As of November 2026, the Texas Secretary of State charges $300 to file a Certificate of Formation (Form 205) for an LLC, and that is the only state fee you must pay to get started. After that, the main recurring state task is the Texas Comptroller franchise tax report, which is due May 15, and an LLC at or below the no-tax-due threshold of $2,650,000 in annualized revenue (2026 and 2027 reports) owes no tax but still files a Public Information Report. I run Ecommerce Paradise, and this page is the Texas-only deep dive that sits under my 20-state table, so I am going to focus on the costs that table cannot fit: expedite fees, name reservation, certified copies, the registered agent, and what formation services show for Texas today.
Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Fees and rules change, so check the official Texas pages linked below before you file or pay anything.
Texas LLC Cost at a Glance (November 2026)
Every state figure below comes from a Texas government page I loaded in November 2026, mostly the Secretary of State fee schedule (Form 806) and the Comptroller franchise tax pages. Where a number was not shown on a page I could load, I say so instead of filling it in.
| Item | Amount shown | Official source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLC Certificate of Formation (Form 205) | $300 | Texas Secretary of State | Required to create the LLC |
| Name reservation (Form 501) | $40 | Texas Secretary of State | 120 days, optional |
| Standard expedite | $50 | Texas Secretary of State | Optional, added to the filing fee |
| Next-day expedite | $500 | Texas Secretary of State | Optional |
| Same-day expedite | $750 | Texas Secretary of State | Optional |
| Certified copy | $1 per page plus $15 per certificate | Texas Secretary of State | Optional |
| Certificate of fact or status | $15 ($25 long form) | Texas Secretary of State | Optional, proof the LLC exists |
| Change of registered agent (Form 401) | $15 | Texas Secretary of State | Only if you switch agents |
| Assumed name certificate (Form 503) | $25 | Texas Secretary of State | Only if you trade under another name |
| Franchise tax at or below $2,650,000 revenue | No tax due | Texas Comptroller | Report still required, due May 15 |
| Annual state “report fee” for a Texas LLC | None shown | Texas Comptroller | The Public Information Report has no fee on the pages I loaded |
If you use no extras, your Texas state cost to form is $300 and your first year of state recurring cost, for a small LLC under the threshold, is $0 beyond the report you file. That is why Texas shows a $300 three-year state cost in my LLC fees by state comparison. The harder question is what you pay around the state fee, and that is what the rest of this guide prices.
The $300 Certificate of Formation
In Texas the document that creates an LLC is called a Certificate of Formation, filed on Form 205 with the Secretary of State. Form 205 prints its own filing fee as $300, which matches the fee schedule, so you do not have to guess which number is right. The form itself is short, but a few rules on it affect cost and planning.
- Name: the LLC name must contain the words “limited liability company,” “limited company,” or an abbreviation of one of them.
- Registered agent: the form requires a registered agent and a Texas address for that agent, and the person filing affirms that the agent consented to the appointment.
- Agent type: the initial agent can be an organization (other than the LLC itself) or an individual who is a Texas resident.
The fee schedule shows a $1 fee for each SOSDirect search, which is not charged when an order or filing is placed from the search results. The Secretary of State page I loaded now also points business filers to SOSPortal, so check the Secretary of State business forms page for the current way to submit Form 205 before you start. The same page links the fee schedule, and the Form 205 PDF lets you read the exact wording of the requirements above.
Expedite Fees: $50, $500 or $750
Texas lets you pay to move a filing ahead of the normal queue, and the Secretary of State fee schedule I loaded shows three levels. Standard expedited handling is $50, next-day handling is $500, and same-day handling is $750. A separate $10 charge covers expedited processing of a certified copy or certificate request.
The Secretary of State pages I loaded did not state normal processing times, so I will not quote a number of days. What I can do is show the arithmetic of what speed costs on top of the $300:
| Speed option | Arithmetic | Total state cost |
|---|---|---|
| Normal handling | $300 | $300 |
| Standard expedite | $300 + $50 | $350 |
| Next-day expedite | $300 + $500 | $800 |
| Same-day expedite | $300 + $750 | $1,050 |
My opinion, and only that: for most new online stores the $500 and $750 tiers are hard to justify unless a launch date, a marketplace application or a supplier deadline depends on having the LLC on paper that day. If your timeline is tight, my post on how long it takes to get an LLC before you launch your store walks through the order of operations so you do not pay for speed you do not need.
