Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Texas, this role is called a registered agent, governed by Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Section 5.201 (designation/maintenance of registered agent and registered office; changes filed via Form 401 under this subchapter), Section 5.251 (Secretary of State as default agent for service if the entity fails to maintain a registered agent), Section 11.251(a)(1) (failure to maintain a registered agent/office is a ground for involuntary termination, with a 91-day cure period). Texas is one of the few states with an explicit official rule that the LLC itself can never be its own registered agent (an owner/officer can serve individually, but not the entity), and it gives one of the longest cure windows found in this research; 91 days; before involuntary termination for lacking an agent.
What the address rule requires
Per Section 5.201 and the SOS’s own registered-agent FAQ, the registered office must be a street address ‘where the registered agent can be personally served’ and ‘may not be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service’; the agent’s business office must sit at that same address.
Who can serve as your registered agent
Per Section 5.201 and the official SOS FAQ: an individual Texas resident who has consented in writing/electronic form, or an organization registered or authorized to do business in Texas that has likewise consented. Officers, owners, employees, attorneys, and accountants of the entity may serve individually, and paid registered-agent service companies are common; the secretary of state itself cannot serve.
What happens if you don’t have one
Per Section 5.251, the Secretary of State becomes the entity’s agent for service if it fails to appoint/maintain a registered agent, the agent can’t be found with reasonable diligence, or it transacts business without proper registration; service on the SOS is made with duplicate copies and is returnable in not less than 30 days. Per Section 11.251(a)(1), failing to maintain a registered agent or registered office is a ground for the Secretary of State to involuntarily terminate the filing entity; the SOS must first mail notice to the entity’s registered or principal office, and the entity has 91 days from that notice to correct the failure before termination becomes final.
How to change your registered agent
$15.00 for standard entities (LLCs included); $5.00 for nonprofit corporations and cooperative associations. (source: Texas Secretary of State, official Form 401 instructions page)
A note on sourcing: Texas’s official statutes.capitol.texas.gov is a JavaScript single-page app that returns only navigation chrome to automated fetches, so full statutory text for Sections 5.201 and 11.251 came from the secondary databases codes.findlaw.com and texas.public.law; the $15 fee, the self-service rule, and the physical-address rule were independently confirmed on the official sos.state.tx.us and sos.texas.gov pages fetched this session.
This page covers what Texas’s own law requires. For the general question of whether you should pay a commercial service or serve as your own agent, see registered agent: do you actually need to pay for one.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own statute, Secretary of State site, or official filing form this session (or, where that site could not be reached, from an independently cross-checked legal-database mirror of the same codified text, disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; fees and specific procedures can change, and your state’s Secretary of State has the final say for any individual filing.
Related: Texas’s LLC Certificate of Good Standing cost, including who issues it and how fast you can get one.