An IAA listing shows one number, the current bid. The invoice shows five or six. A public buyer who wins a sedan at $2,500 on IAAI.com pays a $610 buyer fee, a $110 live-bid fee, a $105 service fee and a $20 title fee before the car moves an inch. IAAI fees are not hidden. IAA publishes every schedule on its buyer fee pages, but as images spread across four pages, with the storage and late terms on each branch’s own page, so almost nobody adds them up before bidding.
This guide adds them up: every fee a public buyer pays as published in October 2026, the dealer schedules for comparison, the four-day storage clock, a worked example, and the transport cost that only appears when you try to get the car home. SAKAEM Logistics is an auto transport broker holding FMCSA authority under MC 16237, and our dispatch team arranges about 50 auction pickups a month, about 35 percent of them from IAA branches, so the transport sections come from the gate, not from a fee chart.
Key Takeaways
- The IAA buyer fee is a flat amount per price band, not a percentage, until the bid passes $15,000. A public buyer pays $610 on a $2,500 car and $1,000 on a $10,000 car, per IAA’s schedule effective November 4, 2024.
- Every purchase adds a $105 service fee and a $20 title-handling fee as of October 1, 2026, plus an internet bid fee of $40 to $160 if you won online.
- You get the award day plus two days to pay and the award day plus four days to pick up at the branches we checked. After that it is $50 or 2 percent for late payment and $50 a day for storage.
- Leave a car unpaid for seven calendar days and IAA charges a renege fee of $1,000 or 15 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater.
- Transport from IAA is the easy part: at the branches SAKAEM regularly services there is no scheduled pickup appointment, so carriers price it like a driveway pickup, as long as the lot, stock and buyer numbers are on the order.
IAAI Fees Line by Line
IAAI auction fees for a public buyer are a buyer fee, a service fee and a title-handling fee on every purchase, an internet bid fee on online wins, and a yearly membership. Late payment, storage and renege fees apply only if something goes wrong. The amounts below are from iaai.com and help.iaai.com as read on October 9, 2026; IAA says fees vary by facility and can change, so confirm on the vehicle page before you bid.
IAAI Buyer Fees: One Table for Public Buyers
The buyer fee is a flat dollar amount tied to the final sale price, stepping through about 40 price bands. Public buyers, meaning accounts with no business license on file, pay the schedule below, IAA’s Standard Non-Licensed Buyer Fee effective November 4, 2024.
| Sale price | Buyer fee | Sale price | Buyer fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 to $99.99 | $25 to $45 | $2,500 to $2,999.99 | $610 |
| $100 to $299.99 | $80 to $130 | $3,000 to $3,499.99 | $655 |
| $300 to $499.99 | $137.50 to $185 | $3,500 to $3,999.99 | $705 |
| $500 to $999.99 | $205 to $320 | $4,000 to $4,999.99 | $725 to $750 |
| $1,000 to $1,499.99 | $375 to $430 | $5,000 to $5,999.99 | $775 to $800 |
| $1,500 to $1,999.99 | $445 to $510 | $6,000 to $7,999.99 | $825 to $900 |
| $2,000 to $2,399.99 | $535 | $8,000 to $9,999.99 | $925 to $945 |
| $2,400 to $2,499.99 | $570 | $10,000 to $14,999.99 | $1,000 |
| $15,000 and up | 7.5% of sale price |
Where a row shows a range, IAA splits it into narrower bands; the full table is on IAA’s fee page. The fee is steep at the bottom, $610 on a $2,500 car is 24 percent of the bid, and flattens above $4,000, climbing only $275 between a $4,000 car and a $10,000 one. Cheap cars carry the heaviest fee load.
Internet Bid Fee
If the vehicle is awarded on an online bid, IAA adds an internet bid fee by sale price. Proxy bids, where you set a maximum and the system bids for you, cost $10 to $20 less than bidding live.
| Sale price | Proxy bid fee | Live online bid fee |
|---|---|---|
| $0 to $99.99 | $0 | $0 |
| $100 to $499.99 | $40 | $50 |
| $500 to $999.99 | $55 | $65 |
| $1,000 to $1,499.99 | $75 | $85 |
| $1,500 to $1,999.99 | $85 | $95 |
| $2,000 to $3,999.99 | $100 | $110 |
| $4,000 to $5,999.99 | $110 | $125 |
| $6,000 to $7,999.99 | $125 | $145 |
| $8,000 and up | $140 | $160 |
Same table for public and licensed buyers, effective November 4, 2024. Bidding in person at the branch avoids it.
