Ask what it costs to register a company in Georgia and most answers stop at the government fee. That number is genuinely small, and it is also the smallest part of what you will actually spend in year one. The real total is made up of a legal address, monthly accounting, translation and notarisation, and a bank account process that can eat more time than money. This picks up where how to register a company in Georgia leaves off, with every line priced honestly.
The government fee, and why it is not one number
The state charges different amounts depending on the structure you register, and the gap between them is bigger than most guides admit. This is the fee schedule currently published by the National Agency of Public Registry, the agency that runs the registry.
| Structure | Standard (1 business day) | Same-day expedited |
|---|---|---|
| Individual Entrepreneur | 26 GEL | 75 GEL |
| LLC or other legal entity | 200 GEL | 400 GEL |
That gap is not a rounding difference. Registering as an Individual Entrepreneur costs a fraction of registering an LLC, on the government fee alone. If you are choosing between the two structures anyway, per Individual Entrepreneur versus an LLC, the fee difference is a real input to that decision, not a footnote.
Two things this fee does not include. It does not cover tax registration with the Revenue Service, which is where your tax identification number gets issued and where Small Business Status is applied for separately, at no extra government charge. And an English-language extract of your registration, if you need one for a bank or a foreign counterparty, carries its own small surcharge on top.
In practice, the application itself is filed at a Public Service Hall branch, the same physical office regardless of which structure you are registering. The fee difference above is a registry pricing decision, not a difference in where you go or how long the counter visit takes.
Professional fees: what you pay for help
Most founders do not file the paperwork themselves, and the reasons are less about the forms and more about sequencing between agencies, activity-code selection, and the Public Service Hall visit itself. A registration service typically bundles the government fee, the paperwork, activity-code selection against the prohibited-activities list, accompaniment at the Public Service Hall, and the Revenue Service registration that follows it, into one fixed charge.
What that fixed fee actually is depends on the structure and whether you are doing this in person or under power of attorney from abroad. Rather than quote a number here that can drift out of date, the current fixed fees are on the Individual Entrepreneur and Small Business Status page and the LLC registration page, and the remote variant, which costs more because of the added translation and courier steps, is priced on the remote registration page.
The honest way to think about this fee is as insurance against the two most expensive mistakes: registering the wrong structure, and invoicing before your tax status is confirmed. Both cost far more to fix than the fee itself. We go through the full list of what goes wrong in company registration mistakes.
The legal address, and what it actually costs
Every registered business needs a Georgian address the registry and the Revenue Service can send correspondence to, and it has to be one you can evidence with a lease or the owner's written consent. If you do not own or lease property in Georgia, you buy this as a service, and the market range on the open market runs from roughly 250 to 500 GEL a year depending on the provider and what else is bundled with it.
We cover the requirement itself, including why banks care about it, in the legal address requirement. Our own virtual office pricing is on the virtual office page if you want the exact current figure rather than a market range.
Accounting from month one, not month twelve
This is the cost most first-year budgets miss entirely, and it is not optional. Every registered Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status and every LLC files a declaration with the Revenue Service every month, including months with no income, by the 15th. Skipping this because "nothing happened yet" is how people accumulate penalties before they have made a single sale.
Accounting in Georgia is usually priced by monthly transaction volume rather than a flat retainer, which means a quiet solo IE and a busy VAT-registered LLC land in very different bands. The current tiers, from a simple Individual Entrepreneur up to a VAT-registered company with staff, are on the accounting pricing page. Budget for this from the day you register, because the first declaration is due whether or not you have bookkeeping in place.
A missed monthly declaration is not a warning. It is a penalty, applied automatically, and it applies whether the month had income or not. Setting up bookkeeping before the first deadline is materially cheaper than reconstructing a year of records after several penalties have already landed.
The bank account: cheap on paper, expensive in time
Opening the account itself is usually free at Georgian banks, with no minimum balance and no monthly fee at most institutions. What costs money is the compliance process around it: a stalled application because your business description was vague, a second visit because a document was missing, or a rejected application that sends you shopping for a second bank.
Going with someone who has done the conversation before, and can answer the compliance questions the way the bank expects, is what our business bank account service actually sells. It is worth pricing in as part of year one even if you plan to attend the branch yourself, because a rejected first application costs more in delay than the service fee does.
Third-party costs nobody quotes upfront
These are the costs that live outside any single service page because they depend on your own country, not on Georgia, and every guide that quotes a flat number for them is guessing.
Certified translation. Founding documents, powers of attorney and supporting paperwork typically need translation into Georgian. Realistic market pricing for a certified translation in Tbilisi runs roughly 20 to 100 GEL per page depending on the translator, the turnaround you need, and how technical the document is. A short power of attorney is cheap. A full set of corporate documents for a company shareholder is not.
