TicketCalc
Check My Fine

Arizona · AZ

Arizona speeding ticket cost 2026

Most Arizona speeding is a civil traffic violation rather than a crime, and that word misleads more drivers here than anywhere else in the country. Civil describes the proceeding, not the consequence: Arizona assesses licence points for a speeding conviction exactly as a criminal-form state would, and accumulating them inside a twelve-month window brings a mandatory Traffic Survival School referral and then a suspension hearing.

Get Your Estimate

Instant results — no signup required

The state that issued the ticket — not the one you live in, if they differ.

Not sure which? The charge is named on the citation. Pick the closest match.

Where were you driving?

Work zones and school zones cost more, so this one is worth getting right.

What does your ticket say?

We've filled in your state's usual limit. If the ticket names a different one, use that.

Don't know your exact speed? Use the speed written on your citation.

Optional

Leave this blank if your citation does not show a total — plenty of them do not.

If the citation prints a total, enter it and we will use your figure for the ticket instead of our range. Everything else — the points, the course, the insurance model — is unaffected either way.

Moderate · 10 mph over the posted limit · Arizona draws its own line at 21 mph or more over the limit (A.R.S. § 28-701.02); this is below that

The ticket

$220–$300

The fine and fees you pay the court

Estimated 3-year cost

~$1,500

The ticket plus 3 years of our insurance model

~$1,200 more than the ticket itself — and that part is our insurance model, not a bill anyone has sent you.

Ticket 20% Insurance 80%

Ticket

$220–$300

Lower · higher end

Insurance

~$1,200

Over 3 years

Total

~$1,500

3-year cost

What this includes, and what moves it

The ticket includes: the base fine plus the court assessment, state surcharge and local fees normally added before you pay — the out-the-door amount, not the figure printed in the statute.

What moves a real bill within that range: the county and the individual court, your driving record, and the speed the officer actually wrote on the citation.

The insurance side is modelled — no state publishes it and no insurer is bound by it. It is broken out in full further down.

The three-year total adds the two together, using the higher end of the ticket range.

The ticket figure

Sourced
ⓘ Why this number, and where it's from

Arizona publishes no single statewide total — the amount is set by each court — so the fine figures shown here are assembled from the cited document plus typical court costs, not quoted from it.

Interpolated between Arizona's fines at 10, 20 and 30 mph over the limit, then shown as a band from 0.88× to 1.2× of that figure. The same offence in the same state genuinely costs different amounts in different courtrooms, so we publish a band rather than a single figure that would imply a precision nobody can offer.

Source: A.R.S. § 28-701 with § 28-701.02 — speed restrictions and excessive speeds; the civil sanction amount is set by each court · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

Before you pay

Three routes are usually open before the date printed on your citation. Which of them actually apply is set by your state and by the court named on the ticket — not by us.

  1. Pay it

    A guilty plea, and the quickest way to close the ticket.

    Paying is pleading guilty. The court records a conviction and the points above (3 points) go on your driving record. Your insurer reads that record the next time it re-rates you — which is where the insurance side of the figure above comes from. In many states paying also closes the other two routes, so it is worth asking the court what is still open before you do.

  2. Traffic school or a defensive-driving course

    Arizona allows a course for a ticket like this one.

    Completing an approved course can keep the conviction off your record where the state allows that, but it is not automatic: who qualifies, what the course actually removes and whether the court grants it are decided locally, and many states allow it only once in a set period. In a lot of them paying first closes the option, so ask before you pay. We do not publish a course price — that is set by the provider rather than the state, and we have not sourced it.

  3. Contest it, or ask for a reduction

    May be worth checking your options — the record matters more here than the fine.

    Contesting means entering a plea and having the charge heard. Depending on the state, and often on the individual court, what is on offer might be a reduction, a deferral, a hearing in writing, or an appearance in person. It costs you time, the outcome is never guaranteed, and nobody — us included — can tell you from here which way a particular court will go.

    Take defensive driving first — Arizona lets you dismiss one civil traffic citation every 12 months through the Supreme Court’s Defensive Driving Program, with no points and nothing added to your record. That is usually a better outcome than contesting. Photo radar tickets are a separate matter: they must be served by a process server to be enforceable.

⏱ Your deadline. The date you have to respond by is printed on your citation. We do not hold that date and will not guess it — read it off the ticket, and take anything unclear to the court named on it.

⚖️ Arizona Courts — Traffic Fine Schedule 🏛️ Arizona DMV — Points & License Info
ⓘ What happens next, step by step

  1. Today

    Read the citation itself. It names the charge, the court that holds it, and the date your response is due. Everything below hangs off those three things.

  2. Before that date

    Choose a route. Doing nothing is also a choice, and it is the one with no upside — what a missed date costs is set by the court, and it is printed on the citation alongside the date.

  3. If it becomes a conviction

    The court reports it and your state adds it to your driving record. This is the step a course or a reduction is trying to avoid, which is why the order you do things in matters.

