Every year, millions of American contractors, auto dealers, notaries, and business owners are told the same thing before they can legally open their doors. Get bonded first.

Most never see what that requirement looks like from above. We do. At AmericasSuretyBonds.com we track more than 6,900 individual surety bond requirements across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with instant pricing on most of them. So we pulled the data apart to answer a simple question. Where does the government see the most risk, and what does it cost to prove you can be trusted?

The answers surprised even us.

The Biggest Bond in America Costs More Than Most Houses

The single largest bond requirement in our database belongs to California. A Discount Buying Organization there must post a $2,500,000 surety bond before signing up a single member.

That is not a typo. Two and a half million dollars of guaranteed backing, just to operate.

And California is not alone at the top. Here are the heavyweights:

• $2,500,000 - Discount Buying Organization, California
• $2,000,000 - Cannabis Integrated Facility Performance, Alabama
• $2,000,000 - Medical Marijuana Production Facility Construction, Connecticut
• $2,000,000 - Medical Cannabis Retail License, New York
• $1,500,000 - Mobile Sports Wagering License, Maryland
• $1,000,000 - Money Transmitter, Pennsylvania
• $1,000,000 - Pharmacy Benefits Manager, Kentucky and Oklahoma
• $1,000,000 - Contractor License (top tier), Tennessee

Follow the Money: Cannabis, Sports Betting, and PBMs Now Rule the Top of the Chart

Ten years ago, a list like this would have been dominated by traditional players. Money transmitters, large public works contractors, fuel distributors.

Look at it now. Three of the five largest bonds in America are cannabis bonds. A mobile sports wagering bond sits at number five. Pharmacy benefits managers, a business category most consumers have never heard of, appear twice at the million dollar mark.

Surety bond amounts are a real-time map of regulatory anxiety. When lawmakers legalize a new industry but do not fully trust it yet, they do not just write rules. They demand a financial guarantee that those rules will be followed. The size of that guarantee tells you exactly how nervous they are.

Cannabis, gambling, and prescription drug middlemen are where that nervousness lives in 2026.

$10,000 Is America's Favorite Number

At the other end of the spectrum, most bonds are refreshingly ordinary. Across the 3,900+ bonds in our database that specify a dollar amount, a clear pattern emerges:

• 988 bonds are set at exactly $10,000
• 767 bonds are set at exactly $5,000
• 516 bonds are set at exactly $25,000
• 328 bonds are set at exactly $50,000

Nearly two thirds of all bond requirements land on one of just four round numbers. Nobody ran an actuarial model to arrive at these figures. A legislator needed a number that sounded serious but achievable, and $10,000 has been winning that contest for decades.

The good news for business owners is that a $10,000 bond does not cost $10,000. Premiums typically run a small percentage of the bond amount, and for most applicants with decent credit, an instant price is available in minutes.

What a Bond Costs Depends Heavily on What You Do

Median bond amounts by industry, from our data:

• Auto dealers and motor vehicle businesses: $25,000 median. The highest of any mainstream category. States take vehicle titling and consumer protection seriously.
• Mortgage, finance, and collection businesses: $25,000 median, with individual requirements reaching $1,000,000.
• Court, probate, and fiduciary bonds: $15,000 median. These protect estates and vulnerable people, and amounts scale with the assets involved.
• Notaries: $10,000 median. Small bonds, huge volume, and one of the fastest instant-issue products in the industry.
• Contractors and construction trades: $10,000 median, but with the widest range of any category, from $1,000 sidewalk permits to $2,000,000 facility construction bonds.
• Alcohol and tobacco: $5,000 median. Surprisingly cheap to guarantee, considering the product.

Where You Operate Matters Too

Median bond amounts vary sharply by state. Vermont, Kentucky, Arizona, Nevada, and several other states cluster around a $25,000 median requirement. Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, and Mississippi sit at $5,000.

Same country. Same industries. A five-fold difference in what the state demands as a baseline guarantee.

For a business expanding across state lines, this is not trivia. A contractor licensed in Michigan who wins work in Nevada may face a bond requirement several times larger than anything they have posted before. Knowing the number before you bid is the difference between a smooth expansion and a scramble.

Why This Matters: The Bond Is Rarely the Hard Part Anymore

Here is the part of the story that has genuinely changed.

For most of the last century, getting bonded meant paperwork, phone calls, credit checks by mail, and waiting days for an answer. The bond was a bottleneck between a business owner and a paycheck.

That era is over for the majority of bonds on this list. Of the 6,900+ requirements we track, most now qualify for instant pricing and same-day electronic delivery. A notary in Ohio, a used car dealer in Texas, or a landscaper in North Carolina can search their exact bond, see a price, apply online, and download the executed bond before lunch.

The $2,000,000 cannabis bonds still require real underwriting. Everything else has caught up to the speed of the businesses that need it.

About This Data

This analysis is based on the catalog of more than 6,900 surety bond requirements tracked and priced by AmericasSuretyBonds.com as of 2026, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Dollar figures reflect the 3,951 bond requirements in the catalog that specify a bond amount. This catalog is one of the largest published collections of individual bond requirements in the United States, though it is not an exhaustive census of every requirement in every jurisdiction. Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this study with attribution and a link to AmericasSuretyBonds.com.

AmericasSuretyBonds.com® is a veteran-owned surety bond platform offering instant pricing and instant issue on thousands of bond types nationwide. Search any bond by name or location using BondSearchAI™ and get bonded today.