LLC filing fees by state (2026)

Every state advertises a filing fee. Almost none of them lead with the number that actually matters. Forming an LLC costs between $35 and $500 to file, depending on the state — but that’s a one-time charge. The cost that follows you every year for as long as the company exists is the recurring one: an annual report, a biennial report, or a franchise tax. This page lists both, for all 50 states and DC, pulled from official 2026 sources.

Form in the state where you do business

Before the table: the single most important rule on this page. Form in the state where you do business. Choosing a “cheap” state for a company you actually run somewhere else means registering as a foreign LLC in the state where you operate — so you pay both states’ formation fees and both states’ recurring fees, and save nothing. The comparison below is for deciding among states you could genuinely call home (you’re remote, you haven’t picked a state yet, or you’re comparing your own state to the alternatives), or simply for understanding what your state already charges.

Every state’s LLC cost (2026)

Figures are the online-filing fees from each state’s official Secretary of State / Division of Corporations and Department of Revenue — for example Wyoming’s Business Division — current for 2026. “Recurring” is the dominant ongoing state fee; some states layer additional taxes (see notes). FilingDesk’s own flat $99 service fee is separate and is the same in every state.

Annual report, biennial report, or franchise tax — what’s the difference?

The “Recurring type” column above isn’t just labeling — it changes how often you have to think about this at all.

• Annual report. The most common structure (Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Wyoming, and most of the table). You file — and usually pay — every single year, on a date the state sets by anniversary month or a fixed calendar date.
• Biennial report. Only every two years (Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, DC). Easy to underestimate how easy it is to forget, precisely because it comes around half as often.
• Franchise tax. Charged for the privilege of operating as a business in the state, independent of an information filing — sometimes flat (Delaware’s $400, Rhode Island’s $400 minimum), sometimes revenue-based (Texas’s margin tax, California’s $800 minimum plus gross-receipts fee), sometimes blended with a report requirement (Kentucky’s LLET, Tennessee’s franchise/excise regime).

None of these are better or worse in the abstract — a $400 flat franchise tax and a $200 annual report both cost real money every year. What matters is knowing which one your state charges and calendaring it the same day your LLC is approved, not waiting for a reminder that may never come.

How to read the numbers in this table

Median formation fee

$100

across all 51 jurisdictions

No recurring fee

5 states

AZ, MO, NM, OH, SC

Publication required

3 states

Arizona, Nebraska, New York

Highest recurring

$800/yr

California, owed at $0 income

Every figure above is the online filing fee, because online is what most people use and in most states it is also the cheaper of the two. Where the paper price differs materially, the note column says so — and the gap runs both ways. Indiana charges $95 online but $100 by mail; Missouri charges $50 online against roughly $105 on paper; Idaho adds a $20 manual-processing fee to mailed filings. Minnesota inverts it — $155 online or in person, $135 by mail — one of the few states where the slow channel is the cheap one. Maine removes the choice entirely: there is no online LLC formation, so the paper Form MLLC-6 is the only route.

Two other things the fee column deliberately does not include, because they are not state filing fees:

• The registered agent. Every state requires one, and if you don’t act as your own it is a real annual line item on top of everything here.
• Publication and second-agency requirements. Arizona, Nebraska, and New York require newspaper publication, which in some New York counties costs more than the $200 formation fee. West Virginia’s Secretary of State filing does not register you with the state Tax Division — that is a separate step. New Jersey requires the NJ-REG tax/employer registration within 60 days of formation.

The cheap end of the table, briefly

By formation fee alone the floor is Montana ($35), then Kentucky ($40) and Arkansas ($45), with eight states tied at $50. Five states — Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, and South Carolina — charge no recurring fee at all, which usually matters more. But formation fee and total cost rank very differently once several years of recurring charges are counted, and Kentucky in particular looks far cheaper on this table than it is to own. The full ranking, including five-year totals, belongs to cheapest state to form an LLC.

The expensive ones — and the hidden costs

The sticker-shock states aren’t always the ones with a high filing fee. Some of the priciest LLCs to own look perfectly reasonable to form:

• California — $70 to form, but an $800 minimum annual franchise tax owed to the Franchise Tax Board every year regardless of income, plus a tiered gross-receipts fee (starting at $900) once California income passes $250,000. The most expensive state to operate an LLC in for most businesses.
• Massachusetts — $500 to form and $500 a year, the highest straightforward combination on the table.
• Delaware — a flat $400 annual tax (raised from $300 by HB 400 for tax year 2026), with no annual report to go with it.
• Tennessee — $300 to form plus a franchise/excise regime that scales with the business.

These are the numbers the “starting at $49” formation ads leave out.

Why “cheap state” rarely means what it sounds like

It’s tempting to read this table top to bottom and pick whatever sits at the bottom of the recurring-fee column. That works only if your business has no physical footprint anywhere else — the moment it does, a low-fee state doesn’t replace your home state’s requirements, it adds a foreign LLC registration on top of them and you owe both states’ recurring fees every year after. A Wyoming LLC running a business physically based in California still owes California’s $800 franchise tax; Wyoming’s $60/yr doesn’t offset it, it just adds a second bill. The full decision — including the location-independent exception where “home state” is a genuine choice rather than a fixed fact — belongs to best state to form an LLC.

Calculate your own all-in cost

The table shows state fees; your real Year-1 and Year-2 total also depends on a registered agent and any add-ons. Our LLC cost calculator adds it up for any state, and our state guides — Wyoming, Florida, Delaware, California, Texas — walk through each one in detail.

Where FilingDesk fits

Once you know your state’s real number — formation fee plus the recurring one, not just the headline figure — the paperwork itself is the part FilingDesk exists to remove. We file your LLC for a flat $99 plus your state’s fee, with the state cost passed through at cost — no markup, no tiers, no surprise Year-2 renewal, and no separate charge to auto-file the annual report or franchise filing when it comes due. We’re live in Wyoming ($199 all-in), Florida ($224), and Delaware ($209) and expanding. Whatever state you choose, the number you see on this page is the number you pay. Start yours.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Wyoming Secretary of State - Business Division (representative official source; each state's figures come from its own SOS/DOR)
• Delaware Division of Corporations - annual tax (HB 400, $400 for TY2026)
• California Franchise Tax Board - LLC $800 tax and fee

This guide is general information, not legal advice. FilingDesk is not a law firm.