UAE Trade License Cost Calculator

Mainland: yes, you need a physical office to register your trade license. Most free zones have a 'flexi-desk' option (a shared office address for license purposes) starting around AED 5,000-15,000 a year. IFZA, RAKEZ, Meydan, Ajman, and Shams all allow virtual offices included with the license. DMCC and JAFZA generally require at least a flexi-desk. Customize mode lets you override the default to model what your actual office plan costs.

Sharjah Media City (Shams) at around AED 5,750 per year is currently the cheapest legitimate option. RAKEZ at AED 6,500 and Ajman Free Zone at AED 7,500 are close. All include virtual office and one visa quota. If you don't need any visas, your costs are just the license itself.

Free Zones: 3-10 working days for most options. Some (IFZA, Meydan) can issue an in-principle approval in 24 hours. Mainland: 2-3 weeks because you need to register the company name, get initial approval, notarize the Memorandum of Association, and rent an actual office. Freelance permits: 5-7 days typically.

UAE jurisdictions charge different rates depending on what business you're doing. Standard activities (trading, consulting, IT, e-commerce) are the baseline. Professional activities (accounting firm, law firm, regulated marketing) typically add 20% to license fees. Premium activities (banking, insurance, healthcare, asset management, securities) can DOUBLE the cost — and may require additional regulatory approvals and capital requirements not modelled here.

Yes. Free Zones have a visa quota tied to your office size — a flexi-desk usually allows 1-3 visas. To add more, you upgrade to a larger office. Each new visa costs AED 3,200-5,800 depending on jurisdiction (medical test, EID, stamping). Mainland has no formal quota — pay per visa.

Yes if your taxable income exceeds AED 375,000. Free Zone companies meeting Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) criteria can keep their 0% rate on qualifying income — but mainland sales fall outside qualifying income and are taxed at 9%. Freelance permit holders are taxed as individuals; they're in scope for corporate tax if business turnover exceeds AED 1 million.

A Freelance Permit lets one person (no employees, no company structure) legally invoice clients in the UAE. It's the cheapest way to be a legitimate consultant or solo service provider — typically AED 7,500/year all-in. Trade-off: you can't hire staff under it, and you can't get a company bank account (just personal). Best for: writers, designers, developers, consultants who work alone.

Quick mode gives you the headline first-year + multi-year cost for a chosen jurisdiction and visa count. Customize adds the levers that matter when the decision is real: activity category (premium activities cost 2x), office-type override (sometimes a flexi-desk is cheaper than the default), annual PRO + accounting cost (hidden by most setup calculators), and bank-account opening cost. Customize also shows month-by-month equivalent and a visa cost projection over the years.

Premium activities (banking, insurance, healthcare, asset management) are heavily regulated and have substantially higher license fees — often AED 50,000-500,000 plus capital requirements. The Customize 'Premium' activity category applies a 2x multiplier as a rough indication, but real costs depend on the specific activity and regulator. For regulated sectors, consult a specialist setup advisor before relying on this calculator's numbers.