Forming a Wisconsin LLC costs $130 filed online with the Department of Financial Institutions, or $170 on paper. That is the only mandatory fee. An EIN is free from the IRS, an operating agreement has no filing fee, and you can be your own registered agent for $0. The only recurring state charge is the $25 online annual report, starting the year after you form. Wisconsin has no franchise tax and no monthly LLC fee — if you're paying monthly, that's a private service, not the state.
Free tool: Wisconsin LLC Cost Calculator: pick your options and see your exact state total, plus your annual report due date.
Search "how much does an LLC cost" and the answers run from $0 to $800. Both ends of that range are marketing. The $800 quotes bundle services you may not need; the $0 quotes defer the real charges to year two.
The actual number is set by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and published on a fee schedule anyone can read. This guide walks the whole schedule: the one fee you must pay, the optional fees and when each is worth it, the recurring costs, and three realistic totals depending on how much help you want.
The Only Mandatory Fee: $130
A Wisconsin LLC comes into existence when the DFI accepts your Articles of Organization (Form 502). The filing fee is:
- $130 filed through DFI's online system
- $170 filed on paper
The $40 gap is deliberate. Wis. Admin. Code DFI-CCS 10.01(6) adds a $15 surcharge to paper filings that have an online equivalent, layered on top of a base-fee difference, and the paper route is slower on top of costing more. Online formations are typically processed within hours on business days; paper filings ride the mail and then a five-business-day statutory processing window. Unless something about your filing forces paper, file online.
That $130 is the entire compulsory bill. Wisconsin does not require a publication notice (Arizona and New York do), does not charge a franchise tax (California collects $800 a year), and does not require you to buy anything else to be a legal LLC.
Every Wisconsin LLC Fee in One Table
Current DFI amounts for a domestic LLC:
| Item | Fee | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization (online) | $130 | Yes — the one mandatory fee |
| Articles of Organization (paper) | $170 | Alternative to online; avoid |
| Name reservation, 120 days | $15 | No — skip if filing within weeks |
| Expedited service (next business day) | $100 | No — rarely worth it online |
| Counter service (4-hour / 1-hour) | $250 / $500 | No — deal-closing situations only |
| EIN from the IRS | $0 | Needed for banking/hiring — but free |
| Operating agreement | $0 filed | Not required by Wisconsin; recommended |
| Registered agent (yourself) | $0 | An agent is required; paying for one is not |
| Trade name (DBA) registration | $15 / 10 yrs | Only if operating under another name |
| Certificate of status | $10 | Only when a bank or lender asks — see our guide |
| Annual report (online) | $25/yr | Yes — every year after formation |
| Annual report (paper) | $40/yr | Alternative to online; avoid |
Add it up and the honest headline is: $130 now, $25 a year starting next year, everything else optional.
The Optional State Fees, and When Each Is Worth Paying
Name reservation, $15. Wis. Stat. § 183.0113 lets you hold an available name for 120 days. It makes sense if your launch is months away and the name matters to you. If you are forming within a few weeks, skip it — filing the Articles locks in the name immediately, for free. More in our Wisconsin LLC naming guide.
Expedited service, $100. This fee quadrupled from $25 on May 7, 2026, and most guides online still quote the old number. It buys next-business-day processing — but online LLC formations are usually processed within hours anyway, so for a standard formation you would be paying $100 to skip a line you are not standing in. The $250 four-hour and $500 one-hour counter tiers exist for closings and hard deadlines. Full breakdown in our expedited filing tiers guide.
Copies and certificates. Certified copies of your Articles are $10, plain copies $5, and a certificate of status is $10 through DFI's instant online system. None of these are needed at formation; order them when a bank, lender, or another state actually asks.
Three Things That Should Cost You $0
An EIN is free from the IRS, online, in about 15 minutes. Sites that charge $50–$300 for "EIN processing" are reselling a free government service, and some of them are outright lookalike scams. Pay for EIN help only when it is part of a formation you are already delegating — we charge $59 to handle it inside a filing, and we tell you it's free if you'd rather do it yourself. Our EIN guide shows both paths.
1. Your EIN. Free from the IRS, as above.
2. Your operating agreement. Wisconsin does not require one and there is nothing to file, so there is no state fee. You still want one — without it, the default rules of Wis. Stat. ch. 183 decide how your LLC is governed, how profits split, and what happens when an owner leaves. A single-member LLC can write a simple one for $0; multi-member LLCs with real money involved should consider an attorney.
3. Your registered agent — if you volunteer. Every Wisconsin LLC must continuously maintain a registered agent with a physical Wisconsin street address (Wis. Stat. § 183.0115). You can be your own for $0 if you have a Wisconsin address and will reliably be there during business hours. The trade-offs: your address goes on the permanent public record, and a missed service-of-process delivery can mean a default judgment. That's the honest reason services like ours exist — we charge $59/year, and what you're buying is an address that never moves and a document that never sits in a mailbox. Our registered agent explainer covers the decision.
What a Wisconsin LLC Costs Per Year
Wisconsin is one of the cheaper states to keep an LLC alive:
- Annual report: $25 (online; $40 by paper). Due by the end of your formation calendar quarter — March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31 — every year starting the year after you formed (Wis. Stat. § 183.0212). There is no late fee, but a delinquent report costs you good standing and eventually the LLC itself through administrative dissolution. Details in our annual report guide.