Service Fee
$105 per unit as of October 1, 2026, for vehicle handling: imaging, pull-out and loading at IAA’s discretion. Other sites still list it at $79; it rose in 2026. It is IAA’s equivalent of Copart’s gate fee and is charged whether the car rolls out on its own or on IAA’s loader.
Title-Handling Fee
A flat $20 on every purchase, effective October 1, 2026.
EH&S and Fuel Surcharge
IAA’s fee pages list an environmental, health, safety and fuel surcharge and state that it is not a government-mandated tax. The amount is not on the page; earlier schedules listed a $15 environmental fee. Expect a line in that range and confirm it on the vehicle page.
Premium Imagery Set Fee
$10 per unit, only on vehicles that carry IAA’s premium photo set, noted on the listing.
Membership
$225 a year for a public or licensed business account, per IAA’s help center as updated April 30, 2026, plus $100 a year per extra bidder on a business account. Older guides quote $200.
Public vs Licensed Buyers
Licensed dealers who bought 24 or fewer units, or under $75,000 of vehicles, in the past 12 months pay the Standard Volume schedule, which matches the public table to the dollar. The discount starts at High Volume, per IAA’s licensed buyer fee page: 25 or more units and $75,000 or more in sales over 12 months, with fewer than five bidder accounts.
| Sale price | Public and Standard Volume | High Volume |
|---|---|---|
| $2,500 to $2,999.99 | $610 | $460 |
| $5,000 to $5,499.99 | $775 | $650 |
| $10,000 to $11,499.99 | $1,000 | $850 |
| $15,000 and up | 7.5% | 6.0% |
For a dealer buying two cars a month the threshold is reachable and worth $125 to $150 a car. Below it, a license buys nothing on the fee schedule, only I-Pay and higher card limits. Volume earns the rate, not the license, which is the same pattern we see on dealer and fleet transport accounts.
The IAA Storage Clock
IAA’s help center says every branch sets its own days to pay, days to pick up, late fee and storage rate. We read the Atlanta and Dallas branch pages on October 9, 2026; both carry the same terms, which match what our dispatchers see at the yards they work most.
- Days to pay: the day the vehicle is awarded plus two days for domestic buyers, plus four for foreign buyers, by 5:00 PM branch local time. Miss it and the late fee is $50 or 2 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater.
- Days to pick up: the day the vehicle is awarded plus four days of free storage, domestic and foreign alike. From day five, storage is $50 per day.
- Pickup hours: yard hours only, not office hours. Atlanta’s yard runs 8:30 to 4:30 Eastern, Monday to Friday; Dallas 8:00 to 4:30 Central. Yards close before offices so staff can finish pull-outs.
- Renege: unpaid after seven calendar days including the award day and IAA treats the purchase as a renege under its auction rules: $1,000 or 15 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater, plus collection costs, with bidding suspended until it is paid.
The free days are calendar days, and storage accrues on weekends once they run out. At the two branches above, a car won at a Wednesday auction is paid for by Friday 5 PM, is free through Sunday, and starts costing $50 a day on Monday. Yards do not load on weekends, so the practical free window for a Wednesday win is Thursday and Friday. Four calendar days sounds generous next to Copart’s three business days; in practice it is two yard days either way, and the transport has to be booked on the day of the win to use them. Check your branch page, since days and rates are set locally.
At $50 a day, a week past the free window costs $350, more than the internet bid, title and service fees combined. Storage is the avoidable cost our dispatchers see most often on auction orders, and it is almost always a late transport booking, not a slow carrier.
