Free calculator · all 50 states and DC

How much does an LLC cost?

Pick your state and see every fee it charges: on the day you file, in your first year and every year after. Each figure links to the state’s own page, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.

LLC cost calculatorState fees checked 21 October 2026
If this is a different state, you'll usually have to register there too.
Registered agent
Free if you have a street address in the state and are there in office hours.
Filing speed
Used for the due-date calendar.
Year one$300filing day: $300
Each year after$0to stay in good standing
Five years$300state fees + your choices

    When you file

    Filing fee$300Certificate of Formation - Limited Liability Company (Form 205) · official page · checked 2026-10-21

    Every year after

    Nothing to pay in Texas each year$0

    Year one counts the filing, set-up items and any tax charged for the year you form. Yearly reports sit under "every year after" even when the first one lands inside your first 12 months; the due dates tab shows exactly when. Taxes that depend on profit or sales are explained, not counted. Not legal or tax advice.

    What a one-number answer leaves out

    The yearly cost

    Most answers stop at the filing fee. Many states then charge a report or a tax every year, and that is where the real cost of an LLC sits.

    First-year surprises

    Some states charge a full year’s tax for the year you form, or make you place a newspaper notice. The calculator counts them in year one.

    Two states, not one

    Form in Wyoming or Delaware while you trade from home and you usually register at home too, paying both states every year.

    The cheapest and dearest states to keep an LLC

    Over five years, counting only what the state charges, the cheapest states are Montana, Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri and New Mexico. The dearest is California, at $4,130. Wyoming, the usual answer to “cheapest state”, comes to $340, and that is before you register back home. See LLC fees in every state side by side, or read about forming a Wyoming LLC and what a Delaware LLC costs.

    After you file

    1. Get your EIN, the business tax number. It is free from the IRS and takes minutes: apply on irs.gov. Formation services charge $50 to $99 to fill in the same form.
    2. Open a business bank account in the LLC’s name, so business and personal money stay apart. That separation is a big part of what the LLC protects.
    3. Set up email on your own domain, then check the records that get it into inboxes. LeadLamp checks your SPF, DKIM and DMARC for free.
    4. Put the due dates in your calendar. The calculator’s Due dates tab downloads them as a calendar file.

    Where the figures come from

    Every fee comes from the state’s own website: its fee schedule, forms or laws. Each line in the calculator links to the page it came from and says when we checked it. We also look at every one of those pages once a week, and when one changes we check our figures again before anything on this site changes.

    Taxes that depend on profit or sales are explained, not counted. This is not legal or tax advice: check with the state before you file.