit during business hours, $100 to $200 for evenings and weekends, and up to $250 for hospital visits or jail signings that require extra time and identification verification.
The best Phoenix mobile notaries are also commissioned as Notary Signing Agents — a separate certification, not regulated by the state, that allows them to handle real estate loan packages. Mortgage signings typically pay $100 to $200 per loan document set, and a good signing agent in Phoenix can run two or three closings a day during a busy market.
Look for notaries certified through the National Notary Association (NNA) or Loan Signing System (LSS), and ask for proof of E&O insurance of at least $25,000.
Walk-in notary at the state max of $10 per signature. Multiple Phoenix metro locations, extended hours, no appointment needed. Best for one-off documents during business hours.
Free for account holders at Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA, Desert Financial, OneAZ, and others. Call first — not every branch has a notary every day.
Phoenix Public Library and Maricopa County branches offer free notary service on scheduled days. AAA Arizona offices notarize free for members at Glendale, Camelback, and Mesa locations.
Come to your home, hospital, or office across the metro. $50–$200 typical fee. Specialists handle real estate loan signings, estate documents, and after-hours requests.
Arizona caps what any notary in Phoenix — or anywhere else in the state — can charge for a notarial act. The Secretary of State publishes the schedule, and a Phoenix notary who exceeds these fees risks suspension of their commission.
The cap on a standard acknowledgment, jurat, signature witnessing, or oath is $10 per signature. A copy certification, when the act is permitted under Arizona law, is also $10 per page certified.
For remote online notarization performed under Senate Bill 1241, the cap rises to $10 per electronic signature plus a separate authorized technology fee charged by the RON platform — typically $15 to $35, depending on the provider.
Travel fees are negotiated separately and capped at $25 per trip within Arizona. There is no cap on extra service charges for jail notarizations, hospital after-hours visits, or weekend rush jobs, but those fees must be disclosed in writing and agreed to before the notary performs the act.
A notary who quotes you a flat $200 for a Sunday-night hospital signing in central Phoenix is not breaking the law. They are simply combining a $10 signature fee, a $25 travel fee, and a disclosed $165 convenience charge for the time and the inconvenience.
That is legal. What is not legal is charging $40 for a single notarization at a UPS Store. If a Phoenix notary tries to overcharge you, ask for the published fee schedule. They are required to display it. If they refuse, you can file a complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State's office.
A power of attorney, a vehicle title, an affidavit you need to file with Maricopa County Superior Court. For these, walk into your bank if you are a customer, or pay $10 per signature at a UPS Store. Total visit time, ten to twenty minutes. Bring valid Arizona driver's license or other government photo ID and the unsigned document.
Title companies in Phoenix usually have notaries on staff and bundle the cost into closing fees. For refinances and second-home purchases by out-of-state buyers, hire a Notary Signing Agent (NSA) who specializes in loan packages. Expect $100–$200 for a typical signing of 80–120 pages. The NSA brings the printed package, witnesses every signature, and ships back to the lender via FedEx.
For a parent at Banner Boswell, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, or a hospice in Mesa, call a mobile notary who lists 'hospital signings' as a service. Confirm the signer can communicate, is not under heavy sedation, and has photo ID at hand. Expect $100–$250 because the visit takes longer and the verification of capacity is critical.
If you are in another state or country and the receiving party accepts remote online notarization, hire an Arizona-commissioned RON notary. Platforms like NotaryCam, OneNotary, and Notarize.com host the session. You upload the document, complete identity proofing, and sign on camera. Total fee runs $25–$50 including the platform charge.
Arizona was an early adopter of remote online notarization. Senate Bill 1241, signed into law in 2017 and amended several times since, authorizes commissioned Arizona notaries to perform notarial acts entirely online — the signer appears by live two-way video, presents identification through a remote identity-proofing process, and signs the electronic document while the notary watches.
The notary applies a digital signature and electronic seal, and the executed document is delivered as a PDF that carries the same legal weight as a paper notarization.
To perform RON in Arizona, a notary must be currently commissioned, complete an additional registration with the Secretary of State, post a separate $25,000 surety bond covering RON activity, and use an approved technology provider.
Common providers include Notarize.com, NotaryCam, OneNotary, Pavaso, BlueNotary, and Proof. Each provider handles identity proofing through knowledge-based authentication (a short multiple-choice quiz pulling from your credit history) plus a credential analysis of your driver's license, passport, or other government ID.
For consumers in Phoenix, RON is most useful when the other party to the transaction is out of state or out of country. A snowbird wintering in Phoenix can use RON to sign documents that need notarization back home in Minnesota.
A Phoenix real estate buyer with a co-signer in Texas can complete the closing without flying anyone in. A military family at Luke Air Force Base awaiting overseas orders can finalize a will or power of attorney before deployment without coordinating an in-person visit.
Not every document is eligible. Arizona allows RON for most acknowledgments, jurats, and signature witnessings, but excludes self-proving affidavits on wills (state law still requires in-person witnesses and notary for self-proving affidavits) and certain trust documents where the trustor is a vulnerable adult.
Arizona is one of the simpler states in which to become a notary. There is no required exam. The application is short, the filing fee is modest, and the entire process from application to commission can be completed in two to three weeks for most candidates.
Eligibility starts with the basics. You must be at least 18 years old, an Arizona resident, able to read and write English, and free of any felony conviction or any conviction involving moral turpitude.
You must not have had a notary commission revoked in the last five years, and you cannot hold an office of profit or trust under the United States — though almost no ordinary applicant falls into that last category.
