The total-cost calculator — first year, and every year after
The formation fee alone is how founders get surprised. Pick a state and how you want to pay the membership, and this page works the full arithmetic from the same verified dataset the Atlas is built on: the membership on its own line, the state's charges on their own lines, the first-year total, and the ongoing annual total — so "cheap to form" and "cheap to keep" are never confused again.
Every state figure is read at run time from this site's verified dataset — formation fees checked 2026-11-03 and ongoing duties checked 2026-11-04 against official state sources, with the source recorded on each state's sheet. The only other figures are the published membership prices: $399/yr on the annual plan, or $39/mo on the monthly plan with a 12-month minimum term. No figure appears here that is not in that dataset or in those published prices. Coverage is 50 states + DC; Wyoming and Delaware are priced from the same verified dataset as every other state.
The membership — the same in every covered state
$399/yr or $39/mo (12-month minimum on the monthly plan) — formation in your chosen covered state, registered agent for year one, and the EIN included in year one; renewals keep the agent, the annual state filing service, and the compliance calendar running. Your state's filing fee and duty are pass-throughs at cost, on top of the membership — they are the separate lines above, never folded into the membership line.
Start my LLC See pricing in full
Not decided on the state yet? Run the state-picker — it ranks covered states on these same verified figures — or read the Non-Resident's Handbook, which puts the whole route in one place.
How to read the two totals
The first-year total is the membership for year one plus the state's formation fee. Year one includes the formation filing, the registered agent for year one, and the EIN, including the without-SSN route, for an entity this service forms.
The ongoing annual total is the membership renewal plus the state's duty, annualised from the verified dataset (a biennial duty is shown at half its two-year cost a year, the same annualisation the Atlas uses). Each renewal buys three things, itemised: registered-agent renewal, the annual state filing service, and the compliance calendar. The state's own fee for its duty stays a pass-through at cost.
That split is the point of this page. California's formation fee is small and its annual franchise tax is not; Massachusetts charges heavily at both ends; Montana is light at both. The state sheets carry the duty in full and the official source for every figure — start from your result's sheet link, or compare states side by side in the Ledger.
Wyoming and Delaware are priced by this calculator from the verified dataset — coverage is 50 states + DC, at joining and at every renewal. Puerto Rico is not served by this business. Mail handling is not part of this membership.