Kentucky Secretary of State
Kentucky Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the Kentucky Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
Kentucky Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
Kentucky's register is at web.sos.ky.gov, run by the Secretary of State. Free, no account, and it is the cheapest state in the country to form an LLC in.
It warns you about its own filter
Next to the active-entities tick box, Kentucky prints:
be sure to uncheck this to find inactive companies
No other state does this. Several have a filter that quietly hides dissolved companies (Rhode Island's is a radio button set to Active, Tennessee's is a tick box, Idaho's too), and all of them leave you to work out that an inactive company still holds its name.
Kentucky tells you. The box arrives unticked, which is already the right way round, and then it explains why you should leave it that way.
If one thing on this page transfers to every other state you use, it is that sentence.
The results are color-coded
Active companies come back on green, inactive ones on red.
It sounds trivial and it is genuinely useful on a long list: the shape of the result set is legible before you read a word of it. Kentucky is the only state in this set that does it.
The columns are the company name, the company ID, the status and the company type. Separate searches in the sidebar cover name availability, registered agents, and current and founding representatives, so you can look up a person as well as a company.
The record carries things most states do not
Open an entity and alongside the organization number, company type and status you get:
- whether it is profit or non-profit
- an industry
- the number of employees, as a band
- the primary county
- status and standing kept separate
The employee band is the unusual one. No other register in this project publishes headcount at all, even approximately. For sizing up a company you are dealing with, that is a real piece of information, and one most states treat as none of the public's business.
Who decides
Filings are recorded; acceptance is judged by the Secretary of State on examination, under the Kentucky Limited Liability Company Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. Chapter 275.
Before you rely on it
Leave the active-entities box unticked. Kentucky has already told you why.
Read the colors for a quick shape of the results.
Use the representative searches if your question is about a person.
Kentucky filing facts
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| Articles of Organization | $40.00 |
| Annual report | $15.00 |
| Name reservation, 120 days | $15.00 |
| Name reservation renewal | $15.00 |
$40 to form is the cheapest of any state we have verified, below Montana's $35 only because Montana's annual report is free where Kentucky's is $15.
Set the pair against the range: Kentucky costs $40 and $15 a year. Massachusetts costs $500 and $500. Over ten years that is $190 against $5,500.
The name reservation is $15 for 120 days, and the same fee renews it. Kentucky is one of the few states where holding a name costs the same as the annual report.
Cheap does not mean quiet. Kentucky took 78,530 applications over the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026: 314 a business day, up 36.6%, putting it 27th of 51 by volume, well ahead of where its prices would place it.
What the register will not tell you
Kentucky has 18,324 live registered marks, and its crowded words are the most specific of any state in this project:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| valvoline | 242 | 228x |
| louisville | 394 | 205x |
| kentucky | 1,205 | 177x |
| bourbon | 590 | 82x |
| old | 275 | 8x |
| care | 321 | 3x |
Bourbon at 590 marks and 82 times the national rate. No other state has an industry word of that weight. Tennessee's music runs at 7x, Oregon's brewing at 4x. Bourbon is an order of magnitude more concentrated than either, because the product is legally tied to a place and the place is here.
Old at 8x belongs to the same cluster: Old Forester, Old Grand-Dad, and the convention of ageing statements in distillery branding.
Valvoline at 228x tops the list and is one Lexington company, the same single-firm pattern as Kansas's coleman and North Dakota's bobcat.
So if you are naming a Kentucky business anywhere near bourbon, whiskey or distilling, you are entering the most contested naming ground the state has, and it is defended by companies with long memories and good lawyers. Check the federal register before you print anything.
Louisville files 39.6% of Kentucky's marks, Lexington 13.1%.
What the Kentucky portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
Kentucky Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in Kentucky are held by the Kentucky 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 | sosbes.sos.ky.gov/BusSearchNProfile/search.aspx |
|---|---|
| Phone | (502) 564-3490 |
| Address | State Business Filings 1025 Capital Center Drive, Suite 201 P.O. Box 718 Frankfort, KY 40602 |
| Office hours | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $40 |
| Processing | 4-6 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 Kentucky business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in Kentucky?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What Kentucky does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: no match toggle on the basic search; active-only box 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 Kentucky?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get organization number, whether it is profit or non-profit, company type, industry and number of employees as a band. 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 Kentucky business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the Kentucky register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: Kentucky Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about Kentucky in particular: it is the only state so far that warns you about its own filter. The line next to the active entities box reads: be sure to uncheck this to find inactive entities. It comes unticked, and it should stay that way when you are checking a name.
Can I look up who owns a business in Kentucky?
The Kentucky 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 Kentucky?
Kentucky Secretary of State charges $40 to file the Articles of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and currently takes 4-6 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
- Kentucky business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: Kentucky Secretary of State, business filing fee schedule, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the Kentucky 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.
- Office contact details: Kentucky Secretary of State, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: Kentucky Secretary of State, business filing fee schedule.
- Naming statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ch. 275, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.