Last verified: 5 August 2026 against each state's own Secretary of State fee schedule. All 51 jurisdictions confirmed.
Most guides tell you what it costs to form an LLC. That's the wrong number. Formation is a one-off, and the spread is narrow — $35 in Montana to $500 in Massachusetts.
The number that decides your cost of ownership is what you pay every year, forever.
A New Mexico LLC costs $50 in state fees over five years. A California LLC costs $4,070. Same entity type. That's 81×, decided entirely by where you filed.
The full table
Formation fee, recurring fee, and five-year total. Registered agent excluded — it's mandatory for non-residents and runs $50–$300/year in every state.
| State | Formation | Recurring | Frequency | 5-yr total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | $50 | $0 | None | $50 |
| Ohio | $99 | $0 | None | $99 |
| Missouri | $50 | $0 | None | $50 |
| South Carolina | $110 | $0 | None | $110 |
| Arizona | $50 | $0 | None | $50 |
| Mississippi | $50 | $0 | Annual, filing required | $50 |
| Idaho | $100 | $0 | Annual, filing required | $100 |
| Minnesota | $135 | $0 | Annual, filing required | $135 |
| Texas | $300 | $0 | Franchise report | $300 |
| New York | $200 | $9 | Biennial | $218 |
| Pennsylvania | $125 | $7 | Annual | $153 |
| Kentucky | $40 | $15 | Annual | $100 |
| Hawaii | $50 | $15 | Annual | $110 |
| Utah | $59 | $18 | Annual | $131 |
| Iowa | $50 | $30 | Biennial | $110 |
| Nebraska | $100 | $25 | Biennial | $150 |
| Michigan | $50 | $25 | Annual | $150 |
| Colorado | $50 | $25 | Annual | $150 |
| Oklahoma | $100 | $25 | Annual | $200 |
| West Virginia | $100 | $25 | Annual | $200 |
| Wisconsin | $130 | $25 | Annual | $230 |
| Louisiana | $100 | $30 | Annual | $220 |
| Vermont | $155 | $45 | Annual | $335 |
| Alabama | $225 | $50 min | Annual (BPT) | $425 |
| Georgia | $100 | $50 | Annual | $300 |
| Alaska | $250 | $50 | Biennial | $350 |
| North Dakota | $135 | $50 | Annual | $335 |
| Virginia | $100 | $50 | Annual | $300 |
| South Dakota | $150 | $55 | Annual | $370 |
| Kansas | $165 | $55 | Biennial | $275 |
| Wyoming | $100 | $60 | Annual | $340 |
| Washington | $180 | $70 | Annual | $460 |
| New Jersey | $125 | $75 | Annual | $425 |
| Connecticut | $120 | $80 | Annual | $440 |
| Maine | $175 | $85 | Annual | $515 |
| Illinois | $150 | $75 | Annual | $450 |
| New Hampshire | $100 | $100 | Annual | $500 |
| Oregon | $100 | $100 | Annual | $500 |
| Montana | $35 | $0 | Annual — fee waived through 2027 | $35 |
| Delaware | $110 | $300 | Annual | $1,310 |
| Florida | $125 | $138.75 | Annual | $680 |
| Arkansas | $45 | $150 | Annual | $645 |
| District of Columbia | $99 | $300 | Biennial | $699 |
| North Carolina | $125 | $200 | Annual | $925 |
| Maryland | $100 | $300 | Annual | $1,300 |
| Tennessee | $300 | $300 | Annual | $1,500 |
| Nevada | $75 | $350 | Annual | $1,475 |
| Rhode Island | $150 | $450 | Annual | $1,950 |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $500 | Annual | $2,500 |
| California | $70 | $800 min | Annual | $3,270 |
| Indiana | $95 | $32 | Biennial | $159 |
5-yr total = formation + four subsequent years of recurring fees. Biennial states counted at two filings over the period.
The five most expensive states to own an LLC
California — $800/year minimum. The franchise tax is due every year regardless of income or activity. Plus $20 biennially for the Statement of Information. If you live in California or do business there, you owe this even if you formed in Wyoming.
Massachusetts — $500/year. The highest standard annual report fee in the country, and $500–520 to form.
