Best Surrogacy Agencies in Texas

1. Simple Surrogacy — Dallas, TX. $58,000–$63,000 first-time base, $73,000 total. Founded 2002, all-female owned, about 70% LGBTQ+ intended parents. Our only Texas partner.
2. Our other three partners don't take Texas surrogates — Family Makers excludes Texas outright; Family Tree prefers CA, AZ and NV; NewGen works an 18-state Western and Northeastern list.
3. Five other agencies evaluated — Choice Surrogacy, Circle Surrogacy, ConceiveAbilities, American Surrogacy, Hatch. Not partners; how to check them yourself is below.

Based on partner agencies' published rates, checked Aug 2026. Base and total are separate figures; total includes allowances and contingent fees that depend on your journey.

What Texas actually offers a surrogate

Texas has a written gestational-agreement statute, and it has one step almost no other state asks for: before the embryo transfer, a judge reads your agreement and validates it. That single feature shapes everything else about a Texas journey — the timeline, the paperwork, who your intended parents can be, and how protected you are if something goes sideways.

The statute is Chapter 160, Subchapter I of the Texas Family Code, §§160.751–160.763, enacted in 2003. Before that, Texas had no surrogacy statute at all. You'll see pages claiming Texas has been "a surrogacy state since the 1990s"; that was on this page too, and it was wrong. Twenty-three years of a working statute is a genuinely strong record. It just isn't a thirty-year one.

You'll also see the claim that Texas is "unique" in requiring pre-transfer court approval. It isn't. Virginia, Utah and New Hampshire run similar validation procedures. Texas is unusual, not alone, and the practical point stands either way: an agreement that hasn't been validated isn't illegal, but it isn't enforceable either (§160.762). That's why every Texas agency and attorney files.

The second thing Texas gives you is money that goes further. First-time base pay with our Texas partner is $58,000–$63,000 against a $73,000 total — lower than California on paper. But Texas has no state personal income tax, and housing costs less across most of the state. Whether that trade works out for you depends on your household, not on a chart.

The third thing is depth of infrastructure. Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio all have fertility programs that run gestational-surrogacy cycles routinely — the Center for Assisted Reproduction in Bedford, Fertility Specialists of Texas in Dallas, Houston Fertility Institute, Texas Fertility Center in Austin, Aspire Fertility across Houston, Austin and San Antonio. We name them because they're established Texas programs, not because we have any relationship with any of them; your intended parents pick the clinic, not you.

What Texas doesn't give you is choice among vetted agencies. One partner covers this state. That's the honest part of this page.

Texas compensation: base vs. total

Notice how narrow the gap is between base and total here compared with other states. Simple Surrogacy describes base pay as compensation only — everything else sits on top as separate fees and benefits rather than being folded into a headline number. That's a less impressive marketing figure and a more honest one. When you compare Texas offers, compare base to base; the total is the part that moves depending on what happens in your pregnancy.

The Texas partner agency

Simple Surrogacy is the only agency in our partner network that treats Texas as a market. It's headquartered in Dallas, has been operating since 2002 — 24 years — and roughly 70% of its active surrogates are in Texas, per the agency. It passed our full vetting: published pay, an escrow advocate who chases your payments, former surrogates in coordinator seats, and a consistent third-party review record.

Why our other three partners aren't on that table

A one-row comparison table looks like a page hiding something, so here is the coverage in full. These are the agencies' own stated markets, from the data that drives our matching:

• Simple Surrogacy takes Texas surrogatesAbout 70% of its surrogates are in Texas, then Midwest and Central states. Dallas-based since 2002.
• Family Makers Surrogacy does notAccepts applicants from every state except Texas, Louisiana, Nebraska and New York. Texas is an explicit exclusion, not an oversight.
• Family Tree Surrogacy Center does notStates it prefers California, Arizona and Nevada. San Diego-based.
• NewGen Families does notWorks a stated 18-state list across the West, Mountain states and Northeast. Texas isn't on it.

Simple Surrogacy

Why Simple Surrogacy for Texas: the validation petition is the part of a Texas journey that goes wrong when the people handling it are learning on your file. Simple Surrogacy's coordinators work Texas courts, Texas attorneys and Texas clinics every week, and the agency has been doing it since the statute was three years old. That's the argument for them here, and it's a stronger one than the compensation figure.