Notarisation and apostille. If you are registering remotely, the power of attorney has to be notarised and apostilled in your own country before it is any use in Georgia. This is the cost that varies the most, because it is set entirely by your home country's own notary and foreign ministry fee schedules rather than anything Georgian. Budget anywhere from the equivalent of a modest notary fee up to a few hundred dollars once courier costs are added, and expect the time this takes to matter more than the money. We cover the document side of this properly in apostille for Georgia documents, and the full remote process in remote company registration.
Courier and reprinting. Sending physical documents back and forth, and reprinting anything a registry official rejects on a technicality, are small individually and add up if your paperwork is not right the first time.
The real total first-year cost
Putting the pieces together, here is what actually determines your first-year number, laid out by component rather than as one invented figure, because the honest answer depends on your structure and whether you handle any of this yourself.
| Cost | Individual Entrepreneur | LLC |
|---|---|---|
| Government registration fee | 26 to 75 GEL | 200 to 400 GEL |
| Professional registration fee | Fixed fee, see Small Business Status pricing above | Fixed fee, see LLC registration pricing above |
| Legal address, if needed | 250 to 500 GEL a year on the open market | Same |
| Translation and notarisation | 50 to 400+ GEL, depends heavily on your country | Same, more documents for multiple shareholders |
| Monthly accounting, from month one | Priced by transaction volume, see accounting pricing above | Same tiers, usually a higher band |
| Bank account | Free to open; compliance help is optional | Same |
For a solo freelancer registering as an Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status, doing the registration in person and keeping bookkeeping simple, the government and address costs alone land well under a few hundred GEL, with the accounting retainer as the main recurring line after that. For an LLC with two shareholders registering remotely, the same components run several times higher, mostly because of the higher registration fee, a shareholder agreement, more documents to translate and apostille, and a higher accounting tier once VAT and payroll are involved.
Two realistic first-year budgets
Ranges are more honest than a single invented total, but they are also harder to plan against on their own, so here are two worked scenarios built from everything above.
Scenario one: a solo freelancer registering as an Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status, in person. The government fee is 26 to 75 GEL depending on whether same-day processing is worth it to you. A registration service that bundles the paperwork, activity-code check and the Public Service Hall visit adds a fixed professional fee on top, priced on the Small Business Status page above. If this founder already has a Georgian lease, the legal address cost is zero; if not, add roughly 250 to 500 GEL a year. Monthly accounting on the lightest tier, priced by transaction volume, is the main recurring cost from here on. Translation and notarisation barely enter the picture, because nothing needs to leave the country for a notary's signature. This is the cheapest realistic path through year one, and it is why a solo service business under the turnover cap is the scenario the whole 1% regime is built around.
Scenario two: two co-founders registering an LLC, entirely by power of attorney from abroad. The government fee here starts at 200 GEL and can reach 400 GEL for same-day processing, well above the Individual Entrepreneur rate. A remote registration service adds courier and certified translation costs for two sets of passports and a founding agreement, on top of its fixed fee, priced on the remote registration page above. Notarisation and apostille for two people, done through each founder's own country, is the most variable line here and the one most likely to run long rather than expensive; some countries turn an apostille around in days, others take weeks. A shareholder agreement is worth the modest added cost wherever there is more than one owner. Add a legal address, since a remote registration has no Georgian address without one, and a higher accounting tier once VAT registration and a second shareholder's paperwork enter the picture. This scenario costs several times scenario one, and almost none of the difference is the government fee itself.
The gap between these two is the entire argument for deciding structure before you price anything. A founder who needs scenario two's protections but tries to force scenario one's cost profile onto it usually ends up paying for both registrations before the year is out.
Does paying for help actually cost more overall?
On paper, doing it yourself saves the professional fee entirely. In practice, the fee is priced against the two failure modes covered above: a stalled bank application from an unclear business description, and a structure that turns out wrong once you are already invoicing. Both cost more in lost time and, in the Small Business Status case, in tax paid at 20% instead of 1% on income earned before the status was confirmed, than any registration service charges for getting the sequencing right the first time.
That does not mean self-filing is a bad idea across the board. A confident, Georgian-speaking founder registering a straightforward Individual Entrepreneur in person, with no co-founders and no ambiguity about the activity, has a genuinely low-risk path to doing this alone. The calculation changes fast once a second shareholder, a remote registration, or an activity anywhere near the prohibited list enters the picture.