Name Reservation, Certified Copies and Other Small Fees
These are the small charges that surprise people, because they are not part of the $300 but they show up quickly once the LLC exists.
- Name reservation: $40 on Form 501 for a 120-day hold (or a renewal). It only makes sense if you need to lock the name before you are ready to file, since filing Form 205 itself is what registers the LLC.
- Certified copies: $1 per page plus $15 per certificate. Some banks or marketplaces may ask for one, so order it when someone does, not before.
- Certificate of fact (status): $15, or $25 for the long form that lists filings. This is the “proof the LLC exists” document some banks and payment processors ask for.
- Assumed name certificate: $25 on Form 503 at the Secretary of State if you plan to sell under a brand name that is not the LLC’s legal name. Whether another filing is needed locally is not something the pages I loaded covered, so confirm it with the state before you print packaging.
For a typical single-brand store I would budget the $300 and treat everything else as optional until a bank, marketplace or payment processor asks for it. That is also where the business formation steps in my business formation guide for high-ticket dropshipping fit: entity first, then bank account, then payment processing.
Registered Agent: What Texas Requires and What It Costs
Form 205 makes a registered agent mandatory. The agent must have a Texas business address, which doubles as the registered office, and must have agreed to the role. That agent receives legal papers and state mail on the LLC’s behalf, so it has to be someone or something that will actually be reachable at that address.
You have two broad choices, and the cost difference is real:
- Serve as your own agent (individual Texas resident): the state charge is $0 beyond the $300, but the agent’s name and address appear on the filing you submit, so expect that information to sit on a public record. Whether you can reliably receive papers at that address during business hours is on you.
- Hire a commercial agent: the price runs about $125 to $199 per year on the pages I loaded, depending on provider, as shown in the comparison below. A change of agent later costs $15 at the state.
Registered agent service is also one of the places formation services make their money, because several of them show a low or zero headline price and an agent renewal after the first year. I would rather show you that gap than leave it as a surprise.
Texas Franchise Tax: The Recurring Part for Most LLCs
I found no flat annual LLC report fee on the pages I loaded, but Texas does have a franchise tax, which the Texas Comptroller administers. For small stores this is mostly a filing task, not a payment, and that is where people confuse the two.
No tax due threshold
The Comptroller’s franchise tax page shows a no-tax-due threshold of $2,650,000 for the 2026 and 2027 reports, and the Comptroller’s 2026 report-forms page repeats the $2.65 million figure for the 2026 report. Revenue at or below that line (annualized total revenue) means no franchise tax is owed. Above it, the page lists rates of 0.375% for retail or wholesale and 0.75% for other entities, and the calculation has rules of its own that I am not going to attempt here. One caution: $2,470,000 was the threshold for the 2024 and 2025 reports, and a Comptroller FAQ page still uses that figure in a worked example for the 2026 report. The main franchise page, the 2026 forms page and the Comptroller’s April 2026 Tax Policy News all show the updated $2,650,000, so I treat $2,650,000 as the current figure. Confirm it on the Texas Comptroller franchise tax page before you rely on it.
The report is still required
Entities at or below the threshold do not file the old No Tax Due Report for reports due in 2024 or later, but they must still file a Public Information Report (Form 05-102) or an Ownership Information Report (Form 05-167), depending on entity type. The Comptroller’s FAQ says an LLC is a Public Information Report filer. Forms and instructions are on the Comptroller’s 2026 franchise tax report forms page.
Due dates
The 2026 reporting due dates chart on the Comptroller site lists May 15 as the date for the franchise return or the first extension request, August 17 for the second extension request for mandatory electronic payers, and November 16 for returns where an extension was filed. If May 15 lands on a weekend or holiday, the due date moves to the next business day. For a new entity, the Comptroller’s FAQ says the first annual report is due May 15 of the year after the entity becomes subject to the tax.
As an illustration only, not a ruling on your situation: following the pattern in the Comptroller’s own example, an LLC that becomes subject to the tax during 2027 would have a first report due May 15, 2028. Confirm your own first due date with the Comptroller. The Comptroller’s Public Information Report page lists no dollar penalty, but it says an entity that fails to file a completed and signed report may forfeit its right to transact business in Texas, and that each officer, director, member or owner can then become personally liable for certain debts of the entity. I am not quoting a dollar penalty because I did not find one on the pages I loaded, and I would treat a missed report as a serious problem to ask the Comptroller about rather than something to put off.
