Free LLC cost calculator · all 50 states + DC

North Carolina LLC Cost Calculator

How much it costs to start and keep an LLC in North Carolina: every state fee, line by line, with official sources.

Reviewed by Alejandro Amador · State fees verified October 2026

Calculate your LLC costs

State

State fees verified October 2026 · official source

Quick fit check

Four taps for a recommendation based on your situation.

Where will you run the business?

Is someone there every business day, 9–5?

Who'll handle the yearly state filings?

When do you want to form it?

Show totals for

First year total

$364–$424

North Carolina LLC, with a formation service ·

Each year after: $325–$399
3-year total: $1,014–$1,222

North Carolina approves online filings in about 5–10 business days · rush: within 24 hours for $100

#41 of 51 states for lowest first-year state fees

Our pick

Northwest Registered Agent

Answer the fit check for a recommendation based on your situation.

Northwest Registered Agent: $39 + state fees, a year of registered agent included ($39 more than filing yourself).

File with Northwest Compare with other services

Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Commissions don't change our numbers or picks.

What you get

Your home address off public records. They list their business address on your filings instead of yours, automatically.
1 year of registered agent included. Then $125/yr, a price they say they haven't raised in 20 years. Cancel online, no fee.
Lawsuits and state notices within the hour. Legal documents are scanned to your account within an hour (24 hours max on busy days).
Annual report reminders. They remind you before each deadline, and can file it for you for $100 + state fees (you can opt out).

3 more + fine print

✓ Real people, same-day email replies. A person answers calls and emails; they say all emails get a same-day reply.
✓ Business phone line, email and domain. A local-number phone line, an email inbox and a domain are included.
✓ Your data isn't sold. They state they don't sell customer data.
· EIN not included ($50 if you want them to get it; it's free from the IRS).
· Mail scanning covers 5 non-legal items a year, then $15 per document.
· Purchases are non-refundable after 90 days; state fees are never refunded.
Source: northwestregisteredagent.com, Oct 2026.

Your North Carolina LLC, done for you

Do it yourself

$325 first year

Pro: Lowest cost: state fees only
Con: You research and fill in the North Carolina forms
Con: Your home address goes on the public record
Con: You track annual reports and deadlines yourself

See everything filing yourself involves ↓Official North Carolina filing site

Have it done for you

from $364 first year

Only $39 more than doing it yourself, private address included

Pro: You answer a short questionnaire; they prepare and file
Pro: Their registered agent address, not your home

Northwest Registered Agent$364 yr 1 · $325/yr after
- · 1 year of registered agent included
- · Their address on the public record, not yours
File with Northwest
ZenBusiness$424 yr 1 · $399/yr after
- · $0 formation, submitted within 7–10 business days
- · 1 year of annual report filing
Go with ZenBusiness

Disclosure: affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no cost to you. It never changes the numbers above. Service prices exclude add-ons and were checked Northwest northwestregisteredagent.com, Oct 2026; ZenBusiness zenbusiness.com, Oct 2026. Confirm at checkout.

What filing yourself in North Carolina actually involves

The state fee is the easy part. Here's everything else, and what a formation service takes off your plate.

1
Check your name is available
Easy
Yourself: Search the North Carolina business database and make sure the name follows state naming rules.
No rejected names
With a service: They check availability and naming rules before filing.
2
File your formation document ($125 state fee)
Some work
Yourself: Create an account on the North Carolina filing site, fill in the form and pay. If something's wrong it gets rejected and you refile.
Saves time, fewer mistakes
With a service: You answer a short questionnaire; they prepare and submit it.
3
Name a registered agent
Ongoing hassle
Yourself: List an address in the state where someone is available every business day to accept lawsuits and state notices. If it's your home, it becomes public.
Keeps your home address private
With a service: Their address goes on the public record; they receive legal mail and forward it to you.
4
Get an EIN from the IRS
Easy
Yourself: Free on irs.gov; the online form takes about 15 minutes.
Small convenience
With a service: Some plans include it, but it's free to do yourself.
5
Write an operating agreement
Some work
Yourself: Find a template and adapt it. Banks often ask for one when you open a business account.
Ready-made document
With a service: Included in some plans.
6
Every year: file on time to keep your LLC
Ongoing hassle
Yourself: Track each deadline yourself (Annual report ($200, paper or online) due by April 15 each year). If you miss them: the SOS sends a Notice of Grounds for Administrative Dissolution.
No missed deadlines
With a service: Deadline reminders, or the filing itself, depending on the plan.

