How Much Does an LLC Cost in Pennsylvania? (2026 fees)
Forming an LLC in Pennsylvania costs $125 to file. The annual report is $7, annual. Acting as your own registered agent, five years costs $3,660 — every figure transcribed from the state's own fee schedule and dated.
Filing fee
$125
Annual report
$7 annual
Year one
$832
Five years
$3,660
⚠️ Pennsylvania charges 5.66× the filing fee, every year. Pennsylvania charges $125 to form an LLC and about $707 every year afterwards — 5.66× the filing fee, annually. The number most comparisons quote is the one that matters least.
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Estimate only — not tax, legal, or accounting advice. This is the published math for Pennsylvania LLC formation and ongoing costs. Confirm final figures with your payroll provider, accountant, or the state agency before acting on them.
Pennsylvania LLC Filing Fee ($125)
Paid once, when you file the Articles of Organization. $125 for the Certificate of Organization [DSCB:15-8821], which must be "accompanied by a docketing statement [DSCB:15-134A]" — the docketing statement carries no separate fee. The $125 is waived entirely for veteran- and reservist-owned small businesses under Act 135 of 2016; see zero-cost items. Payment: "Customers may pay by check or money order made payable to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Cash or credit cards are not accepted." Credit cards work only for expedited service — "Effective January 6, 2014, credit card payments will be accepted for expedited services only."
Pennsylvania Annual Report ($7 annual)
Due Annual Report [DSCB:15-146], $7 for a for-profit LLC and $0 for an LLC with a not-for-profit purpose. The LLC filing window is JANUARY 1 – SEPTEMBER 30 (corporations get January 1 – June 30; LPs, LLPs, business trusts and professional associations get the full year). This is the requirement Act 122 of 2022 created and it REPLACED the decennial report — "The long-time decennial report requirement has been repealed." Filed online at file.dos.pa.gov; "Annual Reports submitted online will be automatically approved", and "there are no expedited service options for Annual Reports." 2026 SPECIFIC: the enforcement teeth are not on yet. "Act 122 requires that the Department provide associations with a transition period before imposing any dissolution/termination/cancellation for failure to file Annual Reports. Beginning with Annual Reports due in 2027, associations that fail to file annual reports in the 2027 calendar year will be subject to administrative dissolution/termination/cancellation six months after the due date of the Annual Report." Missing 2026 is still a compliance failure and still leaves the record past due — it just does not yet trigger dissolution.. Missing it is how most administrative dissolutions start, so it is worth a calendar entry rather than a memory.
Pennsylvania Certificate of Annual Registration — restricted professional companies (PLLCs) only (from $700)
Applies ONLY to a restricted professional company, i.e. an LLC rendering chiropractic, dentistry, law, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathic medicine and surgery, podiatric medicine, public accounting, psychology or veterinary medicine. It is per-member, not flat. Verbatim: "The 2026 nonrefundable annual fee for RPCs/PLLCs is $700 times the number of persons who were members of the company on December 31, 2024. The annual fee is required to be paid only with respect to a member who: 1) Was licensed to practice the professional service rendered by the company on December 31; and 2) Had principal residence in Pennsylvania on December 31. See 15 Pa.C.S. §8998(b)(1). The base fee was increased to $700 on December 31, 2024. See §8998(b)(2)." The Department's own table confirms $700 per member for year filed 2026 / year reported 2025, with a $500 penalty. Due "on or before April 15 of each year following the year with respect to which it is being filed (e.g. due by April 15, 2026 for the 2025 year)." Delinquent years must be filed oldest-first, one at a time. An ordinary (non-professional) Pennsylvania LLC owes none of this. SOURCE DISAGREEMENT, recorded rather than resolved silently: the Bureau's Fee Schedule page prices this line as "Annual Registration (restricted professional companies only) — at least $500", while the Bureau's Certificates of Annual Registration page states $700 per member for 2026 and publishes a year-by-year table showing $500 was the rate for filings made in 2014–2015. The pack follows the Certificates of Annual Registration page because it is the specific, dated instrument; the fee schedule's "$500" is a stale floor. Note also that the Department's own sentence says members "on December 31, 2024" while its table pairs filing year 2026 with reported year 2025 and its parallel LLP paragraph says December 31, 2025 — an internal inconsistency on the agency's page, quoted here verbatim rather than corrected.
