Witness Score

We may earn a commission if you buy through some of the links on this site.

State · Kentucky

Kentucky video notary vs mobile: a Kentucky commission comes first, then electronic Secretary of State registration that takes effect 30 days later; the online notary stays in Kentucky, and KRS 423.430 does not print a dollar cap on the notarial fee

You have a document that needs to be notarized. A video notary is remote online notarization (RON). You stay put. A notary joins on a live video call. A mobile notary is a person who drives to you. A walk-in is a bank or UPS counter. An in-state commission is a notary license from Kentucky. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so a mailbox store can receive your mail. Kentucky’s video job has been live since January 1, 2020. The live statute history line is 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 86. The notary already holds a Kentucky commission, then registers electronically with the Secretary of State. That registration takes effect 30 days after the notary complies and pays the required registration fee. During the session the notary must be physically in Kentucky. You may be in Kentucky, in another state, or outside the United States if the document meets the statute. KRS 423.430 does not print a dollar maximum for the notarial act. The notary must disclose the fee before you pay.

Updated September 2026 · How the grades work · Form 1583 use-case · Alabama page · Arizona page · California page · Colorado page · Connecticut page · Florida page · Georgia page · Illinois page · Indiana page · Louisiana page · Maryland page · Massachusetts page · Michigan page · Minnesota page · Missouri page · Nevada page · New Jersey page · New York page · North Carolina page · Ohio page · Oregon page · Pennsylvania page · South Carolina page · Tennessee page · Texas page · Utah page · Virginia page · Washington page · Wisconsin page

This page is a notary scorecard. It is not a mailbox directory. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so a mailbox store can receive your mail. It appears here because mailbox signup is a common reason a Kentucky owner needs a notary. The form is the use-case. The mailbox store is someone else’s product.

This page is not legal advice. An in-state commission is a notary license from Kentucky. A Kentucky-commissioned notary may perform remote online notarization, which is an electronic session, after registering with the Secretary of State under KRS 423.355 and KRS 423.390. The notary must be physically located in Kentucky. The signer may be in Kentucky, elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States if the record meets KRS 423.355(2). Registration is effective 30 days after compliance and the required registration fee. KRS 423.430 does not print a dollar cap on the notarial fee. A regular Kentucky notary who never finished that Secretary of State registration still has to be in the room for an electronic or online act. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.

The Kentucky grade that is not a company letter

We grade the state rule first. Remote online notarization (RON) is a video session with a notary. A company cannot turn a regular Kentucky commission into Secretary of State online registration. It also cannot invent a dollar cap KRS 423.430 does not print.

Kentucky (the state rule)

State rule · September 2026
In-state RON
A
Remote online notarization is live. It is an electronic session. KRS 423.355 was created by 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 86 and is effective January 1, 2020. An online notary must already be commissioned under KRS 423.300 to 423.455. Before the first electronic notarization, that notary registers with the Secretary of State. KRS 423.355(6) and KRS 423.390(10). The registration is electronic. KRS 423.390(13): 30 days after compliance and payment of the required registration fee, the notary is registered to perform electronic notarizations, in-person electronic acts, or both. KRS 423.355(2): during the act the online notary must be physically located in Kentucky. KRS 423.355(5): for each electronic notarization, note whether the signer appeared in person or by communication technology, make a complete audio-video recording, and keep that recording at least 10 years after the transaction or proceeding, or for the journal period in KRS 423.380, whichever is longer. Identity rules are in KRS 423.325(3). The notary uses a digital certificate the notary controls. 30 KAR 8:005. Those steps are why the path is an A. A notary who never finished the registration is not this grade.
Signer RON access
A
A person in Kentucky can use an in-state online notary, or an out-of-state video notary if the receiving desk accepts that act. KRS 423.355(2)(b): at the time of the electronic notarization the signer may be in Kentucky, elsewhere inside the United States, or outside the United States. Outside the United States, the signer confirms that the record is for a court, government office, or other entity in the United States, or relates to property in the United States, or relates to a transaction substantially connected to the United States, and the act is not prohibited where the signer is, to the notary’s actual knowledge. KRS 423.345(1): a notarial act performed in another state by a notary public of that state has the same effect here. The bank, clerk, title desk, or USPS mailbox store still decides whether this document may be remote. A checkout screen is signer access. It is not the same sentence as “this Kentucky notary already passed the 30-day registration.”
Walk-in / mobile backup
B
Bank lobbies and UPS Store counters exist during hours. A mobile notary is a person who drives to you. That is the path when identity proofing fails, the desk wants ink in the room, or the person you hired never finished Secretary of State registration. It is also the path during the 30 days before registration takes effect. KRS 423.430(2): pay for a service that is not a notarial act, including travel, is not governed by the notarial-fee section. We did not read a dollar cap on that trip. KRS 423.390(4) and (5): the commission bond is $1,000, filed with the county clerk within 30 days of the commission. The statute does not require a second bond for online registration. It requires proof of that same assurance. A house call is booked travel. Counters still close. That is a B, not an all-night grade.

