LLC cost calculator by state
What forming an LLC actually costs where you live — the filing fee, the recurring fee people forget, and the total over the years you will keep it.
US Covers all 50 US states plus Washington DC
Updated August 27, 2026
Cheapest and most expensive states
First-year total = state filing fee plus one year of recurring fees. Excludes registered agent and formation services.
Cheapest first year
| State | Filing | Per year | Year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Mississippi | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Missouri | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| New Mexico | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Kentucky | $40 | $15 | $55 |
| Montana | $35 | $20 | $55 |
| Hawaii | $50 | $15 | $65 |
| Iowa | $50 | $15 | $65 |
Most expensive first year
| State | Filing | Per year | Year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $500 | $500 | $1,000 |
| California | $70 | $800 | $870 |
| Nevada | $425 | $350 | $775 |
| Tennessee | $300 | $400 | $700 |
| Rhode Island | $150 | $450 | $600 |
| Vermont | $155 | $295 | $450 |
| Delaware | $110 | $300 | $410 |
| Maryland | $100 | $300 | $400 |
Every state, by ongoing cost
| State | Filing fee | Recurring | How often | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | $50 | — | Not required | $0 |
| Idaho | $100 | — | Annual | $0 |
| Minnesota | $155 | — | Annual | $0 |
| Mississippi | $50 | — | Annual | $0 |
| Missouri | $50 | — | Not required | $0 |
| New Mexico | $50 | — | Not required | $0 |
| Ohio | $99 | — | Not required | $0 |
| South Carolina | $110 | — | Not required | $0 |
| Texas | $300 | — | Annual | $0 |
| New York | $200 | $9 | Every 2 years | $4.50 |
| Nebraska | $100 | $13 | Every 2 years | $6.50 |
| Pennsylvania | $125 | $7 | Annual | $7 |
| Hawaii | $50 | $15 | Annual | $15 |
| Indiana | $95 | $30 | Every 2 years | $15 |
| Iowa | $50 | $30 | Every 2 years | $15 |
| Kentucky | $40 | $15 | Annual | $15 |
| Utah | $59 | $18 | Annual | $18 |
| Montana | $35 | $20 | Annual | $20 |
| Colorado | $50 | $25 | Annual | $25 |
| Michigan | $50 | $25 | Annual | $25 |
| Oklahoma | $100 | $25 | Annual | $25 |
| West Virginia | $100 | $25 | Annual | $25 |
| Wisconsin | $130 | $25 | Annual | $25 |
| Louisiana | $125 | $35 | Annual | $35 |
| Alabama | $200 | $50 | Annual | $50 |
| Alaska | $250 | $100 | Every 2 years | $50 |
| Kansas | $160 | $50 | Annual | $50 |
| North Dakota | $135 | $50 | Annual | $50 |
| Virginia | $100 | $50 | Annual | $50 |
| South Dakota | $150 | $55 | Annual | $55 |
| Georgia | $110 | $60 | Annual | $60 |
| Washington | $200 | $60 | Annual | $60 |
| Wyoming | $100 | $60 | Annual | $60 |
| Illinois | $150 | $75 | Annual | $75 |
| New Jersey | $100 | $75 | Annual | $75 |
| Connecticut | $120 | $80 | Annual | $80 |
| Maine | $175 | $85 | Annual | $85 |
| New Hampshire | $100 | $100 | Annual | $100 |
| Oregon | $100 | $100 | Annual | $100 |
| Florida | $125 | $138.75 | Annual | $138.75 |
| Arkansas | $45 | $150 | Annual | $150 |
| Washington DC | $99 | $300 | Every 2 years | $150 |
| North Carolina | $125 | $200 | Annual | $200 |
| Vermont | $155 | $295 | Annual | $295 |
| Delaware | $110 | $300 | Annual | $300 |
| Maryland | $100 | $300 | Annual | $300 |
| Nevada | $425 | $350 | Annual | $350 |
| Tennessee | $300 | $400 | Annual | $400 |
| Rhode Island | $150 | $450 | Annual | $450 |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $500 | Annual | $500 |
| California | $70 | $800 | Annual | $800 |
Fees compiled August 27, 2026. They change — confirm with your Secretary of State before filing.
The 17 states that tax the LLC itself
Filing fees and annual reports are only what you pay to register. Some states also tax the LLC as an entity, separately from the income tax its owners pay — and because that money goes to the department of revenue rather than the Secretary of State, almost every published fee comparison leaves it out. That is how Rhode Island appears as a $50-a-year state when the real floor is $450, and how Kentucky tops "cheapest state" lists while charging $175.
