Cheapest States to Form an LLC

"Cheapest state to form an LLC" has two answers, depending on whether you mean the fee you pay once or the fees you pay every year after. The rankings below are computed from our state fee data, the same numbers our checkout charges. Then comes the part most rankings skip: for nearly everyone, the cheapest state to form in is the one you already live and work in.

The 10 lowest LLC filing fees

The one-time fee to file the formation document, including any mandatory extra charged at the same time:

State fees verified October 2026 and charged by the state, not by us. Ties are listed alphabetically.

Montana has the lowest fee at $35. Across all 51 jurisdictions the median is $100, so a state in this table saves you somewhere between a few dollars and a few hundred compared with a typical one.

The cheapest states to keep an LLC

The recurring fee matters more over time, because you pay it every year the LLC exists.

No recurring report

• Arizona: $50 to form, no annual report for LLCs. Arizona requires newspaper publication after filing (unless your address is in Maricopa or Pima County).
• Missouri: $50 to form, no annual report for LLCs.
• New Mexico: $50 to form, no annual report for LLCs.
• Ohio: $99 to form, no annual report for LLCs.
• South Carolina: $110 to form, no annual report for LLCs.
• Alabama: $228 to form, no annual report for LLCs. Alabama repealed the LLC Secretary of State annual report effective Oct 1, 2024, so there is no report to file.

A required report with no fee

• Mississippi: $50 to form; free report required yearly, due April 15.
• Idaho: $100 to form; free report required yearly, due End of anniversary month.
• Minnesota: $155 to form; free report required yearly, due December 31.
• Texas: $300 to form; free Public Information Report required yearly, due May 15; required even when no tax is owed.

Low on both counts (a filing fee at or below the $100 median and no report fee): Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio and Idaho.

What a fee ranking leaves out

• Publication. Arizona, Nebraska and New York require newspaper publication after formation in at least some cases, and the newspapers set the price. New York requires newspaper publication within 120 days of formation (typically $300–$1,200 depending on county, paid to newspapers directly). We file the articles; publication is arranged and paid by you directly with the newspapers.
• Taxes billed like fees. California's recurring requirement is $800/year franchise tax + $20 report every 2 years. That dwarfs any filing fee difference.
• Other filings. Several states require an initial report, a business license, or a tax registration soon after formation. Each state guide lists them.

Why your home state is usually cheapest

An LLC can be formed in any state, but it has to register in every state where it "transacts business", which usually means where you have an office, employees, a store, or where you work day to day. That registration is called foreign qualification, and it has its own state fee and its own annual report.

So if you live in one state and form in another to save on the filing fee, you typically end up paying:

1. the other state's filing fee and its recurring fee every year;
2. a registered agent in the other state, because you have no address there;
3. your home state's foreign registration fee; and
4. your home state's annual report as a foreign LLC.

That is two sets of fees and two sets of deadlines, in exchange for saving part of one filing fee. Skipping the foreign registration is not a real option either: states can charge penalties and back fees, and an unregistered LLC may be barred from suing in that state's courts until it registers.

When another state can make sense

Forming outside your home state is worth a look in narrower cases: a holding company with no operations anywhere, a business with owners spread across several states that wants one neutral home, or a company planning to raise venture capital, where investors often expect a Delaware entity. Those are decisions to make with an accountant or attorney. We compare the two usual candidates in Should you form your LLC in Delaware or Wyoming?

File it yourself or have us do it

Wherever you form, you can file directly with the state for the state fee alone, and every state guide links to its filing site. Our service adds $99 to check the name, prepare and submit the filing, and send you the approved documents with the state's next deadlines. The full fee table is in LLC cost by state.