Primary sources: KRS 423.355; KRS 423.390; KRS 423.325; KRS 423.430; Secretary of State electronic registration form. Country context: NASS and NNA. Secondary vendor map: Proof, July 8, 2026, not the country authority.

Proof / Notarize

Official page

NotaryLive

Official page

A commission, a 30-day registration, and no dollar cap

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Kentucky?” checkout is how a Louisville owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary who never registered, or a fee the statute never capped. Kentucky’s remote path is legal. It is not automatic on the day the commission arrives. It is also not a $25 legal maximum borrowed from another state.

The commission comes first. KRS 423.390(2): the applicant is at least 18, a United States citizen or permanent legal resident, a resident of or employed or practicing in the Kentucky county where the application is made, and able to read and write English. KRS 423.390(3): the commission term is four years. KRS 423.430(3)(a): the Secretary of State may charge $10 for the commission application or a renewal. That $10 is the commission line. It is not a session price.

Within 30 days of receiving the commission, the applicant appears in person before the county clerk named in the application, takes the oath, files the commission, and files assurance. KRS 423.390(4). The assurance is a surety bond of $1,000, issued by a surety licensed in Kentucky. KRS 423.390(5). The notary may perform notarial acts only while that assurance is on file with the county clerk. County clerk fees follow KRS 64.012. The notary section does not print those county dollars. We will not invent them.

Online work is a second gate. KRS 423.390(10): before the first notarial act on an electronic record, or before the first online notarial act, the notary registers with the Secretary of State. The notary is already commissioned, submits an electronic registration, pays a registration fee “as specified in KRS 423.430,” submits the forms the Secretary requires, and submits proof of the $1,000 assurance. The statute does not ask for a second bond. KRS 423.355(6) says the same registration step in shorter words: register before performing any electronic notarization under that section.

KRS 423.390(13) is the waiting period. Thirty days after the notary meets every registration requirement and pays the required registration fee, the notary is registered to do in-person electronic acts, electronic notarizations as an online notary, or both. A checkout the day the form is sent is not proof the 30 days have run. KRS 423.390(15): if the commission expires, is revoked, or is suspended, the registration is suspended by operation of law until the person is commissioned again.

Read the fee statute before you treat a company price as Kentucky law. KRS 423.430(1): for a notarial act on a tangible or electronic record, or for an electronic notarization, the notary may charge a fee that complies with KRS 64.300 and that was clearly disclosed in advance. KRS 423.430(2): compensation for services that are not notarial acts is not governed by that section. Travel is the example owners hit. The section does not print $25, or any other dollar maximum, for the notarial act. Utah’s remote cap and Nevada’s electronic cap are those states’ statutes. They are not KRS 423.430. We will not import that $25 figure as a Kentucky legal maximum.

