Filing fee
$35–$500
Montana is the floor, Massachusetts the ceiling. One payment, once.
LLC Filing Fees by State
Forming an LLC costs $35 in Montana and $500 in Massachusetts. That number is the one every comparison publishes, and it is the smaller half of the answer. This page puts the formation fee next to the report the state will bill you for every year afterwards, for all 51 jurisdictions.
The short version
You can file the formation document yourself, directly with the state, for the fee in the table below. No state requires you to use a service, and using one does not change the state's fee. What changes between states is what happens after you file: 6 jurisdictions never ask for an annual report, 4 ask for one but charge nothing, and the rest bill you between now and the day you close the company.
Ten years of state fees
$35–$5,500
Filing fee plus ten years of reports. The gap widens to 157 times.
No annual report
6
AL, AZ, MO, NM, OH, SC ask for nothing after you file.
Deadline is your own
19
States where the report is due on your filing anniversary, so no two owners share a date.
Ten years of state fees
The chart follows what five states charge one LLC from the day it files. Each step is a report falling due. Arkansas starts as the 3rd cheapest state to open and finishes 43rd of 50 on cost, a fall of 40 places, because its $150 report arrives every year. The flat lines are states that ask for little or nothing after the filing, and the two cards under the chart take both ends of that movement.
The fee you pay once, and the fee you keep paying
Cheap to open, dear to keep
Arkansas
$45 $1,545
A $45 filing followed by $150 every year. After ten years the reports are 97 percent of what the state has taken.
Dear to open, cheap to keep
Minnesota
$155 $155
The filing fee is the whole bill. The report is free, so the line stays flat. It climbs 31 places when you rank on ten years instead of the filing fee.
What these totals do not include
Every figure on this page is a fee charged by the office that keeps the business register. Taxes are charged by a different authority and are not counted here, and in some states the tax is larger than every filing fee combined. California is the case to know: the Franchise Tax Board states that every LLC doing business or organized in California pays an annual tax of $800, due whether or not the company trades, until the LLC is cancelled. That sits on top of the registry figures in the table. Read your own state's tax authority before treating a low row as a cheap state.
Source: California Franchise Tax Board, Limited liability company. Read 2026-08-09.
Filing fees and annual reports by state
| State | To file | Report | How often | Deadline | Ten years | Office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $200 | None | Never | – | $200 | Official site |
| Alaska | $250 | $100 | Every 2 years | Jan 2 (Biennial) | $750 | Official site |
| Arizona | $50 | None | Never | – | $50 | Official site |
| Arkansas | $45 | $150 | Every year | May 1 | $1,545 | Official site |
| California plus tax | $70 | $20 | Every 2 years | Last day of anniversary month (Biennial) | $170 | Official site |
| Colorado | $50 | $25 | Every year | Anniversary month window | $300 | Official site |
| Connecticut | $120 | $80 | Every year | Jan 1 - Mar 31 | $920 | Official site |
| Delaware | $110 | $400 | Every year | June 1 | $4,110 | Official site |
| District of Columbia | $99 | $300 | Every 2 years | April 1 (biennial; first year after registration) | $1,599 | Official site |
| Florida | $125 | $138.75 | Every year | May 1 | $1,512.50 | Official site |
| Georgia | $110 | $60 | Every year | Jan 1 - Apr 1 | $710 | Official site |
| Hawaii | $51 | $12.50 | Every year | End of anniversary quarter | $176 | Official site |
| Idaho | $100 | Not recorded | Every year | End of anniversary month | – | Official site |
| Illinois | $150 | $75 | Every year | Before first day of anniversary month | $900 | Official site |
| Indiana | $95 | $32 | Every 2 years | End of anniversary month (Biennial) | $255 | Official site |
| Iowa | $50 | $30 | Every 2 years | Jan 1 - Apr 1 (Biennial, odd years) | $200 | Official site |
| Kansas | $85 | $53 | Every year | Jan 1 - Apr 15 (after tax year end) | $615 | Official site |
| Kentucky | $40 | $15 | Every year | Jan 1 - June 30 | $190 | Official site |
| Louisiana | $100 | $30 | Every year | Anniversary date | $400 | Official site |
| Maine | $175 | $85 | Every year | June 1 | $1,025 | Official site |
| Maryland | $100 | $300 | Every year | Apr 15 | $3,100 | Official site |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $500 | Every year | Anniversary date | $5,500 | Official site |
| Michigan | $50 | $25 | Every year | Feb 15 | $300 | Official site |
| Minnesota | $155 | No fee | Every year | Dec 31 | $155 | Official site |
| Mississippi | $50 | No fee | Every year | Jan 1 - Apr 15 | $50 | Official site |
| Missouri | $50 | None | Never | – | $50 | Official site |
| Montana | $35 | No fee | Every year | Apr 15 | $35 | Official site |
| Nebraska | $100 | $25 | Every 2 years | Apr 1 (Biennial, odd years) | $225 | Official site |
| Nevada | $425 | $350 | Every year | End of anniversary month | $3,925 | Official site |
| New Hampshire | $102 | $102 | Every year | April 1 | $1,122 | Official site |
| New Jersey | $100 | $75 | Every year | Last day of anniversary month | $850 | Official site |
| New Mexico | $50 | None | Never | – | $50 | Official site |
| New York | $200 | $9 | Every 2 years | Anniversary month (Biennial) | $245 | Official site |
| North Carolina | $125 | $203 | Every year | April 15 | $2,155 | Official site |
| North Dakota | $135 | $50 | Every year | Nov 15 | $635 | Official site |
| Ohio | $99 | None | Never | – | $99 | Official site |
| Oklahoma | $100 | $25 | Every year | Anniversary date | $350 | Official site |
| Oregon | $100 | $100 | Every year | Anniversary date | $1,100 | Official site |
| Pennsylvania | $125 | $7 | Every year | Sept 30 | $195 | Official site |
| Rhode Island | $156 | $52.50 | Every year | Feb 1 - May 1 | $681 | Official site |
| South Carolina | $110 | None | Never | – | $110 | Official site |
| South Dakota | $150 | $55 | Every year | 1st day of anniversary month | $700 | Official site |
| Tennessee | $300 | $300 | Every year | April 1 | $3,300 | Official site |
| Texas | $300 | No fee | Every year | May 15 | $300 | Official site |