Always means every LLC owes it, at any income, dormant years included — those minimums are already inside the per-year figures in the tables above. Above a threshold means it is not, so add it yourself if the threshold applies to you.
| State | What it is called | Minimum | When you owe it |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Franchise tax, plus the graduated LLC fee | $800 | Always Every California LLC owes the $800. The additional LLC fee starts once California total income reaches $250,000. LLC fee on top of the $800: $900 from $250,000, $2,500 from $500,000, $6,000 from $1,000,000 and $11,790 from $5,000,000. |
| Rhode Island | Minimum annual tax (Form RI-1065) | $400 | Always Every Rhode Island LLC, whatever its income and whether or not it traded. It is filed with the Division of Taxation, not the Department of State, which is why it is so often missed. |
| Tennessee | Franchise and excise tax | $100 | Always Every LLC registered in Tennessee. The disregarded-entity shortcut does not apply: under Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1320-06-01-.40 an LLC is disregarded for F&E only where its single member is classified as a corporation, so an LLC owned by an individual files its own return. Franchise tax 0.25% of net worth or of Tennessee property value, whichever is greater, minimum $100. Excise tax 6.5% of net earnings, after a $50,000 standard deduction. |
| Vermont | Business entity tax | $250 | Always Every active Vermont LLC, filed on Form BI-471. A single-member LLC reporting on Schedule C is explicitly within scope, which is the part most guides get wrong. |
| Alabama | Business Privilege Tax | No minimum | Above a threshold Only where the calculated tax exceeds $100. Act 2022-252 made anything at or below $100 fully exempt for tax years beginning after 31 December 2023, and no return is required in that case. $0.25–$1.75 per $1,000 of net worth apportioned to Alabama, capped at $15,000 for most entities. |
| Illinois | Personal Property Replacement Income Tax | No minimum | Above a threshold Any Illinois net income. There is no revenue threshold and no exemption — a profitable one-person LLC pays it from the first dollar of profit. 1.5% of Illinois net income for LLCs taxed as partnerships or S corporations. It is a tax on the entity, and it is not creditable against the members’ own Illinois income tax, so the same profit is effectively taxed twice. |
| Kentucky | Limited Liability Entity Tax (LLET) | $175 | Above a threshold Kentucky gross receipts of $100,000 or more. The exemption below that took effect for tax years beginning 1 January 2026; before then the $175 applied to everyone, including disregarded single-member LLCs. The greater of $175 and the lower of $950 per $1,000,000 of Kentucky gross receipts or $7,500 per $1,000,000 of Kentucky gross profits. |
| Minnesota | Minimum fee | No minimum | Above a threshold Minnesota property, payroll and sales combined reach $1,250,000. Below that a partnership owes no minimum fee at all. A bracketed dollar amount rising with that same combined total. The brackets are indexed annually — check the current Form M3 instructions rather than a republished figure. |
| Nevada | Commerce Tax | No minimum | Above a threshold Nevada gross revenue above the threshold — a $4,000,000 base that has been adjusted for inflation each year since 1 July 2025. No filing is required below it. 0.051% to 0.331% of the excess, depending on industry classification. |
| New Hampshire | Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax | No minimum | Above a threshold BPT once gross business income exceeds $109,000. BET once gross receipts, or the enterprise value tax base, exceed $298,000. Both thresholds are adjusted every two years. BPT 7.5% of business profits. BET 0.55%, dropping to 0.50% for taxable periods ending on or after 31 December 2026. BET paid can be credited against BPT. |
| New Jersey | Partnership filing fee | No minimum | Above a threshold An LLC taxed as a partnership with more than two owners and New Jersey source income. A single-member LLC never owes it. $150 per owner, capped at $250,000, plus a prepayment of 50% of the fee toward the following year. |
| New York | Annual filing fee (Form IT-204-LL) | $25 | Above a threshold Any LLC with New York source gross income — and also where there is none, in which case the fee is $25. It is separate from, and far more frequent than, the $9 biennial statement. $25 to $4,500 on a bracket of New York source gross income. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity pays the $25 flat, whatever it earns. |
| Ohio | Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) | No minimum | Above a threshold Ohio taxable gross receipts above $6,000,000. The exclusion was $3,000,000 for 2024 and $1,000,000 before that, so older guidance badly overstates who has to file. 0.26% of receipts above the exclusion. |
| Oregon | Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) | No minimum | Above a threshold Registration is required within 30 days of exceeding $750,000 of Oregon commercial activity; tax is owed only above $1,000,000. $250 plus 0.57% of Oregon commercial activity above $1,000,000, after subtracting 35% of the greater of labour or input costs. |
| Texas | Franchise (margin) tax | No minimum | Above a threshold Annualized total revenue above $2,650,000 for 2026 and 2027 reports. Below the threshold no tax is due, but a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report must still be filed — missing that is what actually costs people money here. 0.375% of taxable margin for retail and wholesale, 0.75% otherwise. |
| Washington | Business & Occupation (B&O) tax | No minimum | Above a threshold All Washington gross receipts in principle, from the first dollar — but the small business B&O credit wipes out the liability for most small service businesses, and the annual filing threshold rose to $250,000 of taxable income in 2026. Services and other activities: 1.5% of gross receipts under $1M, rising to 1.75% and 2.1% in higher brackets. There is no deduction for costs. Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and others levy a separate city B&O tax on top. |
| Washington DC | Unincorporated Business Franchise Tax (Form D-30) | $250 | Above a threshold DC gross receipts over $12,000 — a threshold low enough that essentially any working freelancer clears it. 8.25% of net profit after a $5,000 statutory exemption, with a minimum of $250 up to $1M of gross receipts and $1,000 at or above $1M. |
All 51 jurisdictions were checked against their own revenue departments on August 27, 2026. States absent from this table levy nothing on a default pass-through LLC — several do have a franchise tax, but it reaches corporations only (Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Mississippi, South Carolina), or was repealed (Connecticut in 2020, Louisiana from 2026, and Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia earlier). If your LLC has elected S-corp or C-corp treatment, those exclusions no longer hold and you should check again.
