Texas Secretary of State Business Search: What Data Is Available, What It Costs, and How to Access It

The Texas Secretary of State holds the largest active business registry in the United States. As of November 2025, more than 3 million business entities are registered to conduct business in Texas — double the figure from a decade ago.

For compliance teams, KYB providers, sales teams, and investors, the Texas registry is a primary-source gold mine. But access is fragmented. Some data is free. Some costs $1 per look-up. Bulk data costs more than $1,700 per snapshot. And there is no official public API.

This guide breaks down exactly what you can get, what you cannot, how much it costs, and how to pull the data at scale.

About the Texas Secretary of State Office

The Texas Secretary of State is the state's chief record-keeping and business filings authority. The office is currently led by Secretary Jane Nelson, appointed in January 2023. The SOS is responsible for:

• Filing and maintaining all domestic and foreign business entity records
• Administering UCC Article 9 filings (secured transactions)
• Administering Texas trademarks and service marks
• Commissioning notaries public
• Overseeing state elections and the voter registration system
• Authenticating documents for international use (apostilles)

The Business and Public Filings Division within the SOS handles all entity filings. Records are kept in the BEST database (Business Entity and Secured Transactions). In fiscal year 2024 alone, the office had more than 12 million interactions with the business community — up from 6.7 million a decade earlier.

How Big Is the Texas Business Registry?

Texas is the largest and fastest-growing business registry in the country. Here's what it looks like at a glance.

Source: Texas Secretary of State press releases, November 5, 2025 and January 1, 2025.

The registry includes both domestic Texas entities and out-of-state ("foreign") entities registered to transact business in Texas. LLCs dominate the mix.

Entity types in the Texas registry

The Texas SOS publicly confirms that in-state LLCs are the largest classification, with roughly 2 million registered. The remaining ~1 million entities are distributed across corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, nonprofits, and out-of-state (foreign) entities registered to do business in Texas.

Source: Texas SOS confirms ~2M in-state LLCs out of 3M+ total. Breakdown of remaining entity types is estimated from industry norms, not officially published.

What Data Is in the Texas Registry (BEST Database)

All filings are held in the BEST database (Business Entity and Secured Transactions). Data comes from formation documents and subsequent filings.

Core fields available for every entity

• Legal business name
• Entity type (LLC, Corporation, LP, LLP, Nonprofit, Foreign Entity)
• File number (SOS ID)
• Formation / registration date
• Entity status (active, forfeited, terminated)
• Registered agent name and address
• Initial directors, partners, or managing members
• Filing history (index of documents)
• Jurisdiction of formation

Fields that may or may not be available

Per the Texas SOS itself, the following fields "may or may not be in the file" depending on entity type and whether a supplemental filing was required:

• Principal office address
• Taxpayer identification numbers

Data you will not get from the SOS

• Telephone numbers (confirmed unavailable)
• Email addresses
• Revenue, employees, or financial statements
• Ownership / shareholder percentages
• Beneficial owner (UBO) data
• SSNs, credit card numbers, bank account numbers (redacted under Chapter 552, Texas Government Code)

For anything beyond the public record, you need a commercial intelligence provider.

Free vs. Paid: Two Official Access Points

Texas is unusual. There are two separate official databases for business entity data — one paid, one free.

Option 1: SOSDirect (Paid — $1 per search)

This is the primary and most authoritative source. SOSDirect is available 24/7 and requires a registered account funded by credit card or ACH.

• Search fee: $1.00 per name searched
• The $1 fee is waived if you proceed to order copies, certificates, or file a document from the search results
• Credit card surcharge: 2.7% statutory convenience fee
• No monthly subscription required

Option 2: Texas Comptroller Taxable Entity Search (Free)

The Comptroller's office maintains a free search at mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/. It pulls from franchise tax records.

• Free, no account required
• Search by entity name, taxpayer number, or FEIN
• Shows "right to transact business" status
• Useful for quick verification before contracts or transactions
• Does not include full filing history or document images

Step-by-Step: How to Search a Texas Business Entity

Here's the exact process for running a lookup on SOSDirect. Total time for a first-time user is about 15 minutes (most of that is the account setup).

1. Create a SOSDirect accountGo to direct.sos.state.tx.us and click "Create Account." Fill in your contact info. The SOS emails your User ID within one hour. A Temporary ID is available for one-off searches without a full account.
2. Fund your client accountLog in and go to "Submit Payment to Client Account." Add at least $10–$20. Credit card payments incur a 2.7% convenience fee. Funds become available within one hour.
3. Choose the search typeSelect "Business Organizations" from the main menu, then "Business Organization Inquiry." You can search by entity name, file number, or name of a registered agent, officer, or director.
4. Enter the entity nameType the business name — partial names work. The system is case-insensitive. Tip: omit suffixes like "LLC" or "Inc." to widen results, especially for DBAs or name variations.
5. Review the results ($1 per search)SOSDirect charges $1 per name searched. The results list shows entity name, file number, entity type, and status. Click any entity to view full details.
6. Order certificates or document images (optional)From the entity detail page, order a Certificate of Fact ($15), Long Form Certificate ($25), or certified/plain copies. SOSDirect orders are typically emailed within two hours with no expedite fee.