Rhode Island — $450/year, and almost nobody publishes this. The Secretary of State annual report is only $50. But Rhode Island LLCs also owe a $400 minimum annual tax to the Division of Taxation — a separate agency, not pro-rated. Comparison tables that show Rhode Island at $50 are understating the real cost by 89%.
Nevada — $350/year. Annual List of Members ($150) plus State Business License renewal ($200). Marketed as a tax haven; fourth most expensive state to maintain.
Delaware, Tennessee and Maryland — $300/year each. Delaware's is a franchise tax, not a report. Tennessee simplified to a flat $300 in July 2026. Maryland's $300 annual report is confirmed on the Business Express fee schedule.
The cheapest — and the four different meanings of "$0"
This is the distinction that costs people their entities, and every comparison page blurs it.
No filing at all — New Mexico, Ohio, Missouri, South Carolina, Arizona. Nothing is ever due.
Filing required, fee is $0 — Idaho, Mississippi, Minnesota. You must file or you're dissolved; it just costs nothing. Minnesota is the sharpest case: free if filed online by 31 December, administratively dissolved on 1 January if not. No grace period.
Report replaced by a tax return — Alabama eliminated its Secretary of State annual report in October 2024, but LLCs now file a $50 minimum Business Privilege Tax return instead. Alabama is not a $0 state, and several published comparisons say it is.
Threshold-based — Texas. No fee, but the franchise report is mandatory whether or not tax is owed. The no-tax-due threshold is $2.47 million. (The $1.23M figure still circulating is the older threshold.)
Genuinely cheapest recurring fees: Pennsylvania $7/year · New York $9 biennially · Hawaii and Kentucky $15 · Utah $18.
What happens when you miss the deadline
More useful than the fee, and rarely published anywhere.
| State | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Minnesota | Dissolution on 1 January. No grace period. |
| Wyoming | Dissolution 60 days after deadline. Reinstatement $100 plus back fees. |
| Tennessee | Dissolution if unfiled within 60 days (Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-604(1)) |
| Utah | $10 late fee; dissolution after 60 days (Utah Code Ann. § 48-3a-708) |
| Oregon | 45-day grace period (ORS § 63.647(2)) |
| Florida | $400 automatic late fee the day after 1 May; dissolution by the third Friday in September |
| Delaware | $200 penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest, compounding |
| North Carolina | $200 penalty |
| South Dakota | $55 delinquency fee |
| Rhode Island | $25 late fee from 1 June |
| New Hampshire | $50 late fee |
| Connecticut | $50 late fee |
| Nebraska | Delinquent after 16 June in odd years |
| Georgia, Arkansas | $25 late fee |
| Washington | $25 delinquency fee |
| District of Columbia | $100 late fee |
Reinstatement runs from roughly $5–$50 in Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina to $200–$600+ in Delaware and DC, plus every delinquent report and accrued penalty.
Filing windows worth knowing
Not all deadlines are anniversary-based. Fixed statewide dates:
Florida 1 Jan–1 May · North Carolina and Maryland 15 April · Georgia 1 April · Connecticut 31 March · Rhode Island 1 Feb–1 May · Maine 1 June · North Dakota 15 November · Pennsylvania 30 September · Minnesota 31 December · Iowa and Nebraska 1 April in odd-numbered years.
Hawaii is unusual: the due date depends on the quarter you formed in — Q1 filings are due 31 March, Q2 by 30 June, Q3 by 30 September, Q4 by 31 December.
Five states changed their rules since 2024
This is why most comparison pages are wrong somewhere:
- Kansas — annual to biennial, January 2024. The $85 figure online is the old annual fee; current is $160 formation + $55 biennial.
- Colorado — Periodic Report $10 to $25, July 2024
- Alabama — Secretary of State annual report eliminated, October 2024
- Pennsylvania — decennial to annual, 2025 (grace period through 2026)
- Tennessee — simplified to a flat $300, July 2026
Check the date on any table you read, including this one.