What an IAA Purchase Really Costs: A Worked Example
A $2,500 salvage sedan at IAA Atlanta costs about $3,945 to get to a driveway in Orlando. The example assumes a public buyer, payment on time, pickup inside the free window and transport booked on the day of the win. It is an illustration built from the published schedule and our lane data, not a quote.
| Line | $2,500 sedan, IAA Atlanta (Loganville, GA) to Orlando |
|---|---|
| Winning bid | $2,500 |
| Buyer fee | $610 |
| Internet bid fee, live online | $110 |
| Service fee | $105 |
| Title-handling fee | $20 |
| IAA fees subtotal | $845 (34% of the bid) |
| Paid to IAA | $3,345 |
| Open-carrier transport to Orlando | about $600 |
| Delivered cost | about $3,945 |
| Not included | IAA’s fuel and environmental surcharge, the $225 yearly membership, sales tax, and any late or storage charges |
The transport line is real: Georgia to Florida shipments in SAKAEM’s order records have a median price of $600 and spend one day on the truck, and our pickups from Loganville, where IAA Atlanta sits, have run $480 to Charleston and $1,100 to Phoenix. Add the surcharge line IAA does not price on its public page, $225 if this is your first purchase of the membership year, and $50 for every day past the free window. On a $9,000 car the same fee stack is $1,210, about 13 percent of the bid; on a cheap car it is a third.
IAAI vs Copart Fees Side by Side
IAA and Copart charge an identical buyer fee when the Copart buyer pays with secured funds. The differences are in everything around it.
| IAA, public buyer | Copart, public buyer | |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer fee, $2,500 to $2,999.99 | $610 | $610 secured, $775 by card |
| Buyer fee, $5,000 to $5,499.99 | $775 | $775 secured, $1,025 by card |
| Buyer fee, $10,000 to $14,999.99 | $1,000 | $1,000 secured, up to $1,400 by card |
| Buyer fee above $15,000 | 7.5% | 7.5% secured, 12.5% by card |
| Fixed fees on every unit | $105 service + $20 title = $125 | $95 gate + $15 environmental = $110 |
| Internet bid fee | $40 to $160, published | not on the public page; third-party copies show $0 to $160 |
| Payment window | award day + 2 days, 5 PM local | 3 business days including sale day |
| Late fee | $50 or 2%, whichever is greater | $50 per vehicle |
| Free storage | award day + 4 days, then $50 a day at the branches checked | about 3 business days including sale day, then yard rate, about $50 a day at the yards we use |
| Walk away unpaid | renege on day 7: $1,000 or 15% | relist on day 8: 10%, $600 minimum |
| Carrier pickup | no appointment; lot, stock and buyer numbers at the gate | scheduled pickup appointment required |
| Listed runners found inoperable, SAKAEM dispatcher estimate | fewer than 1 in 10 | about 1 in 5 |
Pay Copart by wire and the two auctions cost the same on the hammer price. IAA charges $15 more in fixed fees, publishes its internet bid fees, and penalises late payment and walking away harder: 2 percent of a $10,000 sale is $200 against Copart’s flat $50. Copart’s card surcharge is the biggest swing in the table, up to $400 on a $10,000 car. Our Copart fees guide covers that side.
What Transport From an IAA Branch Actually Costs
IAA is about 35 percent of the auction pickups SAKAEM arranges, roughly 15 to 20 a month, so the pattern below is a steady one. Carriers like IAA pickups, and that shows in the price. At a Copart yard the driver needs a scheduled pickup appointment, which locks a slot into a route that is otherwise flexible, and our dispatchers estimate that friction adds about $50 to a Copart pickup when a carrier has a choice of loads. At the IAA branches SAKAEM regularly services there is no appointment to book. The driver arrives in yard hours with the lot number, the stock number and the buyer number, the branch pulls the car, and the truck is gone. In our dispatchers’ experience an IAA pickup prices like a driveway pickup on the same lane, and carriers rarely turn one down. Confirm the release procedure with your branch, since it can differ by location and vehicle type.
Three IAA rules still matter on the day. Loading happens in yard hours only, which close before the office, so a driver arriving at 4:45 waits until morning. Transport drivers must wear a high-visibility vest on the property. And IAA’s loaders will not lift anything over 11,000 pounds, so heavy trucks and equipment are loaded by the transporter with their own gear.
