Ohio Secretary of State
Ohio Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the Ohio Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
Ohio Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
Ohio's business register is searchable free at businesssearch.ohiosos.gov, run by the Secretary of State. No account needed.
How to search it
Open businesssearch.ohiosos.gov. The Search By dropdown on the left holds more than the obvious: Business Name, Exact Business Name, Prior Business Name, Agent/Registrant, Organizer/Incorporator, and entity number. Prior Business Name is the one people miss. It searches names companies have dropped, which is how you find out that the name you want was released by somebody two years ago, or is still attached to a company now trading as something else.
The main box is under Search by Business Name, with a row of status buttons underneath: All, Active, Cancelled, Dead and Fraudulent. All is selected, and that is the right way round. Ohio is one of the few states that starts you off seeing everything rather than only live companies.
Type the name and press Search. Ohio ignores punctuation and spacing when it matches, so a search for Acme returns A.C.M.E. Car Tunes and AC-ME Equities alongside the plain Acmes. That looks like noise and is not, and the reason why matters more than it first appears. See the distinguishability section below.
Results come back showing the entity number, name, type, filing date, an expiry date where one applies, status, and the location as city, county and state. Ten rows at a time. A search for Acme returns 1,039 entries, so the first screen is about one per cent of the answer.
The last column is View Report. Open a record and you get the filing type, status, original filing date, location, the statutory agent's name, address and appointment date, and a filings table. That table is worth knowing about: Ohio gives you the filed documents themselves as free PDFs, where Delaware and Hawaii charge for the same thing.
Distinguishable is not the same as unused
This is the part the search result cannot tell you.
Ohio's LLC Act is Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1706. The test it sets is not whether a name is unused but whether it is distinguishable from names already on the register. Those are different questions, and the gap between them is where filings get rejected.
Which is why Ohio's search ignores your punctuation. When it returns A.C.M.E. for a search for Acme, it is showing you how the state reads names: the full stops are not a difference. Neither is spacing, capitalisation, or the designator on the end. "Acme Ltd" does not become distinguishable from "Acme LLC" by virtue of the suffix.
So read the search the way the state does. If a result looks like your name said out loud, treat it as a conflict, whatever the punctuation.
Reading an Ohio status
Active and Cancelled mean what you expect. Dead is Ohio's word for a registration that has ended. Fraudulent is the one worth knowing about: it flags a filing the state believes was made fraudulently, and almost no other register exposes that at all. If you are checking who you are about to do business with rather than checking a name, that status is the most valuable thing on the page.
A cancelled or dead company still holds its name until the state says otherwise.
Ohio calls it a statutory agent
Not a registered agent. The distinction is only terminology, but it is the kind of thing that makes you look like you do not know the state: Ohio's own form for changing one is Form 521, Statutory Agent Update, at $25.
Every Ohio business has to have one. If you are searching a company and the agent field looks stale, that is worth noting, because losing an agent is one of the routes to a registration ending.
Reserving a name, and the two forms people confuse
Ohio has two filings with similar names and the same price, and they do different jobs.
Form 534B, Name Reservation/Transfer/Cancellation, $39. This is the one you want if you have picked a name and need it held while you prepare the filing. Transferring or cancelling that reservation later costs $25.
Form 534A, Name Registration, $39. A different filing. Do not order it expecting a reservation.
A reservation is a separate application from the formation filing and does not create the company.
What this search will not show you
Trademarks. The register covers companies. Ohio has 91,914 live registered trademarks, most filed from Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus, and a name clear on the business search can be spoken for on the mark register. Ohio runs a separate Trademark/Service Mark search in the sidebar of the same site.
The words that turn up most in Ohio's live marks are worth knowing, because they are the crowded ground:
- pro (1,448 marks), plus (951), super (715), ultra (606)
- ohio (1,250) and cleveland (875)
- seal (695) and clean (651)
The first group is the trap. Pro, plus, super and ultra are generic boosters that feel like they strengthen a name, and in Ohio they appear two to three times as often as nationally. Combined with the distinguishability test above, a name built on one of them is starting from a bad position.
Other agencies' consent. Some words need clearance before the Secretary of State will accept them. A name containing "insurance" or "assurance" normally needs the Ohio Department of Insurance to sign off first. A name implying legal services runs into Ohio State Bar Association restrictions. Neither shows up in a business search.
Before you rely on it
Page past the first screen. Ten rows of 1,039 is a sample, not a result.
Search Prior Business Name as well, not just Business Name.
Do not type the designator. Leave off LLC, Inc and Corp. They are not part of what makes a name distinguishable, and including them narrows the search for no benefit.
Do not filter to Active. The filter starts off, correctly. A dead company's name is not automatically yours.
Ohio lets you subscribe to email alerts on any entity, and frames it as protection against business identity theft rather than as a convenience. If you are watching a name, or watching your own company for filings you did not make, that is the tool.
Ohio filing facts
| Filing | Form | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization | 610 | $99.00 |
| Registration of a Foreign LLC | 617 | $99.00 |
| Name Reservation / Transfer / Cancellation | 534B | $39.00 / $25.00 |
| Name Registration | 534A | $39.00 |
| Statutory Agent Update | 521 | $25.00 |
Ohio ranks 8th of 51 for new business formation. In the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026 filers lodged 185,490 applications, up 19.6% year on year, roughly 742 every business day. That is the number behind the 1,039 Acmes: a crowded register, getting more so.
What the Ohio portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
Ohio Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in Ohio are held by the Ohio 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 | businesssearch.ohiosos.gov |
|---|---|
| Phone | (614) 466-3910 |
| Address | Client Service Center, 180 Civic Center Drive, Columbus, OH 43215 |
| Office hours | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $99 |
| 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 Ohio business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in Ohio?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What Ohio does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: status filter set to All; no separate word-match toggle. 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 Ohio?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get the entity number and business name, the filing type, its status, the original filing date and any expiry date and the location, given as city, county and state. 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 Ohio business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the Ohio register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: Ohio Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about Ohio in particular: it gets the status default right and then shows you ten rows at a time. A search for Acme returns 1,039 entries, so the first screen is roughly one per cent of the answer. Page through or narrow before you conclude anything.
Can I look up who owns a business in Ohio?
Ohio shows the statutory agent with an appointment date, and a table of filed documents you can download free, but does not list members.
How much does it cost to register a business name in Ohio?
Ohio Secretary of State charges $99 to file the Articles 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
- Ohio business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: Ohio Secretary of State, Business Filing Forms & Fee Schedule, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the Ohio 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 Ohio Secretary of State. Telephone the office before relying on an address.
- Naming and reporting rules: Ohio Secretary of State, Business Filing Forms & Fee Schedule.
- Naming statute: Ohio Rev. Code 1706.07, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.