- The Companies House registration fee is £100 to register online, up from £50 since 1 February 2026, and it's the same whoever files it.
- The confirmation statement now costs £50 a year to file online, and that's the main recurring Companies House fee a small company meets.
- You can register directly with Companies House and pay only the statutory fee; a formation agent adds the registered office, first filings and someone to keep the deadlines.
The Companies House registration fee is £100 to register a private limited company online, and if you’d rather have it handled end to end, our company formation service sets it up for you at the same statutory cost. After that it’s £50 a year to file your confirmation statement.
Both figures went up on 1 February 2026, so if you saw a lower number on an older page, that’s why.
The registration fee is only the start of it, though. There’s a small annual charge to keep your company on the register, a set of filings that carry no fee but come with penalties if you miss them, and a longer list of one-off charges for things like changing your name or closing the company down. This page lays out the current fee schedule in full, then explains what each charge is for and when you’ll actually meet it.
How much does it cost to register a company with Companies House?
Registering a private limited company online costs £100. That’s the standard digital route, and it’s what most people pay. Companies House processes online applications within 24 hours in the ordinary course, so for most businesses it’s both the cheapest and the fastest option.
If you need the company set up on the day, there’s a same-day digital service at £156, though that route is only available through filing software rather than the standard web form. Registering on paper costs £124 and takes eight to ten days. Whichever route you pick, the fee is set by the government, so it’s the same through us as it is filing it yourself. If you’re weighing up doing it alone, our guide on how to register a company walks through the DIY process.
What are all the Companies House fees?
Here are the current Companies House fees, effective from 1 February 2026. The ones most small companies meet are at the top; the rest are the less common transactions you might need at some point.
| Transaction | Fee |
|---|---|
| Register a company (digital) | £100 |
| Register a company (same-day digital, software only) | £156 |
| Register a company (paper) | £124 |
| Confirmation statement (digital) | £50 |
| Confirmation statement (paper) | £110 |
| Voluntary strike off (digital) | £13 |
| Voluntary strike off (paper) | £18 |
| Change of company name (same-day digital) | £85 |
| Register a charge (digital) | £14 |
| Administrative restoration (paper) | £341 |
| Community interest company incorporation (digital) | £115 |
| Register as an ACSP (digital) | £63 |
| Remove personal details from the register (paper) | £34 |
A few are worth calling out. The confirmation statement fee is the one you’ll pay every year, so it matters more than its size suggests. Administrative restoration at £341, the cost of bringing a company back after it’s been struck off, is the priciest common transaction. And the £13 voluntary strike-off fee actually fell in February, one of the few charges that got cheaper.
What changed on 1 February 2026?
The fees rose because Companies House now does more than it used to. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, the registrar gained new powers to check the information filed with it, along with a duty to verify the identity of the people running UK companies. Two changes stand out:
- Online registration doubled, from £50 to £100.
- The confirmation statement rose from £34 to £50 a year.
The fee that applies is the one in force on the date your transaction reaches Companies House, so anything filed on or after 1 February 2026 is charged at the new rate. If you’re reading an older guide that still quotes £50 to register, it’s describing the pre-February schedule.
Digital, paper or same-day: which fee applies?
There are three ways to register, and the fee depends on which you use.
- Digital, £100. The default, filed through the Companies House web service or approved software. Use this unless you have a reason not to.
- Paper, £124. For the small number of applications that can’t be filed online. Slower and dearer.
- Same-day, £156. Registered before the end of the working day, but only through filing software, so in practice it’s used by formation agents.
For a straightforward company with a UK-based owner, the £100 digital route covers it. The other two are exceptions, not upgrades.
What will you pay every year?
Once your company is on the register, the recurring Companies House cost is small. The confirmation statement is £50 a year to file online, and it confirms that the details Companies House holds, your directors, shareholders and registered office, are still correct. That’s the one predictable annual charge.
The catch is the filings that carry no fee but still carry penalties. Your annual accounts cost nothing to file, and a company tax return goes to HMRC rather than Companies House. Miss the deadline on your accounts, though, and the penalty starts at £150 and climbs from there. For the wider picture beyond Companies House, our guide to the full cost of running a limited company sets out the accountancy and software costs a company meets in a typical year.
Are late filing penalties the same as fees?
No, and it’s worth being precise, because the two get muddled. A fee is what you pay Companies House to carry out a transaction. A penalty is what you pay for missing a deadline. The penalties are far larger than the fees.
If you file your annual accounts late, Companies House imposes an automatic penalty on a sliding scale:
| How late the accounts are | Penalty (private company) |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 month | £150 |
| 1 to 3 months | £375 |
| 3 to 6 months | £750 |
| More than 6 months | £1,500 |
The penalty doubles if you file late two years running. Miss a confirmation statement and there’s no sliding scale, but the registrar can move to strike your company off the register, which is more serious than any fee. See our guide to HMRC and Companies House penalties and, specifically, what happens if your confirmation statement is late.
