Copart storage fees start when your pickup window closes, and the daily rate is set by the yard. Copart's own New Member Guide (revised December 2014) gave 5 business days to pick up after a winning online bid, or 3 after a winning kiosk bid, counting the sale date. After that, a daily storage fee applies. I could not fetch a current Copart rate table, so plan with a ceiling and read your yard's schedule.
- Billable storage days
- 7
- Storage fee
- $210
- Each extra day costs
- $30
- Storage + gate
- $305
Here is what the documents say, what they disagree on, and what a late pickup costs on a few sample cars.
LocalIQ™ market snapshot
What top flip candidates are asking right now
| Model | Listings | Median asking price |
|---|---|---|
| GMC Sierra 1500 | 632 | $29,972 |
| Honda Civic | 5,396 | $15,000 |
| Honda Accord | 4,176 | $15,999 |
| Ford F-150 | 3,134 | $24,000 |
| Toyota Corolla | 3,040 | $14,500 |
| Nissan Sentra | 3,004 | $9,880 |
| Toyota Camry | 2,510 | $17,082 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 2,396 | $9,499 |
LocalIQ™ asking-price median · 24,288 listings · updated every 6 hours. National, last 8 model years; asking price is your resale ceiling.
What are Copart storage fees?
They are a daily charge for leaving a purchased vehicle on the lot after the free window. Copart's 2026 annual report (10-K filed 2026-09-29) lists vehicle storage fees as one of its service revenue items, next to bidding fees and loading fees. So storage is a standing part of how the business earns money, not an occasional penalty.
The member-facing detail is in the buyer documents. Copart's New Member Guide (Spanish-language PDF, revised 12/14, checked 2026-10) says that if you need more time to pick up, you can leave the vehicle at the Copart yard for an additional daily fee.
When do Copart storage fees start?
The two documents I could fetch give different numbers:
| Source | Date | Online bid | Kiosk or Buy It Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copart New Member Guide | Revised 12/2014 | 5 business days, counting the sale date | 3 business days |
| One broker's buyer terms (Advance Motors LLC), hosted at copart.com | Sep. 2019 | 3 business days | 2 business days |
The second is a broker's contract, not Copart's, and it is a different year. I am showing both so you can see that the number moves. The deadline on your own invoice is the one that matters. It is also worth checking whether weekends count: the documents say business days, and I did not find a source that settles how a given yard treats weekends.
How much are Copart storage fees per day?
No single national rate. The broker's 2019 terms describe fees starting at $5 a day and going up to as much as $30 a day after 10 days, and they tell the buyer to check the storage schedule for each individual yard on Copart.com. Copart's guide gives no rate at all.
Our Copart fee calculator uses a flat $30 a day, applied after 3 free days. That is a planning assumption in our code, not a published Copart rate. It is deliberately on the high side so that your budget does not come up short.
What does a late pickup actually cost?
Using that $30-a-day assumption on a $3,000 winning bid (Standard, non-Premier tier, run from our fee code):
| Days past the free window | Storage | Total owed to Copart |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | $0 | $3,809 |
| 4 | $120 | $3,929 |
| 7 | $210 | $4,019 |
| 14 | $420 | $4,229 |
The $3,809 baseline is the $3,000 bid plus $809 in fees. At a lower real rate, say the $5 a day the broker's terms describe at the low end, the same 14 days would be far smaller. At the high end it is about what the table shows. The range is the point: the cost is real and it compounds, but it depends on the yard.
Storage also stacks with holding cost. Every day a car sits at the yard is a day it is not being repaired or listed. If you finance with a floor plan, the interest clock runs too. See floor plan cost per day.
What happens if you leave the car too long?
The broker's 2019 terms say a vehicle not removed after 20 calendar days is subject to resale to cover storage and other costs, and one not removed after 30 calendar days or more is subject to abandonment. I could not find those dates in a Copart-owned document, so read them as a warning from one contract.
The practical point is that a car left alone is not a car you can ignore. Late payment and late pickup are the two ways a good purchase turns into a loss.
How do you avoid Copart storage fees?
- Book transport before the sale closes. If you win, the clock is already running.
- Pay on day one. The pickup window assumes the car is paid for. The 2014 guide says to pay the full amount first.
- Know the yard's pickup hours. The guide says pickup is during normal business hours.
- Get a delivery quote at the lot. The guide says the lot page has a delivery estimate tool by destination ZIP, and a transport option at checkout.
- Plan for the weekend. If a sale ends late in the week, three business days can fall across a weekend.
For transport pricing and the rest of the post-sale logistics, read Copart shipping cost and transport. For payment timing, see Copart fees after winning a bid.
What should you put in your max bid for storage?
If you can pick up quickly, zero. If you are buying out of state or on a tight schedule, add a few days. A week of delay at our $30 assumption is $210, which is real money on a thin-margin car. Subtract your expected storage from your ceiling in the max bid calculator.
Check the daily rate on your yard's schedule, then put your own number into the Copart fee calculator and see what your pickup plan costs.