In Chicago, the food permit is priced on the floor area of your premises. That one sentence is most of what separates Chicago from every other city’s guide — and it is the part generic checklists get wrong.
The document is the Chicago Retail Food Establishment licence, issued by Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP).
| Band | Fee |
|---|---|
| 0 – 1,000 sq. ft. | $660 |
| 1,001 – 2,500 sq. ft. | $940 |
| 2,501 – 4,500 sq. ft. | $1,110 |
| 4,501 – 10,000 sq. ft. | $1,320 |
| Over 10,000 sq. ft. | $1,650 |
Chicago issues the Retail Food Establishment licence for a two-year term, so the figure above buys two years, not one — which also means the renewal lands far enough away to be forgotten.
Chicago's Department of Public Health runs a free workshop on passing the facility inspection — it is the cheapest hour you will spend on this licence.
A one-year permit gets renewed out of habit. A two-year one is the kind people miss.
BACP · 312-744-6249 · [email protected] — official page.
Check whether your opening date is legally possible — free. Put in the business type and the address and you get the target date against the earliest legal open, with every permit, fee and deadline cited to the official source.
The full stack — every permit in filing order, the calendar, and the certificate-of-occupancy packet — is $49, one-time, no subscription. It is a live link your landlord or lender can verify themselves, not a PDF.
Checked at the official sources listed above on 2 September 2026. Fees and procedures change without notice and the agency’s own page is always the authority — this is a heads-up to go and look, not legal advice, and BondPermit does not file anything on anyone’s behalf.