Texas new business openings: October 2026 report
Texas added 15,102 new businesses to the public record in September 2026: 14,312 new sales tax permits from the Texas Comptroller, 495 newly issued TABC liquor licenses and 295 liquor applications still pending. In the first 14 days of October the count is already 4,611, and it will keep climbing for another week or two as the state finishes publishing those dates. This report walks through where those openings are, what kinds of businesses they are, and what is still in the pipeline.
The headline numbers
- 26,617 new businesses on the map across the 60 days from August 17 to October 14, 2026.
- 649 Texas cities and 193 of the state's 254 counties had at least one new filing between October 1 and October 14.
- 1,697 of October's 4,214 new sales tax permits (40%) list a first day of sales that had not arrived yet when the permit was issued. Those businesses had not opened when they hit the map.
- 226 TABC liquor applications filed since October 1 are still pending, on top of 171 licenses issued in the same two weeks.
Week by week
A normal full week in this window carries about 3,250 to 3,750 new filings. The quietest complete week was the one starting September 7, which opened with Labor Day: 2,820. The busiest was the week of September 14 at 3,740. The week of October 5 shows 3,028 so far; it is drawn lighter in the chart below because the state is still publishing that week's permits.
Permits are not spread evenly across the week either. Of the 18,526 sales tax permits dated September 1 through October 14, 15,911 (86%) carry a Tuesday through Friday date. Mondays carried 863, Saturdays 1,750 and Sundays 2. If you work a territory, the middle of the week is when the new names pile up.
What is opening: categories
Retail is the largest category by a wide margin, as it was in September (6,015 of September's filings). That bucket covers stores of every kind that collect Texas sales tax. Restaurants and cafes are next among the named categories, with 505 in the first half of October after 1,620 in September. Bars and nightlife spots added 123; across the full 60 days, 497 of the 624 bars on the map (80%) arrived through a TABC liquor filing rather than a sales tax permit.
"Other" (1,188) is large because the Comptroller's industry codes are broad. It holds wholesalers, manufacturers, vending operators and service businesses that do not fit the eleven named groups. On the live map you can switch categories on and off to see only the ones you sell to.
Where: cities and counties
Houston led every city with 429 new filings in the first two weeks of October, followed by Austin (245), San Antonio (230) and Dallas (205). El Paso (122) out-filed Fort Worth (112). The suburbs show up early in the list: Katy (78), McKinney (57), Plano (49), Spring (48), Frisco (46) and Richmond (38) all made the top 15.
By county, Harris leads with 659, then Dallas (361), Tarrant (309), Travis (271), Bexar (266) and Collin (244). Fort Bend (165), Denton (164), Williamson (145) and El Paso (144) round out the top ten. Collin, Fort Bend, Denton and Williamson together added 718 new businesses in two weeks, which is more than Harris County on its own.
The ZIP codes to watch
The busiest single ZIP code in early October was 75206 in Dallas with 33 new filings. Katy's 77494 was right behind with 31, then New Braunfels 78130 (28), and McAllen 78501 and Austin 78731 at 25 each.
| ZIP | City | New, Oct 1–14 |
|---|---|---|
| 75206 | Dallas | 33 |
| 77494 | Katy | 31 |
| 78130 | New Braunfels | 28 |
| 78501 | McAllen | 25 |
| 78731 | Austin | 25 |
| 79928 | El Paso | 24 |
| 78613 | Cedar Park | 23 |
| 75071 | McKinney | 23 |
| 77084 | Houston | 21 |
| 77406 | Richmond | 20 |
The liquor pipeline
TABC filings are the earliest signal for bars and restaurants, because a liquor application is usually filed weeks before the doors open. In the first half of October, 226 applications were still pending and 171 licenses were issued. September had 295 pending and 495 issued. Pending counts lean toward recent dates for a simple reason: an application filed in September has had more time to be approved and move into the issued column. Treat a pending application as "opening soon" and an issued license as "opening now or recently opened."
How to read these numbers
Every figure here counts a public filing, not a confirmed grand opening. A sales tax permit is counted as a new business only when its first sales date is no more than 90 days before the permit was issued, so older businesses that simply re-registered stay out. Temporary event permits are left out too. The state publishes in batches, so the last week of any report is incomplete; we date each record by its permit or application date rather than the day we saw it. For the full method, see how to find new businesses in Texas before they open.
Get this for your city every Monday
These counts move every day. The free Monday email sends one city's new permits and liquor applications in a single short message, and the live map shows the last 14 days statewide for free.