How to Form an LLC in Colorado
Colorado is one of the cheapest states in this guide to start: $50 to form, online only, and $25 a year for the Periodic Report. Ignore any guide still quoting a $1 formation fee or a $10 report. Both numbers are history, and the status ladder around the $25 report is where Colorado LLCs actually get into trouble.
Colorado at a glance
Filing fee: $50 for the Articles of Organization, filed with the Colorado Secretary of State. Recurring: A Periodic Report every year, $25, with a penalty free window running from two months before through two months after your report month. A late report adds a $50 penalty and moves the LLC to Noncompliant status. Registered agent: required, with a physical address in Colorado. Every figure on this page was checked against the Colorado Secretary of State's and Department of Revenue's official sites on November 8, 2026.
The Colorado filing steps
Check your name on the state's own search
Colorado gives you two different search tools, and they do two different jobs. The Name Availability Search tells you whether one specific name is available, but it does not show similar names, and trade names and trademarks are not included in it. The Business Database Search shows similar names to the one you enter, but does not itself say whether a name is available. Use both: the database search for a reality check on lookalikes, the availability search for the verdict. A name is available only if it is distinguishable from other entity names on record, and Colorado's rules have quirks: the articles "the" and "a" do make a name distinguishable, and the entity designator itself can make names distinguishable, so "ABC LLC" is distinguishable from "ABC Limited Liability Company" and from "ABC INC." Periods, commas, underscores, and apostrophes do not make a name distinguishable, and neither does capitalization. The Secretary of State will not add a designator for you. Accepted LLC designators include "limited liability company," "ltd. liability company," "limited liability co.," "ltd. liability co.," "limited," "l.l.c.," "llc," and "ltd." To hold a name before filing, a name reservation costs $25, lasts 120 days, and can be renewed for another $25.
Choose your registered agent
Every Colorado LLC must name one registered agent, an individual or a single entity; you cannot appoint more than one, and the Secretary of State cannot serve. An individual agent must be over 18 and must have either a primary residence in Colorado or a usual place of business in Colorado. Under a 2024 law change, the individual must also hold a current, valid Colorado driver's license or state ID card, or verify Colorado residency with the Secretary of State by an alternative method: a registered agent passcode process with proof of a Colorado street address, and the passcode expires after 45 calendar days. An entity agent must be in good standing with the Secretary of State and have a usual place of business in Colorado, and a foreign entity agent must also have authority to transact business in Colorado. An entity can serve as its own agent, but only through a two step process: another eligible agent is named at registration, then a change is filed to select itself. The agent must consent to serve. The agent's address must be a physical street address in Colorado, customarily open during normal business hours, where documents can be accepted in person; a commercial address or PO Box cannot be used as the physical address, although a separate mailing address may be a commercial or PO Box address as long as it is also in Colorado. Agent information rides on the annual Periodic Report and can be updated there, or at any time with a Statement of Change for $10. If your agent resigns, appoint a replacement within 30 days; failing to keep an agent on file moves the entity to Noncompliant status.
File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State
File the Articles of Organization online through the Secretary of State's website, from the Business Organizations page and the entity filing flow, and pay the $50 fee. Colorado is an online only state for this document: the fee schedule lists the paper fee as not applicable, and there is no mail in path to plan around. There is also no online expedited tier for an LLC formation on the current fee schedule; the $150 expedited service line on that schedule is a paper service line, and expedited handling is simply not offered for the online filing. The filing itself is the whole formation: Colorado requires no publication step, no initial report, and no separate formation year filing beyond the Articles.
Get an EIN from the IRS
Free, online, and takes minutes once your Colorado filing is approved. Never pay a service for this. See EIN for an LLC for the walkthrough and the one IRS rule (a real person as responsible party) that surprises people.
Write your operating agreement
Colorado does not collect the operating agreement, and it does not appear among the Secretary of State's LLC filings or fees; the formation filing is the Articles of Organization alone. That makes the agreement a purely private document in Colorado, and precisely because the state holds no copy and asks no questions about it, its terms are the only ownership and management record your LLC fully controls. Write it at formation, sign it, and keep it with the formation records, especially for a multi-member LLC where buyout and voting questions are much cheaper answered on paper than argued later.
