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Felony DUI costs: where the felony line falls, component by component
Our third-offense guide covers the national pattern. This page does the narrower job: it prices the felony tier itself in the states whose statutes were verified for this site — the conviction count that crosses the line, the fine and custody frames, and the licence and programme components that outlast the sentence — with no added-up total for any state.
There is no single felony DUI threshold
A felony DUI is not a national category with a national price. Each state draws the line at a different conviction count, inside a different lookback window, and prices the felony tier in a different mix of fine, custody and licence components. In the states verified for this page, the line falls at the third conviction in Vermont, West Virginia and South Dakota, and at the fourth conviction in New Mexico, Wyoming and North Dakota. The windows differ just as much: Vermont counts priors across twenty years for its escalation ladder, West Virginia and Wyoming use ten years for the tiers priced here, North Dakota uses fifteen years for its fourth-or-subsequent tier, and New Mexico's felony ladder in § 66-8-102 counts convictions without the short window that governs its misdemeanour tiers in the published summaries. A driver with three old priors can therefore already be on the felony side of the line in one state and still on the misdemeanour side in another — which is why this page prices the felony tier state by state and never as a single figure.
What the felony classification itself adds, beyond the numbers in the table, is a set of components that are real costs without being fees: a felony record affects employment, housing and professional licensing applications, and the custody frame moves from county-jail months to prison years. Those consequences are described here because they are part of the honest price of the tier, but they are not converted into dollars — no authority publishes a dollar figure for them, and this site does not invent one. The same discipline applies inside the table: every fine and custody figure below is the figure the named statute or its published state summary states, attributed to that state, and no cross-state average is calculated anywhere on this page.
The felony tiers, state by state
New Mexico crosses at the fourth conviction: a fourth-degree felony under § 66-8-102 with a mandatory minimum of six months and a fine of up to $5,000 in the published statutory summaries, and later felony convictions carry progressively longer mandatory terms — one year minimum at the fifth in those summaries, rising from there. Wyoming also crosses at the fourth within ten years, but prices it far more heavily in custody: up to seven years and a fine of up to $10,000, with a lifetime interlock requirement at the 0.15 tier subject to a reduction provision, and a possible 24/7 Sobriety Program requirement. North Dakota's fourth or subsequent within fifteen years must include at least one year and one day's imprisonment, a fine of at least $2,000, an addiction evaluation order, at least two years' supervised probation and 24/7 programme participation — a floor-based frame, so the actual fine can exceed the tabled $2,000 without contradicting the statute.
The third-conviction states price the line differently again. Vermont's third is a felony where a prior falls within its window, at up to five years and a fine of up to $2,500, with at least ninety-six consecutive hours to be served on the statute's written-findings structure — and its licence component is revocation for life under § 1208 in the published summaries, the heaviest licence line on this page. West Virginia's third within ten years carries a fine of $3,000 to $5,000 in the published summaries with a multi-year felony custody term and a lifetime revocation in the older DMV summaries. South Dakota's third within ten years is a Class 6 felony at up to two years and a fine of up to $4,000 — the lightest custody frame among the felony tiers tabled here, and a useful reminder that the word felony describes a classification, not a uniform sentence. Alaska, priced in an earlier run of this site, crosses at the third within ten years under § 28.35.030(n) with a fine of not less than $10,000 and minimums rising from one hundred twenty days — the highest felony fine floor verified for this site, included here so the comparison set is complete.
