Process Score

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Not legal advice. Confirm the live registered-office line, and the registered agent if any, on the Minnesota Business Filings search before you file or treat a published street as current. That search is Minnesota’s public lookup. The office that keeps it is the Minnesota Secretary of State.

State · Minnesota

Minnesota registered agent: rules, prices, and graded services

Minnesota wants a registered office, not a required domestic agent, and the free December 31 renewal is not that job

A registered agent is the person or company who can be handed a lawsuit for the business. It is not a mailbox. A registered agent is also called a statutory agent, or an agent for service of process. Handing over those court papers is called service of process. Minnesota’s statute uses the words registered office and registered agent. A Minnesota-formed company must keep the office. It may name the agent. A company formed somewhere else must name the agent when it registers to do business here. This page prints Minnesota’s split. It does not reprint a required-agent sentence from another state. The office that keeps the public list is the Minnesota Secretary of State. The registered office must be an actual office location in this state. A P.O. Box alone is not that office. The corporation and foreign-LLC form pages repeat that a post office box by itself is not acceptable. Every year a Minnesota LLC also files an annual renewal. An annual renewal is a yearly filing that updates the public record. The statute that requires it is titled annual report. The body of that statute, and the Secretary of State renewals page, call the filing a renewal. No fee is required to file it. It is due by December 31, beginning the calendar year after the company files articles of organization. Miss it and a domestic LLC is administratively terminated. That renewal is still not the registered-agent job. This page is the Minnesota rule and the dated prices. It does not reprint vendor cards from another state.

Updated September 13, 2026 · Methodology · Prices retrieved September 13, 2026 from official pages

A registered agent is not a virtual mailbox. We do not score mailbox suites, virtual offices, or Google Business Profile eligibility here. If you need scans of catalogs, that is a different product on a different site.

What Minnesota actually requires

A registered agent is the person or company who can be handed a lawsuit. Service of process means handing over those papers. Minn. Stat. § 5.36 requires a registered office. A Minnesota-formed company may name an agent and does not have to. A company formed elsewhere must name one to register here. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0113 states that split. The agent may be a resident or a domestic or authorized foreign company, and the business office must match the registered office.

A street is a place a person can walk up to. A P.O. Box is a mailbox at the post office. The office must be an actual office, not only a post office box. Changing the address only to add that office is free. The articles must state the office street. A blank agent line is allowed. A blank office is not.

A later statement must keep the office and the agent’s office identical. The portal row opened here prices one domestic change at $55. Other tables print other dollars. The sources disagree. This page does not pick one. The compliance-only fix stays free. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0208 is titled an annual report and written as a renewal, due December 31, with no fee, starting the year after the articles. It lists the office and the agent, if any. The forms page says an agent change needs the amendment. Listing a name on the renewal is not taking the lawsuit.

Minn. Stat. § 322C.0705 calls a missed renewal an administrative termination. Another page says statutorily dissolved. The sources disagree. This page does not pick one. Reinstatement is $25 on the statute and $85 on the portal row opened here. The sources disagree. This page does not pick one. Minn. Stat. § 5.25 serves the agent if any, then an officer, manager, or general partner, then the secretary of state. That path is not the change fee.

Related guide: Can I be my own registered agent? A formed Minnesota company may name a resident, or leave the agent line blank and still keep the office.

Related guide: What is a registered agent for an LLC? If named, the agent takes a lawsuit at the Minnesota street. The free renewal is a different paper.

Related guide: How much does a registered agent cost? A compliance-only address change is free. Other change dollars do not match. The sources disagree. This page does not pick one.

Related guide: How to change a registered agent on an LLC File a statement that keeps the two offices identical. Adding a real office, alone, is free.

Related guide: What is a commercial registered agent? A domestic or authorized foreign company may be the agent if its office is the registered office.

Related guide: Service of process: what it means for an LLC Service of process means handing over the papers. With no agent, an officer, manager, or partner is next.

Related guide: What is a registered agent address? The registered office is an actual Minnesota office. A P.O. Box alone is not that office.

Related guide: Best registered agent service The company must keep the office. Naming an agent is allowed, not required.

Related guide: What is a certificate of good standing? The certificate is a different paper from the agent filing. This section does not print a certificate price.

The statute does not print a clock. Someone has to be at a Minnesota street to accept hand-delivered papers. A software login is not that street.

Cited prices, retrieved September 13, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Minnesota registered-agent price from the national card, except where we note a Minnesota-page renewal line. The page does not publish a separate renewal price.

