Delaware LLC Cost in 2026: Real Numbers and the $400 Change

The number you will see everywhere is $110. It is real, and it is the smallest number in this guide. For a non-resident founder, the realistic first year is closer to $400 to $700, and every year after that costs $550 to $900 once the state's new annual tax kicks in.

That last part matters, because a lot of what is still circulating is quietly wrong about it. Delaware raised the LLC annual tax from $300 to $400 in May 2026, and at the time of writing, half the internet still shows the old number while the other half shows the new one without explaining when you actually pay it. This guide gives you the exact mechanics, plus the cross-border costs that never make it into the advertised price.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. State fees are official as of July 2026; all service-price ranges below are market estimates that vary by provider. Confirm every figure with the Delaware Division of Corporations, the IRS, or a qualified advisor before you rely on it.

• Certificate of Formation, once, to Delaware$110
• Registered agent, first year, entry tier$50
• US mailing address, EIN handling and incidentals~$240

The headline: what a Delaware LLC really costs

Three different founders, three different bills:

• A US resident who self-files and acts as their own registered agent: about $110 in year one, then $300 to $400 per year.
• A US resident using a registered agent: roughly $160 to $410 in year one (estimated), then $350 to $700 per year.
• A non-resident founder: roughly $400 to $700 in year one (estimated), then $550 to $900 per year, because you cannot be your own registered agent from abroad, you will likely want a US mailing address, and you may pay someone to handle the EIN paperwork.

The single biggest recurring line is the state annual tax, and it just went up. Everything else is either small or optional.

State filing fee only$110

US resident, self-filed$110

Non-resident, all-in year 1$400-700

One-time formation costs

The state charges one fee to create your LLC, and everything else at this stage is optional:

Standard processing takes around ten business days plus mail-back time; most non-residents pay the $50 or $100 expedite and get formed in a day or two. The step-by-step mechanics, including the cutoff times for each tier and why filings get rejected, are in our guide to registering an LLC in Delaware.

One thing you do not pay for: an operating agreement is not filed with the state and has no state fee. Formation services sell templates; lawyers draft custom ones. For a single-member LLC, a solid template is usually enough.

What you pay every year: the $300 to $400 change, explained

This is where the published figures conflict, so here is the exact situation as of July 2026:

• Delaware LLCs pay a flat annual tax, due June 1 every year. No annual report is required for LLCs, just the payment.
• Through tax year 2025, that tax was $300. The payment you made on June 1, 2026 covered tax year 2025, so it was still $300.
• On May 21, 2026, Delaware signed House Bill 400, which raises the LLC annual tax to $400 starting with tax year 2026. The first $400 payment is the one due June 1, 2027.
• The tax is the same whether your LLC made ten million dollars or nothing at all. Inactive still means $400.

Miss the June 1 deadline and the state adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest per month on both the tax and the penalty. There is no grace period and no hardship waiver; the notice simply arrives with the penalty already added. What a missed year actually costs, from lost good standing to the $220 revival, is walked through in the compliance guide.

The other unavoidable annual line for a non-resident is the registered agent. Delaware requires every LLC to maintain one at a Delaware street address, and if you do not live there, you have to hire one. Market prices run from about $50 to $300 per year; the low end is a real price from high-volume providers, not a teaser.

So the recurring bill for a non-resident is $400 (tax, from 2027) + $50 to $300 (agent) + whatever you spend on a US mailing address, which brings us to the costs nobody itemizes.

The non-resident add-ons nobody itemizes

These are the lines that separate the advertised price from your actual bank statement:

EIN (federal tax number): $0 from the IRS, or $50 to $250 from a middleman. Without a US Social Security number you cannot use the online tool. You apply with Form SS-4 by phone (+1 267-941-1099, for international applicants, with the EIN issued during the call) or by fax, which takes roughly four business days, or by mail, which takes four to five weeks. Formation services charge $50 to $250 to do exactly this. Paying is a convenience, not a requirement. Full walkthrough in our non-resident guide.

• A US mailing address: roughly $10 to $40 per month (estimated). Not legally required to form the LLC, but banks and payment processors expect one, and your registered agent's address usually cannot be used for banking. Budget $120 to $480 per year.
• Document certifications, at state prices: certified copy of your formation documents $50 plus $2 per page, certificate of good standing $50 (long form $175), apostille $30 per document. Foreign banks and payment providers routinely ask for these. Resellers charge $99 to $149 for the same paper, so order from the state when you can.
• International courier: $40 to $80 each time physical documents need to cross a border (estimated).

None of these are scams individually. The problem is that price-hook pages advertise "$110 to start your LLC" and let you discover the rest at checkout.

Year 1 vs every year after, side by side

Two observations from this table. First, year one is actually the cheap year: your first annual tax payment is not due until the June 1 after your formation year. Second, the foreigner premium in Delaware is small compared to jurisdictions with resident-director rules; what you are paying extra for is mostly the address and paperwork logistics, not a mandatory local officer.

LLC vs C-Corp: the cost comparison nobody gets right

Counterintuitive but true: a small Delaware C-Corp can cost less per year than an LLC. A corporation with 5,000 or fewer authorized shares pays a minimum franchise tax of $175 plus a $50 annual report fee, about $225 per year, versus the LLC's flat $300 rising to $400.

The catch is the word minimum. Corporate franchise tax scales with authorized shares, and a startup that authorizes ten million shares without paying attention can receive a five-figure tax notice, then has to recalculate using the assumed par value method (minimum $400, capped at $200,000). The LLC number never moves.

Choosing between the two is a strategy question, not a cost question; see LLC vs C-Corp for non-residents for the decision framework and Delaware corporate tax for how the franchise tax calculation actually works.

When Delaware is not the cheap option

If cost is your only criterion, Delaware is not the winner, and it is worth saying so plainly. Whether Delaware's advantages are worth the premium for your situation is the subject of why incorporate in Delaware; the raw numbers:

Wyoming's annual report starts at about $60 for small LLCs, which makes the recurring gap roughly six times cheaper. What Delaware sells for the difference is its Court of Chancery, the deepest body of corporate case law in the US, and the default status investors expect. If you are bootstrapping services or e-commerce and will never raise US venture capital, Wyoming's math is hard to argue with. If you are on the startup track, investors will ask for Delaware and the $400 is noise.

One more trap in this category: a Delaware LLC that actually operates in another US state usually has to register there as a foreign LLC and pay that state's fees too. California is the famous example at roughly $800 per year in state franchise tax on top of everything above. Delaware plus your real state is always more expensive than just your real state; Delaware only wins on cost when your operations are outside the US entirely.