An osaühing — OÜ — is Estonia's private limited company, and it is what almost every e-resident registers. It can be founded online in an afternoon, and the share capital requirement everyone worries about no longer exists.
Registering an OÜ costs €265 electronically. That is the only founding fee the register publishes — there is no cheaper "standard" route, whatever other guides say.
The €2,500 minimum share capital was abolished on 1 February 2023. The minimum is now the nominal value of a single share — €0.01.
Table of Contents
The €2,500 That Is Not a Requirement
This is the single most persistent error in published guidance about Estonian companies.
Until 1 February 2023 an OÜ needed €2,500 of share capital. That minimum was abolished. Since then the only floor is the nominal value of a share, which is €0.01.
To register an OÜ today the law requires four things:
- Share capital of €0.01 — one share at nominal value
- A legal address in Estonia
- A contact person in Estonia
- €265 state fee, electronic registration
Four more things it does not require, having either abolished them or never asked for them:
- €2,500 of share capital — abolished 1 February 2023
- A bank deposit before registration
- An Estonian resident director
- Any physical presence in Estonia
What €2,500 actually means now
It survives in the Commercial Code as a liability threshold, not a capital requirement. Where share capital is below €2,500, the shareholders remain personally liable for the unpaid portion. That is a meaningful difference: you are not required to put the money in, but you carry the exposure until you do. Guides that describe €2,500 as a minimum capital requirement have the mechanism backwards.
Fees
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Register an OÜ, electronically | €265 |
| Register an OÜ, standard | €265 |
| Minimum share capital | €0.01 |
Expedited proceedings are the normal online route through the e-Business Register, so €265 is the realistic number. With e-Residency itself at €150, the state's share of getting a company running is about €415.
What Else You Need
Legal address and contact person
A company registered by a non-resident needs both, in Estonia. Service providers sell them as a bundle. This is a recurring cost, and it is the real ongoing expense of an e-resident company — not the registration fee.
Accounting
Annual reports, plus monthly declarations if you register for VAT or pay salaries. Most e-residents use one of the service providers built around the programme.
A bank or payment account
The hard part, and the one to solve before you register rather than after. It has its own page.
The address and contact person are what most people underestimate. Registration is a one-off €265; the bundle is charged every year and usually exceeds it within the first twelve months. Accounting sits on top of that. Budget the recurring cost, not the founding cost — what an Estonian company actually costs totals it per provider, and the contact person has its own page because it is the one item you cannot take on yourself.
VAT registration is covered on the VAT page, and banking on its own.
How Long Each Step Takes
Registration is the fastest step in the whole project, and the one people budget time for. The two either side of it are the slow ones.
| Step | How long | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Choose a name and business model | Your own time | — |
| Get a legal address and contact person | 1 day – 7 days | €200–€400 a year |
| Register the company | 15–60 minutes | €265 |
| Open a business account | 1 hour – 7 days | €0–€200 |
The company exists in under an hour. Everything slow happens around it. The contact person has to be arranged first, because the registration form asks for the address. The bank account can only be attempted afterwards, because the bank asks for the company. That ordering is fixed, and it is why "I registered a company in twenty minutes" and "it took me a month to be operational" are both true statements from the same person.
Whether Your Business Needs a Licence
The part nobody mentions until it bites. Some activities cannot lawfully begin until you have either filed a notice of economic activity or obtained an activity licence — and for two sectors the licence costs more than everything else on this page combined.
| What | Where it is filed | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of economic activity, via the state portal | Register of Economic Activities | Free |
| Notice of economic activity, by e-mail or notary | Register of Economic Activities | €10 |
| Licence — pawnbroking, trust and company services | State portal or notary | €345 |
| Licence — virtual currency, financial institutions | State portal or notary | €3,300 |
Four sectors are named by the programme itself as needing one:
- Financial services — including virtual currency and crypto, trust and company service providers, pawnbrokers, precious metals dealers
- Tourism — tour operators, travel retailers, linked travel arrangements
- Education — private and hobby schools, pre-schools, continuing education, youth camps
- Construction — building, design, owner supervision, site investigations
A notice and a licence are two different instruments, and the difference matters.
- A notice is a declaration you file before starting — free through the portal
- A licence is permission you must be granted, with conditions to meet
- Both must be in place before you commence the activity, not after
- Neither is part of company registration — the register will happily create a company that cannot lawfully trade
A crypto licence costs twelve times the company, and nothing in the registration will tell you
€3,300 for a virtual currency or financial institution authorisation, against €265 to register the company itself. Anyone arriving at e-Residency because they read that Estonia is friendly to crypto should know that number before registering, not after — and should read it as the entry fee to a supervised activity rather than as an administrative charge.
Company registration and activity authorisation are separate systems. The e-Business Register will create your company in 15 minutes without ever asking what you intend to do with it. Discovering afterwards that the activity required a licence you do not have is the expensive order to find out in.
