Connecticut Secretary of State
Connecticut Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the Connecticut Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
Connecticut Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
Connecticut's register is at service.ct.gov, run through business.ct.gov. Free, no account.
It searches broadly by default
The Search on exact name tick box is left unticked, so Connecticut goes wide unless you tell it not to.
That is the safer way round and rare enough to note: Rhode Island, Michigan, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah all start narrow. The trade-off is that a common word returns hundreds of rows, and the filters that would tame them sit on the results page rather than the search form.
So the sequence is: search wide, then filter. Business start and end date, business status (Active, Cancelled, Dissolved, Forfeited, Merged, Revoked, Withdrawn) and a business sub-status.
Seven statuses is a fuller vocabulary than most, and worth reading properly: a company that withdrew made a decision, one that was revoked had it made for them, and one that merged still exists inside something else.
Every record opens onto tabs
Filing history, name history, trade names, and shares.
The share count is the unusual one. Very few states publish it at all, and fewer keep trade names on the same record rather than in a separate database.
For an LLC the share tab will often be empty, but for a corporation it tells you something about the shape of the company that almost no other register will.
Alongside those: the business name and ALEI, status, date formed, citizenship and place of formation, business type, and both business and mailing addresses.
The ALEI
Connecticut identifies entities by an ALEI rather than a plain file number, and it appears in the results grid as its own column. If you are cross-referencing against anything else the state publishes, that is the key to use.
Who decides
Filings are recorded; acceptance is judged on examination under the Connecticut Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Conn. Gen. Stat. Chapter 613a.
Before you rely on it
Leave the exact-name box unticked, then filter on the results page.
Read the status vocabulary carefully: seven values, and they mean different things.
Open the tabs. Name history and trade names are where a name conflict will show up.
Connecticut filing facts
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Organization | $120.00 |
| Annual report | $80.00 |
| Name reservation | $60.00 |
| Change of registered agent | $50.00 |
| Interim notice of change of manager or member | $20.00 |
| Conversion | $60.00 |
| Domestication | $100.00 |
| Dissolution | no fee |
The formation fee includes the appointment of the statutory agent, so it is one payment rather than Florida's two-line arrangement.
The annual report is $80, filed online only, between 1 January and 31 March. That is a fixed quarter rather than an anniversary date, so every Connecticut LLC shares the same window, unlike Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts where each company has its own deadline. Easier to remember; easier for everyone to forget at once.
At $120 to form and $80 a year, Connecticut is upper-middle on both: dearer than Kentucky's $40 and $15, well below Massachusetts's $500 and $500 next door.
The $50 to change your registered agent is worth noticing. Several states do it for $10 or free, and Connecticut charges more for that than for an interim change of manager.
Every one of those records started as a filing, and there were 56,250 of them over the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026: 225 a business day, up 17.1%, 34th of 51 by volume.
What the register will not tell you
Connecticut has 43,126 live registered marks, and the list is short on landmarks and long on money:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| connecticut | 404 | 67x |
| grip | 337 | 6x |
| capital | 481 | 3x |
| partners | 310 | 3x |
| pure | 304 | 3x |
| fresh | 354 | 2x |
Only the state's own name is genuinely concentrated. Capital and partners carry the same financial signature Massachusetts shows, which is what you would expect of Fairfield County, and Stamford files 12.9% of the state's marks, with Norwalk at 6.6% and Greenwich at 5.3%, so the money end of the state files the most.
Grip at 6x is the oddity and we have no sourced explanation for it, so we are not offering one.
There is no place name after the state itself, no industry word above six times normal, and no landscape term at all. Connecticut's naming ground is unusually open. The constraint here is the 43,000 marks already filed, not any particular word within them.
What the Connecticut portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
Connecticut Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in Connecticut are held by the Connecticut Secretary of State, which maintains the public register this page searches, accepts new filings, and issues the certificates a bank or a counterparty may ask you for. Contact them directly for anything that has to be official.
| Business entity search | service.ct.gov/business/s/onlinebusinesssearch |
|---|---|
| Phone | (860) 509-6002 |
| Address | Business Services Division, 165 Capitol Avenue, Suite 1000, Hartford, CT 06106 |
| Office hours | 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $120 |
| Processing | 5-7 business days |
The office handles registration, not disputes. If a name is already taken, they will tell you it is unavailable but not who holds it beyond what the public record shows, and they will not advise on whether your name infringes someone’s mark.
Common questions about Connecticut business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in Connecticut?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What Connecticut does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: broad; 'Search on exact name' unticked. A match means the entity is on file, and its status line tells you whether it is still active.
How do I verify a company is registered in Connecticut?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get business name and ALEI, status, date formed, citizenship and place of formation and business type. The status on the record is the one to trust: a dissolved company still appears in a search and still holds its name.
Does a clear search mean my Connecticut business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the Connecticut register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: Connecticut Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about Connecticut in particular: the exact name tick box is left unticked, so Connecticut searches broadly by default. That is the safer way round, but it means a common word returns hundreds of results and the filters on the left are how you get through them.
Can I look up who owns a business in Connecticut?
The Connecticut register shows the registered agent and, depending on the filing type, officers or organizers. It does not list members or shareholders for every entity, so the register identifies who accepts legal service rather than who owns the company.
How much does it cost to register a business name in Connecticut?
Connecticut Secretary of State charges $120 to file the Certificate of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and currently takes 5-7 business days to process. Reserving a name beforehand is a separate and smaller fee. Confirm the figure with the state before you file: schedules move.
Sources
- Connecticut business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: Connecticut business.ct.gov, Domestic Limited Liability Company Fees, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the Connecticut Secretary of State.
- Formation activity: Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics, retrieved via FRED at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.
- Federal trademark data: United States Patent and Trademark Office, 3,374,058 live registrations cross-referenced against the state registers. Live excludes both abandoned applications and cancelled registrations.
- Register copy: bulk data published by data.ct.gov, last checked October 14, 2026.
- Office contact details: Connecticut Secretary of State, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: Connecticut business.ct.gov, Domestic Limited Liability Company Fees.
- Naming statute: Conn. Gen. Stat. Ch. 613a, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.