Austin Water Tap & Impact Fees (2026)

Inside the City of Austin, Austin Water provides both water and wastewater service, and the largest connection charge is the Capital Recovery Fee, Austin’s name for an impact fee. For a new single-family home on a lot platted on or after October 1, 2023, the published charges add up to about $8,119 with a 5/8-inch meter and $11,997 with a 3/4-inch meter: water and wastewater impact fees plus the meter, tap and inspection fees shown in the worked example below. The single most important caveat is that Austin picks the impact-fee table by the plat date of the lot, not by the date you pull a permit, so two identical houses on the same street can owe different amounts.

Official fees at a glance

The table below lists every Austin Water fee row in our database with its source document. Read it in two layers. The impact fees are quoted per service unit (Austin Water also calls it an LUE), so you multiply them by your meter’s service-unit count: a 5/8-inch meter is 1 service unit, a 3/4-inch meter is 1.5 and a 1-inch meter is 2.5. The meter, tap and inspection charges are flat amounts per connection. Rows marked for review come from the FY2026-27 Utility Permitting Fees sheet, which the city itself flags as based on the FY27 fee workbook and subject to final adoption.

Worked example: a new single-family home

Assumptions: one detached house, one domestic meter, water and wastewater both from Austin Water, no engineered tap plan. Impact fees come from the Austin Water rates and fees page; the meter, tap and inspection figures come from the Utility Permitting Office FY2026-27 fee sheet (pending final adoption).

Austin Water connection charges by meter size and plat date. Impact fee = rate per service unit × service units.

The third column is a useful check. Austin Water’s own worked example, for a 3/4-inch meter on a lot platted between 2018 and 2023, gives a total of $11,246.98 in water and wastewater permit fees, which is exactly what the arithmetic above produces ($7,050 + $3,750 + $138.86 + $200.22 + $107.90).

Two things move the total more than anything else. The first is meter size: stepping from 5/8 inch to 3/4 inch adds $3,877.56, almost all of it impact fees, and stepping to 1 inch more than doubles the 5/8-inch figure. The second is the plat date. Lots platted from January 2014 through September 2018 fall under an older table of $5,400 water and $2,200 wastewater per service unit, and plats before that use lower, zone-dependent amounts. Look up the recorded plat for your lot before you budget.

The fixed items (meter, tap, inspection) total $419.42 to $523.30 depending on meter size. They are small next to the impact fees, and they are the figures most likely to shift slightly when the FY2026-27 schedule is formally adopted.

What these fees don’t include

Austin Water’s charges stop at the connection and the meter. Everything on your side of the meter is private work you hire out, and it is often as large as the city fees:

• Water service line from meter to house. National estimate $30–$150 per foot installed, typically about $50. A 60-foot run at the typical rate is 60 × $50 = $3,000. See water service line cost.
• Sewer lateral from the house to the public connection. National estimate $50–$250 per foot, typically about $100. A 60-foot lateral at $100 is $6,000. See sewer lateral cost.
• Trenching conditions. Where a trench hits rock, excavation costs multiply (national estimate 2.5×–7× normal soil). See utility trenching cost.
• Plumbing permit for the connection work, national estimate $100–$1,300.
• Electric, gas and telecom, which are separate utilities with their own charges.

National figures are estimates from our benchmark set, not Austin quotes. To combine Austin’s official fees with your own line lengths and soil, use the calculator:

How and when you pay

Austin Water handles new connections through its Utility Permitting Office, where the tap, meter and inspection fees are listed. The impact-fee rate is fixed by the lot’s plat date, so the plat is what you need to identify first. Projects that require an engineered tap plan (typically larger or commercial taps) also pay an Initial Tap Plan Review fee of $124.22 for FY2026 (effective October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026), which covers the first three reviews, per the Development Services fee schedule. A standard single-family domestic meter does not usually need one.

Austin Water’s published pages do not state installation wait times, and we have not found an official figure, so ask the permitting office when you apply rather than relying on a builder’s rule of thumb.

Changes to watch

• FY2026-27 permitting fees (October 1, 2026). The meter ($111.30 / $138.86 / $215.18), tap ($200.22) and inspection ($107.90) amounts come from a sheet the city labels as pending final adoption. Confirm them if your permit is issued after October 1, 2026.
• Impact-fee tables are tied to plat periods. The current $4,800 / $2,900 table applies to plats recorded on or after October 1, 2023. A new table would apply to future plats; it would not change the rate locked to an existing plat.

Austin tap fee FAQ

Related: Texas utility connection costs by city · tap fee vs. impact fee · water tap fees · sewer tap fees · water meter installation cost · San Antonio (SAWS) fees · utility connection cost calculator

Sources

• Rates and Fees, Austin Water, City of Austin (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Utility Permitting Office, Austin Water, City of Austin (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Utility Permitting Fees, FY2026-27 (PDF), Austin Water (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Development Services fee schedule, FY2026 (PDF), City of Austin (checked Sep 24, 2026)