Compensation structure: $58,000–$63,000 first-time base, varying with your insurance and where you live in Texas; $73,000 first-time total. Experienced surrogates start at a $68,000 base and $89,000 total. Base pay starts five days after a positive pregnancy test and the last payment lands at delivery. If you miscarry, you don't repay anything and compensation is pro-rated to the day of loss. If a transfer doesn't result in a pregnancy, start-of-medication fees, transfer fees and expenses are still paid. Out of pocket is zero — travel is paid through the agency and meals are reimbursed.

Screening and escrow: the agency assigns an escrow advocate whose job is making sure you're paid correctly and on time. In our review coding, financial management shows up in 16% of Simple Surrogacy reviews, which is unusual — surrogates rarely praise money handling anywhere. Ask for the escrow company's name in writing anyway; that answer is the fastest way to sort a real agency from a risky one, and our red flags guide explains why.

Communication: your preferred channel — email, text or calls — with weekly check-ins plus contact before and during every milestone. Immediate response during business hours and a 24/7 emergency contact after hours. There's a private Facebook group and in-person meetings, and eight counseling sessions are available on request, with your partner welcome to attend any of them.

Intended parents: roughly 70% LGBTQ+ couples, about 10% single parents and 20% heterosexual couples, with around 30% of matches international. The agency says it sits on the Advisory Council of Men Having Babies and is a founding member of Gays With Kids; we haven't confirmed either affiliation with those organizations. If carrying for a same-sex couple matters to you, this is the highest-volume LGBTQ+ match in our network by a wide margin.

Surrogate reviews: 5.0 out of 5 across 32 reviews on Google and Surrogacy Advisor, checked Aug 2026. Themes: full-journey support in 25%, a positively described delivery and financial management in 16% each, matching quality in 12%. We are not publishing a percent-positive figure for this agency — two of our internal tallies disagree by one review, and until we've re-read the set, the star average stands on its own. The review methodology page explains how we count.

Good fit if: you want a coordinator who has been a surrogate herself, you want a long-established agency rather than a well-funded new one, you want to help LGBTQ+ families, and you want someone whose actual job is chasing your escrow payments.

Who we would not send here: a surrogate choosing purely on the highest number. Simple Surrogacy says openly that it doesn't pay the most because it keeps costs workable for intended parents. If pay is your first filter, look at our national rankings and consider whether relocating your search to another state's partner makes sense.

Not right if: you want a hands-off process with minimal contact, or you don't yet have a support system in place — agencies require one, whether that's a partner, family or close friends.

Ask about: which counties they file validation petitions in most often and how long those took last year, the escrow company's name, and what happens to your pay schedule if the validation hearing is delayed.

Texas surrogacy law explained

Texas gestational surrogacy runs on Chapter 160, Subchapter I of the Family Code (§§160.751–160.763). The heart of it is a validation petition filed before the embryo transfer, and the list of things the judge has to find before she signs.

The court validation step, in order

1. Step 1

   Agreement signed

   You, the intended parents, and — if you're married — your husband all sign the gestational agreement. §160.754(a) makes your husband a party to it, so he meets your attorney and signs too.

2. Step 2

   Joint petition to validate filed

   Filed in a district court under §160.755, usually in the county where the intended parents live or where you live. Your attorney and theirs handle the filing.

3. Step 3

   The judge reviews the agreement

   Against the checklist in §160.756(b). This is the step everyone worries about and the one that's most routine in practice.

   What §160.756(b) requires the court to find:

   • An intended parent or you have lived in Texas for at least 90 days.
   • The intended parents are married to each other.
   • Medical evidence that the intended mother can't carry a pregnancy, or that carrying one would put her or the baby at unreasonable risk.
   • Your own eggs aren't being used — gestational surrogacy only.
   • You've had at least one prior pregnancy and delivery, and another pregnancy won't put you or the baby at unreasonable risk.
   • Everyone had their own lawyer.
   • The agreement doesn't limit your right to make your own health-care decisions during the pregnancy.
4. Step 4

   Order validating the agreement

   Plan for several weeks between filing and the order; the exact time depends on the county. Only after this does the transfer go ahead. An agreement that isn't validated isn't illegal, but it isn't enforceable either (§160.762).

