The third category of FOIA requesters includes everyone not in the first two categories. People seeking information for personal use, public interest groups, and nonprofit organizations are examples of requesters who fall into the third group. Charges for these requesters are limited to reasonable standard charges for document duplication and search. Review costs may not be charged. The 1986 amendments did not change the fees charged to these requesters.
Small requests are free for a requester in the first and third categories.
This includes all requesters except commercial users. There is no charge for the first 2 hours of search time and for the first 100 pages of documents. A noncommercial requester who limits a request to a small number of easily found records will not pay any fees at all. In addition, the law also prevents agencies from charging fees if the cost of collecting the fee would exceed the amount collected. This limitation applies to all requests, including those seeking documents for commercial use.