- Registered agent service: $0–$300/yr depending on whether you serve yourself, use us ($59), or use a national brand (commonly $119–$299 after the first year).
- No franchise tax, no minimum tax, no monthly fee. A Wisconsin LLC's profits pass through to your personal return; the entity itself owes the state nothing beyond the annual report.
Two situational recurring costs: if you sell taxable goods or services you'll register with the Department of Revenue for a seller's permit (a $20 Business Tax Registration fee, renewed at $10 every two years), and if you operate under a name other than your LLC's legal name, a trade name registration is $15 per decade.
Three Realistic Totals
| Approach | Year one | Each year after |
|---|---|---|
| Bare-bones DIY Online filing, own agent, free EIN, DIY operating agreement | $130 | $25 |
| DIY with cushions Add name reservation + professional registered agent | $204 ($130 + $15 + $59) | $84 ($25 + $59) |
| Done for you (Anchor) $159 formation + registered agent + EIN handled | $277 ($159 + $59 + $59) | $84 ($25 + $59) |
First annual report is due the calendar year after formation, so it appears in the "each year after" column. Foreign LLCs registering into Wisconsin pay $100 to register and $65/yr online for annual reports — see the foreign registration guide.
The "$0 LLC" Math
The largest national formation services advertise "$0 + state fee." The Articles of Organization really are filed without a service charge. The business model is everything attached to the checkout flow:
- A registered agent service that's free or cheap in year one, then renews automatically — commonly at $119 to $299 per year, two to five times our price.
- An EIN filing sold as a $50–$100 add-on for a number the IRS issues free.
- Operating agreement templates, "compliance packages," licenses reports, expedited processing — each a separate line item, pre-checked or heavily nudged.
None of that is illegal, and some of it is genuinely useful. But a "$0" formation with the typical boxes checked routinely clears $300 in year one and locks in a renewal north of $200/yr — for an entity Wisconsin itself will register for $130 and maintain for $25. The honest comparison isn't "$0 vs. $159." It's the total on the final checkout screen, and the renewal email twelve months later.
Our Price Is the Whole Price
$159 forms your Wisconsin LLC — the $130 state fee plus $29 for preparation, filed online the same business day. Registered agent ($59/yr) and EIN ($59) are optional, priced in the open, and never auto-added at checkout.
Form Your Wisconsin LLC · $159 all-inNo upsells. No pre-checked boxes. No year-two surprise.
Sources & Statutory References
- Wisconsin DFI, Corporation Fees: the current fee table — Articles of Organization $130 online / $170 paper, name reservation $15, expedited service $100, counter service $250 and $500.
- Wisconsin DFI Form Corp5i, Annual Report instructions: domestic LLC $25 online / $40 paper, foreign LLC $65 / $80, and the due-date rules.
- Wis. Stat. § 183.0212: annual report requirement and due dates for domestic and foreign LLCs.
- Wis. Stat. § 183.0113: 120-day name reservation.
- Wis. Stat. § 183.0115: registered agent requirement.
- Wis. Admin. Code ch. DFI-CCS 10: expedited processing fee (sub. 4, $100 effective May 7, 2026 under CR 25-096), copywork fees, and the $15 paper-filing surcharge (sub. 6).
- IRS, Get an Employer Identification Number: the free EIN application.
- Wisconsin DOR, Seller's Permit FAQ: who needs a seller's permit and the Business Tax Registration fee.
Fees described are current as of August 2026 and subject to change. Verify amounts on the DFI fee schedule before you file.
Frequently Asked Questions
The only mandatory cost is the state filing fee for Articles of Organization: $130 online or $170 by paper with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. Everything else — a name reservation ($15), expedited service ($100), a registered agent service — is optional. An EIN is free from the IRS.
A domestic Wisconsin LLC pays a $25 annual report fee online ($40 by paper), due by the end of its formation calendar quarter starting the year after formation. If you hire a registered agent service, add that fee. There is no franchise tax and no minimum annual tax; income passes through to your personal return.
No. Wisconsin has no monthly LLC fee, no franchise tax, and no minimum annual tax. The state's only recurring charge is the $25 online annual report. If you are paying monthly for your LLC, the charge is coming from a private service, not the state.
An EIN is free, directly from the IRS, online in about 15 minutes. Sites charging $50–$300 for "EIN processing" are reselling a free government service. Pay for EIN help only when it's part of a formation you're already delegating.
File your own Articles of Organization online for $130, act as your own registered agent for $0, get your EIN free from the IRS, and write your own operating agreement. Total: $130. Avoid the paper form (it costs $40 more) and skip expedited service — online formations are typically processed within hours anyway.
$159 all-in: the $130 state filing fee plus $29 for preparation and filing. The price is the whole price. Registered agent service ($59/yr), EIN filing ($59), and other add-ons are optional, separately priced, and never auto-added at checkout.
No. Wisconsin does not require an operating agreement and there is no filing fee. Having one is still strongly recommended, especially with co-owners — without it, the default rules of Wis. Stat. ch. 183 govern your LLC. Write one yourself for $0, or use an attorney for complex ownership arrangements.