Where the cost actually comes from
If you take one thing from this, take this: the state fee was never the expensive part. The businesses that end up spending far more than they expected are the ones that registered the wrong structure and had to unwind it, or invoiced before Small Business Status was confirmed and paid 20% instead of 1% on the income earned in the gap. Neither of those shows up in any cost table, because they are not a fee. They are the cost of sequencing the steps wrong, and it is the single largest driver of "this cost more than the website said" complaints we hear.
We'll handle the charter, the registry filing, tax registration and the bank meeting for a fixed fee, so the number you're quoted at the start is the number you actually pay.
See what it costs
If you are still deciding between structures, a free tax consultation is a faster way to get a real number for your situation than adding up ranges from a guide, ours included.
Key takeaways
- The government fee is 26 to 75 GEL for an Individual Entrepreneur and 200 to 400 GEL for an LLC, depending on whether you pay for same-day processing. That is the entire state charge, not the total cost.
- Tax registration and Small Business Status are separate steps at the Revenue Service, with no government fee of their own.
- A registered legal address costs roughly 250 to 500 GEL a year on the open market if you do not already have a Georgian lease.
- Monthly accounting is not optional and starts from the day you register, including months with no income.
- Translation, notarisation and apostille costs are the most variable line item and depend on your home country, not on Georgia.
- The most expensive mistakes are structural, not fee-based: the wrong entity type, or invoicing before your tax status is confirmed.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it actually cost to register a company in Georgia?
The government fee alone is 26 to 75 GEL for an Individual Entrepreneur or 200 to 400 GEL for an LLC. Add a registered legal address, translation and notarisation if you are registering remotely, and monthly accounting from day one, and a realistic first-year figure is several times the government fee, weighted heavily toward the accounting retainer rather than any one-off charge.
Why is the LLC registration fee so much higher than the Individual Entrepreneur fee?
The current fee schedule published by the National Agency of Public Registry prices Individual Entrepreneur registration at 26 to 75 GEL and legal entity registration, which covers an LLC, at 200 to 400 GEL. It is a genuine difference in the government charge, not a quoting error, and it is one more reason the structure decision matters before you file anything.
Is the same-day expedited fee worth paying?
If you are on a short trip or need the certificate to open a bank account immediately, yes. The expedited fee roughly triples the standard charge, but the alternative is a full extra business day of waiting, which matters more when everything downstream, including the bank, depends on having the certificate in hand.
Does the registration fee include tax registration?
No. The registry fee covers creating the legal entity only. Registering with the Revenue Service for your tax identification number, and applying for Small Business Status if that is the regime you want, is a separate step with no government fee of its own.
Do I need a legal address, and how much does that cost?
Yes, every registered business needs one, evidenced by a lease or the property owner's consent. If you do not already have a Georgian address, expect to pay roughly 250 to 500 GEL a year for a registered address service on the open market.
How much does monthly accounting cost after registration?
Pricing is usually based on transaction volume rather than a flat rate, so a quiet Individual Entrepreneur and a VAT-registered LLC with staff land in very different bands. Whatever the number, it applies from your first month, including months with zero income, because the monthly declaration is still due.
What are the hidden costs nobody quotes upfront?
Certified translation of your documents, notarisation and apostille costs in your own country if you are registering remotely, courier fees, and the cost of a stalled or rejected bank application. None of these are Georgian government charges, which is exactly why they get left off simple cost breakdowns.
Is registering remotely more expensive than doing it in person?
Yes, and the gap is mostly translation, courier and the apostille process in your own country rather than anything Georgia charges extra. The Georgian side of a remote registration takes about the same time as an in-person one; your own country's apostille turnaround is what adds weeks and cost.
Can I register a company myself to save on professional fees?
Yes, nothing legally requires an agent. What you save on the professional fee you take on as risk around sequencing between the registry and the Revenue Service, and as time spent navigating a process that runs primarily in Georgian. For a straightforward Individual Entrepreneur registration in person, doing it yourself is genuinely viable if you speak Georgian or bring a translator.
Does VAT registration cost anything extra?
Registering for VAT itself carries no separate government fee. It becomes mandatory once your taxable turnover passes 100,000 GEL in any rolling twelve-month period, at an 18% rate confirmed in PwC's Georgia tax summary, and the practical cost is the added complexity in your monthly accounting rather than a registration charge. See VAT in Georgia for how the threshold and the rate work together.
What is the single biggest cost driver in year one?
Choosing the wrong structure and having to unwind it, or invoicing before Small Business Status is confirmed and paying 20% instead of 1% on that income. Both cost more than every fee in this article combined, and neither shows up on a government fee schedule. Those are exactly the patterns covered in company registration mistakes, linked earlier in this article.