Alaska Business Entity Search

Alaska LLC Lookup: Search the Corporations Database Step by Step

The Alaska corporations database, officially the Search Corporations Database, is run by the Alaska Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing (CBPL), part of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development. It covers LLCs, business, professional, nonprofit, cooperative and religious corporations, limited partnerships (LP) and limited liability partnerships (LLP), including out-of-state entities registered to do business in Alaska. Searching and viewing filings is free.

This page’s search reads the same public register. Filed documents and certificates, the versions that count as proof, stay on the state’s site.

Official site: Search Corporations Database

Step 1: Open the Search Corporations Database

Type an Entity Number for an exact hit, or part of the Entity Name. Keep Contains selected so names that do not start with your word still show up.

Step 2: Find the Right Entity in the Results

Results list the entity type, number, name, name type and status. Several entities can share most of a name, so match the type and status to the company you expect, then click its entity number.

Step 3: Read the Entity Details Page

The record groups Name(s), Registered Agent, Officials and Filed Documents. Every record is a public record: Click to View opens any filing for free, and the Certificate column links certificates the state issued.

Four Checks Before You Pay or Sign

• Status reads Good Standing Anything else means a filing is missing or the entity has ended.
• Next Biennial Report Due has not passed If the date is behind you and no biennial report shows under Filed Documents, the report is late. For LLCs and business corporations, late fees start after February 1.
• Officials lists the people you are dealing with If the person signing your contract is not there, ask why.
• Home State matches what they told you “Alaska” is a local company. Another state means an out-of-state company registered here; make sure it is not Revoked.

Alaska Shows Who Owns an LLC, Percentages Included

The Officials Table and Its Owned Column

The Officials table on each record names the members, managers or officers and their title, and its Owned column gives the share held. Tick Show Former to see people who have left.

Find the Registered Agent to Serve Legal Papers

The agent must keep both a physical address and a mailing address in Alaska. Under Alaska Civil Rule 4, service can be made in person at the physical address or by certified mail to the mailing address.

The state’s search works only by business name or number; the Person tab of the search above finds officials by name.

DBAs Live in the Alaska Business License Search

Every business operating in Alaska needs an Alaska business license, and regulated trades need a professional license as well. Neither appears in the corporations record. Business licenses are in Search Business Licenses; professional licenses are in the professional license search.

An Alaska DBA is the business name on a business license (AS 43.70), so the license search is where to find one, and getting a DBA means holding a business license in that name. The trade name reaches the corporations database only if the owner also files a business name registration.

Alaska Business Name Search: Is Your Name Available?

Alaska accepts a name if it is distinguishable from every name on record, under regulation 3 AAC 16.120.

Test a Name Against the Distinguishable Rule

What the State Ignores, and What Counts as Different

The comparison sets aside punctuation and symbols, capital letters, spaces between the same letters, articles, prepositions and conjunctions such as “a”, “the”, “by” or “plus”, and endings such as LLC, Inc. or Co.

A name counts as different with a different key word, the same key words in a different order, a creative spelling, a different letter or number, or an “s” added or dropped.

When a Dissolved Company’s Name Becomes Free

For most entity types, LLCs and business corporations included, the name of an Involuntarily Dissolved entity becomes available 6 months after the dissolution; if the entity reinstates within those 6 months, it keeps the name. A name is free at once when the entity is Voluntarily Dissolved, Revoked, Withdrawn or Cancelled, or has changed its name. The state’s test stops at its own register, so also run the Alaska trademark search and, if you will trade widely, the federal USPTO database.

How to Reserve or Register an Alaska Business Name

To hold a name while you prepare your filing, file a business name reservation ($25, 120 days). To protect a trade name, file a business name registration ($25, 5 years); you need an Alaska business license in that name first. A business license on its own protects nothing: the state can issue several licenses under the same name.

Non-Compliant or Dissolved: Alaska Statuses and the 2-Year Reinstatement Window

Good Standing means the entity is current with the state. Non-Compliant means a required filing or registered agent detail is missing. The other statuses mean the entity has ended: dissolved by the state, dissolved or withdrawn by its owners, or, for an out-of-state company, revoked.

Biennial report deadlines, fees and how to file are covered in the Alaska biennial report guide.

Is That Letter Really From the State of Alaska?

The Division warns that scams and deceptive solicitations typically increase around biennial report and license renewal time. An official request shows all four signs below; one that misses any of them did not come from the Division.

• The Alaska state seal and the Governor’s name appear in the header That is how every official Division letter or statement is marked.
• Every email and website ends in alaska.gov The state names lookalikes to avoid, such as “akk.gov”, “ak-gov.org”, “alaska-ak.gov” or “corporations.AK.net”.
• It did not come by text message The Division does not ask anyone to file or pay by text. Texts urging you to get a federal EIN through a private website are a known scam too: EINs come from the IRS, free, at IRS.gov.
• You can pay the same fee on the state’s own site File only at Corporations.Alaska.Gov, BusinessLicense.Alaska.Gov or ProfessionalLicense.Alaska.Gov. The biennial report is $100 there for an Alaska LLC, $200 for a foreign LLC.

Report a suspicious letter, email, text or call to the Consumer Protection Unit of the Alaska Department of Law, at 907-269-5200 in Anchorage or 1-888-576-2529 toll-free, and to the Federal Trade Commission.

Quick Answers About the Alaska Register