The components that outlast the sentence
Three component families follow a felony DUI long after the fine is paid. The licence component is the longest: lifetime or multi-year revocations at several of the tiers above, restoration processes measured in years and eligibility reviews rather than fees, and interlock periods that can themselves run for years or, at Wyoming's felony tier, for life subject to reduction. The supervision component is the most continuous: North Dakota's felony tier mandates at least two years of supervised probation with 24/7 testing participation, and probation supervision and testing charges are billed by the supervising system and programme, not set in the DUI statutes — described here, not priced. The programme component is the most conditional: evaluations are ordered at every North Dakota tier including the felony tier, treatment follows the evaluation at the driver's expense, and a felony court's treatment conditions can run for the length of probation. Budgeting a felony case from the fine line alone misses all three families, which is precisely the error this page is built to prevent.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| New Mexico — fourth conviction (§ 66-8-102, published summaries) | Fourth-degree felony; mandatory minimum 6 months; fine up to $5,000; later felony tiers carry longer mandatory minimums |
| Wyoming — fourth within 10 years (§ 31-5-233, published summaries) | Felony; up to 7 years; fine up to $10,000; lifetime interlock at the 0.15 tier subject to reduction; possible 24/7 programme requirement |
| North Dakota — fourth or subsequent within 15 years (§ 39-08-01(5)(d)) | At least 1 year and 1 day; fine of at least $2,000; evaluation order; at least 2 years' supervised probation and 24/7 participation |
| Vermont — third (§ 1210, published summaries) | Felony; up to 5 years; fine up to $2,500; at least 96 consecutive hours subject to written findings; revocation for life under § 1208 in published summaries |
| West Virginia — third within 10 years (§ 17C-5-2, published summaries) | Felony; fine $3,000–$5,000; multi-year custody term; lifetime revocation in older DMV summaries |
| South Dakota — third within 10 years (chapter 32-23, published summaries) | Class 6 felony; up to 2 years; fine up to $4,000; court-determined revocation |
| Alaska — third within 10 years (§ 28.35.030(n), earlier verified run) | Class C felony; fine of not less than $10,000; minimum 120 days (third), 240 (fourth), 360 (fifth or later); permanent revocation reviewable after at least 10 years |
Sources: The state statutes and published state summaries named in each table row: NMSA § 66-8-102; Wyo. Stat. § 31-5-233; N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01(5)(d); 23 V.S.A. §§ 1210 and 1208; W. Va. Code § 17C-5-2; SDCL chapter 32-23; Alaska Statutes § 28.35.030(n). Last verified: October 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorWhat this state does not publish as a single figure
No state priced on this page publishes a single felony DUI total, and the components that dominate a felony case — prison time, lifetime or multi-year revocation, years of supervised probation and programme testing — are measured in time and eligibility, not in a fee schedule. Court costs are set by the sentencing court, evaluation and treatment are billed by licensed providers, probation supervision and 24/7 testing are charged by the supervising systems, and interlock devices are leased from approved providers. Those components are described as requirements on this page rather than priced as state charges. There is no published figure in any of these states for the effect of a felony DUI on car insurance prices, and none is estimated here.
A final caution on comparisons: a fine floor and a fine ceiling are different kinds of figure. North Dakota's at least $2,000 and Alaska's not less than $10,000 are minimums a court must reach or exceed, while Wyoming's up to $10,000 is a maximum a court may not exceed — ranking states by mixing the two kinds of figure would misprice every tier in the table.
There is no added-up statewide total on this page for the same reason: the published components above are the figures the statute, the licensing agency or the court schedule actually sets, and the remaining components are billed case by case. Adding them together would produce a number no authority in this state has published. Use the table to price the components that apply to a specific case, and compare the national pattern in our first-offense cost guide, second-offense guide and third-offense guide.
Common questions
- How many DUIs make a felony?
- It depends on the state: the third conviction in Vermont, West Virginia and South Dakota, and the fourth in New Mexico, Wyoming and North Dakota, among the states verified for this page — each inside its own lookback window.
- What is the highest felony DUI fine on this page?
- Wyoming's fourth-offence ceiling of $10,000, and Alaska's felony floor of not less than $10,000 — one a maximum, the other a minimum, which is why they are never merged into one figure.
- Is there a typical total cost of a felony DUI?
- No authority publishes one, and none is calculated here. Price the fine, custody, licence, supervision and programme components for the specific state and tier instead.
Related cost guides: third-offense and felony DUI costs, second-offense DUI costs, DUI probation and supervision fees, DUI vehicle forfeiture costs, license reinstatement fees.
Sources: The state statutes and published state summaries named in each table row: NMSA § 66-8-102; Wyo. Stat. § 31-5-233; N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01(5)(d); 23 V.S.A. §§ 1210 and 1208; W. Va. Code § 17C-5-2; SDCL chapter 32-23; Alaska Statutes § 28.35.030(n). Last verified: October 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.