Search "cheapest LLC formation" and the first page is dominated by offers advertising $0 or $39 formation. None of them are lying, exactly — the state filing fee genuinely can be the only cost at the moment you click "start." What they don't put in the headline is everything that gets billed in month two, month twelve, or the first time you need a document that used to be a free download and is now a $25 add-on. This article goes through those charges one at a time, so you can read any formation offer and know within a minute what it will actually cost you in year one.
Why "$0 LLC formation" is never really $0
The number in the advertisement is almost always the provider's own service fee, with the state's mandatory filing fee stripped out and shown separately — or not shown at all until checkout. Every state charges a fee to file Articles of Organization, ranging from around $50 in Kentucky to $500 in Massachusetts, and no provider, however generous, can waive it. If an ad genuinely says "$0 plus state fees," that's honest marketing. If it just says "$0 LLC," read the checkout page carefully before assuming the state fee is included.
The state filing fee: the one true baseline
This is the only cost in the entire process that's fixed, public and identical no matter which provider you use, because it's paid to the state government, not to the formation company. If two providers quote wildly different "total" prices for forming in the same state, the difference is entirely in their service fee and add-ons, not in what the state charges. Our state-by-state cost breakdown in what a US LLC actually costs in 2026 lists the current filing fee for every state, which is worth checking independently before trusting any single provider's advertised total.
It's worth checking the state's own filing portal directly at least once, even if you plan to use a formation service. Not because you need to file it yourself, but because seeing the real fee in black and white makes it much easier to spot when a provider has quietly inflated it — a practice that does happen, particularly with providers that process the filing on your behalf and simply pass along a marked-up "state fee" line that's $20–$50 higher than what the state actually charges. A quick cross-check takes two minutes and can save real money on states with higher filing fees, such as Massachusetts or California.
Registered agent: the recurring fee they bury
Almost every "free" or "$0" formation package includes one free year of registered agent service — then renews automatically at $100–$250 a year, often billed to the card on file without much warning. This is usually the single largest recurring cost in owning the LLC, and it's mandatory in every state, so it can't be declined. What actually makes the registered agent role worth the price, rather than a fee to just tolerate, is explained in our guide to what a registered agent does and why you cannot skip one. When comparing offers, always ask for the year-two price, not just the year-one promotional rate.
Watch, too, for auto-renewal terms that lock in a multi-year commitment at signup. Some providers offer a steep discount if you prepay two or three years of registered agent service upfront, which can be a genuinely good deal if you're confident you'll keep the LLC that long, but becomes an expensive mistake if you later dissolve the company or switch states. If there's any chance the business might not last three years, a rolling annual plan is usually the safer choice even at a slightly higher per-year price.
The EIN "expedite" and "assistance" upsell
Getting an Employer Identification Number from the IRS is free if you apply yourself, whether online (for those with an SSN) or by fax or mail (for non-residents without one). Plenty of formation packages charge $50–$150 to "handle" this for you, framing IRS's own free service as a premium add-on. There's a legitimate version of this — if you have no SSN or ITIN, correctly completing Form SS-4 and knowing where to fax it does save real time and avoids rejected applications — but the fee should reflect that expertise, not just filling in a form the IRS gives away.
Compliance and annual report "reminder" fees
Most states require an annual or biennial report to keep the LLC in good standing, with its own separate state fee. Providers often charge an extra $50–$100 on top of that state fee just to "remind" you and submit it on your behalf — a service that, in states with a simple online renewal, takes most founders under ten minutes to do themselves once they know the deadline. The compliance calendar in our piece on the annual compliance calendar for a foreign-owned LLC lays out exactly what's due and when, which is often enough to skip this add-on entirely.
Templates that should be free but aren't
An operating agreement template, a banking resolution letter, an EIN confirmation reprint — these are simple documents that many providers charge $20–$75 each to generate, despite them being largely boilerplate. A single-member operating agreement in particular is not legally required to be filed anywhere, so paying a premium for a templated version of it is rarely worth it; our breakdown of what belongs in a single-member LLC operating agreement covers what the document actually needs to contain if you want to draft or adapt one yourself.
Mail scanning and virtual address mark-ups
Because non-resident founders need a US mailing address for banking and IRS correspondence, providers frequently bundle a "virtual mailbox" into their package at two or three times the price of a dedicated mail-forwarding service bought separately. It's a convenience worth paying something for, but check the per-item scanning fee and monthly cap before assuming the bundled price is competitive — some charge per piece of mail scanned once you exceed a low monthly allowance.