Worked example
Say a store has $400,000 in annualized total revenue. The arithmetic is simple: $400,000 is less than $2,650,000, so no franchise tax is due, and the LLC files the Public Information Report only. A store at $3,000,000 is above the threshold and would need to work through the Comptroller’s calculation. This is an example to show how the threshold works, not advice on your numbers.
Does Texas Have a State Income Tax?
The Texas Comptroller’s “Starting a New Business” article states that Texas does not have a personal income tax. That article is from February 2016, and its franchise tax figures are outdated, so I cite it only for the income tax point and I would still confirm the current rule on the Comptroller’s tax pages. A newer Comptroller page, Texas is open for small business (2025), says “Texas has no state income tax.” The practical takeaway for an LLC owner is that there is no Texas personal income tax return to file for your store profits, while federal taxes, the franchise tax report and any sales tax duties are separate.
I am not a tax professional, and an LLC’s federal treatment, sales tax registration and payroll taxes all depend on facts I cannot see. Talk to a CPA or the Comptroller before you treat “no state income tax” as “no Texas tax work.”
What Formation Services Show for a Texas LLC Today
A formation service files Form 205 for you, so you pay the state’s $300 plus the service’s own fee. I loaded each service’s official pages in November 2026. The service fees below are the national package prices those pages showed, and when a page did not show a Texas fee or a registered agent renewal price, the table says “not shown.”
| Service | Package prices shown | Texas state fee shown on the page | Registered agent after year one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwest Registered Agent | $39 formation service plus state fees | $300 (card payment adds a 2.7% convenience fee, which the page puts at $310 total) | Not shown on the Texas page; the agent page shows $125 per year |
| Bizee | Basic $0, Standard $199, Premium $299, each plus state fee | Not shown | Not shown (first year free with any package) |
| ZenBusiness | Starter $0, Pro $199, Premium $299, each plus state fees | Not shown (links to a fee checker) | $199 per year listed separately |
| LegalZoom | Basic $0, Managed Service $249, Expert Service $299, each plus state filing fees | Not shown | Not shown |
A few notes on reading that table. These are the vendor pages I used:
- Northwest Registered Agent, Texas LLC page
- Northwest Registered Agent, registered agent page
- Bizee pricing page
- ZenBusiness formation plans page
- ZenBusiness pricing page (registered agent add-on)
- LegalZoom LLC overview page
Northwest’s Texas page includes a year of registered agent service, same-day scans of legal mail and the use of its address on public forms in the $39 service. Bizee’s pricing page says every package includes one free year of registered agent service. ZenBusiness’s formation plans page lists Starter at $0 plus state fees, with Pro at $199 and Premium at $299 plus state fees, renewing at $199 and $299 a year, and none of the three includes a registered agent, which is a $199 per year add-on. LegalZoom’s page shows Managed Service renewing at $49 a month and Expert Service at $99 a month unless canceled, so check the order screen for what is really in each package. None of these pages showed the Texas filing fee except Northwest’s, so the $300 comes from the Secretary of State, not the service.
Package tiers, add-ons and renewals can change at checkout, so treat this as a snapshot as of November 2026, not a quote. If you want to see what a code or trial actually does on one of these services, my ZenBusiness promo code post explains what is verified and what a formation really costs.
Worked Cost Scenarios (Examples Only)
The scenarios below use only numbers from the pages above, and I have labeled my assumptions. They are examples, not a recommendation. Fees in a real order can differ.
| Scenario | Arithmetic | Year-one cost |
|---|---|---|
| A. File it yourself, you are the agent | $300 | $300 |
| B. File yourself, reserve the name, standard expedite | $300 + $40 + $50 | $390 |
| C. Northwest formation, card fee on the state fee only (assumption) | $39 + $310 | $349 |
| D. Bizee Basic | $0 + $300 (agent free year one) | $300 |
| E. Bizee Standard | $199 + $300 | $499 |
| F. ZenBusiness Starter plus its listed agent service | $0 + $300 + $199 | $499 |
| G. LegalZoom Managed Service | $249 + $300 | $549 |
Scenario C assumes Northwest’s card fee applies only to the $300 state fee, which its page does not confirm. Scenario F assumes you buy the agent service on top of the free Starter plan, because the ZenBusiness page lists the agent as a separate $199 item. Scenario D is the lowest paid-service number on these pages, but it relies on the first-year agent being free, and you would then need an agent plan for year two that the Bizee pages I loaded did not price.