KRS 64.300 is the other half of the fee sentence, and it is an exemption, not a price list. No fee or compensation shall be allowed for affixing the jurat of a notary to an application, affidavit, certificate, or other document needed to support a claim for federal benefits, for a person or that person’s dependents who served in the National Guard, a reserve component, or as an active member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or Marine Corps. A jurat is the notary’s certificate that the signer swore to the document. If your document is that military-benefit claim, the statute says the jurat is free. It does not set the price of an ordinary acknowledgment.

The Secretary of State fee lines that KRS 423.430(3) actually prints are these: application for a commission or renewal, $10; a replacement commission, $10; an update to commission or registration information after a change of name, address, or other specified information, $10; an electronic certificate of authority or apostille, $5 per document. An apostille is a certificate that a document is genuine for use in another country. KRS 423.390(10)(c) requires a registration fee “as specified in KRS 423.430,” in addition to the commission fee and the county clerk fees. The fee schedule does not print a separate line labeled “online notary registration.” We will not invent that line. NNA’s Kentucky how-to, a secondary source last updated June 21, 2023, says the registration fee is $10. We cite NNA for that sentence and we label it secondary. The $10 lines we can quote from the statute are the commission, replacement, and update lines above.

KRS 423.390(7) is the update clock. If the notary changes a mail or email address, county, name, signature, electronic signature, or the technology used for notarial acts, the journal, or tamper-evident records, the notary tells the Secretary of State within 10 days, on the Secretary’s form, with the fee KRS 423.430 specifies. The update line in KRS 423.430(3)(c) is $10. The change-of-information form we retrieved prints that $10 fee, the office at Notary Commissions, P.O. Box 821, Frankfort, KY 40602, and the phone (502) 564-3490. The same form tells remote online registrants to submit an updated registration, signed electronically with the updated electronic signature, electronic stamp, and digital certificate, at web.sos.ky.gov/notaries//SubmitRegistration.aspx. The Secretary of State notary contact page prints the same phone, the office at 1025 Capital Center Drive, Suite 201, Frankfort, KY 40601, and in-person hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The provider list we use is the Secretary of State form, not a company map. The electronic registration form we retrieved says the notary must begin onboarding with each chosen provider before submitting the form. Box A is “Electronic In-Person Only.” Box B is “Remote Online + Electronic In-Person.” On the copy we read, Box B includes Notarize Inc. and Notarylive Inc. among the named providers. The same box also names other providers, including Blue Notary LLC and OneNotary Inc. A name on that form is the list the notary checks. It is not proof that the notary on your screen checked that box and finished the 30-day wait. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 3 says the registration is submitted electronically as posted on the Secretary of State’s website.

The digital certificate is the notary’s, not the platform’s. 30 KAR 8:005 defines a digital certificate as an electronic record, issued by a third-party certificate authority, that certifies who owns a public key and makes the document tamper-evident. Tamper-evident means a later change shows. Section 4: the notary selects the technology. No person shall require a technology the notary has not selected. The notary attaches the electronic signature and official stamp with that digital certificate. The June 2, 2022 Secretary of State memorandum says a technology platform may not use its own digital certificate as a substitute for the notary’s digital certificate. The certificate must be issued to, and controlled by, the notary. A checkout that only shows the company’s seal is not that rule.

Where the signer may be is KRS 423.355(2), and it is broader than “both people in Kentucky.” The online notary is physically in this state. The signer is in Kentucky, or elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States under the two conditions above. KRS 423.355(3): the notary may refuse the act if those outside-the-United-States conditions are not satisfied. KRS 423.355(8): Kentucky law decides whether the electronic notarization is valid, no matter where the signer sat. That is the statute’s choice of law. It is not a promise that a bank in another state will accept the act.

The ID check is not a courtesy box. KRS 423.325(3): for an electronic notarization, the online notary has satisfactory evidence if communication technology meets the statute and the Secretary’s rules, and one of three paths is used. The first is the notary’s personal knowledge of the signer. The second is all three of these: the signer presents a government identification credential that contains a signature and a photograph; credential analysis of that credential; and identity proofing, which may include a dynamic knowledge-based authentication assessment. Credential analysis is a check that the ID is real. Identity proofing is a check that the person matches the ID. Dynamic knowledge-based authentication is a quiz drawn from data sources. The third path is a valid public key certificate that complies with the Secretary’s regulations under KRS 423.415. If those steps cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.