Vendor Year 1 Year 2 Letters Link
Northwest Registered Agent $125/year standalone; first year free only if you form the entity through Northwest $125/year (same price; $100/year per state if you have five or more states) B+ / B / B Official page
Bizee Free first year when you form through Bizee; standalone registered agent $149/year Official pages we retrieved say $149/year after the free first year (or $149 from day one if you buy standalone) C+ / B- / B Official page
LegalZoom $249/year on the official registered-agent overview (first-time customers) Official footnote: auto-renews at the purchase rate until you cancel; “The renewal rate is subject to change.” C / B- / B- LegalZoom
ZenBusiness $99 + MN state fees for the first year (standalone); national card says $99 + state fees $199/year renewal on the official national pages; those pages say the rate is subject to change C / B- / B- ZenBusiness

A change of registered office or agent is a separate Secretary of State filing. We cite Minn. Stat. § 5.36, the portal’s $55 domestic-corporation change row, and the free compliance-only address change. The free December 31 renewal is still not the registered-agent job.

Who publishes a Minnesota street

A city is not a registered office. We print only the streets the companies publish for registered-agent use. The pages we read do not publish the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Minnesota Business Filings search before you file. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Secretary of State’s St. Paul contacts are not vendor suites.

If you are your own registered agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial registered agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Owatonna, ZIP 55060, Steele County, on both the product page and the office list, and no street on either. LegalZoom published no live Minnesota article on the two URLs we tried. Bizee publishes no Minnesota street. ZenBusiness publishes the Secretary of State’s Minnesota Street contacts. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use the Business Filings search.

In-state office, the post-office ban, and the free December 31 renewal

Minnesota wants a registered office that is an actual office location in this state. A Minnesota-formed company may name a registered agent at that office. A foreign company must. If an agent is named, that agent’s business office and the registered office must be the same street. A P.O. Box alone is not that street. Changing the office only to add an actual location is free. Change the agent on the Change of Registered Office/Agent filing. The live portal row we retrieved for a domestic corporation is $55. Resignation ends on the 30th day after the notice is filed. The LLC annual renewal is free and due by December 31, beginning the year after the articles are filed. Miss it and a domestic LLC is administratively terminated. The statute prices reinstatement at $25. The live portal row we retrieved is $85. Those filings are not the registered-agent job. Minnesota does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Owatonna, ZIP 55060, Steele County. LegalZoom published no live Minnesota article. ZenBusiness publishes 332 Minnesota Street, the Secretary of State. Bizee names no Minnesota street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Minn. Stat. § 5.36.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

Home-address privacy

A commercial registered agent is how most Minnesota owners keep a home off the agent line. The Secretary of State still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing or an annual renewal. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. A Minnesota-formed company can leave the agent line blank and still must list a registered office. Confirm the live line on the Business Filings search.

Scorecards

Northwest Registered Agent

Commercial registered agent
Year-1 / year-2 price
B+
National $125/year, same in year 2. Five-or-more-states is $100/year per state. No Minnesota-only price.
SOS street and presence
B
Product page and office-locations list both name Owatonna, MN 55060, Steele County. No street. Confirm the Business Filings search. The page does not publish one.
Process and privacy
B
In-office scan of documents they receive. Grade the court-paper path, not the mail-scanning add-on.

Year 1: $125/year standalone; first year free only if you form the entity through Northwest

Year 2: $125/year (same price; $100/year per state if you have five or more states)

Retrieved: 2026-09-13

Official page

Bizee

Commercial registered agent
Year-1 / year-2 price
C+
Year 1 can be $0 with formation on the official card. Year 2 is $149. No Minnesota-only price.
SOS street and presence
B-
No Minnesota registered-agent street on the product pages. Houston HQ is not a Minnesota registered-agent street. Confirm the Business Filings search.
Process and privacy
B
Published court-paper path: notify, scan to portal, FedEx the papers. Not a mailbox.

Year 1: Free first year when you form through Bizee; standalone registered agent $149/year

Year 2: Official pages we retrieved say $149/year after the free first year (or $149 from day one if you buy standalone)

Retrieved: 2026-09-13

Official page

LegalZoom

Commercial registered agent
Year-1 / year-2 price
C
Official $249/year. Year 2 is “purchase rate,” subject to change. The page does not publish $299.
SOS street and presence
B-
No live Minnesota article on the two URLs we tried. 332 Minnesota Street is the Secretary of State. Confirm the Business Filings search.
Process and privacy
B-
Published court-paper scan, email, and postcard. Junk mail is filtered. That is not the product we grade.

Year 1: $249/year on the official registered-agent overview (first-time customers)

Year 2: Official footnote: auto-renews at the purchase rate until you cancel; “The renewal rate is subject to change.”

Retrieved: 2026-09-13

LegalZoom

ZenBusiness

Commercial registered agent
Year-1 / year-2 price
C
Year 1 $99 + MN state fees is a first-year deal. Year 2 is $199, subject to change on the national card. Read the renewal line.
SOS street and presence
B-
Minnesota product page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. The St. Paul line is a Secretary of State contact. Confirm the Business Filings search. The page does not publish a suite.
Process and privacy
B-
Scan, dashboard, email; overnight for urgent legal notices. Not a mailbox. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits. That is ZenBusiness’s exclusion, not a Minnesota statute.