Now the three-year view, which is the one I care about for a store that will exist for years. I am assuming no expedite, no name reservation, no copies and no change of agent, and I count only the state fee and a commercial agent where noted.
| Path | Arithmetic | Three-year cost |
|---|---|---|
| You as your own agent | $300 + $0 + $0 | $300 |
| Northwest formation, then its $125 agent price in years two and three | $39 + $300 + $125 + $125 | $589 |
| Free ZenBusiness plan with its $199 agent every year | $300 + 3 x $199 | $897 |
The gap between $300 and $897 is almost entirely the registered agent decision, not the state fee. If you want a few more sets of figures for other states side by side, my general guide to what it costs to form an LLC covers the same steps outside Texas. Texas looks cheap on the recurring side next to a state with a large annual tax, which I covered in my California LLC fees post.
Costs Outside the State Fee
The state fee and the agent are the parts of the Texas LLC cost you can verify on a government page. A working store has other formation-adjacent costs that I did not price from official pages, so I am listing them as a checklist, not as numbers.
- Operating agreement: not filed with the state; cost depends on whether you use a template or a lawyer.
- Business bank account and payment processing: usually need your formation paperwork; fees vary by provider. Payment costs are part of your store’s margin and worth modeling early.
- Business address: if you do not want a home address on records, a mailbox or virtual address is a separate cost I compared in my best virtual business address for an LLC post.
- Sales tax registration and filing: a separate registration and filing process through the Texas Comptroller that I did not research or price here. If you sell physical products, find out what applies to you before your first sale.
Some wholesale suppliers and marketplaces ask for proof of a registered business, so the certificate of fact I mentioned earlier is the cheap document to order when someone asks.
If you are still deciding what to sell, start with my guide to high-ticket dropshipping.
My list of high-ticket niches helps you choose a category.
Once you have a niche, the step-by-step supplier guide covers the sourcing side, which is where a registered entity often comes up.
My Take: Where the Money Goes
This is opinion, not advice. For a small Texas store, the state fee is not the number that decides your total. The $300 is fixed, the franchise tax is $0 below the threshold, and the swing items are the registered agent, any rush fee and whichever formation package you buy. If you are comfortable being your own agent and your address is not a concern, the Texas state cost is the lowest it can be. If you want privacy and mail handling, price a commercial agent for all three years, not just the first.
The other thing I would do is put the May 15 report on your calendar the day the LLC is approved. The report costs nothing on the pages I loaded, but a missed filing is the kind of mistake that is far more expensive than the fee you saved by skipping a reminder.
If you would rather have help deciding on structure, a niche and a first supplier, that is what my private coaching is for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to form an LLC in Texas?
As of November 2026 the Texas Secretary of State fee for the Certificate of Formation (Form 205) is $300. Optional extras include a $40 name reservation, expedite fees of $50, $500 or $750, and certified copies at $1 per page plus $15 per certificate. A formation service adds its own fee on top.
Does a Texas LLC pay an annual fee to the state?
There is no flat annual LLC fee on the pages I loaded. The recurring state task is the Comptroller franchise tax report, due May 15. An LLC at or below $2,650,000 in annualized revenue (2026 and 2027 reports) owes no tax but still files a Public Information Report. Confirm the threshold and your due date on the Comptroller’s site.
Do I need a registered agent for a Texas LLC?
Yes. Form 205 requires a registered agent with a Texas address who has consented to the role. The agent can be an organization other than the LLC itself or an individual Texas resident. Commercial agents showed prices of $125 and $199 per year on the pages I loaded, and a change of agent costs $15 at the state.
Does Texas have a state income tax?
The Texas Comptroller’s “Starting a New Business” article says Texas has no personal income tax, though that article dates from 2016. Federal taxes and the franchise tax report still apply, so talk to a CPA about your own situation. This is not legal or tax advice.
Is a formation service cheaper than filing myself?
Not on the state fee, because the $300 is the same either way. A service can save time, and some show a $0 package, but they may charge for registered agent service after the first year. Compare the total over three years, as in the scenarios above, and confirm current prices at checkout.
Related Articles
If you are building a store on top of a Texas entity, these posts cover the next decisions.
- How to Form an LLC in Texas: Step-by-Step Guide for Ecommerce Businesses
- Texas LLC vs Delaware LLC: Which Should You Choose?
- LLC Fees by State in 2026
- How Long Does It Take to Get an LLC Before You Launch Your Store?
- Best Virtual Business Address for an LLC in 2026
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.
