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Provo licenses every business inside city limits, and the whole application runs through the city's online licensing portal. This page follows the Provo application from the zoning phone call to renewal, and it is the deep version of the Provo section in our county guide.
Every business in Provo needs a Provo city license, and the application is filed online. Call Development Services at (801) 852-6400 to confirm your address is zoned for your business before you sign a lease. Provo says processing takes about 14 days, it does not issue temporary licenses, and the license expires on its anniversary date each year. A minor home occupation permit costs nothing, and Provo's fee schedule sets every other fee, so call Provo 311 at (801) 852-6000 for your exact amount.
Provo's portal asks for the name of the business exactly as you registered it with the State of Utah, so register first. If you have not filed yet, our guides to Utah DBA registration and Utah LLC registration cover the state filing, and our Utah sales tax license guide covers the tax account Provo wants to see if you sell goods.
Provo also attaches two emergency contacts to every license, so decide who they are before you start. The county guide, Utah County business license: city by city, covers how Orem, Lehi and the other cities differ. This page stays on Provo.
Provo's licensing page says every business in the city needs a license and that the application is completed online, through the city's licensing portal at provo.org/portal. The order below is the one that keeps a lease from getting ahead of the paperwork.
Provo's city code says every business pays an annual fee set in the Consolidated Fee Schedule that the Municipal Council adopts, and the city's pages send you to that schedule instead of printing a number. We could not open the current schedule on the city's site, so we cannot give you a verified 2026 price. An older Provo application PDF we found, which has no date on it, lists $125 for a business with up to five employees, rising to $800 at 101 or more, with nonprofits on their own line. Treat that as the shape of the pricing, with the fee going up as your headcount does, and call Provo 311 at (801) 852-6000 for the amount that applies to you today.
The payment fee is posted on the city's license payment page: debit and credit cards carry a 2.95% transaction fee, and e-check or ACH bank draft carries no added cost.
| Provo item | What the city says |
|---|---|
| Commercial business license | Annual fee from the Consolidated Fee Schedule, based on business type and employees; call Provo 311 for the current amount |
| Minor home occupation permit | No cost |
| Major home occupation permit | Fees apply and a conditional use permit is required; the amount is not posted where we could read it |
| Paying by card | 2.95% transaction fee |
| Paying by e-check or ACH | No added cost |
Provo does not treat the license as a form you mail in. The application is reviewed by several city offices, and the zoning check comes from Development Services. If your use is only allowed as a conditional use in that zone, you need a conditional use permit, which goes to the Planning Commission. That is the step that turns a 14-day license into a longer one, so ask about it on your first call.
Provo's licensing FAQ says the Fire Department schedules an inspection for every restaurant, and for any other business whose application shows a possible fire or safety hazard. Food, tattoo and similar trades need the health permit mentioned above before the license is issued. Mobile food businesses also need an annual fire inspection from the Fire Marshal's office under Provo code. If your business needs a building permit for tenant improvements, that is a separate permit from the license, so ask Development Services whether your buildout needs one before you order materials.
Some businesses carry their own license on top of the city one. Provo says alcohol-related businesses need a beer license under City Code Chapter 6.14, and taxicabs, towing, pawnbrokers, locksmiths, employment agencies and mobile food vendors each have extra requirements. If any of those describes you, ask for the separate application at the start.
Provo licenses expire on the anniversary date of the day they were issued. A license issued on March 12 comes up for renewal every March, not on January 1 like some other Utah County cities. Renewal is online through the same licensing portal, where you can also update contact information, change or cancel a license, and upload documents. If your license does not show up under your account, call 311 or (801) 852-6000 and Provo will link it.
We could not find a posted late fee amount or a confirmed renewal notice schedule on the city's pages, so do not wait for a reminder. Put the anniversary date in your calendar the day the license is issued, pay at least a few days ahead, and call Provo 311 if you need to know what a late renewal costs. Closing for good is also something you report through the portal.
A Provo license does not transfer. If you buy an existing business, the new owner applies for a new license in the new owner's name.
Provo's home business rules sit in City Code Chapter 14.41, which splits home businesses into minor and major home occupations. The minor permit costs nothing. Utah Code 10-1-203 bars a city from charging a license fee to a home business unless that business, together with the household, has a materially bigger offsite impact than the household alone. That exempts you from the fee, not from zoning, so the home occupation rules still apply.
Whether yours is minor or major comes down to a few questions on the application: will customers come to the house, and more than six in an hour at any time; will more than one employee who does not live there work on site at once; is it a daycare or preschool. A bookkeeper in a spare bedroom answers no to all of them. A major home occupation carries fees and needs a conditional use permit, unless every property owner within 300 feet signs a petition of support. If you live in BYU-contracted housing, you also need your property manager or landlord to approve. Our home-based business guide for Utah County covers the rest of the setup.
Set up a free Google Business Profile with the same name and address that are on your Provo license, and add the business to our Local Directory, where a listing is $99 a month.
We publish Provo FOMO, a free daily newsletter with about 3,100 Utah County subscribers, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this knowing that. A one-issue ad test costs $99, and an opening announcement is what it fits best, so see our ad plans if you want one option next to billboards and Facebook. Hiring for opening day? Post the job locally.
