South Dakota Secretary of State
South Dakota Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the South Dakota Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
South Dakota Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
South Dakota's register is at sosenterprise.sd.gov, run by the Secretary of State. Free, no account, but a captcha sits in an unusual place.
The captcha is between the results and the record
Not at the search.
You can search freely and read the whole results list. Then, when you click through to an entity, you get a page with every field label showing and every value blank, and a line in red:
Please complete the Captcha and click the 'View Detail' button to view the entity's detail.
Every other captcha state we have looked at gates the search itself. South Dakota lets you in and stops you one step later.
Practically that means the results list is the free, unimpeded part, so use it properly before clicking.
Run the second search
The match is on Starts With, and an Active Entities Only tick box sits beside it, left unticked.
Because the captcha has to be cleared for each record, it is tempting to run one search and stop. Don't. Switch to Contains and run it again: a dissolved company still holds its name, and a name sitting inside a longer one will not appear on the narrow setting.
Results carry the business ID, type, name, name type, filing date, status and home state. Trade names come back in the same list marked DBA (Business), so companies and trading names arrive together.
The state warns you about its own coverage
On the record, in red:
Some historical documents prior to 11/12/2016 may NOT be included in the document link. Only Certified Copy Requests are guaranteed to show all documents on file.
That is a rare admission and it changes how you read an absence. The history table bears it out: filings after November 2016 carry an openable document link, and everything earlier reads "Included in Initial Filing" without one.
An empty document link does not mean nothing was filed. DC prints a similar warning about its own pre-December-2025 paper filings. Both are worth taking at face value.
The record, and the dates it gives you
Business ID, name, status, state formed in, term of duration, initial filing date, a Next Annual Report Due Date, inactive date where one applies, principal office and mailing address, and shares of stock for a corporation.
Then the registered agent, then a History table running back to the initial filing (2001 on the example), listing every annual report by year.
Available Actions in the corner include "File Annual Report (after 11/02/2026)", so the record tells you the date the next filing window opens rather than only when it closes.
The blank captcha gate also reveals fields the populated record did not happen to use: Series LLC, Foreign Registered Name, Old Name and Delayed Effective Date. So South Dakota holds former names and series designations even where a given record has none.
You can buy the whole register
The results page ends with a line worth knowing:
If you want to get an electronic file of all business entities in the database, the full database can be downloaded for a fee
Alaska and North Dakota publish bulk data free; Arkansas gives you a CSV button. South Dakota sells it.
Who decides
Filings are recorded; acceptance is judged by the Secretary of State on examination, under the South Dakota Limited Liability Company Act, S.D. Codified Laws Chapter 47-34A.
Before you rely on it
Use the results list fully before spending a captcha on a record.
Search twice: Starts With then Contains.
Do not read a missing document as a missing filing if it predates November 2016.
South Dakota filing facts
| Filing | Online | On paper |
|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization | $150.00 | $165.00 |
| Annual report | $55.00 | $70.00 |
| Name reservation | $25.00 | $25.00 |
South Dakota adds a flat $15 surcharge to any paper filing. Idaho charges $20, Kansas $20, Missouri $55. Minnesota charges $20 extra to go online. Worth checking which way a state runs before assuming the internet is cheaper.
At $150 to form and $55 a year the state sits upper-middle on both: dearer than Kentucky's $40 and $15, well below Massachusetts's $500 and $500.
A small register, and it stays small: 13,820 applications over the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026, 55 a business day, up 15.3%, 48th of 51 by volume.
What the register will not tell you
South Dakota has 3,898 live registered marks, one of the smallest pools in the country, and a motorcycle rally sits at the top of it:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| sturgis | 174 | 922x |
| poet | 109 | 404x |
| dakota | 322 | 403x |
| south | 98 | 25x |
| hot | 141 | 17x |
| stuff | 144 | 60x |
Sturgis at 922 times the national rate is the fourth-steepest single word in this entire project, behind Alaska's own name, West Virginia's greenbrier and North Dakota's bobcat. A town of under seven thousand people, and 174 marks in a register of under four thousand carry its name, because the rally is a brand in its own right.
Poet at 404x is almost certainly the Sioux Falls biofuels company, the same single-firm pattern seen across every small register in this set.
Dakota at 403x is shared ground with North Dakota, where it runs at 461x. Neither state has it to itself.
The practical reading: Sturgis and Dakota are occupied. In a register this small, three words account for a sixth of everything filed.
Sioux Falls files 36.8% of the state's marks, Rapid City 8.7%.
What the South Dakota portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
South Dakota Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in South Dakota are held by the South Dakota 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 | sosenterprise.sd.gov/BusinessServices/Business/FilingSearch.aspx |
|---|---|
| Phone | (605) 773-4845 |
| Address | Secretary of State, Capitol Building, 500 East Capitol Avenue Ste 112, Pierre, SD 57501-5070 |
| Office hours | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $150 |
| Processing | normal course of business |
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 South Dakota business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in South Dakota?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What South Dakota does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: starts With. 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 South Dakota?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. Business Entity Detail: business ID, name, status, state formed in, term of duration, initial filing date, a Next Annual Report Due Date, inactive date where one applies, principal office and mailing address, and Shares of…. 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 South Dakota business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the South Dakota register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: South Dakota Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about South Dakota in particular: the match is on Starts With and the robot check has to be cleared for each search, so it is tempting to run one search and stop. Run the second one on Contains.
Can I look up who owns a business in South Dakota?
The South Dakota record names the registered agent with an address, and on the corporation record examined it carried shares of stock but no officer or director list. Who accepts service is published; who owns the company is not.
How much does it cost to register a business name in South Dakota?
South Dakota Secretary of State charges $150 to file the Articles of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and is processed normal course of business. Reserving a name beforehand is a separate and smaller fee. Confirm the figure with the state before you file: schedules move.
Sources
- South Dakota business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: South Dakota Secretary of State, filing fee schedule (effective 1 July 2016), verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the South Dakota 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: South Dakota Secretary of State, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: South Dakota Secretary of State, filing fee schedule (effective 1 July 2016).
- Naming statute: S.D. Codified Laws Ch. 47-34A, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.