What doesn’t the Companies House fee cover?
The £100 registration fee buys you one thing: an incorporated company on the register. It doesn’t include several things people often assume come with it.
- A registered office address. Every company must have one, and it becomes public.
- An accountant, or your accounts and tax return. None of that is part of incorporation.
- Identity verification. Now mandatory for directors, though verifying yourself through GOV.UK One Login is free.
- A reserved name. The name is registered as part of incorporation, not held for you beforehand.
If you’d rather not use your home address, or you want the accounts handled from day one, those are the pieces a formation package adds on top of the statutory fee. Our guide to registered office address rules covers that part if you’re unsure.
Can you just pay the fee and file it yourself?
Yes, and it’s worth saying so plainly. You can register a company directly with Companies House for £100 and pay nothing else to the government. The web service walks you through it, the identity check through GOV.UK One Login is free, and for a simple company with one or two directors it’s a genuinely straightforward job. If that’s you and you’re comfortable with the admin, filing yourself is the cheapest route.
Where it gets less simple is the ongoing part. You’ll need a registered office address on the public record, a confirmation statement every year, accounts within nine months of your year end, and to keep on top of dates that don’t send you a reminder. That’s the work, rather than the one-off fee, that people tend to underestimate.
What does a formation agent add?
A formation agent, or an accountant offering formation, doesn’t make the £100 fee cheaper, and any reputable one passes it through at cost. What they add is everything around it: a registered office address so your home stays private, the first confirmation statement handled for you, and your company set up correctly from the start with the right share structure and directors recorded properly.
A package that includes accounting means the same team files your accounts and confirmation statement on time, so the penalty risk above becomes someone else’s job. At Sleek, that’s qualified in-house accountants rather than an outsourced back office, which matters when a filing question comes up and you want a straight answer.
What about overseas entities and LLPs?
Two cases sit outside the standard company fees. A limited liability partnership registers on the same basis as a company, so the £100 digital incorporation fee applies in the same way. An overseas entity that owns UK property has its own registration and annual update regime with its own fees, so if that applies to you, check the specific charges rather than assuming the standard schedule covers it.
How Sleek helps with Companies House fees and filings
The fees are fixed, and we’d never pretend otherwise. What we do is take the admin around them off your plate: your company registered correctly, a registered office address, and the confirmation statement and accounts filed on time every year by qualified accountants who know your business. The fee is the easy part; the deadlines are where a company gets into trouble, and that’s what we manage.
Sort your Companies House fees and filings in one place.
We register your company at the statutory fee and keep the confirmation statement and accounts filed on time, so nothing slips.
FAQs on Companies House Fees
Is the Companies House fee VAT-rated or exempt?
Statutory Companies House fees are outside the scope of VAT, so there’s no VAT to reclaim on the £100 registration fee itself. If a formation agent charges a separate service fee on top, that portion may carry VAT, and you’d see it itemised separately on their invoice. Always check whether a quoted price is the bare statutory fee or a fee-plus-service bundle.
Can I pay the Companies House registration fee by any method, or only card?
Online applications through the Companies House web service are paid by debit or credit card at the point of filing. Filings made through third-party software or via an account can be settled from a Companies House credit account, which is how agents batch-pay. Paper applications are paid by cheque or postal order sent with the forms, which is part of why the paper route is slower.
Do dormant companies still pay the confirmation statement fee?
Yes. A dormant company that’s still on the register must file a confirmation statement every year and pays the same £50 online fee as a trading company. Dormancy affects your accounts and Corporation Tax position, not the confirmation statement fee, so the annual £50 applies for as long as the company exists on the register.
Is the £100 fee refundable if my application is rejected?
The registration fee is charged for processing the application, not for a guaranteed incorporation, so it isn’t automatically refunded if Companies House rejects your submission on, for example, a name or SIC-code issue. In practice most rejections are for fixable errors and you resubmit, so budget for getting the details right first time rather than relying on a refund.
How often do Companies House fees change?
Fees aren’t on a fixed annual cycle. They’re reviewed against the cost of running the register and can stay flat for years, then move in a single step, as they did on 1 February 2026 after the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act expanded the registrar’s duties. Because there’s no set schedule, it’s worth confirming the current fee on the day you file rather than assuming last year’s figure still holds.
Does changing my registered office address cost a Companies House fee?
No. Updating your registered office address is free to file, unlike a change of company name, which carries an £85 same-day fee. Several routine changes, such as appointing or removing a director or updating your registered email, are also free; the fees cluster around incorporation, the annual statement, name changes and restorations.
What's the fee to restore a company that was struck off, and why is it so high?
Administrative restoration costs £341, the priciest common transaction on the schedule. It’s high because restoration involves the registrar reviewing the case, and you may also owe outstanding confirmation statements, late filing penalties and, where assets passed to the Crown, a separate legal process. The £341 is only the Companies House portion of what can be a much larger bill.