For the buyer, the whole pickup turns on three numbers. The gate will not release a vehicle without the lot number, the stock number and the buyer number, so SAKAEM collects all three at booking. An order that arrives without them cannot be dispatched, and that is where the only avoidable transport delay at IAA comes from.
The Day-Four Caller
Most auction buyers call for transport right after they win. A second group calls on day three or four, usually because the order sat with a broker who never collected the lot, stock and buyer numbers, or because the buyer assumed the free window was longer than it is. By then the free window is closing and the buyer needs a truck now.
“The buyer who calls on day three or four ends up paying more storage, which runs around $50 a day, and then pays more again for an expedited pickup.” Jack, Head of Operations, SAKAEM Logistics
On the $2,500 sedan above, an expedited pickup adds $150 to $200 at SAKAEM as of September 2026, and two or three days of storage adds $100 to $150. The late caller pays $250 to $350 more than the buyer who booked on the sale day, for the same car on the same lane, and none of it is the auction’s fault.
If Your IAA Car Doesn’t Start at the Yard
“Run and drive” on an IAA listing is a yard check, not a guarantee, but IAA listings hold up better than most. Across the roughly 50 auction pickups our dispatch team arranges each month, our dispatchers’ estimate is that fewer than one in ten vehicles presented as running at an IAA branch turn out to be inoperable when the carrier arrives, against about one in five at Copart. These are working estimates from the dispatch desk, not audited counts. Batteries still die in the row and fuel systems still fail after weeks parked.
IAA’s loader solves half the problem: the branch will put a non-runner on the truck. The other half is delivery.
“When the vehicle turns out to be inoperable at the yard, the driver calls us to check with the customer whether a forklift can be arranged at delivery. If it can’t, the driver may cancel.” Jack, Head of Operations, SAKAEM Logistics
A driver without a winch cannot unload a dead car at a residential address. The buyer has to line up a forklift, a winch tow or a shop with a lift at the delivery end, and nobody at the auction mentions it. The fix is upstream: tell the transport company at booking that the car might not run. A carrier assigned for a possible non-runner brings a winch and quotes for it; a carrier surprised at the gate sometimes cancels.
Send the transport order with the branch address, the lot number, the stock number and the buyer number, the date free storage ends, whether the car runs, rolls and steers, and whether a forklift or winch will be at delivery. Auction vehicle transport is routine for a broker that handles it weekly, but an order that says “IAA, pick up ASAP” without the three numbers cannot be dispatched at all.
How to Estimate IAAI Fees Before You Bid
Use IAA’s own calculator first. A registered buyer logged in to IAAI.com finds a Cost Calculator in the Bid Information box on every Vehicle Details page, under the watchlist button. It applies your account type, the branch’s surcharges and the internet bid fee, and it is the only estimate that reflects your branch.
Without logging in: find your bid in the buyer fee table above, add $100 to $160 for the internet bid fee unless you bid at the branch, and add $125 for service and title. On a $2,500 car that is $835 to $845 before the surcharge, whose current amount only IAA’s Cost Calculator on the vehicle page will show you. For transport, use our car shipping cost calculator figure for the lane as it stands; an IAA pickup carries no appointment premium. Add $150 to $200 only if the car has to move expedited to beat the storage clock.
Skip the third-party calculators that rank for “IAAI fee calculator”. The ones we tested in October 2026 describe a 10 percent buyer’s premium, a $199 processing fee and a $65 gate fee, none of which exist on IAA’s schedule, and still list the service fee at $79.
How to Keep the Total Down
Most of the avoidable cost at IAA comes from timing, not from the schedule.
- Bid by proxy when you have a firm maximum. It saves $10 to $20 on the internet bid fee.
- Pay on day one. The late fee is 2 percent on anything over $2,500 and the renege clock starts on the award day.
- Book transport the day you win, with the lot, stock and buyer numbers on the order. SAKAEM’s carrier assignment window is one to three business days, with about 95 percent of vehicles picked up inside it, so a same-day order usually clears the yard before storage starts on day five.