What costs $0 in Pennsylvania
- Certificate of Organization for a veteran- or reservist-owned small business — The full $125 is waived. Act 135 of 2016 (51 Pa.C.S. §§9610-9611), effective January 2, 2017: "Veterans and reservists starting a small business in the Commonwealth are exempt from the payment of a business fee". The Bureau names the filing explicitly on its list of waived documents: "Certificate of Organization [DSCB:15-8821] - $125". A small business must be "independently owned, not dominant in its field of operation and employ 100 or fewer employees", and the documents must be "signed by the veteran or reservist and submitted with proof of the veteran's or reservist's status". The waiver covers starting the business, not maintaining it: the term "does not include a fee for maintaining licensure or other requirement for continuing to operate a business."
- Docketing statement [DSCB:15-134A] — Required alongside the Certificate of Organization and carries no fee of its own — it is not a separate $-line on the Bureau's schedule.
- Annual Report for an LLC with a not-for-profit purpose — Verbatim from the fee schedule: "Annual report submitted by a nonprofit corporation or a limited partnership or limited liability company with a not-for-profit purpose — $0". An LLC only gets this if its not-for-profit purpose is stated in the certificate of organization.
- EIN from the IRS — An Employer Identification Number is issued free by the IRS.
- Operating agreement — Not filed with the Bureau and not priced on the fee schedule.
Listed first on purpose. Knowing what not to pay for is the part of this page most likely to save you money.
19 of 51 jurisdictions verified against their Secretary of State so far. A state we have not read gets no entry rather than a guess.
Pick a different state to price the “form in Wyoming, operate at home” structure honestly — both filings, both annual reports, both agents.
The filing fee is year one; the annual obligations are forever. Comparisons that stop at year one are ranking states by the number that matters least.
Year one
$150 – $350
Every year after
$100 – $300
5-year total
$550 – $1,550
| Articles of Organization filing feeone-off$50.00 total for regular processing of Articles of Organization; $85.00 total if you add expedited processing. Arizona's fee schedule quotes TOTAL fees rather than add-ons, so $85 is the whole bill, not $50 + $85. All fees are non-refundable under A.R.S. §29-3213. | $50 |
| Publication requirementone-offformulaPublication is required by A.R.S. §29-3201 — but whether it costs anything depends on your statutory agent's county. If the statutory agent's street address is in Maricopa or Pima county, the Commission publishes the notice on its own website at no charge and you do nothing. Outside those two counties you must publish in a newspaper, typically three consecutive publications, and pay that newspaper directly (commonly in the $30–$300 range depending on the paper — that range is market context, not a published figure, and the ACC sets no rate). Do not publish until the Commission approves the Articles; the approval letter tells you how. | $0 |
| Annual reportArizona LLCs file no annual report. The Corporation Commission's FAQ states it directly: "No, LLCs are not required to file annual reports. Only corporations are required to file annual reports." The LLC fee schedule carries no annual report line, consistent with that. The ongoing obligation is instead to keep a statutory agent and a valid principal address on file at all times — failing that leads to administrative dissolution under A.R.S. §29-3708. | $0 |
| Registered agent (commercial)Market range, not a statutory fee — this is the one line here you choose. | $100 – $300 |
What costs nothing in Arizona
- EIN from the IRS — An Employer Identification Number is issued free by the IRS. Nobody needs to be paid for it.
- Operating agreement — The Commission's own instructions: "An operating agreement is not required by statute." It is not filed with the ACC — "DO NOT FILE operating agreements with the Arizona Corporation Commission." It costs $0 to write one.
- Annual report — Arizona LLCs do not file one, so there is no annual report fee to pay and no annual report service to buy.
- Newspaper publication, in Maricopa or Pima county — If your statutory agent's street address is in Maricopa or Pima county the ACC publishes the notice on its website automatically at no cost. Publication services sold to filers in those two counties are selling something the state already did for free.
- Name reservation — Not free ($10.00), but not required either — the Commission's instructions say plainly "Reserving the name is not required."
Listed because knowing what NOT to pay for is half of what this page is for.
- Arizona requires newspaper publication after formation. Publication is required by A.R.S. §29-3201 — but whether it costs anything depends on your statutory agent's county. If the statutory agent's street address is in Maricopa or Pima county, the Commission publishes the notice on its own website at no charge and you do nothing. Outside those two counties you must publish in a newspaper, typically three consecutive publications, and pay that newspaper directly (commonly in the $30–$300 range depending on the paper — that range is market context, not a published figure, and the ACC sets no rate). Do not publish until the Commission approves the Articles; the approval letter tells you how. It is a real cost and it is not in the totals below, because it depends on where you file.
