California Business Search on bizfile Online

California Business Entity Search, Including Suspended Companies

bizfile Online runs the California corporation search and the LLC lookup on one screen, by name or entity number, and returns up to 500 matches. General partnerships and LLPs are not in it.

Official site: bizfile Online Business Search

Step 1: Type at Least Three Characters, or Open Advanced

The basic search matches keywords anywhere in the name, but only among active entities. To look up a suspended, dissolved or canceled company, open Advanced and set Status to All. Advanced also offers Starts with, entity type and date filters.

Step 2: Read the Six Columns

Results list the entity with its number, the initial filing date (its formation, registration or conversion date), the status, the entity type, where it was formed and its agent. A company formed in another state appears only if it registered to do business in California, and Formed In names its home state. Entity numbers come in three formats: C plus seven digits for older corporations, twelve digits for older LLCs and LPs, and, for newer entities (the change was announced in spring 2025), twelve characters starting with B, typed in full.

Step 3: Click the Name, Then View History for the Articles

The record opens in a panel with the status, four standing lines, the principal address, the mailing address, the Statement of Info Due Date and the agent. View History lists every filing, from the company’s first filing to the latest Statement of Information, and each one with an image downloads as a free PDF.

California Owners and Officers: What the Statement of Information Names

The Secretary of State keeps no ownership records, but the Statement of Information names the managers, or the directors and officers, with an address for each, and its PDF is free under View History.

Shareholders and members of a manager-managed LLC stay off the record. The agent for service of process, California’s name for a registered agent, is either a California resident or a corporation registered as a 1505 agent, and a company can’t be its own agent. To go from a person to their companies, use the Person option in the search above: it covers officers, managers and agents.

Filing It: $20 for a California LLC, $25 for a Stock Corporation

An LLC files a Statement of Information within 90 days of forming, then every two years during a six-month window ending with its registration month. A stock corporation files every year, a nonprofit every two years. An LLC formed in March 2024 files again between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Sixty days after a delinquency notice, the $250 penalty applies (Corp. Code § 17713.07). A notice of pending suspension follows, and the company is suspended if it still hasn’t filed 60 days later.

Since August 1, 2026, filing online requires User Access, set up with a PIN mailed to the company.

Suspended by the FTB or the SOS: California Status and Standing

Two agencies can suspend a California company. The Secretary of State (SOS) does it for a missing Statement of Information, or a corporation’s unpaid fraud fund claim (VCFCF). The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) does it for unfiled returns or unpaid tax. The status names the agency, and separate standing lines show the SOS and FTB positions.

Any suspended company loses the right to use its name in California, and one suspended by the FTB can’t legally do business or bring or defend a lawsuit. A company suspended by both agencies clears the SOS side first, since the FTB won’t revive it until then. The FTB’s free Entity Status Letter shows a corporation’s or LLC’s standing with the FTB only. Partnerships can’t get one.

Revivor: Lifting an FTB or SOS Suspension

A company suspended by the SOS alone files a current Statement of Information. One suspended by the FTB files its missing returns and pays the tax for every year since registration (at least $800 a year: the LLC annual tax or the corporate minimum franchise tax), plus penalties and interest. It then files a revivor request on form FTB 3557, and the FTB publishes no separate revivor fee. After 60 months of FTB suspension, an LLC or stock corporation formed in California can be terminated administratively.

Business Name Search in California: LLCs Compete Only With LLCs

The Secretary of State compares a proposed name only with names of the same entity type: an LLC name against other LLCs. Under the name regulation, a difference in punctuation, spacing, capitals, typeface, & for and, or the entity ending doesn’t count (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, § 21004).

The regulation’s own examples: Good Time Rest Home, LLC and Goodtime Rest Home LLC are the same name, and so are A B C Corp., A.B.C. Corp. and A-B-C Corp. Outside those exceptions, one different letter or numeral makes a name distinguishable. A space can also count when it creates different words: the regulation accepts Got Ham LP against Gotham, LP, a case the test above can’t judge. Only active names and reservations block a new one (2 CCR § 21001), and the basic search lists exactly those.

An LLC name must contain LLC, L.L.C. or Limited Liability Company. Bank, trust, corporation or Inc. can’t appear in it, nor can words suggesting an insurer, and Agency, Commission or Department can be refused as implying a government link. A $10 online reservation keeps the name for 60 days, and that applicant must wait at least a day before reserving it again. Names aren’t compared with trademarks or county DBAs, so a clear bizfile result still calls for checking an LLC name against trademarks.

County DBAs and Local Licenses Aren’t in bizfile

A DBA, or fictitious business name, is filed with the county clerk where the business has its principal place of business, not with the Secretary of State, so bizfile never shows it (Bus. & Prof. Code § 17915).

The statement must be published in a local newspaper once a week for four weeks, and it expires after five years. Each county keeps its own index, such as Los Angeles County’s fictitious business name search.

California Secretary of State Business Search: Other Answers