- Say the car might not run, and arrange a forklift, lift or winch at the delivery end before the truck leaves the yard.
- Check your branch page. Terms are set per branch, and a yard that closes at 4:30 does not load at 4:45.
Most lanes from an IAA branch run one to three days on the truck; our guide to how long car shipping takes has the distance table. IAA against the other car auction sites open to the public is covered there, and dealers weighing IAA against wholesale channels can read our Edge Pipeline review.
Bottom Line
IAA’s fees are fixed the moment the vehicle is awarded: a banded buyer fee identical to Copart’s wire price, $125 in service and title fees, and an internet bid fee if you won online. The costs that surprise buyers come after: a free window that is four calendar days on paper and two yard days in practice, $50 a day once it closes, and a renege penalty on day seven. The pickup itself is the easy part at IAA, no appointment, driveway pricing, as long as the lot, stock and buyer numbers are on the transport order. Those are logistics, and the buyer controls them. SAKAEM Logistics has arranged auction pickups as an auto transport broker since 2017, with a 4.6-star average across 580+ Google reviews. Get an auction transport quote with your lot, stock and buyer numbers ready, book it the day you win, and the car leaves the yard inside the free window.
IAAI Fees FAQ
How much are IAAI fees?
For a public buyer in October 2026: a banded buyer fee of $25 to $1,000 by sale price (7.5 percent above $15,000), a $105 service fee, a $20 title-handling fee, an internet bid fee of $40 to $160 on online wins, and a $225 yearly membership, per IAA’s published schedules. On a $2,500 to $5,000 car, fees run about $850 to $1,050 before storage or late charges.
How much are IAAI fees on a $2,500 car?
A public buyer pays a $610 buyer fee, $100 to $110 for the internet bid, a $105 service fee and a $20 title fee: $835 to $845 before the surcharge, about a third of the winning bid.
What is the IAA service fee?
IAA charges $105 per unit as of October 1, 2026, for vehicle handling, meaning imaging, pull-out and loading at the branch’s discretion. It applies to every purchase. Older guides list it at $79, which was the previous rate.
Does IAA charge a gate fee?
No fee by that name. IAA’s equivalent of Copart’s $95 gate fee is the $105 service fee, charged whether or not IAA’s loader is used. Calculator sites that list a separate IAA gate fee are describing a fee that is not on IAA’s schedule.
What is the IAAI internet bid fee?
A fee added when the vehicle is awarded to you on an online bid, tiered by sale price: $40 to $140 for proxy bids and $50 to $160 for live online bids, with no fee under $100, per IAA’s schedule effective November 4, 2024. Bidding in person at the branch avoids it.
How long do you have to pay IAA?
At the branches we checked, the award day plus two days for domestic buyers and plus four for foreign buyers, by 5:00 PM branch local time. Miss it and IAA charges $50 or 2 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater. Each branch sets its own terms, so confirm on your branch’s page.
How many free storage days does IAA give?
The award day plus four days at the Atlanta and Dallas branches as of October 2026, after which storage is $50 per day. Yards load only during yard hours on weekdays, so a car won on Wednesday has Thursday and Friday to leave free. Terms are set per branch.
What is IAA’s renege fee?
If a vehicle is not paid for within seven calendar days including the award day, IAA charges a renege fee of $1,000 or 15 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater, plus any collection costs, and suspends bidding until it is paid. A second renege can revoke bidding privileges.
Are IAAI fees higher than Copart’s?
The buyer fee is identical to Copart’s secured-payment schedule at every price band. IAA charges $15 more in fixed fees per unit and penalises late payment and walking away harder; Copart charges up to 40 percent more on the buyer fee when you pay by card. For a wire-paying buyer the two cost about the same.
How much does it cost to ship a car from IAA?
The standard lane rate. At the IAA branches SAKAEM regularly services there is no pickup appointment, so carriers take IAA loads at driveway pricing in our dispatchers’ experience, provided the order carries the lot, stock and buyer numbers. Georgia to Florida shipments in our records have a median price of $600 and a one-day transit; Texas to Arizona about $750 and three days. Expedited pickup adds $150 to $200.
