Business Entity Search

Business Entity Search by State

Each state page runs the search on that state’s records only, links its official search and explains what its record shows.

• ALAlabama
• AKAlaska
• AZArizona
• ARArkansas
• CACalifornia
• COColorado
• CTConnecticut
• DEDelaware
• DCDistrict of Columbia
• FLFlorida
• GAGeorgia
• HIHawaii
• IDIdaho
• ILIllinois
• INIndiana
• IAIowa
• KSKansas
• KYKentucky
• LALouisiana
• MEMaine
• MDMaryland
• MAMassachusetts
• MIMichigan
• MNMinnesota
• MSMississippi
• MOMissouri
• MTMontana
• NENebraska
• NVNevada
• NHNew Hampshire
• NJNew Jersey
• NMNew Mexico
• NYNew York
• NCNorth Carolina
• NDNorth Dakota
• OHOhio
• OKOklahoma
• OROregon
• PAPennsylvania
• RIRhode Island
• SCSouth Carolina
• SDSouth Dakota
• TNTennessee
• TXTexas
• UTUtah
• VTVermont
• VAVirginia
• WAWashington
• WVWest Virginia
• WIWisconsin
• WYWyoming

Is there a national business entity search for the USA?

Not from the government: the United States has no federal registry of LLCs or corporations. A company sits in the state where it was formed and, as a foreign LLC or foreign corporation, in each state where it registered to do business. That’s why the search above starts with All states. A search for “Cedar Hollow” returns a first page of 10 companies in 10 states: LLCs, corporations and one nonprofit.

Secretary of State business search: 10 exceptions

Ten jurisdictions keep business records at another office:

Is a business entity search free?

Yes, here and at the states, with one exception: the Texas Secretary of State’s SOSPortal requires an account and charges $1 per search. The Texas Comptroller’s franchise tax account search is free and shows every company that files Texas franchise tax reports, with its Secretary of State status.

Three free state searches stop short. Delaware’s record reads “THIS IS NOT A STATEMENT OF GOOD STANDING” and the status costs $10, or $20 with tax and filing history. New Jersey’s lists names, entity IDs and cities, without status or agent; a status report costs $5 plus a $1.25 portal fee. Oklahoma’s free summary leaves out the entity details, which cost $5.

Company not found? Four reasons

A missing company may simply be registered somewhere else. The Kansas Secretary of State puts it this way: “it is possible that they have not filed in Kansas or that they are a sole proprietorship, D/B/A, assumed name, fictitious name or trade name.”

LLC Lookup: What a Business Record Shows

Each result gives the legal name, state, status, entity type and entity number, plus the formation date when the state publishes it. Opening it adds the registered agent, the address and the people the state names. This is the Delaware result for Cedar Hollow, opened:

Business address, registered agent and documents

The address on a record is the one the company reported: a principal office in most states, sometimes only the agent’s address. Most free records name the registered agent; New Jersey’s doesn’t, and a New York LLC without one shows the Secretary of State as its agent for service of process. On the official record, the filing history often opens the documents themselves, Articles of Organization and annual reports included; Florida’s Sunbiz posts them for free.

What the record leaves out

• The EIN, which the IRS doesn’t publish (see looking up a company by EIN).
• Shareholders. Hawaii and North Carolina show share counts, not who holds them.
• Liens. Debts secured by a company’s assets are filed as UCC financing statements (Uniform Commercial Code) and searched separately; Minnesota keeps both in one portal, its Business & Lien System.

How to Check LLC Status and Good Standing

The search shows one status per result, in plain words; the official record keeps the state’s own label. Among the 10 Cedar Hollow results:

Results can also read Suspended, Revoked, Inactive or Merged. A suspension can come from a tax agency: “Suspended – FTB” in California, Forfeited Existence in Texas after the Comptroller certifies an unfiled report or unpaid franchise tax (Tax Code 171.309). A dissolved company can still be sued (see the questions below).

Active vs. good standing

Good standing means the company is also up to date with its reports and fees. Kentucky’s record shows both: a Status line (A for Active) and a separate Standing line (G for Good, B for Bad). California (standing with the Secretary of State and the FTB), Hawaii, Louisiana (Annual Report Status), Maryland, Michigan, North Dakota and Wyoming also print one; elsewhere, proof of good standing comes from a certificate. If your own LLC has lost good standing, check first whether an LLC annual report is overdue.

Certificate of good standing cost by state

The certificate is the state’s official statement that the company exists and is current, the proof a bank, a lender or another state’s filing office asks for. Its name changes by state: Certificate of Existence (Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina), Certificate of Status (California, Florida, Maryland, New York), Certificate of Compliance (Alaska, Hawaii), Certificate of Legal Existence (Connecticut). In Texas, the Comptroller’s “Franchise Tax Account Status” was “previously referred to as Good Standing.”

From each state’s fee schedule; card and portal fees can apply. Other states: see the state’s page.

