Hawaii Business Registration Division
Hawaii Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the Hawaii Business Registration Division. Free, no account, all entity types.
Hawaii Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
Hawaii's register is searchable free at hbe.dcca.hawaii.gov, run by the Business Registration Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Not a Secretary of State: Hawaii does not have one.
If you have an old bookmark, it is dead. Hawaii moved the portal in 2026. The former address, hbe.ehawaii.gov, now serves only a redirect notice.
How to search it
One box on the home page. Type a name and press Enter. There is no match-mode setting to get wrong and nothing to configure first.
What comes back is a list of the name, the record type, the file number and the status. Filters sit alongside for record type, entity type and status.
The results are cut twice before you see them. Hawaii returns the first 300 matches of however many it found, and the page starts at ten rows. A search for Acme finds 72 records and puts eight pages between you and all of them. A search for Aloha finds 11,413 and shows you 300.
The pages are slow. Give the portal twenty-odd seconds before assuming it has failed.
The mistake this portal invites
The name in the results list is not always the name on the record.
Search Acme and you get "ACME BROADCASTING COMPANY, LLC". Open it and the record reads CIELO TV, LLC. The search matched a name the company dropped; the record shows the name it uses now.
Nothing on the results screen tells you that has happened. Michigan and Missouri both print the matched name underneath the current one so you can see why a result came back. Hawaii does not.
So the rule here is: read the record, never the list. If you are checking whether a name is free, a result that looks like a company still using your name may be a company that abandoned it years ago, and the reverse is just as possible.
Hawaii searches more than companies
This is the thing that makes Hawaii unusual, and it works in your favor.
The same box returns entities, trade names, trademarks, service marks, publicity rights names and pending filings. In most states those are three or four separate searches, and a name clear on the company register can be spoken for on the mark register without you ever finding out. Here one search covers them.
Publicity rights names are a Hawaii speciality. Very few registers hold them at all.
Reading a Hawaii status
Thirteen values, each with a letter code, which is more granularity than almost any other state:
Active (A) and Dissolved (D) are self-explanatory. Beyond those Hawaii distinguishes Terminated (T) from Adm. Terminated (V), which is the state ending a registration rather than the owner; Inv. Revoked (R), Inv. Cancelled (X) and Inv. Dissolved (7); Withdrawn (W), Merged (M), Converted (9), and two grades of delinquency, Delinquent Status 1 and 2.
The practical point: a company that has stopped trading can appear under any of seven or eight of those, and all of them still hold the name.
Open a record and Hawaii tells you plainly whether the business is in good standing, and lists which annual filings it has processed by year. That is a better answer than most states give.
What the search will not tell you
The one thing this portal does not cover is the federal trademark register, and in Hawaii that matters more than almost anywhere.
Hawaii has 6,859 live registered marks, 45% of them filed from Honolulu. The words that dominate them are not generic:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| hawaii | 995 | 438x |
| maui | 488 | 306x |
| aloha | 683 | 298x |
| hawaiian | 680 | 270x |
| kona | 221 | 215x |
| surf | 231 | 48x |
| island | 414 | 36x |
Those multipliers are the story. In Ohio the over-used words are generic boosters like "pro" and "plus", running two or three times the national rate. In Hawaii they are place and culture words running hundreds of times the national rate. Aloha, Maui, Kona and Hawaiian are not mildly crowded, they are the most contested naming ground in the country.
The single largest trademark class here is clothing (class 025), ahead of services, which tells you what a lot of those marks are: apparel and souvenir brands built on exactly those words.
If you are naming a Hawaii business and reaching for one of them, assume the ground is taken and check the federal register before you commit.
The Registration Division decides, not the search
Whatever the results screen shows, the registration itself is a judgment made by the Business Registration Division when your filing reaches it, under the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 428.
Given how much this portal covers (companies, trade names, marks and publicity rights in one pass), it is easy to treat a clear result as settled. It is a starting point.
Some words also need another agency's consent first. A name containing "insurance" or "assurance" normally needs the Hawaii Department of Insurance to sign off. A name implying legal services runs into Hawaii State Bar Association restrictions. Neither shows up in an entity search.
Before you rely on it
Open the records, do not skim the list. The Cielo TV problem is the whole reason.
Page past the first ten rows, and remember 300 is a ceiling, not a total.
Check the federal register if your name uses any of the words in the table above.
Hawaii lets you subscribe to reminders and alerts on a record, which is worth setting if you are watching a name.
Hawaii filing facts
| Filing | Form | Fee | Expedited |
|---|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization | LLC-1 | $50.00 | +$25.00 |
| Annual Report | $15.00 | +$25.00 | |
| Reservation of Name | $10.00 | +$25.00 | |
| Transfer of Name Reservation | $10.00 | +$25.00 | |
| Certificate of Compliance (good standing) | $5.00 | +$10.00 | |
| Application for Reinstatement | $25.00 |
Hawaii is one of the cheapest states in the country both to start in and to stay in: $50 to form and $15 a year. Massachusetts charges $500 and $500.
It is also one of the quietest, and one of the few going backwards. In the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026 Hawaii took 18,380 business applications, about 74 a business day, which ranks it 44th of 51.
The direction is the striking part. Year on year the rate is down 5.5%. Only three states are declining at all, and Hawaii is one of them, alongside Oregon, at much the same rate, and Washington, which is falling far harder than either.
So: a register getting less crowded, attached to the most crowded set of names in the country.
What the Hawaii portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
Hawaii Business Registration Division business services
Business registrations in Hawaii are held by the Hawaii Business Registration Division, 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 | hbe.dcca.hawaii.gov/search-and-buy |
|---|---|
| Phone | (844) 808-3222 |
| Address | Business Registration Division, King Kalakaua Building, 335 Merchant Street, Rm. 201, Honolulu, HI 96813 |
| Office hours | 7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $50 |
| Processing | Not specified |
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 Hawaii business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in Hawaii?
Search the Hawaii business register by name using the search on this page, or directly on the state's own portal. If a matching record comes back, the entity exists and its status line tells you whether it is active. No match means no entity is registered under that name today.
How do I verify a company is registered in Hawaii?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get whether the business is in good standing, which annual filings have been processed, by year, entity name and principal address, forms and documents available to buy and an option to receive reminders and alerts. 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 Hawaii business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the Hawaii register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: Hawaii Business Registration Division decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about Hawaii in particular: the name in the results list is not always the name on the record. Searching Acme returns Acme Broadcasting Company, LLC, and opening it brings up Cielo TV, LLC: the search matched a name the company has since dropped. Read the record, not the list. On top of that Hawaii shows the first 300 matches of however many it found and starts you at ten rows a page.
Can I look up who owns a business in Hawaii?
The Hawaii 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 Hawaii?
Hawaii Business Registration Division charges $50 to file the Articles of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and is processed not specified. Reserving a name beforehand is a separate and smaller fee. Confirm the figure with the state before you file: schedules move.
Sources
- Hawaii business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division, Fees under the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Chapter 428, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the Hawaii Business Registration Division.
- 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.
- Office contact details: Hawaii Business Registration Division, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division, Fees under the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Chapter 428.
- Naming statute: Haw. Rev. Stat. 428-105, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.