The session file is part of the act. KRS 423.355(5): the journal notes whether the signer was in the notary’s physical presence or appeared by communication technology. The notary creates a complete audio-video recording of the conference. The notary keeps that recording at least 10 years after the date of the transaction or proceeding, or for the journal retention period in KRS 423.380, whichever is longer. KRS 423.380(1): the online notary keeps a journal of all electronic notarizations for 10 years after the last electronic notarization written in that journal. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 6 says the same two clocks in regulation form: the electronic journal for at least 10 years after the last act in it, and the audio-visual recording for at least 10 years after the recording is made. The journal entry also includes the fee charged, if any. KRS 423.380(3)(f). A custodian may hold the journal or the recording. KRS 423.380(8).

A physical document over video is a different notice, and we read it in the regulation rather than inventing a second commission. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 7: before the first use of communication technology for a notarial act on a tangible record, the notary notifies the Secretary of State in writing by email or regular mail and names the technology. A tangible record is a physical document, not an electronic file. The certificate for that act must contain the statement, “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology.” The notary keeps an audio-visual recording for at least 10 years. That section is not KRS 423.355’s electronic notarization. If the desk wants ink and a person in the room, this notice does not replace a mobile notary or a walk-in.

NNA’s country page says that, in states that cap remote fees, $25 is the most common maximum. We did not read a remote-act dollar cap in KRS 423.430. We will not import that $25 figure as a Kentucky legal maximum. A company sticker near $25 is the company’s price. It is not KRS 423.430, and it is not the commission’s $10 line.

What actually needs a notary on a Kentucky LLC / bank stack

A Kentucky limited-liability company files articles of organization. KRS 275.025: the articles set forth a name, the registered office and initial registered agent, the mailing address of the initial principal office, and a statement that the company is managed by managers or by members. The section text we retrieved does not require a notary acknowledgment on the articles themselves. KRS 275.055 prints a $40 fee when articles of organization are delivered to the Secretary of State for filing. That section’s history line is effective January 1, 2011. We did not read a repeal on the page we retrieved. People still show up asking for a notary because a bank, a processor, a landlord, or a mailbox asked for a sworn statement on a different document that sits next to the articles.

Document Typical notary question Video vs ink in the room
Kentucky articles of organization (KRS 275.025) The section we read requires the name, registered office and agent, principal-office mailing address, and a member-managed or manager-managed statement. It does not require a notary acknowledgment. KRS 275.055 prints a $40 filing fee for the articles. Do not buy a video session to notarize a notary line the articles statute does not print. If the live Secretary of State screen asks for something else, ask that desk before you pay.
Bank signup papers (resolutions, signature cards, sworn statements) The bank’s current checklist. Some desks accept a Kentucky online notary or an out-of-state video notary. Some want ink in the room. Ask the desk before you pay a company sticker near $25. We will not invent a bank’s notary rule. KRS 423.345(1) can give an out-of-state act effect here. The desk can still say no.
PS Form 1583 (mailbox signup) Yes, a notary public licensed in a U.S. state, territory, possession, or DC, or the mailbox store employee in person. June 2024 form. The form’s own note allows a live video call. A Kentucky online notary or an out-of-state video notary can both fit that sentence if the store accepts the session. See the 1583 page.
A document the desk still wants in ink, or in the room The desk’s instruction. KRS 423.430 does not force that desk to accept video. A mobile notary drives to you. Travel pay is not capped by the notarial-fee section. If the desk printed “in person” or “wet ink,” that is a mobile notary or a walk-in. The 30 KAR 8:005 Section 7 notice is a tangible-record video path. It is not a substitute for a desk that wants someone in the room.

We do not publish a bank-by-bank or county-by-county “accepts video” list we have not read on that desk’s page this month. If you need the operating address so a bank will open the account, that is a different product. It is not this site’s directory.

