The interest rate is the number lenders advertise. It is not the number you pay. A business loan’s true cost is a stack of separate charges that land at four different moments — before funding, at closing, during the loan, and if you exit early — and two loans at the same rate can differ by thousands of dollars once the stack is counted. This page is the anatomy of that stack, organized by when each cost hits, plus the current SBA fee schedule: the FY2026 figures from the SBA’s own fee notice, at a moment when many guides still imply that SBA fees are waived. They are not.
General information, not financial advice. Fee ranges below are attributed to the named sources. SBA fees are reset each fiscal year — confirm the current schedule with your lender before you sign.
The origination fee pays for underwriting and processing your application, and it is usually quoted as a percentage of the loan amount. Typical origination fees run 1–5% of the loan amount; online lenders can charge up to roughly 10%, while conventional banks sit nearer 0.5–1% (NerdWallet; Fordham Capital; Sage — attributed ranges, not quotes).
Watch how the fee is collected. It is commonly deducted from your proceeds rather than billed separately: on a $100,000 loan with a 3% origination fee, $97,000 lands in your account while repayment is calculated on the full $100,000 (business.com’s worked example). When you compare offers, compare net proceeds — not headline loan amounts.
Loans backed by real estate or major equipment add a second layer that has nothing to do with the lender’s own pricing: property appraisals, title work, environmental reports, legal fees and recording charges. On commercial loans these closing costs commonly total around 2–5% of the loan amount (Crestmont’s fee guide — attributed). A small unsecured loan may carry none of them; a real-estate-secured file carries most of them, and they are easy to underestimate because each one arrives as a separate invoice from a separate firm.
Costs do not stop at funding. Depending on the product you may pay servicing or maintenance fees, draw fees each time you pull from a line of credit, annual fees, and late fees when a payment misses (calculator.net’s fee list; business.com). A line of credit you rarely draw on can still bill you for existing.
Paying a loan off ahead of schedule can itself carry a price. On conventional commercial loans the penalty is whatever your note says — read it before you sign, not before you refinance. On SBA 7(a) loans the rule is statutory and narrower than most borrowers expect. The subsidy recoupment fee (13 CFR §120.223) applies only to loans with maturities of 15 years or longer, and only when you voluntarily prepay 25% or more of the outstanding balance within the first three years after first disbursement: 5% of the amount prepaid in year 1, 3% in year 2, 1% in year 3. A 7(a) loan with a maturity under 15 years carries no SBA prepayment penalty at all.
The SBA charges the lender an upfront guaranty fee, which lenders pass through to borrowers. Three facts about it are routinely gotten wrong: it is charged on the guaranteed portion only (not the whole loan), it follows a fiscal-year schedule, and for FY2026 the schedule was restored to its statutory maximums. The schedule below is SBA Information Notice 5000-872051, for loans approved October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026:
| Loan size (maturity over 12 months) | Fee on the guaranteed portion |
|---|---|
| Up to $150,000 | 2% |
| $150,001 – $700,000 | 3% |
| $700,001 – $5,000,000 | 3.5% on the guaranteed portion up to $1M, plus 3.75% above $1M |
| Any size, maturity of 12 months or less | 0.25% |
Worked check: a $500,000 loan at a 75% guaranty means $375,000 is guaranteed, and 3% of that is an $11,250 upfront fee. Two exceptions change real deals: manufacturers (NAICS sectors 31–33) borrowing $950,000 or less pay 0%, and SBA Express loans to veteran-owned businesses pay 0% by statute — the full veteran picture is on our business loans for veterans page. Separately, the SBA charges lenders an annual service fee of 0.55% of the outstanding guaranteed balance; that one is paid by the lender and may not be charged to the borrower.
One more protection: SBA lenders may not charge you an origination fee for processing the SBA loan itself. SBA-permitted lender charges are capped packaging and service fees — ask for Form 159, the SBA fee disclosure form, so every charge is itemized before closing.
Changed recently — read older guides by fiscal year. Fees on smaller SBA loans were waived or reduced in FY2024 and early FY2025; FY2026 restored the schedule above to statutory maximums. Pages claiming guaranty fees are “currently waived for loans up to $1.0 million” are describing a schedule that no longer exists. This summary is deliberately compact: the full fee tables live in our SBA 7(a) loan rates and fees and SBA 504 loan rates and fees pages.
Line up four numbers for every offer: the rate, the net proceeds after deducted fees, the total of during-loan charges over your expected holding period, and the prepayment exposure if you might exit early. The cheapest rate loses surprisingly often. And if a quote is priced as a factor rate rather than an interest rate — common with merchant cash advances and some invoice products — it is not comparable to a rate at all until you convert it; how factor pricing works is covered in our invoice financing cluster. The full menu of loan types, with what each is secured by, is on our types of business loans page, and how the borrowing lifecycle works end to end is in how business loans work. Small borrowers should also check whether a microloan — with no SBA guaranty fee in this stack at all — fits the need first.
What is an origination fee? It is the lender’s charge for underwriting and processing your loan, usually expressed as a percentage of the loan amount. It is often deducted from your proceeds at funding, so a loan with a 3% origination fee delivers 97 cents of usable cash for every dollar you repay.
How much are origination fees? Typically 1–5% of the loan amount, per NerdWallet. Online lenders can run up to about 10%, while conventional banks are nearer 0.5–1% in Fordham Capital’s and Sage’s published ranges. Your actual figure is set by the lender, the product and your credit profile — get it in writing before closing.
What is the SBA guaranty fee for 2026? Under SBA Information Notice 5000-872051 (loans approved October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026): 2% of the guaranteed portion on loans up to $150,000, 3% from $150,001–$700,000, and 3.5%/3.75% above that, for maturities over 12 months; 0.25% for maturities of 12 months or less. Manufacturers borrowing $950,000 or less and SBA Express loans to veteran-owned businesses pay 0%. Fees are reset each fiscal year, so confirm the schedule for the year your loan is approved.
General information, not financial advice. Sources: SBA Information Notice 5000-872051 (FY2026 7(a) fees); 13 CFR §120.223; SBA.gov 7(a) loan terms; NerdWallet origination fee explainer; business.com; Crestmont common-fees guide; Fordham Capital; Sage. Currency verified 2026-10-23.