  4. At your next renewal

    Your insurer checks your record when it re-rates you, not when the ticket is written. A premium change usually turns up at that renewal rather than immediately.

  5. In the years after

    Three separate clocks run — how long the violation stays on your record, how long the points keep counting toward a suspension, and how far back your insurer looks. Two are set by your state and one by the insurer, and they do not have to agree.

DMV Points Added

3 points

Three separate clocks start once a conviction is recorded, and different people set them:

  • Your record — how long the violation itself stays on it. Your state's DMV decides.
  • These points — how long they keep counting toward a suspension. Also a state rule, and often shorter than the record entry.
  • Your insurer's lookback — how far back it checks when it re-rates you. Set by the insurer, not the state, and it can outlast both.

We don't publish a length for any of the three. Your state's DMV publishes the first two.

Arizona DMV →
Verified
ⓘ Why this number, and where it's from

Arizona's own published point value for this offence, shown as published.

Taken from Arizona's point schedule unchanged — we adjust it only above 20 mph over the limit.

Source: Arizona MVD — Points Assessment: speeding is 3 points; 8 points in 12 months requires Traffic Survival School · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

Traffic School

✅ May qualify

Where a state allows it, completing an approved course can keep the conviction off your record. Eligibility, the effect and whether the court grants it are all state-specific — it is not automatic.

Verified
ⓘ Why this number, and where it's from

Eligibility follows Arizona's own published rule for its defensive-driving or driver-improvement option.

Arizona's own rule decides whether the option exists; we stop showing it beyond 25 mph over the limit. Whether the court grants it in your case is a separate decision that neither we nor the DMV make.

Source: Arizona Supreme Court — Defensive Driving Program: dismissal of one eligible civil citation every 12 months · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

Estimated insurance impact

Year 1 +$450/yr
Year 2 +$400/yr
Year 3 +$350/yr
3-year total ~$1,200

A model, not a quote. We place each state in one of four dollar-impact tiers and adjust for the violation type. No state publishes this figure and no insurer is bound by it — yours may charge more, less, or nothing at all. How we model it →

Modelled
ⓘ Why this number, and where it's from

No state publishes this figure and no insurer is bound by it. Yours may charge more, less, or nothing at all.

Arizona sits in our major premium-impact tier: $450, $400 and $350 across three years for a moving violation. Everything above is a model, not a quote.

Methodology

Worth knowing in your state

Arizona does assess licence points — speeding is 3 points, and 8 points in any 12-month period means Traffic Survival School while 13 points triggers a suspension hearing. Most speeding is a civil traffic violation rather than a crime, but "civil" does not mean point-free. The Supreme Court’s Defensive Driving Program dismisses one eligible civil citation every 12 months; DUI, reckless driving and any citation arising from a collision causing serious injury are excluded. Photo radar is used extensively.

⚠️ These are estimates only and do not constitute legal advice. Verify exact amounts with your local court.

Estimated. Arizona publishes no single statewide total — the amount is set by each court — so the fine figures shown here are assembled from the cited document plus typical court costs, not quoted from it. Source: A.R.S. § 28-701 with § 28-701.02 — speed restrictions and excessive speeds; the civil sanction amount is set by each court · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

The Arizona speeding fine schedule

These are the three anchors the estimate is built from. The calculator above interpolates between them for the speed on your own citation, then adds the modelled insurance impact.

Speed over the limit Estimated amount due
Up to 10 mph over $250
Around 20 mph over $330
30 mph over or more $500

DMV points

3 points

Traffic school

Available for speeding

Insurance, 3 years

$1,200

The insurance figure is a model of ours, not a rate any insurer publishes. It is the same four-tier model applied to every state, and the methodology page sets out exactly what it is and is not.

Where Arizona stops calling it a speeding ticket

At 21 mph or more over the limit, A.R.S. § 28-701.02 makes it excessive speeds — a class 3 misdemeanor. Above that line this is not an infraction with a larger fine — it is a different offence, and the figures on this page do not price it.

Source: A.R.S. § 28-701.02 — excessive speeds; classification (more than 20 mph over the posted limit; 35 mph approaching a school crossing) · retrieved September 2026

What makes Arizona different

The instrument that actually resolves most Arizona citations is the Supreme Court Defensive Driving Program. One eligible civil citation can be dismissed every twelve months by completing an approved course — dismissed, not reduced, so no conviction is entered, no points are assessed, and nothing reaches the record for an insurer to find. For a routine citation it is usually a cleaner outcome than contesting.

The third thing worth knowing is that photo radar is a different animal. Arizona uses automated enforcement extensively, and a photo citation has to be served properly to be enforceable, which gives it a procedural life of its own that an officer-issued citation does not have.