State-by-state cost guides
The fees above are only half the story — every state has its own filing agency, its own deadline, its own penalty for missing it, and at least one cost the comparison tables leave out. These pages cover a state in full.
- LLC cost in California $70 to file · $800/yr
- LLC cost in Delaware $110 to file · $300/yr
- LLC cost in Florida $125 to file · $138.75/yr
- LLC cost in Kentucky $40 to file · $15/yr
- LLC cost in Montana $35 to file · $20/yr
- LLC cost in Nevada $425 to file · $350/yr
- LLC cost in New York $200 to file · $4.50/yr
- LLC cost in Texas $300 to file · no annual fee
- LLC cost in Washington DC $99 to file · $150/yr
- LLC cost in Wyoming $100 to file · $60/yr
More states are being added. Every state in the table above is covered by the calculator; these pages are the ones with full written detail.
Form in the state where you actually do business
The most expensive mistake here is not choosing the wrong state's fee. It is believing the advice that you should form in Delaware, Nevada or Wyoming because they are "business friendly".
For a freelancer or small business operating from one state, that advice is usually wrong and often costs money rather than saving it.
If you form in Wyoming but live and work in California, California considers you to be doing business there. You must register as a foreign LLC in California, which means you pay California's fees and Wyoming's. You now have two sets of filings, two registered agents, and California's $800 franchise tax anyway.
The out-of-state trick works for companies raising venture capital, where investors expect Delaware corporate law. It does not work for a one-person consultancy.
The fee people forget
Most comparisons quote the formation fee, which is the one-off number. The recurring fee is what actually determines cost, because you pay it for as long as the company exists.
California is the clearest illustration. It has a $70 filing fee — genuinely cheap, near the bottom of the table. But the $800 annual franchise tax is due every year, regardless of income, whether you made a profit or a loss, whether you traded at all. Over five years that is $4,070 against $99 in Ohio.
A dormant California LLC that someone formed and forgot still accrues $800 a year. This is worth knowing before you form one "just in case".
The New York publication trap
New York's fees look ordinary — $200 to file, $9 every two years. They are not the real cost.
Within 120 days of forming you must publish notice in two newspapers for six weeks — one daily, one weekly, both designated by the clerk of the county where the LLC is located — then file a $50 certificate. Newspaper costs run roughly $230–$1,950 depending on county, with the New York City end of that range dwarfing every other cost of forming here. It is not optional, and you cannot shop around: the county clerk decides which papers you may use.
Nebraska and Arizona have publication requirements too, though considerably cheaper.
Costs this calculator does not include
- Publication, where required — see above. In New York this is the single largest cost.
- Local business licences. Many cities and counties require their own, separately from the state.
- An operating agreement. Templates are free; a lawyer drafting one for a multi-member LLC is not.
- An EIN. Free directly from the IRS. Anyone charging you for one is charging for a form you can complete in ten minutes.
- Foreign registration in every other state where you do business.
An LLC does not reduce your tax
Worth stating plainly because so much marketing implies otherwise. A single-member LLC is a disregarded entity for federal tax: the same Schedule C, the same self-employment tax, an identical return to being a sole proprietor.
What it provides is liability protection — which may well be worth the fees, but is a different thing from a tax saving. The election that actually reduces tax is S-corp status, which is separate from being an LLC and generally only pays off above roughly $80,000 of profit.
Our guides cover when each structure makes sense and how to pay yourself from one.
About these figures
Fees were compiled on August 27, 2026 and cross-checked between sources. Where sources disagreed, the figure was verified independently — Delaware's annual tax, for instance, is widely published as $400 in aggregated tables and is actually $300.
They still change, sometimes mid-year. Before filing, confirm the current fee with your Secretary of State. Treat this as a comparison tool, not a quote.