What You Can Order from SOSDirect and What It Costs

Beyond the $1 search fee, the Texas SOS charges for documents and certificates. These are the current published fees.

Source: Texas SOS Form 806 (Revised Fee Schedule).

SOSDirect orders for Certificates of Fact and Certified Copies of imaged documents are typically emailed back within two hours. No expedite fee is charged for SOSDirect orders.

Bulk Data: The Real Option for Compliance and KYB Teams

If you need the full Texas registry — not a one-at-a-time lookup — you need bulk data. The Texas SOS offers six distinct bulk products.

Source: Texas SOS Business Organizations Bulk Order Help page.

Format and delivery

• Master Unload and Daily/Weekly Updates come in fixed record-length .txt format (not comma-delimited). These files require database import before use.
• List by Entity Description and Weekly New Filings are in CSV format for direct import into Excel, Access, or other desktop tools.
• Master Unload files run to several gigabytes. Files are zipped for download.
• Delivery timing: Master Unload 1–2 hours after request; daily updates next business day; weekly updates Tuesday morning of the following week.

What's in a Master Unload

Everything from the BEST database: legal name, entity type, file number, formation date, registered agent, initial officers/members, filing history index, and (where available) principal office address and taxpayer ID.

Record layouts are available at no charge from the SOSDirect Help page.

UCC Filings in Texas

Beyond business entity data, the Texas Secretary of State is also the central filing office for Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 9 filings — the records that secure personal property collateral for loans. For KYB, credit risk, and secured lending workflows, UCC data is often as important as entity data.

What's in the Texas UCC system

• UCC-1 Financing Statements — records a secured party's interest in a debtor's collateral
• UCC-3 Amendments — continuations, terminations, assignments, and party changes
• Agricultural Liens and Contract Agricultural Liens
• Transmitting Utility Filings
• Manufactured Home Transactions and Public-Finance Transactions

How to access UCC data

Source: Texas SOS UCC Fees page (sos.state.tx.us/ucc/formfees.shtml). Paper UCC filings were discontinued on August 29, 2025.

Assumed Name Certificates (DBAs)

A Texas business that operates under a name other than its legal entity name must file an Assumed Name Certificate — also known as a DBA ("doing business as") or fictitious name. For KYB and fraud-risk teams, assumed names are a critical signal: they show when one company is trading under multiple brands.

Where DBAs are filed in Texas

Texas is unusual in that DBA filings are made at two different levels, depending on the entity type:

• Incorporated businesses (corporations, LLCs, LPs) file Assumed Name Certificates with the Texas Secretary of State using Form 503.
• Sole proprietors and general partnerships file their DBA with the county clerk in each county where business is conducted.
• A single business may have filings at both levels — which is why comprehensive KYB checks need to pull county data in addition to SOS data.

Assumed name certificates are valid for up to 10 years and must be renewed before expiration to remain legally enforceable. Searching DBAs on SOSDirect follows the same process as searching entity records.

Is There a Texas SOS API?

Third-party providers (including Cobalt Intelligence, Apify actors, and others) offer Texas entity data via API. These either:

1. Scrape SOSDirect and charge a markup per query, or
2. Pull from the Texas Comptroller's public taxable entity endpoint.

Both approaches have limits. SOSDirect scraping is fragile and subject to the SOS's terms of service. The Comptroller endpoint is free but covers only taxable entities and returns less data than SOSDirect.

If you need Texas data at API scale, your realistic options are:

• Buy the Master Unload plus Daily Filing Updates, build your own database, and expose it via your own API
• License data from a commercial provider that has already done this across multiple jurisdictions

Update Frequency

Which Option Fits Your Use Case?

Why One-State Data Is Not Enough

A Texas-only feed solves one problem. But most real compliance, KYB, and sales workflows do not stop at the state line.

• A Texas LLC's parent may be registered in Delaware
• Its UBO may be a Panamanian or UK entity
• Its directors may hold positions in multiple other states
• Its competitors may be registered in California, Florida, or New York

If you pull data only from the Texas SOS, you see a fraction of the picture.

Texas Secretary of State Contact Information

For direct business filing questions, records requests, or SOSDirect support, contact the Business & Public Filings Division — the section of the Texas Secretary of State responsible for all business entity records.

Office addresses & hours

Department contacts

The Corporations Section splits contact channels by purpose. Route your request to the right team for fastest response.

Office leadership

The Texas Secretary of State is Jane Nelson, appointed by Governor Greg Abbott in January 2023. The office oversees business filings, UCC filings, elections, notary commissions, and document authentication for the entire state. Assistant Secretary of State for Communications is Alicia Pierce.

Frequently Asked Questions