Updated August 7, 2026. Quick answer: an EIN is free, you get it directly from the IRS, and the application takes about ten minutes. The IRS says so in its own words: “Beware of websites that charge for an EIN. You never have to pay a fee for an EIN.” If a site quoted you $79, $249 or anything else to “obtain your federal tax ID”, it is charging you to fill in a government form you can complete yourself. Apply at the IRS and “If it’s approved, we’ll issue your EIN immediately online.” There is nothing to buy on this page.
What the paid sites are actually selling
They are selling the form. That is the entire product. The application is on irs.gov, it is free, and the number is issued while you are still sitting there. The IRS puts its warning at the top of its own EIN page rather than in the footnotes, which tells you how common the charge is.
The pattern to recognise — and it is a pattern, not one company — is a site whose name and layout resemble a government agency, which ranks for searches like apply for federal tax ID, and which presents a fee as if it were the government’s. We are naming the pattern rather than companies, because the companies change and the pattern does not.
The direct route, step by step
- Go to the IRS’s own EIN application: Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) online. The IRS describes it as a tool to “get an EIN directly from the IRS in minutes for free.”
- Check the clock. The tool is not available around the clock. The IRS states the hours in Eastern Time: “Mon–Fri: 6:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m. (next day), Sat: 6:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Sun: 6:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.”
- Have the responsible party’s details ready. The application is completed in one session.
- Save the confirmation letter the moment it appears. This is the step people skip. The number is issued immediately and the letter is offered once; a bank will ask for it later.
One limit worth knowing before you start: the IRS states that “You can apply for only 1 EIN per responsible party per day.” If you are setting up more than one entity, that is one per day, not one per session.
When you actually need one
The IRS’s own short list: “Generally you need an EIN to: Hire employees, Operate a partnership or corporation, Pay sales and excise taxes, Change business structures or ownership, Administer certain trusts, retirement plans and estates.”
Honest gap, and it is the question most people arrive with. The IRS publishes a fuller yes/no checklist, but it lives on page 2 of the printed Form SS-4 rather than on the web pages, and we did not read it — so we are not reproducing a list we have not seen. In particular, we could not find an IRS statement on whether a sole proprietor with no employees needs an EIN, and we are not going to infer one. If that is your situation, read page 2 of Form SS-4 itself before deciding. What we can say without qualification is that if you do need one, it costs nothing.
A common practical reason that is not on the IRS list: many banks want an EIN before they will open a business account, and using an EIN instead of your Social Security number on client paperwork keeps your SSN off other people’s files.
The estate version of this is a different job
If you are here because someone died rather than because you started a business, the answer is similar but the sequence matters more: the estate is a separate taxpayer and needs its own EIN first, before the account is opened and before any money moves.
Once you have it
The EIN is the first of three setup steps that actually matter, and the other two are the separate bank account and a recordkeeping habit you will keep. If you have not yet decided whether you need an entity at all, that question comes first — a sole proprietor can get an EIN without forming anything.
Sources and limits
All quotations read 2026-08-07 from the IRS’s own pages: Get an employer identification number and Apply for an EIN online. Application hours and the one-per-day limit are quoted as the IRS states them and can change; check the page before you plan around them. We are not lawyers or accountants and this is not advice about your entity choice.
And the first deadline that will actually cost you something is not the EIN — it is the estimated-tax question in your first self-employed year.