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The Georgia Secretary of State's Corporations Division holds the records for corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships. Its lookup is the eCorp Business Search. It gives access to all of an entity's information of record, and it has four search fields: business name, control number, registered agent name and officer name. Separate tabs on the same page cover service of process and trademarks.
Georgia LLC and corporation search on eCorp
For a name search you first choose a match type: Starts With, Contains or Exact Match. The name can be partial or full. A few habits help:
- Use Contains when you only know a word or two. Starts With misses names that begin with "The" or a person's first name.
- Drop the ending. Leave off LLC or Inc. so small differences do not hide the record.
- Use the control number when you have one. It is the state's ID for the entity and points to one record.
- Try the officer or agent field. It can turn up related companies run by the same person or served by the same agent.
The search page itself warns that it is not intended to serve as a name availability search. It also does not hold trade names, which Georgia files at county level. If you are looking for a DBA, our DBA search guide explains the county route.
What the record tells you, and what it leaves out
Corporations list three officers with the Division: the chief executive officer, the chief financial officer and the secretary. LLCs are different. Georgia law requires only the registered agent to be listed, so members and managers do not appear. Shareholders are never on file. If you need the people behind an LLC, our business owner lookup guide covers other routes. The registered agent lookup guide helps when you only need someone to serve.
The status to watch is active/noncompliance. The Business Division FAQ says an entity showing it will be administratively dissolved or revoked this year unless it files. Administrative dissolution usually follows a missed annual registration, though a missing registered agent or office can also trigger it. A dissolved entity may only wind up its affairs. It has 60 days from the Notice of Administrative Dissolution to file and avoid it. After dissolution, a corporation or LLC can apply to reinstate within 5 years. Our business entity status guide explains how to treat each status.
Georgia LLC names
The Corporations Division's name rule, Rule 590-7-20, sets the requirements for an LLC name:
- It must contain limited liability company, limited company, LLC, L.L.C., LC or L.C. Limited may be shortened to Ltd. and company to Co.
- It cannot contain corporation, incorporated, professional corporation or any of the partnership terms, or their abbreviations.
- It cannot contain DBA in any form.
- It can be no longer than 80 characters, counting spaces and punctuation.
- It may use only English letters, Arabic or Roman numerals, and symbols on a standard U.S. keyboard.
The name must be distinguishable from every existing entity and active reservation on file. Under Rule 590-7-20-.04, these differences do not count: an article such as "the", plural or possessive forms, phonetic spelling, "and" versus "&", abbreviations, added suffixes, punctuation or spaces, numbers written as words, and a change in the entity ending. The Division also says issuing a name only means it is distinguishable for filing purposes under O.C.G.A. 14-11-207. It is not name protection in the marketplace. Our guide on checking LLC name availability shows how to test close variants.
A reservation costs $35 and lasts 30 days from the date of the name certificate. You cannot reserve the name of an entity that was administratively dissolved within the last 5 years.
Annual registration and good standing in Georgia
Every Georgia LLC and corporation files an annual registration between January 1 and April 1. The fee schedule puts it at $60, made up of the $50 fee and a $10 service charge. Nonprofits pay $40. The late filing penalty is $25. The registration is also how you change officers, the registered agent or addresses.
Proof of standing in Georgia is a certificate of existence. It costs $20 and can be ordered through eCorp. Reinstating a dissolved company costs $260. Our certificate of good standing guide explains where you will be asked for one.
The same schedule lists Articles of Organization at $110 and a foreign LLC's Certificate of Authority at $235. Online filings are generally processed within 7 to 10 business days, and paper filings in 15 business days. Paid speed costs $120 for two business days, $275 for same day and $1,200 for one hour.
Bulk data from Georgia
Bulk data is sold, not free. The Georgia Technology Authority sells the corporations data for the Secretary of State, as an FTP subscription or as the entire database for $1,000. Files are plain text with tab-separated fields.
Starting a company here? Read our guide on how to start an LLC in Georgia, the Georgia registered agent rules, a Georgia operating agreement guide and the Georgia LLC cost breakdown.
Also see our guides to the Georgia DBA and Georgia business license.