TicketCalc
Check My Fine

Missouri · MO

Missouri speeding ticket cost 2026

Missouri prices the same conduct two ways, and that is the key to almost everything drivers find strange about traffic cases here. A speeding conviction under state law carries three points; the identical conduct charged as a violation of a municipal ordinance carries two. One point, and it is the reason an enormous number of Missouri citations are amended from the state charge to a city one before they are ever disposed of.

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 · Missouri draws its own line at 20 mph or more over the limit (RSMo § 304.010.11); this is below that

The ticket

$88–$120

The fine and fees you pay the court

Estimated 3-year cost

~$570

The ticket plus 3 years of our insurance model

~$450 more than the ticket itself — and that part is our insurance model, not a bill anyone has sent you.

Ticket 21% Insurance 79%

Ticket

$88–$120

Lower · higher end

Insurance

~$450

Over 3 years

Total

~$570

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

Missouri 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 Missouri'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: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 304.010 — speed limits and penalties; a class C misdemeanour whose fine 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

    Missouri 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.

    Worth checking your options — Missouri courts are generally accessible, and a reduced charge is a common outcome for a first offence. The 12-point suspension threshold is what makes keeping points off the record matter.

⏱ 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.

⚖️ Missouri Courts — Traffic Fine Schedule 🏛️ Missouri 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.

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

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

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

Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 302.302 — point assessment schedule: 3 points under state law, 2 under a municipal ordinance · 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 Missouri's own published rule for its defensive-driving or driver-improvement option.

Missouri'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: Missouri Department of Revenue — Tickets and Points: the Driver Improvement Program in lieu of point assessment · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

Estimated insurance impact

Year 1 +$175/yr
Year 2 +$150/yr
Year 3 +$125/yr
3-year total ~$450

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.

Missouri sits in our minor premium-impact tier: $175, $150 and $125 across three years for a moving violation. Everything above is a model, not a quote.

Methodology

Worth knowing in your state

Missouri assesses no points at all for 5 mph over or less. Above that it is 3 points for a state-law speeding conviction but only 2 for a county or municipal ordinance violation — which is why so many Missouri tickets are amended to a municipal charge. Twelve points in 12 months brings a 30-day suspension, and the court or the Fine Collections Center may authorise a Driver Improvement Program in place of the points, once every three years.

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

Estimated. Missouri 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: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 304.010 — speed limits and penalties; a class C misdemeanour whose fine is set by each court · retrieved September 2026 · Methodology

The Missouri 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 $100
Around 20 mph over $150
30 mph over or more $200

DMV points

3 points

Traffic school

Available for speeding

Insurance, 3 years

$450

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 Missouri stops calling it a speeding ticket

At 20 mph or more over the limit, RSMo § 304.010.11 makes it a class B misdemeanor, rather than the class C misdemeanor an ordinary speeding ticket is. 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: RSMo § 304.010.11 — speeding is a class C misdemeanor, or a class B misdemeanor at 20 mph or more over the posted limit · retrieved September 2026

What makes Missouri different

At the other end of the scale, Missouri assesses no points at all for the smallest margins over the limit. A citation written just a few miles per hour over is a financial matter and not a licensing one, which is worth knowing before treating it as though it were both.

The threshold that gives the points their weight is a total inside a twelve-month window, and reaching it brings a suspension of a fixed length rather than a discretionary hearing. Because the schedule is compressed — two points, three points — the position a driver is in depends heavily on what is already on the record.

How a Missouri traffic case actually works

A Missouri speeding citation is heard either in an associate circuit division or in a municipal division, depending on whether it was written under state law or a city ordinance. Municipal divisions handle the great bulk of them, and they operate with a city prosecutor rather than a county one.

The amendment described above is negotiated with that prosecutor. It is not a dismissal and it is not a reduction in the money — the amount payable frequently goes up — it is a trade of one point and, in some cases, of which authority records the conviction. Drivers from states where a plea reduction is about the fine consistently misread it.

Missouri also allows the Fine Collections Center to handle certain citations centrally rather than through a court appearance, which is convenient and is a guilty plea. The date on the citation controls, and a failure to appear can lead to a licence suspension separate from the speeding charge itself.

How Missouri points work

The Missouri schedule is compressed and turns on which law was charged rather than mainly on how fast the car was going: nothing at the smallest margins, two points for a municipal ordinance conviction, three for a state-law one. There is no steeply banded ladder of the kind Illinois or Tennessee run.

Accumulating the threshold total inside twelve months brings a suspension of a fixed length, and a second or third suspension inside a longer window brings a revocation. Points are removed progressively by driving without a conviction — a third of the total after a clean year, and further reductions after that — so the record improves by driving rather than by waiting a fixed term.

Because the ladder is short, each individual point carries proportionally more weight than it would in a state counting to a large total. That is what makes the one-point difference between a state and a municipal conviction worth negotiating over, and why Missouri practice is organised around it.

Traffic school in Missouri

Missouri runs a Driver Improvement Program, and its distinguishing feature is who authorises it: the court or the Fine Collections Center, rather than the driver electing it at a counter. Completing an approved programme in place of the points is available once in a three-year period.

Where it is granted, the points are not assessed even though the case is resolved, which puts it closer to a withheld conviction than to the point-credit courses other states offer after the fact. It is discretionary, and a driver has to ask for it before the disposition rather than afterwards.

The programme fee is charged by the provider and an administrative fee by the authorising body, both on top of the fine. Neither is published statewide and neither is included in the estimate on this page.

What varies inside Missouri

The point schedule is statewide, and so is the distinction between a state-law and a municipal conviction. What varies is how readily a particular municipal prosecutor agrees to the amendment, what they charge for it, and whether the city runs its own division at all.

Missouri has a very large number of municipalities, and a short stretch of road can pass through several. Which city the stop occurred in therefore determines which prosecutor holds the file and what the local practice is, and the differences between adjacent municipalities are sometimes considerable.

State law does constrain how much a municipality may take from traffic enforcement as a share of its revenue, which was a response to exactly that fragmentation. The constraint shapes local practice, but it does not make two municipal divisions equivalent, and the citation names which one applies.

Missouri 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
Missouri $100 3 points $450
Arkansas $100 3–8 points $450
Illinois $120 5–50 points $1,050
Iowa $30 No points (habitual-violator system) $450

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

Missouri FAQ

Common questions about Missouri speeding tickets.

Why do Missouri tickets get amended to a municipal charge?

Because of the points. A state-law speeding conviction carries three points and the identical conduct charged under a municipal ordinance carries two, so the amendment buys a point. The amount payable often rises as part of the deal, which is why drivers from other states, where a reduction is about the fine, frequently misread what is happening.

Does a small speeding ticket carry points in Missouri?

Not at the smallest margins. Missouri assesses no points at all for a citation written a few miles per hour over the limit, which makes that very common ticket a financial matter rather than a licensing one. Above that margin the compressed two-or-three point schedule applies depending on which law was charged.

How do Missouri points come off the record?

By driving without a conviction rather than by waiting a fixed term. A clean year removes a third of the total, with further reductions after subsequent clean years. Because the ladder to a suspension is short, each point carries proportionally more weight here than in a state counting to a much larger figure.

What is the Missouri Driver Improvement Program?

It is a programme the court or the Fine Collections Center may authorise in place of assessing points, available once in a three-year period. Because the points are never assessed, it works more like a withheld conviction than like the point-credit courses other states offer afterwards. It is discretionary and has to be requested before the case is disposed of.