The full Delaware LLC cost table
| Cost | Amount | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware state filing fee | $110 one-time | Yes |
| Recurring state cost | $400/yr — Annual Tax (flat) | Yes |
| Registered agent | $0 as your own agent, or ~$125/yr for a service | Yes (one or the other) |
| EIN (federal tax ID) | $0 direct from the IRS | Usually |
| First-year total | $510 as your own agent · $635 with a service | — |
| Five-year total | $2,110 as your own agent · $2,735 with a service | — |
Flat $400 annual tax for LLCs (raised from $300 by HB 400 in 2026; not the share-based corporate franchise tax); due June 1.
The $400 is the whole story
Delaware LLCs file no annual report. What they pay instead is a flat $400 annual tax, due on or before June 1 for the prior calendar year, paid online through the Division of Corporations' tax portal. The Division's own instructions add three sentences that decide most of the cost questions on this page: the tax is assessed if the entity is active on the state's records at any time between January 1 and December 31; there is no proration; and failure to pay by June 1 brings a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest per month on tax and penalty combined. The rate rose from $300 under House Bill 400, signed in May 2026 — the June 2026 payment (for 2025) was the last at $300, and the first $400 bill is due June 1, 2027. Compared with the $138.75 Florida charges or the $0 Texas asks of most small LLCs, it is the second-highest fixed recurring cost of any state on this site after California's $800 minimum franchise tax.
Why 'forming in Delaware' costs a second set of fees
Delaware's $400 buys the Court of Chancery, investor familiarity and an LLC statute drafted for flexibility. It does not buy the right to do business anywhere else. An LLC formed in Delaware but run from Ohio, Texas or California must register as a foreign LLC in that state and pay that state's fees too — Texas charges $750 to register a foreign LLC, California adds its $800 minimum tax to any LLC doing business there. So a Delaware LLC operating elsewhere carries two registered agents (~$125 each), two annual bills, and two sets of paperwork. For a venture-backed startup whose investors require Delaware, that is the cost of doing business; for a one-person consultancy in Georgia, it is roughly $400 a year of Delaware branding on top of Georgia's $60. Our best-state analysis runs the arithmetic for every state.
Every other Delaware LLC fee, from the August 2026 schedule
The Division of Corporations revised its fee schedule on August 1, 2026, and it separates the filing fee from expedite fees and certified copies more clearly than most states. These are the LLC lines, checked September 12, 2026 against the schedule PDF. Note that the Division files by mail, fax or through your registered agent — Delaware has no free public online formation portal — which is why nearly every Delaware LLC pays an agent to file.
| Filing | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Formation (domestic LLC) | $110 | Filed by mail, fax or through a registered agent; includes the municipality fee |
| Foreign LLC Certificate of Registration | $200 | For an out-of-state LLC registering to do business in Delaware |
| Annual tax (every June 1) | $400 | No annual report; no proration; assessed for any year the LLC is active on the records |
| Late payment of the annual tax | $200 + 1.5%/month | Penalty added June 2; interest on tax and penalty |
| Change of Agent Only Amendment | $50 | Switching registered agents |
| Certificate of Amendment (domestic) | $220 | Name change or any other change to the certificate |
| Certificate of Cancellation (domestic) | $220 | Plus all annual tax due through the cancellation date |
| Revival of a domestic LLC | $220 | Plus all unpaid tax, penalty and interest |
| Certified copy of any filing | $50 | Per document, plus $2 per page |
| Certificate of good standing (short form) | $50 | Banks and out-of-state registrations ask for this |
| Name reservation (120 days) | $75 | Optional; also $75 to transfer or cancel |
| Same-day expedite on a formation | $100 | Received by 2:00 pm Eastern; $200 on most other LLC filings |
| 24-hour expedite on a formation | $50 | $100 on most other LLC filings |
| 2-hour / 1-hour priority service | $500 / $1,000 | Per document, on top of the filing fee |
Two lines deserve a second look. The Certificate of Cancellation is $220 plus all annual tax through the cancellation date — and because 6 Del. C. §18-1107 makes the $400 due upon cancellation, closing a Delaware LLC realistically costs $620 at minimum, which we walk through in our Delaware dissolution guide. And the expedite tiers are real: Delaware is the one state that will file your LLC within the hour for $1,000, which is why same-day Delaware formations are a standard offer from the big agents. A routine formation with no expedite is still processed within days.
The first-year bill, worked
Form on any date in 2026 and the sequence is: $110 to the Division at formation, an agent's fee if you use one (Northwest includes the first year in its $39; most agents charge $50–$300 a year after), then $400 on June 1, 2027 for tax year 2026 — regardless of whether the LLC formed in January or December, and regardless of whether it earned a dollar. Miss that date and it is $600 plus interest on June 2. The one cost Delaware never charges is the one most states do: there is no annual report fee, no publication requirement, and no state income tax on an LLC that earns nothing in Delaware — so for an out-of-state owner the $400 and the agent are, in practice, the entire recurring Delaware cost.
Our LLC cost calculator computes first-year and five-year totals for all 51 jurisdictions from the same verified dataset as this page — including Delaware — and the full table is downloadable as CSV.