North Carolina Secretary of State
North Carolina Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the North Carolina Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
North Carolina Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
North Carolina's register is at sosnc.gov, free and without an account. It is the only one that puts a button on the result telling you what needs doing.
The register hands you the next action
Search a name and the rows carry more than information. A company that owes an annual report has a yellow "File annual report" button in its row. One that has been administratively dissolved has a green "File reinstatement" button.
No other state does this. Everywhere else you read a status, work out what it implies, and go and find the right form. North Carolina puts the form on the row.
There is a catch worth knowing: the green reinstatement button appears on companies you have no business reinstating. It is offered on the row, not gated on whether you are connected to the company. Read it as a signal about the company's condition rather than an invitation.
Two searches are the minimum
The word matching is set to Starting With. Change it: the alternatives are All, Any and Exact Match, and All or Any will find far more.
Assumed names are a different search entirely. They are not in these results. So checking whether a name is free takes two searches here, not one: the company search and the assumed name search. A name can be clear on the first and taken on the second.
You can also search by company officials, registered agents, or an individual name given as last, first, middle. That makes three more ways in, and all of them people.
Reading a result
Each row gives the name with its SOSID number, and beneath the name the status and entity type stacked together rather than in separate columns.
The record links the agent to their other companies
Open an entity and you get the legal name, the SOSID, status and citizenship (domestic or foreign), the date formed, the fiscal month, and the registered agent.
The agent is a link. Click it and you get everything else that agent represents. That is a reverse lookup built into the record, which only New Hampshire also offers, and it is the quickest way to tell a commercial agent from somebody's brother-in-law.
Who decides
The button on the row tells you what a company owes. It does not tell you what the state will accept from you. That is judged under the North Carolina Limited Liability Company Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 57D when the filing is examined.
Before you rely on it
Run two searches. Companies and assumed names are separate databases here.
Change Starting With to All or Any.
Click the agent to see what else they represent.
Ignore the reinstatement button unless the company is yours.
North Carolina filing facts
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| Articles of Organization | $125.00 |
| Annual report | $200.00 |
| Application for Certificate of Authority (foreign) | $250.00 |
| Application for Reserved Name | $10.00 |
The $200 annual report is the second most expensive recurring filing we have verified, behind Massachusetts at $500. It is double New Hampshire's $100, nearly three times Washington's $70, and twenty-two times New York's $9 biennial statement.
Set against that, the $10 name reservation is among the cheapest in the country, level with Arizona, a fifth of the District's $50.
So North Carolina is inexpensive to start, cheap to reserve a name in, and costly to keep. Over ten years an LLC here pays $2,000 in annual reports against North Carolina's own $125 to form. If you are choosing where to register and you expect the company to last, that is the number that matters.
Despite the $200 report, filings keep coming: 197,580 in the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026, 790 a business day, up 13.5%, ranking 7th of 51.
What the register will not tell you
North Carolina has 62,012 live registered marks, and the pattern is unusually mild:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| carolina | 1,467 | 32x |
| southern | 608 | 6x |
| north | 591 | 5x |
| mountain | 384 | 3x |
| business | 672 | 3x |
| brewing | 449 | 2x |
| fresh | 516 | 2x |
Only carolina is genuinely contested. After it the list drops to single figures fast: southern at 6x, north at 5x, and then a run of ordinary words at two or three times normal.
That is a flatter landscape than most. Compare West Virginia, where three proper nouns run between 419x and 1,325x, or Alaska, where the state's own name appears in a third of all marks. North Carolina has 62,000 marks and no single word dominating them.
Brewing at 449 marks is worth a glance if it is in your name. The state has a substantial craft industry and the word is mildly crowded, but at twice normal it is not an obstacle.
Filing concentrates around Charlotte: 19.2%, with Raleigh at 8.8% and Greensboro at 5.2%.
What the North Carolina portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
North Carolina Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in North Carolina are held by the North Carolina 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 | www.sosnc.gov/online_services/search/by_title/_Business_Registration |
|---|---|
| Phone | (919) 814-5400 |
| Address | North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration, P.O. Box 29622, Raleigh, NC 27626-0622 |
| Office hours | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $125 |
| Processing | 5-10 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 North Carolina business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in North Carolina?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What North Carolina does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: starting With, with Search for set to Company By Name. 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 North Carolina?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get legal name, the Secretary of State identification number, status and citizenship, domestic or foreign, date formed and fiscal month. 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 North Carolina business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the North Carolina register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: North Carolina Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about North Carolina in particular: the word matching is set to Starting With, and assumed names are a different search entirely, so two searches are the minimum before concluding a name is free. The green reinstatement buttons are the ones to read: an administratively dissolved company can be brought back, and until it is struck for good it still holds its name. North Carolina also asks that you not run automated or scripted searches.
Can I look up who owns a business in North Carolina?
The North Carolina 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 North Carolina?
North Carolina Secretary of State charges $125 to file the Articles of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and currently takes 5-10 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
- North Carolina business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration fee schedule for limited liability companies, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the North Carolina 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: compiled from published directories and not yet confirmed against the contact page published by the North Carolina Secretary of State. Telephone the office before relying on an address.
- Naming and reporting rules: North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration fee schedule for limited liability companies.
- Naming statute: N.C. Gen. Stat. Ch. 57D, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.