Quarterly research
Registered Agent Fees Report
What does a registered agent actually cost, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and where is one required? This quarterly report publishes the fee landscape straight from the live jurisdiction catalog that prices our own registered agent service: recorded figures only, no survey data, no estimates.
Data as of August 18, 2026 (Q3 2026 edition, computed live). Current edition: Q3 2026. Every figure recomputes from the underlying dataset, so the report never goes stale.
By Cornerstone Staff, Financial Services State Licensing Specialists
Headline findings
52
US jurisdictions with active registered agent coverage
Cornerstone Registered Agent jurisdiction catalog
$99 flat
annual service fee, identical in every covered jurisdiction
Cornerstone Registered Agent jurisdiction catalog
$149 flat
renewal-term annual fee across covered jurisdictions
Cornerstone Registered Agent jurisdiction catalog
$25
median state change-of-agent filing fee (44 jurisdictions with a recorded fee)
State filing-fee figures recorded in the catalog
The service fee landscape
Across all 52 covered jurisdictions, the first-term registered agent service fee is a single flat figure: $99 per jurisdiction per year. There is no state-by-state surcharge, no premium state tier, and no per-document fee in the catalog. That uniformity is itself the finding: much of the confusion in registered agent pricing comes from providers that vary fees by state or add unlisted charges, and a flat catalog removes that variable entirely.
- Renewal terms are likewise flat: $149 per jurisdiction per year in every covered jurisdiction after the locked-in first term.
- 52 jurisdictions are active in the catalog: all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico when fully covered.
State change-of-agent filing fees
Beyond the service fee, states charge their own filing fee to designate or change a registered agent of record. Among the 44 jurisdictions with a recorded fee, the median is $25 (range $5 to $100). Jurisdictions without a recorded figure are excluded rather than estimated.
Lowest recorded state filing fees
- Arizona $5
- Michigan $5
- North Carolina $5
- Pennsylvania $5
- Wyoming $5
Highest recorded state filing fees
- Alabama $100
- Puerto Rico $60
- Nevada $60
- Delaware $50
- District of Columbia $50
The requirement itself, and where it applies
Every US state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, requires a business entity that is formed, qualified, or registered there to continuously maintain a registered agent with a physical street address in that jurisdiction, available during business hours to receive service of process and official state correspondence. The requirement applies per jurisdiction: a company registered in twelve states needs an agent of record in all twelve. Failure to maintain one can lead to penalties, loss of good standing, administrative dissolution, and default judgments when service of process goes unreceived.
- The agent must have a physical street address in the jurisdiction; a PO box does not satisfy the statute.
- Some states use the older label "resident agent" and require the agent to reside in the state; the role is the same.
- For companies in regulated industries, most states also require out-of-state licensees (collection agencies, lenders, money transmitters, and others) to designate an in-state registered agent as part of licensing, which is why registered agent coverage and license portfolios move together.
Methodology and sourcing
Every figure in this report is computed live, at render time, from the operated registered agent jurisdiction catalog, the same records that price the registered agent service itself. Nothing is surveyed, sampled, or estimated, and no figure is stored in the report: a change to the catalog changes this page on the next render.
Rankings publish only over recorded figures. A state filing-fee ranking appears only when at least 10 jurisdictions carry a recorded non-zero fee; a jurisdiction without a recorded figure is excluded from statistics rather than estimated. Where the fee landscape is uniform, the report says so plainly instead of manufacturing a ranking.
The quarter label is computed from the render date, so an archived copy of this page can be dated but the live page can never carry a stale quarter.