Business licenses and permits in Texas

What applies everywhere in Texas

10 requirements are set by Texas itself and apply whichever city you open in. Local permits sit on top of them.

Sources

Every statewide figure above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.

1. Form 503 - Instructions for Assumed Name CertificateTexas Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
2. Barbering and Cosmetology Fee Changes — TDLRTexas Department of Licensing and Regulation · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
3. Formation of Texas Entities FAQs - Texas Secretary of StateTexas Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
4. 5200, Fees — Child Care Regulation HandbookTexas Health and Human Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20
5. Apply for a New Electrical Contractor License - TDLRTexas Department of Licensing and Regulation · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
6. Frequently Asked Questions for Health Spas — Texas Secretary of StateTexas Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
7. Two-Year Licensing Fees — TABCTexas Alcoholic Beverage Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
8. Mobile Food Vendors - Texas DSHSTexas Department of State Health Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
9. Sales and Use Tax Permit — Texas ComptrollerTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20
10. Texas Board of Veterinary Medical ExaminersTexas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners / TDLR · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

Which Texas city are you opening in?

• Fort Worth, TXTarrant County. Fort Worth uses the Texas DSHS standard food sales bands, but the top fee is the default — you are charged $773 unless you supply proof of lower gross annual sales. Almost everything else the city charges for is set in one adopted fee ordinance, so each construction, fire and zoning fee below cites the code section it amends rather than a departmental price list. Fire inspections are billed by floor area on a standing schedule, which most Texas cities do not do.33 published records
• Grand Prairie, TXMostly Dallas County, with parts of the city in Tarrant, Ellis and Johnson counties. Grand Prairie runs its own Department of Public Health and Environmental Quality out of City Hall and issues food permits itself, so a restaurant here files with the city rather than with whichever county it happens to sit in. Construction, zoning, sign and fire fees are all set in Article 22 of the Unified Development Code, so each of those carries a code section rather than a departmental price list; the health fees sit separately with the department.33 published records
• Arlington, TXTarrant County. Arlington runs its own Health Services division, so food, hotel, pool and child care permits are city permits rather than Tarrant County Public Health permits. Almost every fee on this page comes from one adopted resolution — Exhibit A to Resolution No. 25-258 — which makes Arlington one of the easier Texas cities to cost a project in, because construction, fire, occupancy and health fees were all set at the same time.32 published records
• San Antonio, TXBexar County, and the second-largest city in Texas. San Antonio charges about 20% above the Texas DSHS standard food sales bands, almost identical to Austin. Its development fees run on a fee waiver programme most cities do not have: projects in affordable housing, historic rehabilitation and small business development categories can have the applicable city fees waived outright, subject to funding. Commercial trade permits — mechanical, electrical and plumbing — are charged as flat fees by occupancy group and floor area rather than by fixture count, which makes a large fit-out unusually easy to cost in advance.30 published records
• Pasadena, TXHarris County. Pasadena runs its own public health department, so food permits are city permits rather than Harris County Public Health permits. Its fire marshal publishes a full annual fire and life safety operating permit schedule — an obligation most Texas cities either do not charge for or do not publish — which means a Pasadena assembly venue, care facility, hotel or hazardous operation carries a recurring fire fee that a comparable business in Dallas or Austin does not.27 published records
• Bexar County, TXBexar County has four distinct county-level programs, reaching different geography, and a business's obligations depend on which one reaches it. Bexar County Environmental Services (Food Service Establishment permits, Temporary Food Event permits, the childcare food-service fee, and On-Site Sewage Facility permits) and the Bexar County Fire Marshal's Office and Public Works (building/construction permits, Change of Occupancy, annual fire/life-safety inspections, flammable-liquid and Knox Box registrations, floodplain, stormwater, post construction, and right-of-way permits) all reach unincorporated Bexar County only; inside San Antonio or any other incorporated city, that city's own health and building departments apply instead. Two programs are countywide, including inside San Antonio: the TABC county local alcohol-permit fee, collected by the Tax Assessor-Collector's Office alongside the state TABC permit, and the County Clerk's Assumed Name Certificate (DBA) filing. The County Clerk's Assumed Name page states that 'Assumed Name Certificates are not business licenses' and directs business-license questions to the City of San Antonio, and the County's Businesses page lists no county general business license among its programs; Texas counties hold only the regulatory powers the Texas Constitution and Legislature expressly grant them. Effective July 1, 2026, Texas HB 2844 transferred mobile food unit food-safety permitting statewide to Texas DSHS, so Environmental Services no longer issues that specific permit; the Fire Marshal's separate Mobile Food Vendor fire-safety operational permit is unrelated and still applies in the unincorporated area. Childcare licensing (Texas Health and Human Services Commission), veterinary licensing (Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners), cosmetology/salon licensing (Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation), and contractor trade credentials (state boards) are all state functions, not county ones, and are carried at the state layer.25 published records
• Abilene, TXTaylor County. Abilene publishes one city-wide fee schedule covering every department, which makes it unusually easy to cost a project here end to end. Its food establishment permit is priced by how many inspections a year the business needs rather than by turnover or risk band — $75 for one inspection up to $350 for four — so a low-frequency operation pays a fraction of what the same business would pay in a sales-banded city. Environmental health is run jointly as the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District.24 published records
• Dallas, TXDallas County. Food permit fees are banded by gross annual food sales, on the same structure as Austin but at lower amounts.23 published records
• Waco, TXMcLennan County. Waco is one of the few Texas cities that still runs a general business licensing regime alongside its permits: night clubs, farmers markets, indoor amusement facilities, open air vending and sexually oriented businesses each need a named license with its own inspection fee. Food permits are issued county-wide by the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District, so the same fees apply outside the city limits.22 published records
• Austin, TXTravis County. Fees differ between the City of Austin and unincorporated Travis County.21 published records
• Killeen, TXBell County. Killeen prices commercial construction by floor area rather than valuation, and the headline rate is genuinely all-in: the per-square-foot fee covers structure, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and the required inspections in one permit. Retail food is the confusing part — the city charges $125 a year for a Food Dealer's Permit while Bell County Public Health separately permits retail food establishments county-wide by employee count. Permits are filed through the MGO Connect portal.21 published records
• Laredo, TXLaredo runs a single new-business registration (its fee is printed differently in City Code § 18-23, Ordinance 2024-O-107 and the City's January 2026 application form, so no amount is shown here) that is the gate everything else passes through: zoning, building, right-of-way, the environmental engineer, historic preservation, the health department and the fire department each have to approve before a certificate of occupancy issues. That makes the $50 misleading as a budget figure — it is the price of starting the process, not of completing it. Street and lot vending is priced by whose land you stand on, $100 on your own and $500 on someone else's, which is the widest own-property premium in this dataset. Laredo's fees are codified in Chapter 18 rather than published as a departmental schedule, and the city website is at cityoflaredo.com, not laredotx.gov.21 published records

These are the 12 Texas jurisdictions where we publish the most. All 69 jurisdictions we cover lists the other 57.

Is there a single Texas business license?

Who issues permits in Texas?

• Texas Department of Licensing and RegulationBarbering and cosmetology establishments · Practitioner licenses3 permits
• Texas Secretary of StateHealth spa registration · Business filings3 permits
• Texas Alcoholic Beverage CommissionAlcohol permits and licenses1 permit
• Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsSales and use tax permits · Franchise tax1 permit
• Texas Department of State Health ServicesMobile food vendor permits (from 1 July 2026)1 permit
• Texas Health and Human ServicesChild care licensing1 permit

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