TX · 3,473,267 records · measured 2026-10-02
Texas Entity Search: Check an LLC Name Without Paying per Search
A Texas entity search on the Secretary of State’s SOSDirect costs $1.00 per search. This one is free: it reads the Comptroller’s list of franchise taxpayers — 3,232,160 of them with an SOS file number — and applies the Secretary of State’s rules on when two names are “the same”.
The Texas registry behind the check
- Dataset
- Active Franchise Taxpayers — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
- Size
- 3,473,267 records (3,232,160 carry a Secretary of State file number or certificate of authority; the other 241,107 have a Comptroller-assigned number)
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26 · Refreshed by the Comptroller (last update Sep 26, 2026)
- What it contains
- Taxpayers set up for franchise tax under Tax Code Chapter 171 — which covers most LLCs, corporations and limited partnerships — with the SOS file number, charter date, SOS status and right-to-transact code.
- What it leaves out
- This is the Comptroller’s list, not the Secretary of State’s name index: name reservations, registered names and entities not set up for franchise tax are missing.
- Terms
- Published on the Texas Open Data Portal (no license stated in the dataset)
| Type | Records | Holds a name? |
|---|---|---|
| Texas limited liability companies | 2,270,126 | Yes |
| Texas for-profit corporations | 332,618 | Yes |
| Foreign LLCs | 245,739 | Yes |
| Texas nonprofit corporations | 206,212 | Yes |
| Foreign for-profit corporations | 182,378 | Yes |
| Texas limited partnerships | 119,028 | Yes |
| Right to transact business forfeited | 129,617 | No |
Texas’s name rule: when is a name “distinguishable”?
“The name of a filing entity … must be distinguishable in the records of the secretary of state from: (1) the name of another existing filing entity; (2) the name of a foreign filing entity that is registered under Chapter 9; … (4) a name that is reserved under Subchapter C; (5) a name that is registered under Subchapter D …”
— Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.053; 1 Tex. Admin. Code §79.39 and §79.44, read 2026-10-02.
- Records that hold a name: Only “the current names of active (not revoked, cancelled, merged, dissolved, withdrawn, terminated, or forfeited) entities, name reservations, and name registrations” (1 TAC §79.44). The check counts an SOS status of Active or Reinstated.
- Differences that do not count: Upper- or lowercase letters and typeface (“ACE Woodworks” = “Ace Woodworks”); Punctuation, accent marks, periods, spaces or symbols (“A.F.G. Consulting” = “AFG Consulting”; “Crossroads” = “Cross Roads”); Articles or conjunctions (“The Truck Stop” = “Truck Stop”); Repeated or missing letters that do not change the name (“Texxas Strong” = “Texas Strong”).
- What an LLC name must include: “Limited liability company” or “limited company”, or an abbreviation of either. (TBOC §5.056)
- Holding a name before you file: a name reservation lasts Until the 121st day after acceptance, renewable for 120-day periods (TBOC §5.104–5.105).
Confirm with the official Texas search
- SOSDirect / SOSPortal (Secretary of State) ↗ — $1.00 per search, per the SOS
- Comptroller Franchise Tax Account Status Search ↗ — Free
The SealForms check is a heuristic reading of public data, not legal advice and not a name approval. The Secretary of State decides when you file.
After the name check
Write down who owns the Texas LLC and how it is run: the Texas LLC operating agreement cites the state’s LLC act, and this table shows whether Texas requires one.
Other registries in the check: New York · Colorado · Oregon · Connecticut · Florida.