How much money you have to steal to get a felony depends entirely on the state: the line runs from $200 at the lowest to $2,500 at the highest, with most states landing somewhere between $750 and $1,500. Cross that number and the charge shifts from petty theft or petit larceny to grand theft or grand larceny, which is a felony. Stay under it and you’re usually looking at a misdemeanor. But the dollar figure is only the starting point. What was stolen, who it was stolen from, and your record can all push a theft into felony territory no matter how small the amount.
Where the State Thresholds Fall
Each state legislature sets its own felony theft threshold, and there is no national standard. The gap between the lowest and highest states is thirteenfold, which means the same stolen laptop can be a fine in one state and a prison sentence next door.
A few states set the felony cutoff between $200 and $500. States at the high end use $2,000 or $2,500. The largest cluster of states sits between $750 and $1,500, with a big group using $1,000 and another sizable group using $1,500 as the dividing line.
Many of these numbers haven’t been updated in decades. A $500 threshold set in the 1980s reflected real purchasing power at the time; today it barely covers a used phone. Some states have raised their thresholds recently, others have left old figures on the books, so the map keeps shifting. Check your own state’s current statute before assuming anything about where the line sits.
Federal Thresholds Are Different
State law governs most theft cases, so if you took something from a store or a neighbor, the state threshold is what matters. Federal charges enter the picture only when the theft involves government property, crosses state lines, or targets interstate commerce, and the federal dollar amounts are their own numbers.
Stealing government money, property, or records is a felony carrying up to ten years in federal prison when the value exceeds $1,000. Below that, the maximum is one year.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 641 – Public Money, Property or Records Theft from interstate shipments uses the same $1,000 line and the same ten-year ceiling.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 659 – Interstate or Foreign Shipments by Carrier; State Prosecutions Transporting stolen property across state lines becomes a federal offense once the value hits $5,000.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2314 – Transportation of Stolen Goods, Securities, Moneys, Fraudulent State Tax Stamps, or Articles Used in Counterfeiting
How the Value of Stolen Property Is Measured
Cash is easy. Everything else requires a judgment about worth, and that judgment often decides whether a case is a misdemeanor or a felony. The standard used in most jurisdictions is fair market value at the time of the theft, meaning what a reasonable buyer would pay a reasonable seller for the item in the condition it was in when taken.4Department of Justice Archives. 1316. National Stolen Property Act — “Value” Defined
That distinction changes cases. A two-year-old laptop that cost $1,200 new might have a fair market value of $400 today. If the state’s felony threshold is $750, the depreciation is the entire difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. Courts have overturned convictions where prosecutors relied on the original purchase price instead of the current worth of the item.
New merchandise stolen from a store is valued at the retail price on the tag. Used property is where valuation gets contested: prosecutors point to receipts and comparable resale listings, defense attorneys point to wear, damage, and obsolescence. Federal law also allows the price a thief actually sold the stolen goods for to serve as evidence of value.4Department of Justice Archives. 1316. National Stolen Property Act — “Value” Defined If the alleged value sits anywhere near the felony line, contesting the number is often the single most useful defense move available.
When Theft Is a Felony No Matter the Amount
Some thefts skip the dollar analysis entirely. The law treats certain property and certain victims as inherently more serious.
Firearms are the clearest example. Stealing a gun is a felony in virtually every jurisdiction regardless of value, because a stolen weapon creates a public safety risk that has nothing to do with its price.5Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9A.56.300 – Theft of a Firearm Motor vehicles are another common trigger; most states treat any vehicle theft as a felony even when the car is worth less than the state’s normal threshold. Credit cards and other financial access devices carry automatic felony charges in many places because the potential for ongoing fraud far exceeds the value of the plastic.
Victims matter too. Stealing from elderly or disabled people triggers enhanced charges in many states. Some jurisdictions make any theft from a vulnerable person a felony regardless of amount. Others apply steeper penalty grades than the dollar figure alone would produce.
How Multiple Small Thefts Get Added Together
Prosecutors don’t have to charge each small theft separately. In most jurisdictions, they can combine the values of connected thefts into a single count, a practice called aggregation. A series of $100 thefts can become one felony this way.
The legal standard usually requires that the thefts share a common scheme or plan. Repeated shoplifting from the same store, skimming small amounts from an employer’s register over several weeks, or systematically stealing packages from the same neighborhood can all be aggregated. Courts look at whether the thefts targeted the same victim, followed a similar pattern, and occurred within a defined time window. Many states use a six-month window, though it varies.
Federal law works the same way. Under the statute covering theft of government property, the aggregate value across all counts in a single case determines whether the offense is a felony or a misdemeanor, with $1,000 as the dividing line.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 641 – Public Money, Property or Records Employee theft and organized retail cases are where aggregation gets used most aggressively. Someone who pockets $50 a day from a register isn’t facing a misdemeanor each day; after a few weeks the total lands in felony court.
How a Prior Record Lowers the Threshold
Your criminal history can turn a minor theft into a felony on its own. Most states have repeat-offender provisions that allow prosecutors to upgrade a misdemeanor theft based on prior convictions.
The structure varies. Some states escalate on the second theft conviction, others wait for a third or fourth. The practical result is that someone with prior theft convictions who shoplifts a $20 item can face felony charges and prison time for something that would be a fine for a first-time offender.6Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-43-4-2 – Theft
Priors from other states usually still count if prosecutors can find them. And the prior offenses often don’t need to be for theft specifically; convictions for related crimes like robbery, burglary, or criminal conversion can also count toward the threshold that triggers the enhancement.
What a Felony Theft Conviction Actually Costs
Felony sentences vary widely by state and by the amount involved, ranging from about six months for a low-level felony to ten years or more for high-value theft. Federal convictions for stealing government property carry up to ten years.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 641 – Public Money, Property or Records
Courts can order restitution on top of any sentence, and many make it mandatory for theft. Restitution means paying the victim the full value of what was stolen or damaged, and the obligation survives incarceration. Unlike most debts, restitution typically cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
A felony theft conviction also triggers a federal ban on possessing firearms. Anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment is prohibited from owning, buying, or possessing any firearm, and violating that ban is its own federal felony.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts Employment is where most people feel the conviction longest; a theft felony on a background check signals dishonesty, and jobs involving money, inventory, financial services, security clearances, and professional licensing become largely unavailable.
All of which is why the dollar figure at the front of this article is worth taking seriously. The line between misdemeanor and felony is a single number in a statute, but everything on the other side of it, from the sentence to the record to the rights, changes at once.