How much does it cost to start an LLC in Colorado?

Filing Articles of Organization with the Colorado Secretary of State costs $50.00. The filing must be made online — the fee schedule shows no paper option for LLC Articles of Organization — and online filings are processed in real time and available immediately after payment. There is no expedite fee to pay because the filing posts instantly.

What is the annual fee for a Colorado LLC?

Colorado LLCs file a Periodic Report each year for $25.00, up from $10.00 before July 1, 2024. There is no Colorado franchise tax line item on the Secretary of State's fee schedule, so for most LLCs the $25.00 report is the only recurring state filing charge. A certificate of good standing is free.

When is my first Colorado Periodic Report due?

C.R.S. § 7-90-501(4)(c)(I) gives you until the last day of the second calendar month following the first anniversary of the month your Articles of Organization took effect. So an LLC formed in July 2026 must file its first $25.00 Periodic Report by September 30, 2027 — the state effectively gives you a five-month window around your anniversary month.

What happens if I file my Colorado Periodic Report late?

A $50.00 Periodic Report Late Filing Penalty is assessed, bringing the total to $75.00, and your status becomes Noncompliant. After 60 days of Noncompliant status the entity becomes Delinquent, which requires a $100.00 Statement Curing Delinquency to fix on top of the report and late fee.

LLC Costs · CO

How Much Does an LLC Cost in Colorado?

By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Colorado Secretary of State fee schedule

Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.

Forming an LLC in Colorado costs $50 to file the Articles of Organization with the state, the Periodic Report costs $25 every year. That puts the first-year state cost at $75, before any registered-agent service.

Articles of Organization$50

Periodic Report$25

First-year state cost$75

Five-year state cost$175

What you actually pay in Colorado

Colorado is genuinely cheap to form and maintain: Articles of Organization cost $50.00, can only be filed online, and post in real time. The recurring cost is the $25.00 Periodic Report, which rose from $10.00 to $25.00 on July 1, 2024. Certificates of good standing, certificates of fact and certified copies are free online, and a name reservation is $25.00. The main money risk is the $50.00 Periodic Report Late Filing Penalty — twice the report fee itself — followed by a $100.00 Statement Curing Delinquency if you let the entity go delinquent.

Colorado LLC fee breakdown

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Articles of Organization	$50	One time	Colorado Secretary of State
Periodic Report	$25	Every year	Colorado Secretary of State
Required state cost, first year	$75	—	—
Registered agent service (optional)	$50–$300	Every year	Commercial provider
Name reservation (optional)	$25	One time	Colorado Secretary of State
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$0	Per copy	Colorado Secretary of State

The fee schedule lists Articles of Organization for a limited liability company at $50.00 online and "n/a" for paper — Colorado does not offer a paper Articles of Organization filing for LLCs.

No publication or newspaper-notice fee appears on the Colorado Business Organizations Fee Schedule; the statute was not separately searched for a publication requirement in this pass.

Registered agent is listed separately because it is a commercial service, not a state charge. Commercial registered-agent services, not a state charge. Range and $125 midpoint match the assumption used by /tools/llc-true-cost. Most states let you serve as your own registered agent at no cost if you have a physical in-state address. Run your own numbers in the true-cost calculator.

Colorado LLC cost over five years

State charges only in the first column; the second adds a registered-agent service at the $125/yr market midpoint.

Period	State cost only	With registered agent
Year 1 (formation + first filing)	$75	$200
Each year after	$25	$150
Five-year total	$175	$800

First filing timing: C.R.S. § 7-90-501(4)(c)(I): a reporting entity "shall deliver its first periodic report to the secretary of state... no later than the last day of the second calendar month following the first anniversary of the calendar month in which the reporting entity's constituent filed document... became effective." An LLC whose Articles of Organization take effect in July 2026 therefore has until September 30, 2027 to file its first Periodic Report.

Is Colorado expensive compared with other states?

Colorado ranks 8th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost — $159.53 below the $234.53 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 18th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$40
Arizona	$50	$25
Missouri	$50	$25

A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in Colorado. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in Colorado anyway — paying both states. See foreign qualification in Colorado before forming elsewhere to save on fees.

Colorado filing deadline and late penalties

Periodic Report

Frequency	every year
Due	In the entity's "Periodic report month"; the report "can be filed two months prior to the Periodic Report month or two months after without any penalty," and "the report is due by the last day of the second month following the Periodic Report Month"
Fee	$25
Late penalty	$50

The fee schedule lists a "Periodic Report Late Filing Penalty" of $50.00, assessed when the five-month window closes and the entity's status becomes Noncompliant.

If the report is not filed by the due date the status becomes "Noncompliant" and the late fee is assessed; "An entity with a status of Noncompliant for sixty days will then become Delinquent." Curing delinquency costs $100.00 (Statement Curing Delinquency), and Reinstatement is $100.00.

Full Colorado annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator

Cost traps specific to Colorado

Late fee is double the report fee

Colorado's Periodic Report costs $25.00 but the Late Filing Penalty is $50.00, so a missed deadline triples the cost of the filing to $75.00.

Noncompliant to Delinquent in 60 days

After the filing window closes the entity becomes Noncompliant, and 60 days later it becomes Delinquent — at which point a $100.00 Statement Curing Delinquency (or $100.00 Reinstatement) is required on top of the report fee and late fee.

Report fee more than doubled in 2024

The Periodic Report fee went from $10.00 to $25.00 effective July 1, 2024, so any Colorado cost figure sourced before that date understates the annual maintenance cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Filing Articles of Organization with the Colorado Secretary of State costs $50.00. The filing must be made online — the fee schedule shows no paper option for LLC Articles of Organization — and online filings are processed in real time and available immediately after payment. There is no expedite fee to pay because the filing posts instantly.
: Colorado LLCs file a Periodic Report each year for $25.00, up from $10.00 before July 1, 2024. There is no Colorado franchise tax line item on the Secretary of State's fee schedule, so for most LLCs the $25.00 report is the only recurring state filing charge. A certificate of good standing is free.
: C.R.S. § 7-90-501(4)(c)(I) gives you until the last day of the second calendar month following the first anniversary of the month your Articles of Organization took effect. So an LLC formed in July 2026 must file its first $25.00 Periodic Report by September 30, 2027 — the state effectively gives you a five-month window around your anniversary month.
: A $50.00 Periodic Report Late Filing Penalty is assessed, bringing the total to $75.00, and your status becomes Noncompliant. After 60 days of Noncompliant status the entity becomes Delinquent, which requires a $100.00 Statement Curing Delinquency to fix on top of the report and late fee.

Where these numbers come from

Every fee above was checked against Colorado's own published sources on July 29, 2026 — the Colorado Secretary of State fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state-level tax applies, the state tax authority. Commercial formation-service pages were not used.

The first-year total is the Articles of Organization fee plus the first year of any recurring state charge. Where a state's first report is not due until the following year, that is noted above. The five-year total is the filing fee plus five years of recurring charges, which avoids the timing question entirely. Registered-agent service is excluded from all state figures.

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