North Carolina deadlines you'd be tracking

Annual report: Annual report ($200, paper or online) due by April 15 each year.
First one due: By April 15 of the year after formation.
If you're late: No late fee. The SOS LLC fee schedule lists none. An unpaid report becomes grounds for dissolution once it is more than 60 days past due.
If you ignore it: The SOS sends a Notice of Grounds for Administrative Dissolution. The LLC has 60 consecutive days from the date of the letter to cure, or it is administratively dissolved.
Getting reinstated: $100 state fee, plus any back reports, taxes and penalties

Checked against official state sources, October 2026. Source

Doing it yourself makes sense if…

· You don't mind your address on the public record
· Someone is at that address every business day
· You're comfortable with government forms
· You'll set reminders for every annual deadline

A service makes sense if…

· You work from home or rent, and want your address private
· You travel or aren't reliably available during business hours
· You'd rather not learn the state's forms and rules
· You want reminders so you never miss a filing

See Northwest's LLC service

Affiliate link; we may earn a commission at no cost to you.

Line item	Year 1	Per year after
State filing fee	$125	$0
Annual / periodic report Details Due April 15 each year; first report due the calendar year after formation. Same fee for paper or online. Online filing adds a $2 (ACH) or $3 (credit card) electronic filing fee. Non-filing can lead to administrative dissolution; reinstatement application fee is $100 plus past-due reports.	$200	$200
Formation service + registered agentoptional Details Northwest or ZenBusiness. Northwest: $39 formation, agent included year 1, then $125/yr; ZenBusiness: $0 formation, agent $99/yr, then $199/yr.	$39–$99	$125–$199
Total	$364–$424	$325–$399

Recurring fees are counted in year 1 to be safe; some states first bill in year 2. Biennial fees count as half per year; the 3-year total uses exact payment counts. An EIN from the IRS is free.

Ready to form your North Carolina LLC?

A formation service files it and keeps your home address off the public record. Affiliate links; we may earn a commission.

File with Northwest ZenBusiness

Compare states

Add up to two states to see them side by side with the same options.

Thinking of forming in another state?

If you operate in North Carolina but form elsewhere, you also register in North Carolina as a “foreign” LLC and pay both states every year.

Form inand operate in North Carolina

Form in North Carolina

$1,025–$1,924

3-year total

Form in Delaware

$2,765–$4,309

3-year total, both states

Forming in Delaware costs about $1,740–$2,385 more over 3 years, with no tax savings for a business that operates in North Carolina.

See the Delaware + North Carolina breakdown

Line item	Year 1	Per year after
Delaware: State filing fee	$110	$0
Delaware: Annual LLC Tax Details Raised from $300 to $400 by HB 400 (2026), effective for the 2026 tax year (first $400 payment due June 1, 2027; the June 1, 2026 payment for tax year 2025 was $300). Due June 1 for the prior year; $200 late penalty + 1.5%/month interest on tax and penalty.	$400	$400
Delaware: Formation service feeoptional	$0–$299	$0
Delaware: registered agent (required)	$100–$300	$100–$300
North Carolina: foreign registration	$250	$0
Delaware: certificate of good standing	$5–$50	$0
North Carolina: Annual / periodic report Details Due April 15 each year; first report due the calendar year after formation. Same fee for paper or online. Online filing adds a $2 (ACH) or $3 (credit card) electronic filing fee. Non-filing can lead to administrative dissolution; reinstatement application fee is $100 plus past-due reports.	$200	$200
North Carolina: registered agent serviceoptional	$100–$300	$100–$300

Includes a commercial registered agent in Delaware, since you won't have an address there. North Carolina also asks for a certificate of good standing from Delaware. Delaware or Wyoming mainly make sense for venture-funded startups or specific legal needs.

First-year cost by state

Filing yourself, state fees only. Click a state.

North Carolina: $325 first year · $200/yr after

$0–$79
$80–$154
$155–$199
$200–$324
$325+

All 50 states and DC

Filing yourself and acting as your own registered agent. Click a column to sort. ● = fees changed in 2025–2026.