Year 1: $99 + MN state fees for the first year (standalone); national card says $99 + state fees

Year 2: $199/year renewal on the official national pages; those pages say the rate is subject to change

Retrieved: 2026-09-13

ZenBusiness

What this page does not do

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard. Maryland’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to SDAT, not the Secretary of State: Maryland scorecard. Tennessee wants a registered office and a registered agent at the same street. The $300 LLC annual report is not that job: Tennessee scorecard. Wisconsin files the agent at DFI, not the Secretary of State. A P.O. Box, a mailbox service, or a telephone answering service is not the office: Wisconsin scorecard. Oregon’s street cannot be a commercial mail receiving agency, a mail forwarding business, or a virtual office. The $100 anniversary renewal is not that job: Oregon scorecard.

Sources for this page

  1. Minn. Stat. § 5.36 (retrieved September 13, 2026), continuously maintain a registered office; a solely post-office-box line must be replaced with an actual office location; that compliance-only change is free; a Minnesota-formed company may designate a registered agent; a foreign company must; the agent’s business office must be identical with the registered office; resignation terminates 30 days after the notice is filed
  2. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0113 and Minn. Stat. § 302A.121 (retrieved September 13, 2026), every LLC and every corporation shall have a registered office and may have a registered agent in the manner prescribed by section 5.36
  3. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0201 (retrieved September 13, 2026), articles must state the street of the initial registered office and, if the company has an agent, the name of that agent; formation fee $135
  4. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0208 and Minn. Stat. § 5.34 (retrieved September 13, 2026), heading says annual report; body requires an annual renewal by December 31 beginning the year after articles are filed; no fee; the renewal lists the registered office and the registered agent, if any
  5. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0705 and Minn. Stat. § 322C.0706 (retrieved September 13, 2026), a domestic LLC that has not filed the renewal is administratively terminated; reinstatement is one renewal plus a $25 fee
  6. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0116 and Minn. Stat. § 5.25 (retrieved September 13, 2026), serve the appointed agent if any; if none, an officer, manager, or general partner; if none of those can be found, the secretary of state; SOS service $35 for an LLC, $50 for a foreign corporation in the listed cases
  7. Minn. Stat. § 5.26 and Minn. Stat. § 5.29 (retrieved September 13, 2026), good standing means the governing-chapter filings are current; a bulk agent name or office change is a separate online transaction per entity, aggregate fee capped at $35,000
  8. Minnesota Secretary of State, Renewals, the how-to-renew page, the business corporation forms page, the foreign LLC forms page, the general business filing forms page, and the service-of-process page (retrieved September 13, 2026), most entity types renew for free; file any time in the calendar year the renewal is due; a P.O. Box by itself is not acceptable; foreign LLC needs an office and an agent; SOS service $35 / $55 domestic and other entities, $50 / $70 foreign corporations
  9. Minnesota Business Filings search (retrieved September 13, 2026), official public lookup at mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us; File a New Business lists domestic LLC $155.00; a domestic-corporation Registered Office and/or Agent row listed $55.00; a domestic-LLC Annual Reinstatement row listed $85.00; paper amendments mail to First National Bank Building, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, Saint Paul, MN 55101; live records listed Renewal Due Date 12/31/2026
  10. Northwest Registered Agent, official registered-agent page, Minnesota product page, and office locations (retrieved September 13, 2026), $125/year; first year free only with formation; $100/year per state at five or more states; product page names an Owatonna scan office and says Minnesota requires an in-state registered agent; office-locations list Owatonna, MN 55060, Steele County, and says they leave the street off this list
  11. Bizee, official registered-agent page, Minnesota product page, and contact (retrieved September 13, 2026), free year 1 with formation on the official card; standalone $149/year; year 2 $149/year; Minnesota page names $135 online / $155 paper Articles, December 31 annual report, and says every LLC must have a registered agent; no Minnesota registered-agent street; /llc/minnesota-registered-agent returned 404; Houston contact HQ is not a Minnesota registered-agent street
  12. LegalZoom, official registered-agent overview (retrieved September 13, 2026), $249/year; auto-renews at the purchase rate, subject to change; no Minnesota street on the official overview; /articles/minnesota-registered-agent and /articles/registered-agent-in-minnesota returned 404 the same day
  13. ZenBusiness, official registered-agent page and Minnesota registered agent (retrieved September 13, 2026; Minnesota page last updated August 31, 2026), $99 + state fees year 1; $199 renewal, subject to change; Minnesota product page publishes no ZenBusiness street; it prints 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, St. Paul, MN 55101, telephone 651-201-1324, Secretary of State contacts, not a vendor suite; it also prints the domestic may / foreign must split and a $35 / $55 domestic change table; /minnesota-resident-agent/ returned 404; national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits

Also setting up payroll in Minnesota? Payroll Score covers the first paycheck there.