5. Step 5

   Transfer, pregnancy, delivery

   Base pay starts five days after a positive pregnancy test with our Texas partner. No further court filing is needed from you mid-pregnancy.

6. Step 6

   After birth

   The intended parents file a notice of birth within 300 days, and the court issues an order confirming they're the parents and directing the birth certificate (§160.760). That step is theirs, not yours — it's short, but it isn't automatic, and anyone who tells you no further court step exists is skipping it.

Two things people expect on that list that aren't there

There is no minimum age in the statute. Agencies require 21 or older as policy, following ASRM guidance, and you'll see "the surrogate must be at least 21" quoted as a Texas legal requirement all over the internet — including, until recently, on this page. It isn't in §160.756(b).

And the medical-necessity finding about the intended mother, plus the 90-day residency rule, do belong on the list and are usually left off. Both matter to you practically: residency is the reason a match with out-of-state intended parents needs a bit of planning, and the medical finding is why Texas intended parents arrive with documentation before you ever talk to them.

Who the statute is written for

§160.754(b) requires intended parents who are married to each other. Single intended parents and unmarried couples still pursue surrogacy in Texas, but through other legal mechanisms that vary by county and don't give you the same up-front validation. If that's your match, the contract has to do more of the work — ask a Texas attorney to explain the plan and specifically how your compensation is protected under it, before you sign.

Residency: the real rule

You'll read that Texas residency is "preferred but not required." The actual rule is §160.756(b)(1): either an intended parent or you must have lived in Texas for at least 90 days when the petition is filed. So a Texas surrogate matched with out-of-state intended parents is fine. A surrogate who just moved to Texas may need to wait for the clock. And a non-Texan matched with Texas intended parents can work too. Ask an attorney about your exact combination rather than assuming.

Other Texas agencies we evaluated

A "best agencies in Texas" page with one partner on it isn't an evaluation, so here are the other agencies you'll run into. We ran each against the same public checklist we use for partners. The honest summary: none has been through our partner intake, and for each there's at least one criterion we couldn't confirm from public information — including, in several cases, current Texas coverage. That isn't a verdict on their quality. It means we can't vouch for them the way we vouch for Simple Surrogacy.

If you're considering any of them, run the five-minute version of our check: ask how many Texas validation petitions they filed last year, ask for the escrow company's name, ask for first-time base pay in writing, ask whether your coordinator has been a surrogate, and read reviews on two platforms other than the agency's own site. Our agency red flags guide has the full list and the answers that should end the conversation.

Texas surrogate requirements

Two different sets of rules apply to you, and they get mixed up constantly. Some of this is in the statute and a judge will check it. The rest is agency and clinic policy, which is negotiable at the edges and varies by who you apply to.

• Age: 21 to 39 for a first journey, up to about 42 for experienced surrogates. This is agency policy following ASRM guidance — Chapter 160 sets no minimum age, whatever you read elsewhere.
• Prior pregnancy and delivery: at least one. This one is statutory — §160.756(b) requires it before a court will validate.
• Gestational only: your own eggs aren't used. Statutory.
• 90 days of Texas residency — yours or the intended parents'. Statutory (§160.756(b)(1)).
• If you're married, your spouse signs as a party to the agreement. Statutory (§160.754(a)).
• BMI: generally under 32, with some clinic-by-clinic flexibility. Agency and clinic policy.
• Currently parenting at least one child of your own. Agency policy.
• Non-smoker, including household members. Agency policy.
• Support system: a partner, family or close friends. Every agency requires one and will ask about it in screening.
• Stable housing throughout the pregnancy.

The full step-by-step process — screening, matching, contract and validation, transfer, delivery, and roughly 16 to 20 months end to end for a first journey — lives in our how to become a surrogate in Texas guide. For the numbers agencies actually screen on, see the surrogate requirements guide.

Texas's no-state-income-tax advantage

Texas levies no personal income tax, so none of your compensation goes to the state. Federal tax still applies to the taxable part, and nobody withholds it for you, so set money aside from each payment. Our surrogate taxes guide covers what's usually taxable, what usually isn't, and how to talk to a CPA about it.

Frequently asked questions

Agencies in other states