Arizona	$50	$50	$0	$50
Mississippi	$50	$50	$0	$50
Missouri	$50	$50	$0	$50
New Mexico	$50	$50	$0	$50
Kentucky	$40	$55	$15	$115
Montana●	$35	$55	$20	$135
Hawaii	$51	$66	$15	$126
Colorado	$50	$75	$25	$175
Michigan	$50	$75	$25	$175
Utah	$59	$77	$18	$149
Iowa	$50	$80	$15	$140
Ohio	$99	$99	$0	$99
Idaho	$100	$100	$0	$100
South Carolina	$110	$110	$0	$110
Oklahoma	$100	$125	$25	$225
West Virginia	$100	$125	$25	$225
Indiana	$95	$127	$16	$191
Pennsylvania	$125	$132	$7	$160
Virginia	$100	$150	$50	$350
Minnesota	$155	$155	$0	$155
Wisconsin	$130	$155	$25	$255
Louisiana●	$125	$160	$35	$300
Wyoming●	$100	$160	$60	$400
Georgia●	$110	$170	$60	$410
Kansas●	$85	$175	$45	$355
Nebraska	$100	$175	$13	$225
New Jersey●	$100	$175	$75+	$475
North Dakota	$135	$185	$50	$385
Arkansas	$45	$195	$150	$795
Alabama	$200	$200	$0+	$200
Connecticut	$120	$200	$80	$520
New Hampshire	$100	$200	$100+	$600
Oregon	$100	$200	$100	$600
Vermont	$155	$200	$45	$380
South Dakota	$150	$205	$55	$425
Illinois	$150	$225	$75	$525
Washington	$180	$250	$70	$530
Maine	$175	$260	$85	$600
Florida	$125	$264	$139	$819
Texas●	$300	$300	$0+	$300
North Carolina	$125	$325	$200	$1,125
District of Columbia	$99	$399	$150	$999
Alaska	$250	$400	$100	$800
Maryland	$100	$400	$300	$1,600
New York	$200	$409	$5+	$427
Nevada	$75	$425	$350+	$1,825
Delaware●	$110	$510	$400	$2,110
Rhode Island	$150	$600	$450	$2,400
Tennessee	$300	$700	$400+	$2,300
California●	$70	$890	$810+	$4,130
Massachusetts	$500	$1,000	$500	$3,000

+ = plus taxes that depend on income or ownership (see the state page).

North Carolina LLC fees explained

Filing directly with the state, a North Carolina LLC costs $325 in the first year and $200 a year after that. That's $150 more than the median state ($175), ranking #41 of 51 for lowest first-year cost.

Articles of organization: $125
Name reservation (optional): $10
Annual / periodic report: $200 per year. Due April 15 each year; first report due the calendar year after formation. Same fee for paper or online. Online filing adds a $2 (ACH) or $3 (credit card) electronic filing fee. Non-filing can lead to administrative dissolution; reinstatement application fee is $100 plus past-due reports.
Newspaper publication: not required
Expedited filing: 24-hour $100; same-day $200 (must be received by noon)

Online filings add a non-refundable electronic fee: $3 by credit card, $2 by ACH. The official fee page lists name reservation at $10; many aggregators say $30, so the official figure is used. The April 15 due date comes from secondary sources and NC practice; the official pages fetched did not state it.

Sources

Compiled October 2026. Formation and recurring fees confirmed on official state sources.

How this calculator works

State fees come from each state's Secretary of State (or equivalent) fee schedule, compiled in October 2026. Each state page lists the sources used. Where an official page couldn't be confirmed, the page says so.

Filing fee: the standard online fee for a domestic LLC's articles of organization (or certificate of formation).
Recurring state costs: annual or biennial reports, franchise or privilege taxes and required state licenses. They're counted in the first year to be conservative.
Publication: a few states require you to publish a notice in local newspapers. Cost varies by county, so it's shown as a range.
Services: prices come from the providers' own sites (Northwest Registered Agent, ZenBusiness), checked October 2026. Ranges span real offers, for example a $39 formation with a year of registered agent included versus a $0 formation plus a $199/yr agent.

Not included: federal and state income taxes, local business licenses, professional licenses and sales tax permits, which depend on your business and city.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to pay for an EIN?

No. An Employer Identification Number is free directly from the IRS. Services that charge for it are only filling in the form for you.

Can I be my own registered agent?

Usually yes, if you have a physical address in the state and are available during business hours. That address becomes part of the public record, which is why many owners use a service.

Should I form my LLC in Delaware or Wyoming instead?

For most small businesses, no. If you operate in your home state you'll typically have to register there as a foreign LLC anyway, paying both states' fees.