Every other business-search guide on this site starts the same way: the state's database is free, here is where to find it. Texas breaks the pattern. The Secretary of State's search system, SOSDirect, charges $1 for every search you run — a statutorily authorised fee that the state says funds the system itself. That is a small number with a large consequence: casual searchers, journalists, and people clearing a business name by trial and error all hit a paywall that other states don't have. This guide covers how SOSDirect works and what the $1 buys, the free Comptroller route that most people never find, and the naming rules Texas publishes with its own worked examples — which are the part that actually decides whether your LLC name gets accepted.
If you are checking out a company — a contractor, a landlord, a business you are about to pay — the section on reading a record and the Comptroller's status search are what you need. If you are naming a new LLC, the name rules and the Texas numbers below are the practical part.
Two places to search — one costs money, one doesn't
SOSDirect at direct.sos.state.tx.us is the Secretary of State's own system and the authoritative record of every Texas corporation, LLC, LP and LLP. It is open 24 hours a day, but it is not open to anonymous visitors: you create an SOS client account, fund it by card, and each search debits $1 from the balance. The state's own instructions note that funds take about an hour to become available after payment — so if you need an answer tonight, set the account up now rather than when you're ready to search.
The Comptroller's Franchise Tax Account Status search at comptroller.texas.gov is free, needs no account, and searches by entity name, by the 11-digit Comptroller taxpayer number or 9-digit federal EIN, or by the Secretary of State file number. It exists to show franchise-tax standing rather than formation documents, but for the most common reason people search — does this company exist, and is it in good standing? — it answers both without charging you. The Comptroller also publishes a public API for the same data, which is how the larger business-data services get it.
The practical split: use the Comptroller's free search first for any due-diligence question. Use SOSDirect when you need the formation record itself, the registered agent on file, the document history, or a name-availability check that will stand up when you file.
The twelve ways SOSDirect lets you search
SOSDirect offers more search types than any other state system on this site, and most of them are invisible to a first-time user. Three are unusual enough to be worth knowing about on their own: you can search by person to find every company where someone is listed as an officer, manager or general partner; you can search by registered agent to see every entity a given agent represents; and there is a search that lists only the entities that appointed a particular agent in the last 60 days.
| Search type | What it returns |
|---|---|
| Name Availability | Whether a proposed name is in use, reserved or registered by a corporation, LLC or LP — the one to run before filing |
| Find-Entity | Active and inactive corporations, LLCs, LPs, LLPs, financial institutions and nonprofit associations that use or have used the name |
| Find-Supplemental | Assumed names, trademarks and associated-entity names only |
| Find-Global | Everything from Find-Entity plus Find-Supplemental in one pass |
| Find-Assumed Name | Active and inactive assumed names (DBAs) only |
| Find-People | Every corporation, LLC or LP where the person named is an officer, director, manager, managing member or general partner — or the last known registered agent |
| Find-Registered Agent | Every entity for which the person or company named is the current registered agent for service of process |
| Filing Number | The entity, name reservation or name registration behind a 10-digit SOS filing number |
| FEIN | The entity behind a federal employer identification number |
| TID | The entity behind an 11-digit Comptroller taxpayer number |
| Document Number | The entity that filed a specific document |
| Registered Agent activity, past 60 days | Entities that designated the named agent within the last 60 days |
For naming a company, Name Availability and Find-Global are the pair to use: the first tells you whether the state would accept the name today, the second catches assumed names and trademarks that a plain entity search misses. For investigating a company, Find-Entity plus a Find-People search on the owner's name shows you their other companies — which is often more informative than the one you started with.
Checking a name: the key-word rule that actually decides it
The trap is the same in every state and Texas is no exception: people search for the exact name they want, see no match, and assume it is free. Texas does not compare exact strings. Under Business Organizations Code §5.053 a filing entity's name must be distinguishable in the records of the secretary of state from every existing entity, registered foreign entity, reserved name and registered name — and the Secretary of State has published exactly what "distinguishable" means, with examples, in Texas Administrative Code §79.38 to §79.40.
The whole test turns on key words. A key word is any word that changes the name enough to make it distinguishable — and the rules say plainly what does not count as a key word: articles and conjunctions, most prepositions, the word "company" or "Co.", and the entity designator itself. The state's own examples are the clearest guide you will find anywhere:
| The state's example | Verdict under §79 |
|---|---|
| "Sunshine Community Development" vs "Sunshine Community Properties" | Distinguishable — one key word differs |
| "Summit Energy" vs "Energy Summit" | Distinguishable — same key words, different order |
| "Great Products" vs "Great Productions" | Distinguishable — same root, different word |
| "Capitol Investments" vs "Capital Investments" | Distinguishable — sounds the same, different word on its face |
| "Casa Blanca Productions" vs "White House Productions" | Distinguishable — same words in a different language |
| "The Truck Stop" vs "Truck Stop" | The same — articles don't count |
| "A.F.G. Consulting" vs "AFG Consulting" | The same — punctuation doesn't count |
| "Texxas Strong" vs "Texas Strong" | The same — doubled letters don't count |
| "One World" vs "1 World" | The same — a numeral for a word doesn't count |
| "El Rodeo" vs "Rodeo" or "The Rodeo" | The same — a foreign article is still an article |
| "Smith Brothers Plumbing" vs "Smith Bros. Plumbing" | Available only with the other entity's consent |
| "Resources of Austin, Texas" vs "Resources of Austin" | Available only with consent — adding a state to a city name |
So search on your key words, not your full name. Take the one or two distinctive words out of what you want to call the company, run Find-Global on each, and read the results as the examiner will: if the only difference between yours and an existing name is an article, a preposition, punctuation, a designator, a doubled letter or a numeral, the state will treat them as the same. And note the escape hatch that §5.053 provides — a name that is merely similar can be filed with a notarized written consent from the existing entity, though the Secretary of State will not accept consent if it decides the names are actually the same.