Common Mistakes
Believing the €2,500 requirement is the most persistent error in published guidance about Estonian companies. It was abolished on 1 February 2023 and survives only as a liability threshold, which is a different mechanism pointing the other way.
Budgeting the registration fee as the cost is the next one. €265 is a one-off; the address, contact person and accounting are annual, and together those are the actual cost of running the company. A related waste of money is paying for standard proceedings: expedited registration through the e-Business Register costs €265 and is the normal online route, while standard proceedings cost €265 and are slower for the same money.
The most expensive mistake is registering before sorting banking. The company is cheap and quick; the account is the constraint. Discovering after registration that no provider will take you is the wrong order to do this in, so read what each provider actually publishes first.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much share capital does an Estonian OÜ need?
Effectively none — €0.01, the nominal value of one share. The €2,500 minimum was abolished on 1 February 2023 and now functions only as a threshold below which shareholders stay personally liable for the unpaid portion.
What does it cost to register?
€265, and that is the only figure the Centre of Registers publishes for founding a company electronically. Its price list carries no cheaper "standard proceedings" rate, so budget the full €265.
Do I need an address in Estonia?
Yes — a legal address and a contact person, both of which non-resident founders buy from a service provider. It is a recurring cost and usually exceeds the registration fee within the first year.
Can I register the company the same day I get e-Residency?
In practice yes. The registration itself runs through the e-Business Register and is quick. The prerequisites — address, contact person, accounting — are what take the time.
Does my business need a licence before it can trade?
Some do, and the register will not tell you. Financial services — including virtual currency and crypto, trust and company service providers, pawnbrokers and precious metals dealers — plus tourism, education and construction are the sectors the programme names. Two different instruments apply: a notice of economic activity, which is a declaration you file before starting and is free through the state portal or €10 by e-mail or notary; and an activity licence, which is permission you have to be granted. Both must be in place before the activity commences. The fees are the shock: €345 for pawnbroking and trust and company services, and €3,300 for virtual currency and financial institutions — twelve times the cost of the company itself. Company registration and activity authorisation are separate systems, and the e-Business Register will happily create a company that cannot lawfully trade.
How long does the whole thing take, start to finish?
The company is the fast part; everything around it is slow, and the order is fixed. Arranging a legal address and contact person takes 1 day to 7 days and has to come first, because the registration form asks for the address. The registration itself takes 15–60 minutes. Opening a business account takes anywhere from 1 hour to 7 days, costs €0–€200, and can only be attempted afterwards because the bank asks for the company. That is why "I registered a company in twenty minutes" and "it took me a month to be operational" are both true from the same person.
The company is registered. What is the first thing that actually falls due?
The annual report, within 6 months of the financial year ending — and it is compulsory whether the company traded or not. That is the obligation newly formed companies forget, because a company with no revenue, no employees and no VAT registration generates nothing else all year to remind you. 6 months after the deadline the registrar begins supervisory proceedings, and the published consequence is deletion from the register or compulsory dissolution rather than a fine. Monthly filings only start if you register for VAT or pay someone a salary or a board member fee, and then they are due even in a month with nothing to report. Separately, the contact person entry carries its own end date and is deleted automatically when it passes, with nothing prompting you — diarise it the week you register.
Do I need a bank account before I can register the company?
No. There is no requirement to deposit capital before registration, and the minimum share capital is €0.01 in any case. The ordering is in fact the other way round and it is fixed: the bank asks for the company, so an account can only be attempted after the company exists. Opening one takes anywhere from 1 hour to 7 days and costs €0–€200. What you should do first is not open the account but establish that someone will open one for you: e-Residency status by itself does not guarantee access to banking, and discovering after registration that no provider will take you is the expensive order to find that out in.
Do I have to be in Estonia, or have someone Estonian on the board?
Neither. An OÜ needs no physical presence in Estonia and no Estonian resident director — the whole point of the digital identity is that founding and running the company happen remotely. What the company does need is a foothold here for official post, and the trigger is the company's registered address rather than your nationality: where that address is in a foreign country, a licensed contact person in Estonia must also be appointed in the register. That person cannot be a friend or an employee living in Tallinn — the role is restricted to licensed companies and notaries, which is why it is the one line item a non-resident founder cannot take on personally. The one step that genuinely cannot be done remotely is not about the company at all: the e-Residency card itself must be collected in person, once.
What does the company cost to run each year?
More than it costs to create, and this is where the budget goes wrong. Registration is a one-off €265. The legal address and contact person bundle runs €200–€400 a year on the programme's own published range, and usually exceeds the registration fee within the first twelve months. Accounting starts from €50 a month and rises once you register for VAT or pay salaries, because those bring monthly declarations. Budget the recurring cost rather than the founding cost.