What does it cost to set up a plumbing business in Montana?

The state's entity fee is $35 to file the Articles of Organization for Domestic Limited Liability Company. License, permit and examination fees are set by the issuing body and charged on top. We publish the entity fee because it is the one figure that is the same for every plumbing business in Montana.

Montana Plumbing License: What Applies and What Does Not

What Montana requires of a plumbing business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.

By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026

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Montana plumbing licensing at a glance

State credential required for this work?	Yes, statewide
What they are called	Master Plumber, Journeyman Plumber, Medical Gas Piping Endorsement
Who issues it	Montana Board of Plumbers
Must the business itself be licensed?	No, individuals hold it

Does a plumbing business need a license in Montana?

Montana issues 3 license classes for plumbers.

Montana licenses plumbing statewide through the Board of Plumbers in the Department of Labor and Industry Business Standards Division. A person working at the field of plumbing as a master or journeyman plumber must first obtain a license, and the chapter lists exceptions covering owner occupied single family residences, mines and refineries, and farms or ranches not connected to public water supply and sewage disposal systems.

The license attaches to qualified individuals. Montana does not require the plumbing business itself to hold one.

Montana's plumbing licensing law licenses individual master and journeyman plumbers and creates no plumbing license or registration for the company itself. A licensed master plumber may employ only licensed journeyman plumbers and registered apprentices and is responsible for their work.

This records what Montana publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.

Verified 2026-09-03 against the primary source listed under Sources.

What the LLC has to do first

Several states license the plumbing company separately from the individual plumber, so the LLC and the license are two filings, not one.

The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Montana it is made with the Montana Secretary of State. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.

Forming an LLC as a plumbing business in Montana covers the filing itself, step by step.

Insurance Montana plumbers are asked to show

Plumbing license and registration schemes commonly require proof of general liability cover, and water damage from a failed connection is the claim these policies are bought for.

We do not publish Montana premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for plumbers covers what each policy does and does not pay for.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Montana issues 3 license classes for plumbers. Montana licenses plumbing statewide through the Board of Plumbers in the Department of Labor and Industry Business Standards Division. A person working at the field of plumbing as a master or journeyman plumber must first obtain a license, and the chapter lists exceptions covering owner occupied single family residences, mines and refineries, and farms or ranches not connected to public water supply and sewage disposal systems. The license attaches to qualified individuals. Montana does not require the plumbing business itself to hold one. This records what Montana publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
: The license attaches to qualified individuals. Montana does not require the plumbing business itself to hold one.
: The state's entity fee is $35 to file the Articles of Organization for Domestic Limited Liability Company. License, permit and examination fees are set by the issuing body and charged on top. We publish the entity fee because it is the one figure that is the same for every plumbing business in Montana.
: Plumbing license and registration schemes commonly require proof of general liability cover, and water damage from a failed connection is the claim these policies are bought for.

Sources

2 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Montana 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.

archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0370/chapter_0690/part_0030/section_0010/0370-0690-0030-0010.htmlMontana plumbers licensing, primary source: Montana Code Annotated 37-69-301, License required (verified 2026-09-03)
Montana statute: Title 37, chapter 69 of the Montana Code (plumber licensing)

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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.

How we check facts

Montana plumbing licensing at a glance

Does a plumbing business need a license in Montana?

What the LLC has to do first

Insurance Montana plumbers are asked to show

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

More for Montana LLCs

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Taxes, money and growth

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