Best Bank Accounts for Your LLC

Best bank accounts for LLCs, ranked (2026)

Mercury and Relay tie for the top nationwide score at 85 points, on identical scored facts. Their other published terms differ, so compare the partner banks and sub-account limits in the table. That score is the ceiling on this page rather than a clean sweep: it leaves every branch point and a third of the deposit-insurance points on the table, for the reasons set out under the methodology below. This nationwide view is not the whole answer either: branch presence is defined per state, so it scores zero for every provider here, and that is the one signal the 3 chartered banks earn points on. Select your state above to rank them on branches you can actually walk into.

How we rank business bank accounts for LLCs

Each account is scored across six signals. The points below are the maximum each signal is worth. Deposit insurance and branch presence are applied as they stand; the other four are then weighted by how much each matters for that kind of provider. Two things that weighting does not do, because the raw fact decides first: a provider that is not online-only scores zero for online opening whatever its weight says, and a traditional bank with no monthly fee keeps every no-fee point. U.S. Bank does exactly that. Deposit insurance is not weighted, but it is not flat either: 15 points where the provider is itself the insured bank, 10 where deposits sit at a partner bank under pass-through coverage. After weighting, the highest score any account on this page can reach is 85, not 100. That ceiling is simply the best any provider here achieves, so the top-ranked account scores all of it. It is not a score that means every criterion was met: the leader forfeits every branch point and a third of the deposit-insurance points.

Branch counts come from the FDIC BankFind Suite, locations endpoint, snapshot 08/21/2026, counting full-service brick-and-mortar offices. FDIC office counts are chartered-office counts and will not match a bank's own marketing branch count, which uses no published definition. Account terms were read from each provider's own pricing and legal pages on 2026-08-21; where a provider publishes no answer, this page makes no claim. The same snapshot records 71,985 full-service branches nationally across 4,242 active FDIC-insured institutions, which is the denominator each state page states its own branch counts against.

Best bank account for a single-member LLC

The signal most single-member owners expect to matter does not separate anything here. All 9 providers on this page support multi-member LLCs, so a solo owner is not choosing from a shorter list than a partnership is. What actually differs for one owner is price and how the account opens.

7 of the 9 charge nothing per month on their entry-level plan, with no balance condition attached (Mercury, Relay, Novo, Lili, Found, Bluevine and U.S. Bank). Several of them also sell paid tiers; the figure scored here is the cheapest plan each one publishes. The other 2 charge a fee and then waive it on a balance: Chase at $15 a month unless the account holds $2,000, and Bank of America at $16 a month unless the account holds $5,000. For a one-owner LLC billing a handful of clients a month, that threshold is the whole decision. Stay below it and the fee costs $180 or $192 a year for an account 7 other providers here give you for nothing.

All 9 providers here carry no minimum ongoing balance, so none of them closes the account or charges a shortfall for sitting at zero. That is not the same as free at zero: the Chase and Bank of America waivers are exactly what a zero balance loses, which is why the fee column and the balance column answer different questions. An EIN is free from the IRS and worth getting even where a bank would accept your SSN, because it keeps the account, the tax filings and the LLC in one name.

Best bank account for a new LLC

A brand new LLC is choosing on two things it has none of yet: cash to park and time to spend in a branch. 8 of the 9 providers open with nothing down. The exception is U.S. Bank, which asks for $25 to open.

6 of them open entirely online, which is what matters in the week your Articles of Organization come back from the state and you are still waiting to get paid. The other 3 are the chartered banks, and each has its own limit on opening without a branch visit:

• Chase: Chase does not support online opening for multi-member or multi-manager LLCs; every member or manager must attend a branch in person.
• Bank of America: Most applications complete online, but Bank of America states some complex business types require a visit to a financial center.
• U.S. Bank: U.S. Bank markets a 26-state branch network, though the FDIC records full-service offices in 29 states. It does not publish whether a business outside that footprint can open an account online, so confirm before applying.

A branch is worth the monthly fee only if there is one near you, which is the number the state selector adds to the score.

Best business checking account for a small business LLC

Once an LLC has revenue, two things start to matter that a first account does not need. The first is sub-accounts, separate account numbers you can route payroll, sales tax and an owner draw into rather than doing that arithmetic in a spreadsheet. 5 of the 9 publish them (Mercury, Relay, Found, Bluevine and Bank of America). Chase and U.S. Bank publish no answer either way, so this page makes no claim for them rather than reading their silence as a no.

The second is who is actually holding the money. 3 of the 9 are themselves FDIC-insured depository institutions (Chase, Bank of America and U.S. Bank). The other 6 are technology companies, not banks; their customers' deposits sit at named partner banks, and coverage reaches the customer only if the partner bank fails and the pass-through conditions were met. That is why the scoring does not treat the two as the same product. The same 3 are the ones that originate SBA loans (Chase, Bank of America and U.S. Bank), which is worth weighing before you pick where the operating account lives.

Do you need a separate business bank account for an LLC?

In practice, yes. An LLC is a legal entity separate from its owners, and running its income and expenses through a personal account ("commingling funds") is one of the factors courts weigh when deciding whether to disregard an LLC's liability shield. A dedicated business account also makes bookkeeping, tax filing, and any future financing or audit dramatically simpler. Most banks require the account to be opened in the LLC's legal name, not yours.

How to open a bank account for an LLC

1. Wait for the state to approve the LLC. A bank opens the account in the LLC's legal name, so it needs the filed formation document, not a receipt for the filing.
2. Get an EIN from the IRS. It is free and it is what the bank uses to identify the entity. The online application issues it immediately, but only if the responsible party has an SSN or ITIN, and it runs Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern. Without one, Form SS-4 goes by fax (about 4 business days) or mail (4 to 6 weeks), which is the step that actually sets the timeline for a foreign-owned LLC.
3. Pick the account before you apply. 7 of the 9 providers above charge nothing per month, and 6 never need a branch visit, so the choice narrows fast once you know whether you want branch access.
4. Apply with the documents below. Online providers verify them digitally; the chartered banks may ask an authorized signer to finish in a branch.
5. Move every business dollar into it. An account you opened but still run half your income through does not do the job described in the previous section.

What do you need to open an LLC bank account?

Requirements vary slightly by bank, but nearly all will ask for:

• Your EIN (some banks accept an SSN for single-member LLCs, but an EIN is free and preferred)
• Articles of Organization (or Certificate of Formation) filed with your state
• Your operating agreement, commonly requested for multi-member LLCs
• A government-issued photo ID for each owner or authorized signer
• An opening deposit only where the provider asks for one. 8 of the 9 here ask for nothing

Online banks in the table above verify these documents digitally, so many accounts can be opened within a day or two of your LLC paperwork coming back from the state, though final approval timing depends on each bank's verification process.