Business entity search by state: the 51 registries, what each shows free, and what a certificate costs

What an entity search can and cannot tell you

A state business register answers three things about a payee: that an entity with that name is registered there, what kind of entity it is, and whether its status is active or in good standing. Most registers also show the formation date, the registered agent, the principal address and some filing history; about half show officers, directors, members or managers as filed on the annual report. That is enough to confirm that a vendor's legal name matches a real registered entity and that the entity has not been dissolved, revoked or merged away.

It does not tell you the entity's taxpayer identification number. No state register publishes an EIN, and only three searches (Florida, Maryland, Texas) accept an EIN as a search key, because those states link the register to a tax account. The register also does not tell you who owns the entity (beneficial ownership is not public), whether the entity is the one that will be paid (a trade name can mask a different legal entity), or whether the name on the W-9 is the name the IRS has on file. Those are separate checks.

How it fits with the W-9, TIN matching and the EIN

1. Form W-9 gives you the legal name and TIN. Line 1 must be the name the IRS has for that TIN (the W-9 walkthrough and the LLC and sole proprietor name guide cover the five cases). The register confirms the name belongs to a registered entity; it says nothing about the TIN.
2. TIN matching confirms the name and TIN pair against IRS records. The IRS TIN Matching program returns a match code, not a name, so a match proves the pair the payee gave you is one the IRS recognises. A clean match on a dissolved entity is possible; the register catches that.
3. The EIN pages cover the number itself. How to find a company's EIN explains where an EIN can and cannot be looked up, the EIN and entity hub covers what an EIN means for a payer, and Letter 147C is the IRS verification a payee can obtain when the W-9 name and the IRS name disagree.
4. Sanctions and exclusion screening come after existence is settled. See vendor sanctions screening, the Medicaid exclusion list directory for healthcare payees, and carrier verification for motor carriers.

The vendor existence guide puts these steps in order with a checklist.

The directory

One card per state; use the sort box above. Sources: each agency's search page, help page, fee schedule or statute, read November 1, 2026; Maine's fee is from 13-C M.R.S. section 123 and Idaho's from the Secretary of State's certificate request form. Fees change with the state's fee schedule; check the link before relying on an amount.

Reading the columns

• Agency. Sixteen registers are not kept by a Secretary of State: Arizona's Corporation Commission, the commerce departments in Alaska and Utah, Hawaii's DCCA, Maryland's SDAT, the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Massachusetts, Michigan's LARA, New Jersey's Division of Revenue, the Departments of State in New York and Pennsylvania, Virginia's State Corporation Commission, Wisconsin's DFI and DC's DLCP among them. The word “Secretary of State” on a vendor's certificate is not a reason to doubt it in those states; the issuing agency's name is.
• Search by. Name and entity number are universal. Registered agent and officer searches are the useful extras: an agent search finds every entity a formation service set up at the same address, and an officer search links a new vendor to the people behind an old one.
• Free record shows. Rows marked field list not re-verified carry the fields the research team expected from the system; the agency blocked automated access, so the list was not checked against a live record on November 1, 2026. Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma and Delaware do not show officers at all; New York shows the chief executive officer only. Delaware's free record omits status, which costs $10 per lookup.
• Good standing certificate. The names vary (certificate of existence, status, fact, subsistence, good standing); the content is the same statement that the entity is registered and current. Colorado and Wyoming issue it free online. Texas is the one state where the phrase is split: the Comptroller's certificate of account status covers franchise tax, and the Secretary of State issues a certificate of fact. Fees shown are the agency's published short-form fee; long forms, expedited service and apostilles cost more.
• Bulk data or API. Free sources are listed plainly: Florida's daily and quarterly SFTP files, Colorado's open data on the Colorado Information Marketplace, Connecticut's business entity extract, North Carolina's free listings, the Texas Comptroller public API and Iowa's data API. Paid extracts range from Louisiana's one cent per record to Kentucky's monthly subscription. Delaware and Maine state on the search page that data mining is prohibited.
• Quirks. Searches that cost money (Texas SOSPortal at $1 per search, Delaware status lookups), searches that need an account (DC's BOSS), CAPTCHAs, and renamed systems whose old links are dead (Arizona's eCorp is now the Arizona Business Center, Michigan's COFS became the MiBusiness Registry Portal in June 2025, Hawaii moved to a new DCCA portal in July 2026, Connecticut retired CONCORD, DC's CorpOnline became BOSS).

Questions people ask