Montana LLC Costs: What You Actually Pay

There are two costs Montana genuinely requires: the state filing fee to form the LLC, and the annual report each year to keep it in good standing. Everything else on this page is optional or situational. The receipt card on this page reflects the current state amounts as charged, with no markup on the state fee itself.

State filing fee for the Articles of Organization

To create your LLC, you file the Articles of Organization online through the Secretary of State's business portal. The state fee is $35 (plus $50 for each series named, if you're forming a series LLC), notably low compared with most states. It is a one-time cost paid at formation by card or e-check. Because Montana is online only, there is no paper-filing option to compare it with.

The annual report

Each year, every Montana LLC files an annual report between January 1 and April 15 to stay in good standing, starting the year after it forms. It confirms your registered agent, principal office address, and management details. It is not a financial disclosure. Here is the wrinkle worth knowing: the Secretary of State waived the fee for reports filed January 1 through April 15 in 2026 and has announced the same waiver for 2027. File on time in those years and the report itself costs nothing; the standard on-time fee on the state's fee sheet is $20. A report filed after April 15 costs $35, so timeliness matters even when the fee is waived.

Optional speed

Montana does offer paid processing for any document: $20 for 24-hour handling and $100 for 1-hour handling. It's optional. The state doesn't publish a standard turnaround, so if you have a hard deadline, the $20 option is the cheap insurance. There is no separate LLC franchise tax for a standard pass-through LLC.

Beyond the two required state costs, several expenses are optional or depend on how you run the business. None of these are mandated by the state for forming an LLC, but most owners encounter at least a few.

Registered agent service

Montana requires a registered agent, but it does not require you to pay for one. You can serve as your own if you have a Montana street address. If you would rather keep your address off the public record and have a professional accept and forward documents, a commercial registered agent service carries an annual fee. Changing agents later costs nothing at the state level. When you form through Mainstay Filing, registered agent service is included in what we charge, and the details are shown at checkout.

Assumed Business Name (DBA)

If you want to operate under a name other than your LLC's legal name, Montana requires an Assumed Business Name registration at the state level, which carries its own filing fee. This is optional. You only need it if you trade under a different name.

Name reservation

Reserving a name before you file, to hold it while you prepare, costs $10 and lasts a nonrenewable 120 days. It is optional; most owners simply file when ready and skip it.

EIN

An Employer Identification Number from the IRS is free. Any service that charges you for "getting an EIN" is charging for the convenience of filling out a ten-minute federal form on your behalf, not for the number itself. Mainstay Filing applies for it for you as part of the yearly price.

Certified copies and certificates of good standing

If a bank, lender, or another state asks for a certified copy of your Articles or a certificate of good standing, the Secretary of State charges a fee to issue it. You only pay when you actually need one.

Licenses and permits

Montana has no statewide general business license, but industry-specific state licenses and local city or county registrations may apply to your business. These vary widely by activity and location and are entirely separate from the LLC filing.

It helps to think of an LLC's cost in two buckets: the one-time cost to start, and the recurring cost to keep it alive. Montana is friendly on both.

Year one

Year one includes the one-time formation filing plus whatever optional items you choose: registered agent service, possibly an Assumed Business Name if you are branding under a different name, and any licenses your industry requires. The EIN is free. Because Montana's formation fee is $35 and expedite is optional, the state-side cost of getting started is modest.

Every year after

The recurring cost is the annual report. With the 2026 and 2027 fee waiver for on-time filers, that cost is currently zero for the report itself in those years. You just have to file by April 15. If you use a commercial registered agent, its annual renewal is the other recurring line item. That is genuinely the whole recurring picture for a standard Montana LLC: no franchise tax, no separate publication requirement, no annual license from the Secretary of State.

The cost of getting it wrong

The most avoidable cost is a late or missed annual report. Miss April 15 and the report costs $35 instead of nothing. Go 140 days without filing and the LLC is in default; if the default isn't cured within 90 days of the state's notice, the LLC is involuntarily dissolved and can only wind up. Reinstatement within five years costs $35 plus $35 for each year of delinquent reports, on top of filing them all. The cheapest way to run a Montana LLC is simply to file the annual report on time every year.

Where Mainstay Filing fits

We roll formation and registered agent service into a clear, upfront price shown at checkout, prepare and file your Articles of Organization, apply for your EIN, and file your annual report before April 15 each year so a missed deadline never turns into a penalty or a dissolution. What the receipt card displays for state fees is exactly what the state charges. We do not mark up the government fee.