How a Arizona traffic case actually works

A civil traffic citation in Arizona is heard in a justice court or a municipal court, depending on where the stop happened. The driver responds by admitting the violation, requesting a hearing to contest it, or electing the Defensive Driving Program — and the election has its own deadline, earlier than the hearing date, which is the detail most often missed.

A civil hearing is decided on a lower standard of proof than a criminal case, with the citing officer present, and there is no jury. Because the election route is available and dismisses the citation outright when it works, contesting is generally the choice for a driver who believes the citation is wrong on the facts rather than one simply hoping for a better number.

Criminal speeding is a separate proceeding. Where the margin over the limit or the absolute speed passes the statutory line, the charge is a misdemeanor rather than a civil violation, it is not eligible for the Defensive Driving Program, and it carries a criminal record on conviction. The callout above gives the line for this state.

How Arizona points work

Arizona assesses points for a speeding conviction, and the value is the same regardless of margin for ordinary speeding, which makes the schedule simpler than most. The points are held by the Motor Vehicle Division, and the thresholds run on a rolling twelve-month window rather than on the calendar.

Two thresholds do the work. Reaching the first brings a mandatory Traffic Survival School referral — a course the division orders rather than one a driver elects, with a suspension for failing to attend. Reaching the second brings a suspension hearing. A driver already close to the first threshold is in a quite different position from one starting clean, and that is the fact worth establishing before choosing a route.

Because the Defensive Driving Program dismisses the citation rather than reducing the points, using it means nothing is assessed at all. That is the cleanest available outcome, and the reason the election deadline matters more in Arizona than the hearing date does.

Traffic school in Arizona

The Arizona Supreme Court Defensive Driving Program is statewide and statutory rather than a local court arrangement. An eligible driver electing it and completing an approved course has the citation dismissed, so no conviction is entered and no points are assessed. It can be used once every twelve months, counted from the date of the eligible citation.

Eligibility is genuinely limited. Driving under the influence, reckless driving, criminal speeding and any citation arising from a collision causing serious injury are excluded, as is a driver who has used the programme inside the previous twelve months. Commercial licence holders are treated differently.

The court charges a diversion fee and the school charges its own tuition, both on top of nothing else — there is no fine to pay when the citation is dismissed. Neither figure is published statewide and neither is in the estimate on this page.

What varies inside Arizona

Arizona sets the point schedule and the Defensive Driving Program statewide, so the two things that matter most to a driving record do not vary at all. The fine is the part that does: justice courts and municipal courts set their own amounts and add their own surcharges, within the statutory framework.

Photo enforcement is the sharpest local variable. Some Arizona municipalities run extensive automated programmes and others have ended theirs, so two stretches of similar road can be policed by entirely different means. A photo citation attaches to the registered owner and must be served properly to be enforceable, which is a procedural question an officer-issued citation does not raise.

School zones and posted work zones carry their own enhancements, and the long rural interstate corridors are where the criminal speeding line is most easily reached — a margin that feels unremarkable at an eighty mile per hour cruising speed is the margin the statute names.

Arizona and the states next door

Crossing a state line changes the schedule, the point system and the traffic-school rule all at once. These are the neighbouring states as this dataset records them.

State 10 mph over Points Insurance, 3 yr
Arizona $250 3 points $1,200
California $234 1 point $1,200
Colorado $100 0–12 points $750
Nevada $205 1–5 points $1,200

Where these figures come from

Every figure on this page is traceable. The fine schedule, the point label and the traffic-school rule each carry their own citation and their own retrieval date, because a state publishes them in three different documents and almost never together. The insurance estimate is the one figure with no state document behind it, and it is labelled as a model everywhere it appears.

Read the methodology · Compare every state

Arizona FAQ

Common questions about Arizona speeding tickets.

Does a civil speeding ticket in Arizona carry points?

Yes. Civil describes the proceeding rather than the consequence, and Arizona assesses licence points for a speeding conviction just as a criminal-form state would. This is a common and expensive misunderstanding: accumulating points inside a twelve-month window brings a mandatory Traffic Survival School referral and then a suspension hearing.

How does the Arizona Defensive Driving Program work?

An eligible driver elects the programme before its deadline and completes an approved course, and the citation is then dismissed rather than reduced — so no conviction is entered and no points are assessed. It is available once every twelve months, and driving under the influence, reckless driving, criminal speeding and collision-related citations are excluded.

Is a photo radar ticket in Arizona enforceable?

It has to be served properly to be enforced, which gives an automated citation a procedural life an officer-issued one does not have. It attaches to the registered owner rather than to an identified driver. Which municipalities operate automated enforcement varies considerably, because some run extensive programmes and others have ended theirs.

What is Traffic Survival School in Arizona?

It is a course the Motor Vehicle Division orders once a driver reaches the point threshold inside a twelve-month window, not a course a driver elects for a benefit. Failing to attend brings a suspension. It is a different instrument from the Defensive Driving Program, which is elected voluntarily and dismisses a single citation.