Open the business bank account and handle licenses
Bring your approved formation document and EIN letter. Then check your city and county for a general business license and your industry for state permits. Colorado has no general state business license, and therefore no state fee for one; the $50 Articles fee is an entity filing, not a license. The Secretary of State is a filing registry and says so directly: after filing, a business may need to research federal, state, county, and local licensing for its activity. Regulated professions and industries are licensed through the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). State tax registration and sales tax licensing run through the Department of Revenue, which is also where you get a state tax number. Cities and counties issue their own local licenses. The state's MyBizColorado portal is the front door for registering with the other Colorado agencies once the Secretary of State filing is done. Budget for local and industry licenses based on what you actually do; there is no statewide line item to add to the formation total.
Filing details that trip people up
- The $1 LLC is over, and has been since 2023. The Colorado Business Fee Relief Act credited $49 toward new LLC formations, bringing them to $1, from July 1, 2022. The Secretary of State announced on May 19, 2023 that the funding would be exhausted that weekend, and once the money ran out the formation fee returned to $50, as the Act provided. The current fee schedule, revised July 1, 2024, lists the full $50. Any site still advertising $1 Colorado formations is quoting a dead program.
- Online only means online only. For the Articles of Organization, the Periodic Report, and the other LLC documents in this guide, the paper fee column on the Secretary of State's fee schedule reads not applicable. Filings are made electronically through the SOS website, working from the entity's record in the business database: search the database, open the entity Summary page, and file the form from there.
- No publication requirement. Colorado's formation and maintenance filings for an LLC, as listed across the Secretary of State's fee schedule and business FAQs, contain no publication, newspaper notice, or affidavit step. If a service tries to sell you a Colorado publication package, it is selling you something the state does not ask for.
- Foreign LLCs pay $100, then join the same report cycle. An out-of-state LLC registers with a Statement of Foreign Entity Authority for $100 online, and withdrawing that authority later costs $10. A foreign entity is a reporting entity in Colorado, so it owes the same $25 Periodic Report and the same $50 late penalty as a domestic LLC. The fee schedule lists no separate late fee for the authority statement itself.
- Closing costs $10, and a second name costs $20. Articles of Dissolution for an LLC are $10 online, and an entity that is done doing business does not have to file a Periodic Report first just to dissolve. If the LLC will operate under a name other than its true legal name, it also needs a Statement of Trade Name, $20 online, filed with the Secretary of State. For an LLC, that trade name then stays effective with no annual renewal for as long as the entity stays in good standing or noncompliant status, a Colorado quirk explained on the cost page.
After your Colorado LLC is approved
Get the EIN, open the business bank account, and then open your entity's Summary page on the Secretary of State's site and note your Periodic Report month, which is your formation anniversary month. Your first report window opens two months before that month in the following cycle, and the report is where your registered agent and principal office information get confirmed every year, so treat the Summary page as your compliance home base. Handle the activity layer next: DORA licensing if your industry is regulated, Department of Revenue registration for sales tax or a state tax number if your activity needs it, and your city and county licenses. Keep the agent's Colorado street address and consent current between reports with a $10 Statement of Change whenever something moves.
The full recurring picture for Colorado, with fees and due dates, is on the Colorado annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Colorado LLC cost page.
Colorado LLC questions
Does a Colorado LLC still cost $1 to form?
No. The $1 price was a temporary state fee credit under the Colorado Business Fee Relief Act. The Secretary of State announced in May 2023 that the funding was running out, and the formation fee returned to $50. The current fee schedule lists $50, online only.
Is the Colorado Periodic Report $10 or $25?
$25. The $10 figure predates the current Secretary of State fee schedule, revised July 1, 2024. Filing the report late adds a $50 penalty. See the Colorado report page for the window and the status ladder.
Does Colorado tax my LLC's income at the entity level?
Not for a default pass-through LLC. Colorado follows federal classification: an LLC treated as a partnership federally is treated as a partnership in Colorado, the partnership itself pays no tax on its income, and the members report their shares on their own returns. An elective entity level payment exists under the SALT Parity Act, but it is an election, not a default charge.
Does a Colorado LLC file a BOI report?
No. US-formed companies are exempt under the federal final rule of August 14, 2026. See the BOI tracker.
General Information Only
LLCForming publishes general information about forming and running an LLC. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice, and it does not create an attorney or advisor relationship. Rules vary by state and by your situation. For a decision that matters, talk to a licensed attorney or tax professional in your state.