Open all night versus booked, in this state

Because in-state remote online notarization is live, all-night service is a real option for many Kentucky documents, if the receiving desk will take a remote act and if the notary actually finished the Secretary of State registration, including the 30-day wait. A Kentucky online notary or a notary licensed in another video-notary state can both close that session when the desk accepts it. Company availability letters live on the directory, once.

If the desk wants ink in the room, the identity check fails, or the person you hired never finished the registration, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. That is the B on walk-in / mobile. Counters keep store hours. The trip is legal. KRS 423.430(2) does not cap it. It is booked. It is not a failure of KRS 423.355.

We did not read a remote-session dollar cap in KRS 423.430. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are still the official pages retrieved August 2026. Those are company stickers. They are not a Kentucky legal maximum, and they are not the $10 commission line in KRS 423.430(3)(a).

Company letters live on the directory

Availability, identity check, and session-record letters for Proof/Notarize, NotaryLive, OneNotary, BlueNotary, mobile, and walk-in are on the directory, once. This page keeps the Kentucky rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first notarization and $15 for each extra notarization; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. We do not invent a session price for BlueNotary. Those stickers are company prices. They are not a statement that the notary on the screen checked that provider on the Secretary of State form, and they are not a statement that the 30-day registration has run. Independent Kentucky mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices. We did not read a statewide act cap to quote against those counters.

Form 1583 as a Kentucky use-case, without becoming a mailbox review

USPS will not let a commercial mailbox (CMRA) hand you mail until PS Form 1583 (June 2024) is complete. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so that store can receive your mail. You sign in person with the store (or an authorized employee) or with a notary public. The form’s note allows a live video call. A Kentucky signer can use a Kentucky online notary or an out-of-state remote notary. That is the same idea as Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Other states have their own rules. See Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, or South Carolina if that is your state.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Louisville, Lexington, or Bowling Green storefront, or explain store flags. Those are mailbox questions. The notary question is: did the session match the form (U.S.-licensed notary, two IDs, home address matching the address ID), and will the store accept that session? Details live on Form 1583 notarization.

A sequence that usually wastes less money

  1. Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they printed “in person” or “wet ink,” do not buy a video session to argue with them.
  2. If they accept a remote act, you may use a Kentucky online notary or a notary licensed in another video-notary state. The Secretary of State is the authority for the commission, the electronic registration, the 30-day effective date, and the provider form. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact. Do not assume every Kentucky notary on a checkout screen already finished the registration.
  3. Budget the extras from the official page, extra act, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. KRS 423.430 does not print a $25 legal cap. The fee has to be disclosed in advance. A witness fee on a company page is not a person sitting next to you.
  4. If the identity check fails, stop treating “try again after midnight” as a plan. Switch to a mobile notary or a walk-in. NotaryLive’s FAQ describes a Personal Verifier path. That is their product, not a universal escape hatch.
  5. Keep the session confirmation. The value of a Kentucky remote session in a later dispute is the journal and the audio-video recording KRS 423.355 and KRS 423.380 already require the notary to keep. The value of a walk-in is the ink the desk already said it wanted.

