Yes, in many places there is a real shortage of available notaries, especially ones who offer mobile or remote online service when and where people actually need them. The total number of commissioned notaries is large, but availability is the problem: not enough are reachable after hours, on short notice, or online. That gap is an opportunity if you are the notary who shows up. Here is the 2026 picture.
1 Is the shortage real
Yes, functionally. Plenty of people hold a commission, but far fewer actively offer service, keep flexible hours, or provide remote online notarization. A large share of businesses that rely on notarizations say limited notary availability affects their operations. So the shortage is about who is reachable, not the raw count.
2 Why it happens
- Many commissions are dormant. People get commissioned and rarely notarize.
- Limited hours. Bank and office notaries are unavailable nights and weekends, when many signers need them.
- Uneven coverage. Some neighborhoods and rural areas have few active notaries nearby.
- Slow RON adoption by individuals. Remote online notarization is legal in almost every state, but not every notary offers it.
3 Demand keeps rising
Real estate closings, estate documents, immigration paperwork, and business filings all keep notarization demand steady, and remote online notarization is growing quickly. Most title companies now use online notarization, and the RON market continues to expand. More documents, more remote signers, and limited active supply add up to real demand.
4 The opportunity
If you are an active notary who offers mobile service, flexible hours, and remote online notarization, you are filling exactly the gap the market has. Being reachable when others are not is the whole advantage. Our remote online notary and mobile notary services exist for that reason: availability where and when people need it.
5 Why so many commissions sit unused
The gap between commissions issued and notaries actually working is the whole story, and the reasons are consistent.
Most commissions are held by employees rather than businesses. A bank teller, a paralegal, an HR administrator, a title clerk. They were commissioned because their employer needed one on staff, they notarize for that employer during business hours, and they have no interest in taking outside work at eight in the evening.
Others got commissioned with an intention that faded. The first month is setup and marketing with almost no revenue, which is exactly when people stop. The commission stays valid for four years regardless, so the number on the register keeps counting somebody who has not performed an act since the week they were sworn in.
And a share simply never learned the newer work. Remote online notarization requires a separate registration and a platform subscription, and plenty of long standing notaries never took that step.
6 The shortage is a timetable problem
Look at when people actually need a notary and the gap becomes obvious.
A hospital signing happens when the family is at the bedside, which is rarely Tuesday at eleven. Estate paperwork gets handled after work. A closing runs late and the last document needs a stamp at seven. An immigration filing is due tomorrow morning. A car is in an impound lot accruing storage on a Saturday.
The supply, meanwhile, is concentrated in banks, shipping stores and offices that are open between nine and five on weekdays and that routinely decline anything unfamiliar. That is not a shortage of notaries. It is a shortage of notaries at the hours documents actually get signed.
7 The geographic version of the same problem
Coverage is uneven inside a single city, not just between city and countryside.
Central business districts have plenty of notaries during working hours and almost none at night. Outer neighborhoods have few at any hour. Hospitals, care homes, correctional facilities and shelters have consistent demand and very little supply, partly because the work is logistically awkward and partly because it is emotionally heavy.
New York City has the population density to support far more active notaries than it has. The constraint is not headcount. It is willingness to travel and to work unsociable hours.
8 If you are the one who needs a notary
Practical advice, since most people reading this are trying to get something signed rather than trying to enter the trade.
Start with online notarization if your document allows it. It is usually the fastest option and it is available at hours nothing else is. In New York, be aware that wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies and do not resuscitate consents are excluded from electronic signature, so those are done on paper, in person.
Do not rely on a bank. Even where a branch has a notary, they usually serve customers only, keep banking hours, and decline documents they do not recognize.
Call ahead and say what the document is and how many signers there are. Half the failed trips are a mismatch that a thirty second phone call would have caught.
9 If you are the notary
The opportunity is not price. Competing on being the cheapest general notary in a crowded field is the losing strategy, because the fees are capped anyway.
The opportunity is availability and specialization. Answer the phone at nine in the evening. Travel to the places that are inconvenient. Offer remote notarization, which requires that separate electronic registration most notaries never bothered with. Learn one niche properly, whether that is loan packages, apostilles, employment verification or estate documents, and become the person a business calls without shopping around.
The market does not reward the cheapest notary. It rewards the one who picks up.
10 What businesses can do about it
Employers feel this most, because a notarization that cannot be scheduled holds up an onboarding, a closing or a filing.
Two approaches work. Commission somebody internally, which is cheap and fine for routine paperwork during business hours, though it means that person is now personally responsible for every act they perform. Or establish a standing relationship with an outside notary who will come to you on a schedule and who is reachable outside office hours.
Most organizations end up doing both, and the ones that plan it in advance stop losing days to a signature nobody could get.
Not of commissions, but of availability. Many notaries are inactive or keep limited hours, so reachable mobile and online notaries are in short supply relative to demand.
Where is demand strongest?
For mobile and remote online notaries available on short notice, nights, and weekends, and in areas with few active notaries.
Does this make it a good time to become a notary?
For someone willing to be actively available and offer online service, yes. Availability is the gap in the market.
See also: the real downsides of being a notary
Related: is being a remote online notary worth it and will notaries be replaced by AI.
This article is general information, not legal or career advice. Notary supply and demand vary by location and over time.
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