To pay off a bounty in Skyrim, let a guard stop you in the hold where you have the bounty and choose “You caught me. I’ll pay off my bounty.” The fine comes straight out of your gold, and the guards confiscate any stolen items you are carrying, so stash those first.
Below we cover how to check your bounty, the payment step by step, the cheaper ways to clear it, the dialogue options that only look like they help, and what happens if you go to jail instead.
This guide covers The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and Anniversary Edition on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. The crime system is part of the base game and works the same on every platform and edition.
How to Check Your Bounty
Bounties are tracked separately for each of Skyrim’s nine holds, and you only get one in the hold where you were caught. To see yours, open the Journal (Esc or J on PC, Menu on Xbox, Options on PlayStation, plus on Switch), go to General Stats and open the Crime tab. Each hold with a bounty is listed there with its amount, above your Total Lifetime Bounty. If no hold is listed, you are clean.
Per the community wiki, what you owe depends on the crime. Pickpocketing adds 25 gold and assault 40, while murder adds 1,000. Transforming into a werewolf or Vampire Lord in front of witnesses also adds 1,000, which catches out plenty of players who took the route in our guide to becoming a werewolf in Skyrim.
How to Pay Off a Bounty Step by Step
- Stash your stolen goods. Anything marked Stolen in your inventory is seized when you pay and moved to the evidence chest in that hold’s jail. Leave it at home first; our guide to buying a house in Skyrim covers getting somewhere safe to store it.
- Bring enough gold. You pay the full bounty. If you cannot cover it, jail is the only peaceful option left.
- Walk up to a guard in that hold. Guards who know about your bounty stop you with “By order of the Jarl, stop right there!” Keep your weapons sheathed.
- Choose “You caught me. I’ll pay off my bounty.” For a small bounty the guard takes the gold on the spot. For a larger one, you are moved outside the nearest jail and the fine is deducted there.
Do not back out of the conversation. Per the community wiki, canceling the dialogue makes guards attack without offering the fine again. If that happens, sheathe your weapon to yield, or leave the hold and come back a few days later. Dismiss aggressive followers before you go in, because they may start a fight for you.
Cheaper Ways to Clear a Bounty
Declare yourself Thane. If you are Thane of the hold, pick “I’m the Jarl’s Thane. I demand you let me go at once.” The bounty is wiped outright. It only works once per hold, and the community wiki’s pages disagree on the exact ceiling, so save it for a large bounty rather than a stolen sweetroll.
Use Thieves Guild influence. After you join the Thieves Guild, finishing the special reputation job in Markarth, Solitude, Whiterun or Windhelm unlocks “I’m with the Guild. Is this enough to clear my bounty?” in that hold. You pay a reduced amount, the bounty clears, and you keep your stolen items. The Rift joins the list after the quest Taking Care of Business.
Silence the witnesses. If nobody reports the crime, there is no bounty. Per the community wiki, killing every witness before they reach a guard removes it, but that usually means committing a worse crime, and animals count as witnesses too.
Change the hold’s ruler. Conquering a hold for your side in the Civil War clears your bounty there. So does a hold trade during the quest Season Unending, except in Whiterun, Haafingar and Eastmarch.
Options That Do Not Clear Your Bounty
Two dialogue choices get you out of the conversation but leave the debt in place:
- Persuade. With a bounty of 100 gold or less, a Speech check can talk the guard into letting you go. It earns Speech experience, but the bounty stays, and every other guard will still stop you.
- Pay the guard to look the other way. The Bribery perk (30 Speech) and the Guild’s “look the other way” line both do this. The guard tells you there is still a price on your head.
Resisting arrest is worse still: every guard in the area turns hostile.
Going to Jail Instead
Choosing “I submit. Take me to jail.” clears the bounty for free in gold, but not in progress. To serve your sentence, sleep in the cell bed. Per the community wiki, you lose progress toward your next skill increases, never skill levels you already have. The longer the sentence the more skills are hit, and a bounty of 700 or more earns the maximum seven days, which wipes progress on every skill.
In the Reach you are sent to Cidhna Mine instead, where you serve your time by picking up a pickaxe and striking a silver vein. You keep one lockpick in most jails, but escaping leaves your bounty in place and adds 100 gold for the jailbreak. Make a hard save before you try it; our guide to saving your game in Skyrim covers each platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a bounty in Skyrim go away on its own? Not by waiting. It stays until you pay, serve jail time, use Thane or Thieves Guild influence, or the hold changes hands.
What is the bounty collector? Per the community wiki, once a hold’s bounty passes 1,000 gold a collector can find you anywhere and demand the bounty plus a 20 percent fee. The wiki warns the hold’s bounty may not always clear afterward, so paying a guard is safer.
Do other holds care about your bounty? No. Guards in other holds ignore it. Orc strongholds, the Companions and Raven Rock in Dragonborn keep their own separate bounties.
Do you lose your gear when you pay a bounty? Only stolen items. Your own gear stays with you when you pay; it is only taken into a jail chest if you serve time.
Where are the other Skyrim guides? Our Elder Scrolls guides hub lists every Skyrim and Oblivion guide we have published.