Cheapest County to Form an LLC in Texas (2026 Guide)

By Jillian Dupree, Research Lead at Texas LLC Service. Published April 20, 2026.

If you typed "cheapest county in Texas to form an LLC" into Google, you were probably hoping to find a county where the filing fee is cheaper than the rest of the state. Maybe a quiet rural clerk's office in the Panhandle that would save you a few hundred dollars if you mailed your paperwork there instead of Houston.

That is not how Texas works. And honestly, that is a good thing for your wallet. Just not in the way you expected.

Here is the honest answer, then the part most guides skip.

The Texas LLC Filing Fee Is $300. Statewide. Period.

Forming a Texas LLC means filing a Certificate of Formation (Form 205) with the Texas Secretary of State. The fee for that filing is $300, and it is the same whether your registered office is in Harris County, El Paso County, Loving County, or anywhere else in the state. You can verify this directly on the Texas Secretary of State business forms page.

That fee goes to the state, not the county. No county clerk has the authority to charge a different price for the formation itself. If you read a blog that says "file in [small county] to save money on formation," close the tab and back away slowly. Whoever wrote it has not read the Business Organizations Code.

So if the $300 is flat, why does the "cheapest county" question come up at all?

Because the other costs of operating a Texas business do vary by county. And those costs are where people who ask this question are usually feeling real pain.

Where Texas County Costs Actually Differ

Once your LLC exists on paper with the Secretary of State, the real-world cost of running it starts to break down by county in three main places:

1. Assumed name (DBA) filing fees. If your LLC operates under a name different from the legal name on the Certificate of Formation, Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 71 requires you to file an Assumed Name Certificate. For most LLCs doing business under a DBA, this is filed with the county clerk in the county where the business maintains its principal office.
2. County clerk recording fees. Recording leases, UCC-1 financing statements, certain assignments, or property-related documents at the county level. Rates vary.
3. City and county business registrations or permits. Some cities (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio) require specific permits for certain industries. The LLC itself does not trigger a city fee, but the activity the LLC conducts often does.

The most common variance people actually feel is the DBA. So that is where most of this article focuses.

Texas DBA Fees by County (Illustrative Comparison)

The table below compares the ten most populous Texas counties on their Assumed Name Certificate filing fee at the county clerk. Costs in this table have not been pulled live from each county clerk for today's date. Treat them as a starting point for your own verification, not a quote.

What the table really tells you: the DBA spread across the ten biggest Texas counties is roughly a twenty-dollar range. The cheapest and the most expensive are separated by less than the cost of dinner for two. If you were hoping to save hundreds of dollars by picking the "right" county, the math will disappoint you.

The savings are not in the filing fee. The savings are in picking a county that actually matches where you run your business, so you do not end up paying for duplicative filings, re-registrations, or a venue mismatch later.

Texas Franchise Tax (Spoiler: No County Variance)

Texas does not have a state income tax, but it does have a franchise tax administered by the Texas Comptroller. The franchise tax applies statewide at the same rate regardless of county. As of the most recent legislative changes, many small LLCs fall under a revenue threshold and owe nothing, but the filing obligation still exists for most entities.

No Texas county charges its own franchise or entity-level tax on top of the state's. So the franchise tax side of your annual cost is flat across all 254 counties. That is one less variable to worry about.

"Cheapest" Is Not the Same as "Best"

Here is the part every "cheapest county" guide skips.

Texas LLCs can be sued, and the county where your registered office sits often matters for where a lawsuit can be filed. Texas venue rules are detailed (Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 15), and they are opinionated. Some counties are considered friendlier to plaintiffs. Some are considered friendlier to business defendants. Litigators on both sides know the map.

In our view, and this is opinion not legal advice, picking a county purely because the DBA fee is eighteen dollars instead of twenty-four dollars is a false economy if that county also happens to be known as a plaintiff-friendly venue for the industry you operate in. You would have saved six bucks up front and inherited a venue you did not choose strategically.

The reverse is also true. A slightly higher filing fee in a county that matches where your customers live, where your warehouse sits, and where your contracts get performed is usually the right call. Venue follows activity. Activity should follow strategy. Strategy should not follow a five-dollar DBA difference.

How to Pick the Right Texas County for Your LLC

Three questions, in order:

1. Where do you actually do business? The county where your principal office sits, where your employees work, where you sign contracts. This is the default right answer for most small Texas LLCs. Pick the county where the business actually lives.
2. Where is your revenue coming from, and where are your customers? If you sell across the state, the tax nexus question may stretch beyond one county. Your registered office still goes one place, but you may have to register to do business (or collect sales tax) in multiple jurisdictions depending on activity.
3. Is there a venue or tax reason to prefer one county over another? This is where a conversation with a Texas business attorney earns its fee. For most small operators, the answer is "no, just file where you are." For larger operators, partnerships with out-of-state members, or industries with specific local permit overlays, the answer can be different.

One more thing. Texas does not require you to live in Texas to form a Texas LLC. If you are out of state, you still need a registered agent with a physical Texas address. That is where most formation services (including ours) focus their value. The agent's address sets where service of process gets delivered, which ties into the venue conversation above.

The Quiet Savings That Actually Matter

If you zoom out from the DBA fee question, the real cost savings on a Texas LLC come from three places:

• Not paying twice for a registered agent. A good RA is designed to handle service of process cleanly, keep your home address off public records where possible, and forward state notices promptly. A cheap RA that fails at one of those jobs costs far more than the savings.
• Not re-filing because the first filing was wrong. Texas Secretary of State rejections for name conflicts, missing registered agent consent, or signature issues add delay and sometimes a second fee. Doing it right the first time is the cheapest path.
• Not picking the wrong DBA in the wrong county, then restructuring later. Fixing a muddled county-level filing chain (DBA in one county, office in another, sales tax in a third) costs time and attorney hours that dwarf any upfront savings.

A Short Answer to the Original Question

The cheapest county to form an LLC in Texas is the county where you actually do business. Because the formation fee is $300 statewide and the county-level variance is a few dollars on a DBA filing, the true cost driver is not the county. It is whether the filing is clean, the agent is reliable, and the venue matches your activity.

Cost-sensitive is smart. Penny-wise pound-foolish is not. If the choice is between saving six dollars on a DBA in a county you have no connection to, and filing correctly in the county where you live and work, the correct answer is almost always the second one.

The small savings are rarely where you think they are. The big savings are in not having to redo the work.

Full disclosure: I write for State LLC Service.

Texas LLC Service is an independent document preparation and registered agent service. We curate publicly available information from recognized legal, tax, and financial professionals for general educational purposes. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. We are not an accounting or tax firm and do not provide tax advice. We are not a financial advisor, broker-dealer, or registered investment advisor and do not provide investment advice. No attorney-client, accountant-client, or advisory relationship of any kind is formed by reading this content or using our services. For advice specific to your situation, consult a licensed attorney, CPA, or financial advisor.