Also check what happens to physical forwarding, not just scanning. A scanned PDF is fine for reading a letter, but if a bank or the IRS sends something that needs to be physically mailed onward — a replacement card, an original signed notice — some cheaper plans charge $5–$15 per forwarded item on top of the monthly fee, plus postage at cost. If you expect to receive physical mail regularly rather than the occasional letter, work out the per-item forwarding cost before comparing two providers' monthly base price, since that's often where the real difference in annual cost sits.
Bank referral commissions dressed up as "concierge banking"
Several formation providers promote "guaranteed bank account approval" as part of a premium tier. In most cases this is simply a referral relationship with a fintech like Mercury or Wise, who accept qualified applications regardless of which formation company you used. Paying extra for "guaranteed approval" rarely changes your actual odds — approval depends on your business description and documents being complete and accurate, not on which formation company introduced you. Our Mercury or Wise comparison is a better use of the same ten minutes.
What a realistic first-year total looks like
Putting the pieces together, here's what a cheap-looking offer typically becomes once the recurring and add-on charges are counted for the first year:
| Line item | Advertised as | Typical real first-year cost |
|---|---|---|
| State filing fee | Often excluded from headline price | $50–$500 depending on state |
| Formation service fee | "$0" or "$39" | $0–$150 (genuinely one-time) |
| Registered agent, year one | "Free for 12 months" | $0 (but renews at $100–$250) |
| EIN assistance | Optional add-on | $0 if self-filed, $50–$150 if paid |
| Operating agreement template | Optional add-on | $0–$75 |
| Virtual mailbox | Bundled or optional | $120–$360/year |
A package that looked like "$0 LLC" at checkout can easily land between $250 and $700 once everything a non-resident founder actually needs is added up over twelve months — not a scandal, just not what the headline number implied. None of these figures are exact for every provider or state, and pricing shifts often enough that it's worth treating the table as a way to structure your own comparison rather than a quote to hold any one company to.
How to compare two offers apples-to-apples
Rather than comparing headline prices, ask each provider for four numbers: the state filing fee (should be identical for the same state), the registered agent renewal price after year one, whether EIN assistance is included or extra, and whether there's a cap or per-item charge on mail scanning. Two providers that looked $150 apart at checkout often turn out to be within $20 of each other once those four numbers are compared directly — and occasionally the "cheaper" one is more expensive by month thirteen.
A useful trick is to ask support chat directly for a written quote covering "everything I'll pay in the first 24 months, including renewals," before signing up. Providers with nothing to hide will usually answer clearly within a message or two. Vague answers, or being redirected to a pricing page that doesn't actually list renewal terms, is itself useful information about how the rest of the relationship is likely to go once you're a paying, harder-to-leave customer.
When paying more upfront is genuinely the better deal
Not every add-on is a trap. If you have no SSN or ITIN, professional help correctly filing Form SS-4 by fax can save two or three weeks of back-and-forth with the IRS compared with a rejected first attempt — a real, defensible fee for a real problem. Similarly, a bundled registered agent plus mail service from a single provider can be simpler to manage than three separate subscriptions, even if it costs a little more, if consolidation genuinely saves you time you'd rather spend elsewhere. The goal isn't to avoid every add-on; it's to know which ones are solving a real problem for you specifically, rather than a generic one most founders don't have.
The same logic applies to compliance filing reminders. A founder juggling formation across two or three jurisdictions, or simply someone who knows they're likely to forget a date buried in a calendar app, may reasonably decide that paying $75 a year for a service that guarantees the annual report gets filed on time is cheaper than risking the late fee and administrative dissolution that follows a missed deadline in some states. The fee is only "hidden" in the sense that it isn't in the headline price — once you know it exists and can weigh it against your own risk of forgetting, it's a perfectly rational thing to pay for.
Frequently asked questions
Is a $0 LLC formation offer a scam?
No, it's usually accurate marketing for the provider's own service fee, with the mandatory state filing fee charged separately at checkout. It becomes misleading only if the state fee and first-year registered agent renewal aren't disclosed clearly before you pay, which is worth checking on any offer before committing.
What's the one fee I should always ask about before signing up?
The registered agent renewal price after the first free year, since it's mandatory, recurring, and the figure most often buried in fine print. A provider that's transparent about this number upfront is usually transparent about the rest of its pricing too.
Do I need to pay for EIN assistance, or can I do it myself?
You can apply for an EIN yourself directly through the IRS at no cost, whether online with an SSN or by fax or mail without one. Paid assistance is worth considering only if you have no SSN or ITIN and want to reduce the risk of a rejected first submission, which is a real but optional convenience.
Should I avoid the cheapest provider entirely?
Not necessarily — many low headline-price providers are perfectly reliable once you know their real year-two costs. The mistake is comparing headline prices instead of full first-year totals, since that's where genuinely cheap offers and misleadingly cheap ones look identical at first glance.