The Business Entities Section of the California Secretary of State processes filings, maintains the records and provides the public information for corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, general partnerships, limited liability partnerships and other business filings, with the governing rules in the California Corporations Code. Its records request page describes the search behind it: free online access to over seventeen million corporate, limited liability company and limited partnership images, alongside the data on each entity.
The free record goes well past a name and a status. The search returns the entity name and number, the formation, registration or conversion date, the status, the standing with the tax authority, the Secretary of State and the corporate fraud fund, the jurisdiction, the street and mailing addresses, the name and address of the agent for service of process, the due date of the next statement of information where one applies, and the names and addresses of officers, directors, members and managers. Certificates of status and certified copies are ordered through the same portal. For California businesses by place, see the California county pages.
- Seventeen million free images: registrations, amendments, terminations and recent statements of information, viewable and printable at no charge.
- A status certificate in minutes: certificates of status for corporations, LLCs and LPs are issued online within minutes.
- Officers and agents included: the free record names the agent for service of process and the officers, directors, members and managers.
- Three hundred and fifty to jump the queue: twenty four hour filing service, with same day at seven hundred and fifty.
Written by SearchSystems.net from California's own systems: the California Secretary of State business entities records request page, the business entities service options page, the Business Entities Section home page, the business entities news and notices page, the forms, samples and fees page, the California trademark search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What the free search will not tell you
The Secretary of State publishes a list of the questions it cannot answer, and it is the most useful page on the site for anyone researching a company. Business licences and permits are not issued by the state. Fictitious business name statements, the trading names most small firms use, are filed with the county in which the principal place of business is located, not with the state. Sole proprietorships are not registered with the Secretary of State at all, although they may register with a city or county.
Bylaws and operating agreements are kept by the entity itself. Ownership, shareholder and employee information is not in the record, nor are telephone numbers, email addresses or subsidiaries, and the office directs those questions to the business. Employer identification numbers come from the federal and state tax agencies. Security offerings are regulated by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. And subchapter S status is a tax classification that is never reported to the Secretary of State.
Certificates, copies and the certificate of no record
Four documents can be produced from the register. A certified copy indicates that the document is certified to be a true and complete copy of a document on record. A certificate of status certifies to the current status of an entity, for example active and in good standing, suspended, dissolved or cancelled, and is available within minutes online. A plain copy is the same document without certification, printable by anyone from the portal.
And a certificate of no record, which is paper only, certifies that there is no record of a particular business entity filed with the Secretary of State, which is the document to ask for when the point is to prove that a company does not exist in California. The first three are online for corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships.
General partnerships and the hand stamped certification
The portal covers the three main entity types. Other entity types, including registered general partnerships and limited liability partnerships, submit their requests to the Sacramento office in person or by post using the business entities records order form, which carries the instructions and the fees for those types. A certified copy for one of those entities looks different from an online one, and the office describes it: the certification stamp is placed manually on the back of the final page of the document in the lower right hand corner, and contains the date the document was certified, the signature of the Secretary of State and the State Seal, with the number of pages certified written in by hand and the initials of the deputy who certified it.
What speed costs
Filing fees are one thing and speed is another, and California prices the second separately. A twenty four hour filing service costs three hundred and fifty dollars, available online or by drop off in Sacramento, with a filing response guaranteed within twenty four hours excluding weekends and holidays. Same day filing costs seven hundred and fifty dollars, with the document required by half past nine in the morning and the response available by four in the afternoon.
A four hour filing service costs five hundred dollars, is available by drop off only, and is open only to documents that have already been precleared and approved. Preclearance itself costs five hundred dollars for a twenty four hour response, again by drop off only. Each service produces a response saying whether the document was filed or rejected, with the reasons for any rejection.
Dropping a request off in Sacramento
A request dropped off in person at 1500 11th Street in Sacramento, on weekdays between eight in the morning and five in the afternoon except state holidays, receives priority processing over requests submitted by post. It carries its own charge: a separate, non refundable special handling fee of fifteen dollars for each filing request, or ten dollars for each copy or order request. Those fees are additional to any filing, reservation or order fee, and the office keeps them whether the request is approved or rejected.
Three things are outside the scheme: statements of information, statements by a common interest development association, and anything submitted online or by post, none of which attract the handling fee.
The August 2026 user access change
Anyone filing on behalf of a California entity should know about a change the office made effective August 1, 2026. Web user access is now required for statement of information filings, and the option to file one online is only visible to users who have established access. The reason the office gives is security: user access helps prevent unauthorised submissions or filings on an entity record, and lets the entity control who is authorised to file on its behalf.
Access is requested through the online portal, and the office publishes an instructional video on establishing it. Separately, an entity that has a statement of information on file for the current filing period may request a penalty waiver, stating the specific reasons for the late filing.
Trademarks, scams and the fraud fund
The state runs a separate trademark search, which provides access to trademark registrations and modifications of record together with free copies of imaged trademark documents. It is updated daily, but the office warns that results do not reflect filings it has received that have not been processed through completion, so the data may be incomplete, and a complete or certified copy of a record of a mark requires a written request to the trademark unit.
Two other pages are worth a researcher attention. The division publishes customer alerts about confirmed scams against Californians and businesses, which is where misleading compliance letters and fake filing services are named. And the Victims of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund provides restitution to victims of corporate fraud, with an entity standing with the fund shown in the search results themselves. On beneficial ownership, the office is clear that reporting is a federal requirement it does not administer, and that the requirements have been affected by ongoing litigation.
Questions about looking up a California business
Related California records
California's other records guides on this site are the California public records law guide for the Public Records Act, the California court records guide for the trial court portals, the California property records guide for the county recorders, and the California county pages for every county office.