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

$50 if you file the Articles of Organization online, or $105 if you mail the paper LLC-1 form. The Secretary of State describes the difference as a $55 saving for filing online. The $50 rate applies only to domestic LLCs filing online, a foreign LLC registering in Missouri pays the $105 paper rate. Card payments add a small convenience fee on top.

Does a Missouri LLC have to file an annual report?

No. The Secretary of State's FAQ answers this directly: "Do limited liability companies have to file an annual report? No." That is unusual (Missouri corporations do file registration reports) and it means a Missouri LLC has no recurring state filing fee at all. You still have to keep a registered agent and registered office on file.

Does a Missouri LLC pay a franchise tax?

No. Missouri's corporation franchise tax was fully phased out, with no annual franchise tax imposed for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, and there is no LLC-level replacement. Combined with the absence of an annual report, a Missouri LLC's only ongoing costs are its registered agent and its members' income tax.

How long does it take to form an LLC in Missouri?

The Secretary of State says that on Missouri Business Filings "many are processed immediately after submission," so an online LLC filing is typically effective right away. Missouri does not publish a processing time for mailed paper filings and does not sell a separate expedited service. Filing online is the fast route as well as the cheap one.

Missouri LLC Cost (2026)

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

In Missouri, the first-year state cost of an LLC is $50, before any registered-agent service. Forming an LLC in Missouri costs $50 to file the Articles of Organization with the state, Missouri requires no annual report.

Bar chart of LLC costs in Missouri: $50 in unavoidable state charges in the first year and $0 a year after that. Missouri requires no annual report. — Missouri files no annual report, so the recurring figure is driven entirely by state taxes and fees. Source: Missouri's published filing fee schedule, verified July 2026.

Articles of Organization$50

Annual reportNone

First-year state cost$50

Five-year state cost$50

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Missouri?

Missouri is one of the cheapest states to maintain an LLC in. There is no annual report and no franchise tax, so after formation the state charges nothing recurring. But the formation fee more than doubles if you file on paper: $50 online versus $105 by mail, a $55 gap the Secretary of State itself advertises. Only domestic online filings get the $50 rate; the fee schedule prices paper filings at $105 for domestic and foreign alike. Ancillary fees are low: $25 to reserve a name, $10 for a certificate of good standing, $10 for an online certified copy (or $10 certification plus 50 cents per page on paper). Two quirks from the fee schedule worth knowing: electronic payments carry an added convenience fee not retained by the state, and under Startup for Soldiers, active-duty military in Missouri including the National Guard may create new businesses without paying a filing fee.

Which fees does a Missouri LLC pay, and how often?

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Articles of Organization (LLC-1)	$50	One time	Missouri Secretary of State
Same filing, submitted on paper	$105	One time	Missouri Secretary of State
Required state cost, first year	$50	N/A	N/A
Registered agent service (optional)	$50 to $300	Every year	Commercial provider
Name reservation (optional)	$25	One time	Missouri Secretary of State
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$10	Per copy	Missouri Secretary of State

The Secretary of State's fee schedule lists "Certificates of Limited Liability Company (domestic/foreign)(paper) $105.00" and "Certificates of Limited Liability Company (domestic)(online) $50.00"; the SOS FAQ puts it plainly, "The savings for filing articles of organization for a limited liability company online is $55.00 ($50.00 online versus $105.00 by paper)." The paper LLC-1 form is printed "Submit with filing fee of $105.00."

Missouri's LLC statute imposes no newspaper publication requirement for LLC formation.

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. For what formation services charge on top of these state fees, see the best LLC services in Missouri.

Next steps for an LLC in Missouri

What does a Missouri 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)	$50	$175
Each year after	$0/yr	$125/yr
Five-year total	$50	$675

Is Missouri expensive compared with other states?

Missouri ranks 3rd cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost , $182.16 below the $232.16 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 5th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$15

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

What cost traps are specific to Missouri?

Paper filing costs more than double

Missouri charges $50 for Articles of Organization filed online but $105 on paper, the Secretary of State's own FAQ frames it as a $55 saving for filing online. Mailing the LLC-1 form is the single most common way to overpay for a Missouri LLC.

Foreign LLCs get no online discount

The fee schedule's $50 rate is explicitly "(domestic)(online)" only. A foreign LLC registering in Missouri pays the $105 paper rate, so an out-of-state LLC should not budget $50.

Card payments add a convenience fee

The fee schedule states that electronic payments, credit cards and echecks, incur an additional convenience fee that is not collected or retained by the State of Missouri, so the $50 online filing costs slightly more than $50 at checkout.

Frequently Asked Questions

: $50 if you file the Articles of Organization online, or $105 if you mail the paper LLC-1 form. The Secretary of State describes the difference as a $55 saving for filing online. The $50 rate applies only to domestic LLCs filing online, a foreign LLC registering in Missouri pays the $105 paper rate. Card payments add a small convenience fee on top.
: No. The Secretary of State's FAQ answers this directly: "Do limited liability companies have to file an annual report? No." That is unusual (Missouri corporations do file registration reports) and it means a Missouri LLC has no recurring state filing fee at all. You still have to keep a registered agent and registered office on file.
: No. Missouri's corporation franchise tax was fully phased out, with no annual franchise tax imposed for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, and there is no LLC-level replacement. Combined with the absence of an annual report, a Missouri LLC's only ongoing costs are its registered agent and its members' income tax.
: The Secretary of State says that on Missouri Business Filings "many are processed immediately after submission," so an online LLC filing is typically effective right away. Missouri does not publish a processing time for mailed paper filings and does not sell a separate expedited service. Filing online is the fast route as well as the cheap one.

Where do these numbers come from?

Every fee above was checked against Missouri's own published sources on July 29, 2026 , the Missouri 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.

Sources

7 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Missouri sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.

sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Business/fees.pdf
sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Business/llc1.pdf
sos.mo.gov/business/faqs
sos.mo.gov/business/corporations
revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=147.010
Missouri statute: Chapter 347 RSMo (LLC formation)
Missouri statute: Chapter 147 RSMo (corporation franchise tax)

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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.

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