One requirement that is easy to forget while chasing distinctiveness: under §5.056 the name of a Texas LLC must contain the phrase "limited liability company" or "limited company", or an abbreviation of one of them — LLC, L.L.C., LC or L.C. The designator is mandatory, and it is one of the things that does not make a name distinguishable from another.
Reading a company's record
Texas splits a company's public record across two agencies, and the useful fields are in different places. SOSDirect holds the formation record; the Comptroller holds the tax standing. Read them together:
| Field | Where | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| SOS file number | SOSDirect / Comptroller | The 10-digit number that follows the entity for life; the reliable key for any later search |
| Entity type and formation date | SOSDirect | LLC, corporation, LP; how long it has existed |
| Registered agent and registered office | SOSDirect | Who is legally designated to receive lawsuits, and where — the address on this line is where a suit is delivered |
| Managing persons | SOSDirect (Find-People) | Officers, managers or managing members on record |
| Document history | SOSDirect | Amendments, agent changes, mergers, terminations — with document numbers |
| Franchise tax account status | Comptroller (free) | Whether the entity's right to transact business is intact, or has been forfeited for missing franchise-tax filings |
| Taxpayer number | Comptroller (free) | The 11-digit Comptroller ID, distinct from the SOS file number and the federal EIN |
The Comptroller field is the one to take seriously. In Texas, an entity that stops filing its annual franchise-tax report — including the Public Information Report that even zero-tax LLCs must file — has its right to transact business forfeited. A forfeited entity cannot sue or defend itself in Texas courts, and its owners can lose the liability shield for debts incurred during the forfeiture. If the free Comptroller search shows anything other than active standing for a company you are about to deal with, that is the question to ask before signing.
What the registered agent line means in Texas
This is the field most search guides skip, and it is the one with legal weight. Under Business Organizations Code §5.201, every filing entity “shall designate and continuously maintain in this state: (1) a registered agent; and (2) a registered office” — and the agent is the person on whom any process, notice or demand may be served. The office must be a street address where the agent can be personally served, and the Code says it may not be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service.
In practice: the address on the registered-agent line is where a lawsuit against the company is legally delivered. If it is an owner's home, that address is on the public record for anyone running a $1 search — and for the data brokers who scrape it. If the agent shown has moved or resigned and the record was never updated, the company can be served at an address nobody checks, and the first it hears of a suit is a default judgment. It is worth pulling your own company's record once a year for exactly this reason; a change of registered agent in Texas is $15 on Form 401.
The Texas numbers behind the search
If the name clears and you are about to file, these are the figures to plan around — each one checked against the Secretary of State's official fee schedule or the Comptroller, and dated in our verification ledger:
| What | Cost | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Formation (Form 205) | $300 | One-time; online payments add a 2.7% card fee |
| Name reservation (Form 501) | $40 | Holds the name for 120 days |
| Assumed name / DBA (Form 503) | $25 | If you trade under a different name |
| Certificate of fact or status | $15 | Banks and lenders ask for this |
| Change of registered agent (Form 401) | $15 | Any time |
| Expedited processing | $50 / $500 / $750 per document | Standard 2–3 days / next-day / same-day — the old flat $25 no longer exists |
| Annual Secretary of State report | None | Texas has no SOS annual report for LLCs |
| Public Information Report to the Comptroller | $0 | Due 15 May every year, even when no franchise tax is owed |
| Franchise tax | $0 below $2.65M revenue | Applies only above the 2026 no-tax-due threshold |
Note the report timing, because it is the single most-missed thing in Texas: there is no annual report to the Secretary of State, which many owners read as "nothing to file". There is still a Public Information Report to the Comptroller every 15 May, and skipping it is what triggers the forfeiture described above. The report is free and takes minutes; the consequence of forgetting it is losing your right to do business.
The Texas exemption nobody's search page mentions
One Texas-specific fact belongs in any honest guide, because it changes the $300 figure above to $0 for a specific group. A new veteran-owned business — formed on or after 1 January 2022 and owned entirely by honorably discharged veterans — is exempt from the formation filing fee and the franchise tax, and does not file the Public Information Report, for its first five years. The exemption was scheduled to end on 1 January 2026; House Bill 346, effective 1 September 2025, repealed that sunset, so it continues. Guides working from older sources will tell you it has expired. It has not. Our Texas LLC cost page has the qualifying steps.
Being in the database is not the same as being licensed
A mix-up worth clearing before you rely on what you found. The Secretary of State's record tells you a company has been formed — that its paperwork exists and its agent is on file. It says nothing about whether the company is licensed to do what it does. Texas has no general state business licence, but contractors, healthcare providers, real-estate agents and many other trades are licensed by their own state boards, and a company can be perfectly active on SOSDirect while holding no licence at all. If the reason you are searching is to decide whether to hire or pay someone, check the relevant licensing board as well as the entity record.
One thing to decide before you file
Whatever name you settle on, the registered agent address you put on the Certificate of Formation goes onto the same public record you have just been searching — and in Texas, anyone with a dollar can pull it, alongside the Find-People search that lists every other company you manage. If that address is your home, decide now whether you want it there. Our Texas registered agent guide covers the rules, the costs, and the honest trade-off between being your own agent and using a service.