A food truck permit costs $309 to $1,376 for a Texas statewide license, and other states set their own amounts. There is no single national price, because health permits are set state by state and often county by county. So the answer to “how much does a food truck permit cost” depends on where you park and whether you cook onboard — the table below breaks the total into its parts.
Food truck permit cost breakdown
| Cost item | What it covers | What it costs (per the agencies we checked) |
|---|---|---|
| Health permit / mobile food license | The permit that lets the unit operate; set by state or county | Texas statewide: $309 (Type I), $618 (Type II), $876 (Type III). California: set county by county, so no single figure; check your county's environmental health schedule. |
| Plan review / pre-licensing inspection | Agency review of the truck build, or a first inspection before the license issues | Texas: $400 (Type II) or $500 (Type III) on top of the license fee. Florida: separate plan-review fee filed with form HR-7006; amount changes, so take it from the form. |
| Business license / registration | City or county business licence and parking or vending permits | Set by each city or county; we do not publish a figure because there is no statewide number. Check with your city clerk. |
| Fire inspection | Fire marshal or LP-gas sign-off for onboard cooking equipment | Set locally by the fire department; no statewide figure. In Texas, cities still control fire sign-off even though health permits are now statewide. |
| Commissary (vehicle servicing base) | Licensed kitchen for prep, storage, and greywater dumping | Rates vary widely by kitchen and city; we list sourced examples in the commissary kitchen cost guide. |
| Renewal | Keeping the permit current | Texas licenses run one year. Chicago mobile food licenses run two years. Florida licenses run June 1 to May 31. |
Dollar figures in this table come from one source: the Texas DSHS Mobile Food Vendors page (fee schedule; HB 2844, effective 1 July 2026). Fee schedules change, so confirm the current amount with the agency before you budget.
Food truck permit cost by state
Texas is the most transparent: a statewide, fixed fee schedule from the Texas DSHS replaced the old city-by-city permit model. A non-prep unit (Type I) is $309. A limited-prep unit (Type II) is $618 plus a $400 pre-licensing inspection fee. A full-cooking unit (Type III) is $876 plus a $500 inspection fee — $1,376 total. Full detail on the Texas state page.
California is the most expensive of the six and the least standardized — CalCode is a state law, but permitting and fees are set county by county through each county environmental health department. We do not quote a California dollar figure because each county publishes its own fee schedule; look yours up on its environmental health site. See the California state page for how to find your county's schedule.
Florida splits the cost into two charges through the DBPR: a plan-review fee filed with form HR-7006, and a separate annual license fee, prorated to DBPR's June 1–May 31 license year. Neither figure is fixed for long — pull the current amount from the form itself. Full sequence on the Florida state page.
New York is the one state on this list where money isn't the binding constraint — inside NYC, the vendor license and Food Protection Course are affordable and uncapped, but the unit permit itself is capped and allocated by waiting list (the city is releasing 2,200 supervisory licenses a year starting July 2026 to work through it). Outside NYC, your county health department sets its own fee. See the New York state page and the NYC DOHMH for current figures.
Illinois fees run through your city or county — inside Chicago that's the Chicago Department of Public Health and BACP, and licenses run on a two-year term rather than annually, so the sticker price looks larger than an equivalent yearly fee elsewhere. A Preparer license (onboard cooking) costs materially more than a Dispenser license. Outside Chicago, each county sets its own fee — see the Illinois state page.
Georgia has no single statewide number at all — county boards of health set fees individually through the Georgia Department of Public Health network, and a truck that trades across county lines pays a separate authorization-to-operate fee in every outside county on top of its home-county permit. Map your trading area before budgeting — see the Georgia state page.
Two patterns hold across all six: the fee is rarely just one line item — plan review, license, and inspection are often billed separately — and published guides, including this one, go stale as agencies update fee schedules. Confirm the current number on the form or agency page you're actually filing with before you budget it.