Where can I get a performance bond?

Through a surety broker. Performance bonds are underwritten on your financials, experience, and capacity, not issued from a vending machine. A broker sets up your surety program and shops multiple markets to place the bond your project requires.

How much does a performance bond cost?

Typically a small percentage of the contract amount, driven by contract size, your credit, your experience, and your work on hand. Larger or longer projects, and tougher credit, raise the rate.

Can a new or credit-challenged contractor get a performance bond?

Often, yes. It takes more underwriting and the right market, which is where a broker earns its keep. We build programs for growing contractors and shop the markets that write harder files.

How to Get a Performance Bond

Performance bonds by the numbers

$150,000: Federal contract size that requires performance and payment bonds; Acquisition.gov (FAR 28.102)
10%: Minimum bid security on California public works; CA Public Contract Code
$8.6B: U.S. surety direct written premium; SFAA, 2022
~290,000: Licensed California contractors, across 44 classifications; CSLB, 2025

Where you get one

You get a performance bond through a surety broker, who places it with a surety company. Unlike a quick license bond, it is underwritten on your business, so the path runs through a real underwriter, not an instant checkout, and there are good reasons contract bonds cannot be instant. See the full performance bond page for what it guarantees.

What underwriters look at

The evidence arrives as a submission packet, and each document below answers one of these.

Financials. Your balance sheet, working capital, and sometimes CPA-prepared statements for larger bonds.
Experience. Your track record on similar size and type of work.
Credit. Personal and business credit factor into the rate and capacity.
Work on hand. How much you already have under contract, against your single and aggregate capacity limits.

What it costs

Performance bond premiums are a percentage of the contract value. Strong files pay the lowest rates; larger contracts, thinner experience, or tougher credit raise it, and the rate bands by contract size show roughly where you land. We quote your specific job rather than a generic rate.

How the bond ends

A performance bond does not quietly expire when you finish. On most bonded jobs the owner will not release final payment and retention until the surety signs a consent of surety to final payment, and the bond generally keeps counting against your aggregate capacity until the file is closed. Plan the closeout with the same attention you gave the award.

Bidding bigger than your current line?

That is a conversation worth having early. As a broker we build single-job and aggregate capacity over time and shop hard-to-place markets when needed. Start a project intake and we will work your file.