Sources

  1. KRS 423.355, created 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 86, effective January 1, 2020: an online notary is a commissioned notary who may perform electronic notarizations after Secretary of State registration. The notary is physically in Kentucky. The signer may be in Kentucky, elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States if the record and the local law meet subsection (2). The certificate states appearance by communication technology. Each electronic notarization gets a journal note, a complete audio-video recording, and retention of at least 10 years or the KRS 423.380 journal period, whichever is longer.
  2. KRS 423.390, created 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 86, effective January 1, 2020: four-year commission; $1,000 surety bond filed with the county clerk within 30 days; electronic registration before the first electronic or online act; proof of the existing assurance; registration effective 30 days after compliance and the required registration fee; registration suspends when the commission ends.
  3. KRS 423.325, effective January 1, 2020: for an electronic notarization, identity is personal knowledge, or remote presentation of a government photo-and-signature credential plus credential analysis plus identity proofing (which may include dynamic knowledge-based authentication), or a valid public key certificate that meets Secretary of State regulations.
  4. KRS 423.430, effective January 1, 2020: a notarial fee must comply with KRS 64.300 and be clearly disclosed in advance. Pay for a non-notarial service is not governed by this section. Secretary of State lines actually printed: commission or renewal $10; replacement commission $10; update to commission or registration information $10; electronic certificate of authority or apostille $5 per document. No line labeled online notary registration.
  5. KRS 64.300, amended 2016 Ky. Acts ch. 46, effective July 15, 2016: no fee for a notary jurat on documents supporting a federal military-benefit claim for the listed service members and their dependents. The section we read is that exemption. It is not a general price list.
  6. KRS 423.380: electronic journal of electronic notarizations, kept 10 years after the last electronic notarization in that journal. The fee, if any, is a journal entry. A custodian may maintain the journal or the audio-visual recording.
  7. KRS 423.345(1): a notarial act performed in another state has the same effect here if a notary public of that state, a judge or clerk of that state, or another individual authorized by that state performed it.
  8. 30 KAR 8:005: Secretary of State standards for electronic records and remotely located individuals. A digital certificate is issued by a third-party certificate authority. The notary selects the technology. No person shall require a technology the notary has not selected. Section 6: journal and audio-visual recording, at least 10 years. Section 7: written notice before communication technology is used on a tangible record, and a certificate statement that communication technology was used.
  9. Secretary of State, Registration to Perform Notarial Acts with Respect to Electronic Notarial Acts: onboarding before submission; Electronic In-Person Only; Remote Online + Electronic In-Person. The copy we retrieved lists Notarize Inc. and Notarylive Inc. on the remote line, among other named providers.
  10. Secretary of State memorandum, June 2, 2022, Standards for Use of Digital Certificates: the notary’s digital certificate is issued by a third-party certificate authority and controlled by the notary. A platform may not substitute its own certificate.
  11. Secretary of State, notary change of information: $10 fee; P.O. Box 821, Frankfort, KY 40602; (502) 564-3490. Remote registrants submit an updated electronic registration at the online address printed on that form.
  12. Secretary of State, SubmitRegistration: the online address the change-of-information form gives remote online registrants.
  13. Secretary of State, Notary Contact Form: (502) 564-3490; 1025 Capital Center Drive, Suite 201, Frankfort, KY 40601; in-person service 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  14. KRS 275.025: articles of organization set forth the name, registered office and agent, principal-office mailing address, and member-managed or manager-managed management. The section text does not require a notary acknowledgment.
  15. KRS 275.055: articles of organization filing fee printed as $40. History line effective January 1, 2011. We did not read a repeal on that page.
  16. NNA, Kentucky Senate Bill 114 law update, labeled secondary: identifies 2019 Acts chapter 86 as Senate Bill 114, signed March 25, 2019, effective January 1, 2020. The chapter and effective date we rely on are the statute history line, not this page.
  17. NNA, How to Become a Remote Online Notary in Kentucky, labeled secondary, updated June 21, 2023: says the registration fee is $10 and that Kentucky does not specify a fee schedule for remote online notarizations. We do not treat the $10 registration sentence as a line printed in KRS 423.430.
  18. NNA, What is a Remote Online Notary?: country context. NNA also says $25 is the most common maximum in states that cap remote fees. We did not read that cap in KRS 423.430.
  19. NASS, Remote Electronic Notarization: currently 47 states and the District of Columbia have a law that allows remote e-notarization. A law on the books is not the same as a notary who has finished the Kentucky registration and the 30-day wait.
  20. Proof RON map (updated July 8, 2026), labeled secondary vendor map. Proof is also a listed vendor on this site. That page is not the authority for a Kentucky online notary. KRS 423.355 and the Secretary of State are.
  21. Notarize consumer pricing: $25 / $15 / $15 / $10.
  22. NotaryLive pricing: $25/session; extras; 10-year storage.
  23. OneNotary individuals pricing: $25 online; mobile from $80.
  24. PS Form 1583, June 2024.