Letters that look official

Private companies mail new LLCs offers for a certificate at several times the state’s price. North Carolina’s Secretary of State calls an $82 “Certificate Service” letter “a business scheme and not necessary“; the state’s own certificate costs $10 plus $1 per page online.

FinCEN warns about the other kind: U.S. companies no longer file beneficial ownership reports at all, and “Correspondence that references a ‘Form 4022’ or ‘Form 5102’ is fraudulent.”

How to Verify a Business Is Legit

Online business verification starts with the state record. It proves that a company exists and keeps up its filings, not that it’s honest or licensed: Colorado’s search page says the office “lacks the authority to certify if a business is operating legally.” Before you sign or pay:

1. Search the exact legal name from the contract, invoice or lease in all states, and open the result in the state the company names. If it isn’t there, see company not found.
2. Compare the status and formation date with what the company claims. Cedar Hollow LLC in Ohio was formed on July 13, 2026: a business under that name claiming years of history either traded under another form before, such as a sole proprietorship, or isn’t this LLC.
3. Look up the license separately. Contractors and other licensed trades hold licenses from a state board, and complaints go to consumer agencies, not to the business registry.

How to Find Who Owns an LLC

Start with the state record: at least 21 of the 51 name the members, managers or officers, and 8 more name some of them. Alaska’s record goes furthest, with an Owned column giving each official’s share; Arizona names every member owning 20% or more of a manager-managed LLC (A.R.S. 29-3201(B)(4)).

LLC owner search by name

The Person tab goes from a name to the companies: it reads the officers, members, managers and agents that states put on their records, with the role next to each company. It also shows whether your own name appears on a company you never formed (see what to do). At the states’ own offices, a person search can cost money: Minnesota’s Secretary of State charges “a $35 fee for each name searched,” Montana $4 per individual name search.

When the record names no one, other filings can: a Kansas LLC’s annual report lists members owning at least 5% of its capital (K.S.A. 17-76,139(c)), Missouri’s fictitious name records have an Owners tab, and a foreign registration in the state where the LLC operates or owns property can name people the formation state doesn’t.

Is the registered agent the owner?

Not necessarily. The agent accepts legal papers for the company, so a lawsuit goes to the agent under the exact legal name on the record. In the Cedar Hollow results, the Delaware LLC’s agent is a commercial service, while the Idaho result, opened, lists the same person as agent and Managing Member, names taken from the LLC’s Idaho filings. The organizer, who filed the Articles of Organization, can likewise be a filing service. Ohio says so outright: “We do not maintain ownership/officer lists.”

Is LLC ownership public record?

Whatever your filings put on the record is public: the registered agent and its address and, in states that list members or managers, their names and the address given for them. Connecticut’s annual report asks for a business and a residence address for each principal. Naming a commercial registered agent changes the agent shown from then on; earlier filings stay viewable where the state posts document images. Federal beneficial ownership reports were never public either: FinCEN kept them in a “secure, non-public database.” Iowa states the general rule: “Ownership and membership are maintained within your company’s own internal records.”

Business Name Search: Is the LLC Name Taken?

A name is taken when the state’s records already hold one that isn’t distinguishable from yours. Many states don’t count small differences: Oregon’s guide lists the entity ending, punctuation, an added “s,” spacing, “a” or “the,” and capital letters. Colorado counts more of them as a difference, as the table shows:

Swipe the table to see all five states.

How to check LLC name availability

1. Check the exact name in the Check a name tab, with the ending the state requires (Limited Liability Company, LLC or L.L.C.). In every state but Nevada and Missouri, it compares your name with the companies on that state’s records, applies the state’s published rule where there is one, and lists the closest names.
2. Search the main word alone in the Company tab, without LLC or punctuation, to see close names in other states.
3. Check federal trademarks in the USPTO Trademark Search. A state approval gives no trademark rights: in the SBA’s words, “Entity name protects you at a state level.”
4. File the Articles to secure the name. Only the filing settles it: in Oregon’s words, “The final determination, however, is made at the time of filing.”

Free LLC name search in every state

Each state’s official name search, and what a name reservation costs if you need to hold the name before filing:

If the name is taken

The same name in another state is a separate question: Cedar Hollow LLC exists in Idaho, New York and Ohio at once, because a state registration counts only in that state. Only a federal trademark reaches across state lines (see when two businesses can have the same name).

Business Entity Search Questions

Official Sources

• Colorado Secretary of State: Business database search
• Kansas Secretary of State: Business Entity Search
• North Carolina Secretary of State: Certificate of Existence scheme alert
• Delaware Division of Corporations: FAQs
• Ohio Secretary of State: Business FAQs
• Texas Comptroller: Franchise tax account status
• Oregon Secretary of State: Business name availability
• SBA: Choose your business name
• USPTO Trademark Search
• FinCEN: Beneficial ownership information