The application itself is a four-page packet you download from the Arizona Secretary of State website. You fill in your personal information, your business or home address (which will appear on every notary stamp you ever apply), and a brief disclosure section about prior convictions and prior commissions.
You attach a copy of your $10,000 surety bond, a copy of your photo identification, and a check or money order for the $43 application filing fee made out to the Arizona Secretary of State.
Mail the completed packet to the Secretary of State's Notary Section in Phoenix. Processing typically takes two to three weeks. When the commission is approved, the Secretary of State mails you a certificate of commission and notifies you to obtain your notary stamp and journal before performing any official acts.
Becoming an Arizona notary costs less than $200 in total for most applicants. The largest line item, by far, is the surety bond.
Arizona requires every commissioned notary to maintain a $10,000 surety bond for the duration of the four-year commission. The bond protects the public, not the notary — it pays out to anyone harmed by the notary's negligence or misconduct, with the bonding company then pursuing the notary for reimbursement.
For most applicants with normal credit, the bond itself costs $50 to $100, purchased through any notary supply company such as the National Notary Association, Notary Public Underwriters, or American Society of Notaries.
The state filing fee is $43, paid by check or money order at the time of application. This fee is non-refundable, so do not mail the application until the bond is in hand and the photo ID copy is attached.
The notary stamp itself, which Arizona requires for every notarial act, runs $15 to $30 from any office supply store or notary vendor. The stamp must show your name as commissioned, the words 'Notary Public,' 'State of Arizona,' and your commission expiration date.
A bound notary journal, also required under Arizona law, costs another $15 to $25. Optional training — strongly recommended for first-time notaries — runs $20 to $50 from providers like the National Notary Association or NotaryRotary.
Errors and omissions insurance, which is optional but advisable, costs another $50 to $200 a year depending on coverage limits.
The full setup for a working Phoenix notary, including the bond, application fee, stamp, journal, training, and basic E&O coverage, comes to about $200 to $400. Spread over the four-year commission, that works out to less than $10 per month — easily recovered by one mortgage signing per year or a handful of mobile visits per month.
For most working notaries in Phoenix, the real income comes from the signing-agent specialty rather than from $10 walk-in acknowledgments. A Notary Signing Agent (NSA) is a commissioned notary who has completed additional training and certification to handle real estate loan packages — the inch-thick stack of paperwork that closes a home purchase or refinance.
The Phoenix metro is one of the busiest signing-agent markets in the country. Maricopa County records tens of thousands of property transactions per year. Each one of those that funds with a mortgage typically involves an NSA who meets the borrower, presents the loan package, witnesses every signature, notarizes the required documents, and ships the package back to the title or lending company by overnight courier.
NSAs are paid per signing rather than per signature. A typical Phoenix signing pays $100 to $200 for a refinance and $125 to $250 for a purchase, with rush jobs and complex jumbo loans paying $300 and up.
Active signing agents in Phoenix can run two or three signings on a busy day during peak refinance cycles, which puts gross income at $400 to $600 per day — minus gas, printing costs (loan packages run 100 to 150 pages, double-sided), and the wear on your car.
Becoming a signing agent in Arizona requires the underlying notary commission plus three additional pieces. First, NSA certification through the National Notary Association, Loan Signing System, or Notary2Pro — typically $100 to $300 plus an annual recertification exam and background screening.
Second, errors and omissions insurance of at least $25,000, increasingly $100,000 for premium lender networks. Third, enrollment in the signing services that route work to local NSAs — Snapdocs, Signing Order, Coast2Coast, Notary Cafe, and direct relationships with Phoenix-area title companies and lenders.
Beyond signing-agent work, a Phoenix notary can build a healthy side or full-time business serving the general mobile market. Estate planning attorneys in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley refer clients who need wills and trusts notarized at home. Hospice and assisted-living facilities across the Valley need notaries who will come on short notice to witness power-of-attorney signings for declining patients.
Auto dealerships, small businesses dealing with vehicle title transfers and bills of sale, and shipping companies handling apostille requests all generate steady local demand.
The most successful Phoenix mobile notaries treat the work like a business: a clean website with the service area mapped, a Google Business Profile collecting reviews from satisfied clients, listings on directories like 123Notary and Notary Rotary, and a clear fee schedule posted in advance to avoid haggling at the kitchen table.
The Phoenix notary market is one of the most accessible in the country. Free options exist for almost every Valley resident — your bank if you have an account, the public library if you can match its limited schedule, AAA if you carry a membership card.
Paid walk-in options are predictable and capped by state law at $10 per signature, with UPS Store and FedEx Office locations open extended hours across the metro. Mobile notaries cover everything from kitchen-table signings in Glendale to hospital visits in Mesa to remote online notarization for snowbirds and military families.
If you are considering joining the other side of the counter, the path to becoming an Arizona notary is among the shortest in the country. No exam. Modest fees. Two to three weeks from application to commission. A bond, a stamp, a journal, and you are in business.
The income potential ranges from a few hundred dollars a year for occasional walk-in work at a UPS Store franchise to a comfortable full-time income for a serious signing agent who handles real estate closings five days a week.
What matters most, in either role, is the same boring rule that applies to notaries everywhere: identity must be verified, the signer must appear in person (or in front of the camera, for RON), the signer must be willing and competent, and the journal entry must be complete before anyone leaves the room.
Skip any of those and the notarization is worthless — or worse, fraudulent. Follow them and the small embossed seal you press onto someone's deed, will, or affidavit carries the full weight of Arizona law, exactly the same in a Phoenix kitchen as it does in a downtown title company conference room.