Every verified state, ranked by the 5-year total
Own-agent figures, so this compares states rather than service purchases. Each state links to its full fee page.
| State | Filing | Per year after | 5-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Ohio | $99 | $0 | $99 |
| Hawaii | $51 | $15+formula | $126 |
| Utah | $59 | $18 | $149 |
| Colorado | $50 | $25 | $175 |
| Michigan | $50 | $25 | $175 |
| New York | $200 | $5 | $223 |
| Texas | $300 | $0+formula | $300 |
| Wyoming | $100 | $60 | $400 |
| Georgia | $110 | $60 | $410 |
| Illinois | $150 | $75 | $525 |
| Florida | $125 | $139 | $819 |
| Kentuckytrap | $40 | $190+formula | $990 |
| North Carolina | $125 | $200 | $1,125 |
| Nevadatrap | $75 | $350 | $1,825 |
| Delawaretrap | $110 | $400 | $2,110 |
| Tennessee | $300 | $400+formula | $2,300 |
| Pennsylvaniatrap | $125 | $707+formula | $3,660 |
| Californiatrap | $70 | $810+formula | $4,120 |
How Much Does an LLC Cost?: computed in your browser from verified fee packs; nothing is transmitted.
Thinking of forming in another state to save money? Price both structures — operating in Pennsylvania means registering here either way, so the second state is added to the bill rather than substituted for it. Compare every verified state →
Verified 2026-08-05 against Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations — Fees and Payments (Fee Schedule) (effective 2026-01-01)
Source of record
- Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations — Fees and Payments (Fee Schedule) ↗Secretary of State
Run it against the official tool: Pennsylvania Department of State — Annual Reports in Pennsylvania ↗
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
The full price of an LLC in each verified state: the one-off filing fee, the report the state expects every year or two, any franchise or gross-receipts tax on top, and what those add up to over the years you actually intend to be in business.
How it works
Every figure comes from a rule pack transcribed from the Secretary of State or tax agency that sets it, with the source and verification date shown. The projection multiplies the recurring obligations out over your chosen horizon; where a state publishes a formula rather than a flat amount, the tool carries the formula and its floor rather than inventing a number.
Getting the most from it
- Pick the state you would form in — only states we have verified appear, and the count is stated.
- If the business will operate in a DIFFERENT state, say so: the tool then prices both filings, both annual reports, and the registered agent you would have to rent.
- Toggle the registered agent off if you have an address in the state and are willing to be your own — most states allow it at no cost.
- Change the projection length and watch the ranking of states change with it.
- Read the zero-cost list before paying anyone for anything on it.
Reading your result
The year-one figure is what starting costs; the every-year-after figure is what staying costs; and the multi-year total is the honest basis for comparing states. A trap badge means the state charges more every year than it charged to form — the number in most comparison tables is the smallest one that state will ever bill you.
What it can't tell you
It prices state obligations, not your taxes: state income tax, sales tax registration, and local licences depend on what the business does and are not in these figures. It also cannot decide whether an LLC is the right structure — that question involves liability and tax facts this page cannot see.
Frequently asked questions
$125 to file the Articles of Organization. $125 for the Certificate of Organization [DSCB:15-8821], which must be "accompanied by a docketing statement [DSCB:15-134A]" — the docketing statement carries no separate fee. The $125 is waived entirely for veteran- and reservist-owned small businesses under Act 135 of 2016; see zero-cost items. Payment: "Customers may pay by check or money order made payable to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Cash or credit cards are not accepted." Credit cards work only for expedited service — "Effective January 6, 2014, credit card payments will be accepted for expedited services only." That is the only mandatory cost to form — an EIN from the IRS is free and an operating agreement is a document you write yourself, not something the state charges for.
Related calculators
Startup cost
A line-item budget that keeps the two questions separate: what it costs to open, and what it costs every month to stay open. The headline output is the cash needed to launch and survive a chosen runway with no revenue at all — the deliberately pessimistic figure lenders actually ask about.
Break-even
Work out how many units you need to sell before the business covers its costs. Charts the crossing point, counts your own pay as a cost, includes the card fees and refunds most calculators leave out, and separates cash break-even from the accounting one. A planning estimate from your own figures.
Employee cost
What a hire actually costs once employer taxes, benefits and overhead are counted. Social Security to this year’s wage base, Medicare, federal unemployment after the state credit, and your state’s own unemployment tax at its own wage base — every rate cited to the agency that published it, with the math shown.
Change alerts — when a state revises the guideline or deadline behind this page
One email when the numbers change. Double opt-in, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.