| Utah | $59 | $18 | Every year | Anniversary date | $239 | Official site |
| Vermont | $155 | $45 | Every year | Within 3 months after fiscal year end | $605 | Official site |
| Virginia | $100 | $50 | Every year | Last day of anniversary month | $600 | Official site |
| Washington | $180 | $70 | Every year | Last day of anniversary month | $880 | Official site |
| West Virginia | $100 | $25 | Every year | Jan 1 - June 30 | $350 | Official site |
| Wisconsin | $130 | $25 | Every year | Anniversary quarter | $380 | Official site |
| Wyoming | $100 | $60 | Every year | First day of anniversary month | $700 | Official site |
"Ten years" is our calculation: the filing fee plus ten years of reports, with biennial states counted at half a report a year so every state compares on the same basis. It counts filing fees only, never taxes, and California carries the $800 annual tax described above. Idaho requires a report whose fee is not recorded in our data, so it has no ten-year figure. Fees change, and only the linked official schedule is authoritative.
When the report falls due
The deadline is where this gets missed. Only 24 jurisdictions put every LLC on the same calendar date, and they crowd into one month: 10 of them fall due in April. In 19 states the date is your own filing anniversary, which means no two owners in the state share a deadline and no general reminder can be right for everyone.
19
Your own anniversary
The deadline is set by the day you filed, so it differs for every company in the state.
CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IN, LA, MA, NV, NJ, NY, OK, OR, SD, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
6
No report at all
Nothing is due after the formation filing. There is still a registered agent to keep and taxes to file.
AL, AZ, MO, NM, OH, SC
2
Tied to your tax year
The clock starts at the end of your fiscal year, so a non-calendar year moves the date.
KS, VT
Filing it yourself
The formation filing is a form, a fee, and an address. Most states take it online and return the stamped document in days. The state does not care whether the person filing is the owner, a lawyer, or a service, and it charges the same either way.
-
Check the name against the state register first
The filing is rejected if the name is not distinguishable from a name already on the register, and a rejected filing is a lost fee in most states. Run the name check and read the state's naming rules before you fill the form in.
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File the formation document with the right office
States do not agree on what the document is called. Articles of Organization, Certificate of Formation and Certificate of Organization all mean the same filing. They do not agree on the office either: in 18 of the 51 jurisdictions here it is not a Secretary of State that takes it, but a corporation commission, a department of revenue, a division of corporations or, in Virginia, a state corporation commission. The table's Office column links each one.
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Put the report deadline in a calendar the day you file
This is the one that costs people the company. In 19 states the deadline is the anniversary of the day you filed, so it exists only in your own records. Missing it leads to loss of good standing and eventually to administrative dissolution.
What a formation service adds, and what it does not
A service does not make the filing cheaper or faster at the counter. It sells the parts around the filing: a registered agent address in the state, a standing place to receive legal service, document templates, and the deadline tracking that step three asks you to do yourself. That is worth paying for when you have no address in the state or no wish to own the calendar, and it is worth nothing when you have both.
Filing it yourself
$35 to $500
The state fee, and nothing else
- Same processing queue as any other filing.
- You are your own registered agent where the state allows it.
- You own the report deadline.
- The official links are in the table above.
Using a formation service
State fee, plus the service
The address and the calendar, handled
- A registered agent address in the state.
- Legal and state mail received and forwarded.
- Report deadlines tracked for you.
- Useful when you are forming from outside the state.
Questions
Can I form an LLC myself without paying a service?
Yes. Every state accepts the formation document directly from the person forming the company, most of them online, and the state fee is the same whether you file it or someone files it for you. The fee column on this page is the full amount the state charges for that filing.
Why is the annual report more important than the filing fee?
The filing fee is paid once. The report is owed every year or every other year for as long as the company exists, and in most states missing it eventually costs the company its good standing. Over ten years the reports are the larger number in most states.
Do all states have an annual report?
No. 6 of the 51 jurisdictions on this page have no annual report filing for an LLC at all, and 4 more require the report but charge nothing for it. Those are two different situations: a free report still has a deadline, and missing it still has consequences.
Does this include state taxes?
No. Every figure here is a filing fee charged by the office that keeps the business register. Separate taxes are levied by the tax authority and are not in these totals. California is the clearest example: its registry cost is low, and its Franchise Tax Board charges an $800 annual tax on top of it.
Is the cheapest state the right state?
Usually the state you live and work in is the answer, because operating in a state generally means registering in it. Forming in another state to save on fees often means paying to register as a foreign company at home as well, which adds a second filing fee and a second annual report.
What is the difference between forming a name and reserving one?
Reserving holds a name for a period without creating anything. Forming creates the company and takes the name at the same time. If you are ready to file, forming secures the name by itself and the reservation fee adds nothing.
The fee is the easy part. The name has to clear first.
A formation filing is refused if the name is already on the register. Check the name against state records before you pay anything.