Online versus paper — small but real
Several states price the two differently, and it's usually cheaper online:
Cheaper online: Georgia (saves $10) · Iowa (saves $15) · South Dakota (saves $15 on both formation and report) · Nebraska (saves $10) · Arkansas (saves $5)
More expensive online: New Hampshire (+$2 handling) · Kansas (+$5 convenience) · Wyoming (+~$2) · Maryland (+3% tech fee) · Louisiana (+$5 card fee) · Oklahoma (+4% card fee) · New Jersey (+$3 card / +$0.50 e-check)
The costs this table doesn't show
Registered agent — mandatory everywhere and mandatory for you as a non-resident. $50–$300/year, paid to a private company.
A real US business address — where a registered agent's address won't pass. Several banks and processors reject registered-agent and virtual-mailbox addresses at underwriting.
New York's publication requirement — newspaper publication within 120 days of formation, which can exceed $1,500 depending on county. It applies to non-residents identically. New York is cheap to keep ($9 biennially) and expensive to enter. Almost nobody flags this before people file.
Nebraska has the same trap at a lower entry price, which makes it more dangerous. Nebraska requires a Notice of Organization published in a local newspaper of general circulation for three consecutive weeks, then an Affidavit of Publication filed with the state. Newspaper costs run roughly $100–$300 depending on county, and the affidavit filing is $25 online or $30 by mail.
That turns Nebraska's headline $100 formation into $225–$430 in practice. Someone comparing formation fees on a table like this one picks Nebraska for the $100 and meets the newspaper bill afterwards. If your LLC's authority is suspended, it stays suspended until the publication step is completed.
Nebraska and New York are the two to watch. Neither cost appears in a state fee schedule, because neither is a state fee.
Foreign qualification — if you have physical presence, employees or property in another state, you register there too and pay that state's fees on top.
EIN — free. The IRS charges nothing. Anyone quoting a fee for the EIN itself is charging you for a form you can file yourself.
And the largest number on this page isn't a state fee. A foreign-owned single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity must file Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120 every year, including years with zero activity. Penalties start at $25,000 per form, per year and escalate. That obligation dwarfs every figure above, and most non-resident founders don't hear about it until it's late.
When you don't need us
Filing directly with the state costs the state fee and nothing more. Every figure here is what you'd pay doing it yourself.
What outside help is actually for is choosing correctly. For an online business with no US employees and no plans to raise from US VCs, the honest answer is usually Wyoming or New Mexico — and you can file it in an afternoon.
Method
Every figure was taken from the state's own Secretary of State or business division website — not from formation-service blogs, several of which carry figures that were correct in 2023 and aren't now.
Where two figures circulate for a state, we checked whether it was a base-fee-plus-surcharge split rather than assuming one source was wrong. Three turned out to be exactly that:
- Delaware — $90 filing + $20 municipality = $110
- Alabama — $200 formation + $25–28 mandatory name reservation + $8 online = $225–236
- Maryland — $100 base (paper); $154.50 = $100 + $50 expedited + 3% tech fee
Four rows resolved on 5 August 2026. All four had circulated with conflicting figures, and in every case the conflict had a reason worth recording:
- Indiana — $95. Confirmed directly in the Indiana Secretary of State fee calculator: Filings → Domestic Limited Liability Company → Formation. The $97, $98 and $100 figures in circulation are the same $95 plus a card processing charge, which the state states as a minimum of $1 and a maximum of 2.15%. Mail filing is $100.
- Montana — $0, for now. The published fee is $20 on time and $35 late. Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen has administratively waived the on-time fee for 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027. The waiver is administrative rather than statutory, and the $20 remains on the fee sheet. Check before you rely on this: from 2028 the fee returns unless waived again, and the $35 late fee applies in waiver years too.
- Nebraska — $25 online, $30 by mail. The earlier $30-only figure came from the Amendment or Correction to Biennial Report, a different filing. Fees sit under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-192, first-report timing under § 21-125.
- Utah — $18, and it already includes a surcharge. The Utah Division of Corporations fee schedule marks the LLC renewal with an asterisk, denoting that the figure includes a $5 charge for the state's single sign-on portal. So $18 is $13 plus $5, pre-combined. The source is the Fiscal Year 2026 schedule effective 1 July 2025 — the 2023 in its URL is an upload folder, not the document's date.