The Real Cost of a Business Licence in Dubai (2026)

Last updated: 23 September 2026

A UAE free-zone business licence starts at AED 3,699 with us, and that figure covers the licence itself — full ownership, a flexi-desk address, up to 10 business activities and your memorandum of association. It is a real number, not a hook.

What it does not cover is everything that comes after the licence. Residence visas, the annual renewal, your family’s visas when they join you, and the tax registrations that follow once you are trading. None of those are hidden charges in the dishonest sense. They are simply a different line item, and the reason two quotes for “the same” licence can differ by tens of thousands of dirhams is that one of them counted those lines and the other did not.

This article sets out every cost in the sequence, so you can compare quotes on equal terms. For the setup process itself, see business setup in Dubai.

What a licence-only price actually buys

When a consultant quotes you a licence price, they are usually quoting the cost of getting your company legally registered in a free zone. At AED 3,699 that means:

That is a company that legally exists and can open a bank account, sign contracts and invoice clients.

It is not, on its own, a residence visa. This is the single most common misunderstanding we deal with, and it is the root of most cost surprises.

Here is what that looks like in numbers. These are our own published package prices:

The step from AED 3,699 to AED 8,499 for a single visa is the number most people are never shown before they commit. It is not a surcharge — it is what a residence visa genuinely costs to process. But it is the difference between owning a company and living here, and you should see it at the start rather than at the end.

Tabby instalments are available on these packages.

The costs that sit on top

Three of these come up in almost every conversation we have.

Residence visas. A licence lets your company exist. A visa lets you live in the UAE. They are separate applications with separate costs, and the visa is usually the larger of the two. An investor or partner visa typically involves an entry permit, a status change, a medical fitness test, Emirates ID registration and the visa stamping itself — each a distinct fee. Your company also needs an establishment card and an immigration file opened before it can sponsor anyone at all, including you.

How many visas you can sponsor is not unlimited. In most free zones it is tied to the facility you hold, and a flexi-desk package carries a small allocation. If you plan to hire, the package you start on matters.

The annual renewal. A trade licence is not a one-time purchase. It renews every year, and so do the establishment card, the flexi-desk agreement and each residence visa on their own cycles. A first-year quote that looks competitive is worth checking against year two, because that is when the real running cost of the structure becomes visible. Ask for the renewal figure before you commit, not after.

Family visas. If your spouse and children join you, each is a separate sponsored visa with its own entry permit, medical, Emirates ID and stamping — and sponsorship carries its own conditions, including a salary or income threshold and attested marriage and birth certificates. Those certificates almost always need attestation and, where they are not in Arabic or English, legal translation. We charge AED 35 per page for Arabic ↔ English and AED 140 per page for other language pairs; government fees apply separately.

This is the part that catches people most often, because it arrives six or twelve months after setup, long after the licence quote has been filed away.

Tax and compliance, once you are trading

A company that exists has obligations, and they carry cost. None of this is unique to us or to any provider — it is simply what running a UAE company involves in 2026.

Free-zone businesses that meet the regulatory requirements continue to benefit from the incentives their free zone offers, but they are still inside the corporate tax regime and still have to register and file. Accounting, bookkeeping and filing are a recurring cost, whether you do them in-house or pay someone.

VAT registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover passes AED 375,000 a year. Below that, registration is voluntary from AED 187,500.

Thresholds and rates are set by the federal government and can change. Confirm the current position with the Federal Tax Authority before you budget against these figures.

Why two quotes for the same licence differ so much

This is the question we are asked most, and the answer is nearly always one of six things.

One quote is licence-only and the other is a package. A licence-only figure and a licence-plus-two-visas figure are both accurate. They are pricing different amounts of work. This alone accounts for most of the gap between quotes people bring us.

The free zones are different. There are more than forty free zones in the UAE and their fee structures are not alike. A licence in one is not comparable to a licence in another, and the cheapest zone is not automatically the right one for your activity, your visa needs or your clients.

One is free zone and the other is mainland. A free-zone licence has a published, predictable fee, which is why a figure like AED 3,699 can be quoted at all. A mainland licence does not — its cost moves with the activities you register and with the rent on the office or warehouse it is issued against, and those inputs are not fixed by the government either. Anyone advertising a single flat mainland price is quoting one narrow scenario and will revise it once they know what you actually do.

The activity list is different. Some quotes cover a single activity. Others cover ten. If you intend to expand what you do, adding activities later costs more than including them at the start.

Year one is being compared with year one. Promotional first-year pricing is common. Renewal pricing is where the structures separate.

The visa count is different. This is the largest single variable. A licence with no visas and a licence with four visas are different products.

If you are comparing quotes, the useful question is not “how much is a business licence in Dubai”. It is “what does this cover, and what will I pay in year two”.

Choosing the free zone, not just the price

The free zone you register in determines your costs for as long as the company exists — the renewal, the visa allocation, the facility options and, in some cases, which clients you can invoice.

We are authorised channel partners for the major UAE free zones, which means we are not steering you toward one because it is the only one we can process. The right answer depends on your activity, how many visas you need now and in two years, whether you need a physical office, and whether your customers are inside the UAE or abroad.

A consultant who recommends the same free zone to everyone is recommending their own convenience. If you are still deciding which licence category fits your activity, the types of trade license are explained here.

What an honest quote looks like

Five questions. Ask them of anyone you are considering, including us.

1. Is the investor visa included in this figure, or quoted separately?
2. What will the renewal cost me in year two — licence, establishment card, facility and visas?
3. If my spouse and children join later, what does that add?
4. Which free zone is this, and why that one for my activity?
5. What government fees sit outside your service fee?

A provider who can answer all five without hesitating is giving you a real number. If any of them turn vague, that is the answer to the question you were actually asking.