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How to Form an LLC in Georgia

Georgia charges $110 all-in to form an LLC, $100 for the Articles of Organization plus a $10 service charge that older guides miss. After that the state asks for one thing: a $60 Annual Registration in a fixed window that opens January 1 and closes April 1, starting the year after you form.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

The Georgia filing steps

1. Check your name on the state's own search

   Check name availability with the Business Search on eCorp, the Corporations Division filing system, before you file. A Georgia LLC name must contain "limited liability company" or "limited company," with "limited" abbreviable as "ltd." and "company" as "co.," or the abbreviation "L.L.C.", "LLC", "L.C.", or "LC". The name cannot exceed 80 characters, including spaces and punctuation, and it must be distinguishable on the Secretary of State's records from existing corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, and reserved or registered names. Words implying banking, insurance, or education, such as bank, trust, credit union, insurance, college, or university, require written approval from the relevant Georgia regulator, and no approval fee for those words is published in the fee schedule. If you want to hold a name while you prepare, a name reservation costs $35, made up of a $25 fee plus the $10 service charge, and it lasts 30 days or until you file, whichever comes first. The Secretary of State makes the final distinguishability call at filing, and clearing the state search does not settle trademark availability.

2. Choose your registered agent

   Georgia law requires every LLC to continuously maintain a registered office and a registered agent for service of process in Georgia, and the address of the agent's business office must be the same as the address of the registered office. The agent can be an individual resident of Georgia, a corporation, another limited liability company, or a foreign corporation or foreign limited liability company that holds a certificate of authority to transact business in Georgia. The registered office must be a Georgia street address where the agent may be personally located. A post office box is not sufficient. An owner who is a Georgia resident may serve personally in that individual capacity. Georgia's primary sources do not impose a separate written consent filing for the initial appointment the way some states do. Changes are made through the annual registration or an amended annual registration, which costs $30, made up of a $20 fee plus the $10 service charge. Upkeep matters here: being without a registered agent or registered office for 60 days or more is a ground for administrative dissolution, and if an agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, the Secretary of State becomes the agent for service of process.

3. File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State

   File the Articles of Organization online through eCorp, the Georgia Corporations Division filing system, and pay $110. That total is a $100 filing fee plus a $10 service charge under the fee schedule effective September 6, 2025, and paper filing costs the same $110 under the current schedule. For a paper filing, the template is Form CD 030 and it travels with a completed Transmittal Information Form, Form CD 231, which online filers do not need. The articles themselves are short: at minimum, the exact name of the LLC. Management vesting in managers and other lawful provisions are optional additions. The filing can be signed by a member, by a manager if the LLC is manager-managed, by an organizer, or by an attorney-in-fact stating that capacity, and no notarization is required. If a guide quotes $100 as the online price, or an older $105 online and $110 paper split, it is using guidance from before the September 6, 2025 schedule equalized the total at $110 both ways.

4. Get an EIN from the IRS

   Free, online, and takes minutes once your Georgia 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.

5. Write your operating agreement

   Georgia defines an operating agreement broadly: any agreement, written or oral, of the members as to the conduct of the business and affairs of the LLC, and the LLC is bound by it whether or not the LLC itself signs it. Nothing is filed with the state and there is no state fee for it. That breadth is not a reason to stay oral. The Act's operative override provisions repeatedly key off a written operating agreement, so an oral agreement is a weak substitute for a written one. A writing signed by a sole member stating that it is intended to be a written operating agreement counts even though only one party signs it. Write yours at formation, in writing, especially if there is more than one member.

6. 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. Georgia has no single statewide general business license that serves as the operative document for most LLCs. Business licenses in Georgia are obtained from the county and city where the primary place of business is located, and almost every business also needs a city or county business license, in practice the local Occupational Tax Certificate, in addition to any state professional or occupational licenses for the activity itself. The Secretary of State's First Stop Business Information Center is the central point for state regulatory contacts, and its Professional Licensing Boards Division handles state professional licenses. Local license amounts are set by locality and by the business, so there is no flat statewide license fee to add to the Georgia total. Register for the taxes your activity triggers through the Department of Revenue and the Georgia Tax Center, with sales and use tax the common one for sellers.

Filing details that trip people up

• The formation total is $110, not $100. The current Corporations Division fee schedule, effective September 6, 2025, lists Articles of Organization at a $100 filing fee plus a $10 service charge, $110 online and $110 on paper. Older guides quote $100, and some quote an older $105 online figure from when the online service charge was $5. Both are stale.
• Georgia LLCs do NOT publish in a newspaper. Corporations do. The Georgia publication rule that confuses founders applies to corporations only: a corporation publishes a notice of intent to incorporate in the county legal organ newspaper, pays $40 directly to the newspaper, and runs it once a week for two consecutive weeks. There is no parallel publication step in the LLC chapter and no publication step in the Secretary of State's LLC filing procedure. Any vendor selling Georgia LLC publication is selling a step the state does not require for an LLC, and the correct publication cost in a Georgia LLC total is $0.
• Foreign LLCs pay $235, and late qualification carries a $500 penalty that cannot be waived. Registering an out-of-state LLC on Form CD 241 costs $235, a $225 filing fee plus the $10 service charge. If the date business commenced in Georgia is more than 30 days before the application's effective date, a $500 penalty plus the fees that would have been imposed must also be paid, and the form states the penalty is statutory and cannot be waived by the Secretary of State. A foreign LLC then owes the same $60 Annual Registration, January 1 to April 1, as a domestic LLC.
• Expedited processing exists, and it is priced separately. On top of the regular filing fee, two business day processing costs $120, same day processing costs $275 and the filing must be received by noon on a business day, and one hour processing costs $1,200 during business days from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. These are optional and non-refundable, and normal filing needs none of them.
• Trading under a different name is a county filing in Georgia, with no statewide fee. A trade name is filed with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the business is located, not with the Secretary of State, a copy is published in the county legal organ newspaper at least once a week for two consecutive weeks, and the filing does not need to be renewed. Georgia.gov states plainly that the amount varies by county, covering a filing fee and publishing a notice, and procedures vary by county. There is no single statewide Georgia DBA number to quote, so confirm the amount with your county Clerk of Superior Court.

After your Georgia LLC is approved

Get the EIN, open the business bank account, and handle the local Occupational Tax Certificate and any Department of Revenue registrations your activity requires. Then mark the real Georgia date: January 1 to April 1 of the year after your formation year, when your first $60 Annual Registration comes due. You do not file one in your formation year. Georgia permits filing annual registrations in advance for up to 3 calendar years at $60 per year if you want the obligation out of the way, but the standard rhythm is one filing each winter. Keep the registered agent and office current in the meantime, because a gap of 60 days or more is itself a ground for administrative dissolution, separate from the registration.

The full recurring picture for Georgia, with fees and due dates, is on the Georgia annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Georgia LLC cost page.

Georgia LLC questions