Texas Secretary of State
Texas Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the Texas Secretary of State. Free, no account, all entity types.
Texas Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
The free Texas business search is not run by the Secretary of State.
That is the first thing to understand, and most of what follows comes from it. The Secretary of State's register is SOSDirect, which needs an account and charges per search. The search everybody actually uses is the Franchise Tax Account Status Search, run by the Comptroller of Public Accounts at comptroller.texas.gov. Free, no account.
Why a tax search still answers a corporate question
Because the Comptroller's record carries the Secretary of State's data inside it.
Open a record and alongside the tax information you get the SOS registration status, noted on the page as updated each business day, the effective SOS registration date, the Texas SOS file number, and the registered agent with a registered office street address.
So you can check a Texas company's corporate standing without paying for it. You just do it on the tax site rather than the corporate one.
Two statuses, and they disagree
This is the mistake the record invites, and it is easy to make.
The example record reads:
Right to Transact Business in Texas: FRANCHISE TAX ENDED SOS Registration Status: INACTIVE
Those are two different questions answered by two different agencies on the same screen. One is about tax standing. One is about whether the entity is registered. A company can sit in one condition on the first line and another on the second.
Read both lines. Quoting either on its own will eventually be wrong.
Texas refuses to show you a crowded name
Search Acme and you get no list at all. You get a line in red:
Search will return 889 entries. Please refine search by Entity Name.
That is it. No first page, no truncated sample, nothing to page through.
Set that against the alternatives and it is the least helpful behavior of any state. Wisconsin returns all 249 of its Acmes on one page. Illinois gives you 500 and says so. Hawaii quietly hands you 300 of however many it found. Texas simply declines.
For checking whether a name is already crowded (which is the whole reason to run a broad search), this is the worst case. The count it gives you is honest, and it is the only thing you get.
Narrow to Acme Brick and ten rows come back.
Four rows, one company
Those ten rows include four separate entries reading ACME BRICK COMPANY, each with a different taxpayer number.
They are not four companies. This is a tax register, so the unit is the tax account, not the entity. The grid gives you only name, taxpayer number and zip code (no status, no formation date), so nothing on the results screen tells them apart. You have to open them.
Small courtesy worth noticing: the three search fields are mutually exclusive, and filling one greys the other two out, so you cannot accidentally submit a half-specified search.
Who is behind a Texas business depends on which form it had to file
The record carries a Public Information Report section, and the rules are printed on the page.
Public Information Reports (PIR) are filed by corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and professional associations. The officers on those reports display on this page.
Ownership Information Reports (OIR) are filed by everything else, and the page states plainly that they are confidential and will not display.
So whether you can see the people behind a Texas entity is not a matter of searching harder. It is settled by which of the two forms the entity was required to file. Financial institutions are a further exception: regulated by the Texas Department of Banking, and their reports are not listed here at all.
The page tells you how fresh it is
Three small things no other state does:
- This record as of September 10, 2026 at 22:18:34: a timestamp on the data
- This page will auto-refresh every 60 seconds if you remain on the page
- A last update counter ticking in the corner
Registers are usually silent about staleness. Texas puts the age of the record on the record.
The search page also links Public API Documentation. Texas offers this data programmatically, which almost no state does.
A clear result here has not checked the register that matters
This is the gap peculiar to Texas, and it is easy to walk into.
The search you just ran belongs to the Comptroller. A name that comes back clear has been compared against the franchise tax roll and not against the Secretary of State's corporate register, which is the one that decides whether your filing is accepted under Chapter 101 of the Business Organizations Code.
Clear here is a useful signal. It is not the answer to the question you are actually asking.
Before you rely on it
Read both status lines, not whichever one you saw first.
Expect duplicates. Repeated identical names are usually repeated tax accounts.
Refine early. A broad search returns nothing but a count, so start narrower than you would elsewhere.
Remember which agency you are searching. This is the tax register. For the corporate register you are into SOSDirect, and that costs money.
Texas filing facts
| Filing | Form | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Formation | 205 | $300.00 |
| Reservation / Renewal of Entity Name | $40.00 | |
| Transfer of name reservation | $15.00 | |
| Withdrawal of name reservation | no fee | |
| Expedited handling | $25.00 per document |
Texas has no Secretary of State annual report for LLCs. The recurring obligation is the franchise tax report, filed with the Comptroller, the same agency whose search you have been using.
At $300 Texas is among the more expensive states to form in, but there is no recurring Secretary of State filing to pay for afterwards. One caution when comparing: the state's fee schedule also carries a $750 Certificate of Formation for a different entity class, so a figure quoted without its context can be badly wrong.
The largest register in the country, and the least concentrated
The 52 weeks to 26 September 2026 brought 586,060 applications, up 13.9%, about 2,344 every business day, which is 3rd of 51 by volume. Five times Washington's total and more than seven times Wisconsin's.
Texas has 174,969 live registered trademarks, far more than any other state we have measured. The words in them:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| texas | 7,205 | 17x |
| houston | 1,284 | 17x |
| dallas | 894 | 16x |
| austin | 1,086 | 13x |
| ranch | 1,471 | 5x |
| homes | 716 | 3x |
| energy | 2,129 | 3x |
| supply | 775 | 2x |
The distribution is what stands out. Houston accounts for 17.8% of Texas marks, Dallas 13.1% and Austin 11.6%: three cities carrying comparable weight. Compare Nebraska, where Omaha alone is 53.7%, or Washington, where Seattle is 30.7%. Texas has no single trademark capital.
The words follow the same pattern: after the state's own name and its three cities, the list drops straight to ranch, energy, homes and supply at two to five times normal. Crowded in the obvious places, and ordinary everywhere else.
What the Texas portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
Texas Secretary of State business services
Business registrations in Texas are held by the Texas 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 | comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/franchise/account-status/search |
|---|---|
| Phone | (512) 463-5555 |
| Address | Business & Public Filings Division Delivery Address 1019 Brazos St. Austin, TX, 78701 |
| Office hours | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| LLC filing fee | $300 |
| Processing | 10-12 business days (online SOS Direct), 13-15 business days (online SOS Upload), 4-8 weeks plus mail time (paper) |
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 Texas business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in Texas?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What Texas does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: no match toggle offered. 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 Texas?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. Texas taxpayer number, mailing address, Right to Transact Business in Texas, state of formation, SOS registration status noted as updated each business day, effective SOS registration date, Texas SOS file number, registered…. 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 Texas business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the Texas register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: Texas Secretary of State decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about Texas in particular: it will not show you a broad result set at all. Search Acme and it returns no list, only a line in red: Search will return 889 entries. Please refine search by Entity Name. Hawaii quietly truncates at 300 and South Carolina shows 60 of 188, but Texas refuses outright. For checking whether a name is crowded that is the least helpful behaviour of any state, though the count it gives you is honest.
Can I look up who owns a business in Texas?
Whether Texas shows you the people depends on which form the entity had to file. Corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and professional associations file a Public Information Report and those officers display. Everything else files an Ownership Information Report, which the state says is confidential and never displays.
How much does it cost to register a business name in Texas?
Texas Secretary of State charges $300 to file the Certificate of Formation, which is the document that forms the company, and currently takes 10-12 business days (online SOS Direct), 13-15 business days (online SOS Upload), 4-8 weeks plus mail time (paper) to process. Reserving a name beforehand is a separate and smaller fee. Confirm the figure with the state before you file: schedules move.
Sources
- Texas business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: Texas Secretary of State, SOSDirect fee schedule, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the Texas 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: Texas Secretary of State, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: Texas Secretary of State, SOSDirect fee schedule.
- Naming statute: Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ch. 101, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.