Texas Secretary of State Business Search: How to look up any Texas entity (2026 Guide)

The state of Texas is home to more than 7,000 funded startups and over 70 unicorns, as per a report by Dealroom.co. The cities of Dallas, Houston, and Austin comprise the Texas Tech Triangle, where each city is the origin of many startups and technological advancements. Texas also has over 380 airports and has business-friendly tax laws.

This large number of businesses is a result of the ease of establishment that the state of Texas provides, but it also creates a need for better business verification measures to avoid fraud and keep the business environment secure.

This is where the Secretary of State business entity search comes in. The SOS business search allows the identification and verification of businesses within the limits of a state. This additional level of security can help your business stay compliant with various laws, and help it stand out as a more secure entity among its peers. Let’s take a look at what the SOS platform is and how it can be integrated into your business.

Secretary of State Business Search

The Secretary of State is a government officer tasked with handling the regulations related to business entities, the licensing of professional entities and vehicles, as well as vehicle registrations.

Being a regulatory body, the SOS has access to information about the businesses that can be useful in the verification of its identity. This information is not private and can be accessed by anyone who follows the prescribed application process.

However, despite its reliability as a source of information, the SOS data is difficult to integrate into a streamlined business identification and verification process. You would have to look up every entity that you interact with individually which is not a scalable flow of operations. This is where plugging in a third-party professional’s services can help in bringing efficiency and security together.

How to Search the Texas Secretary of State Database (SOSDirect)

SOSDirect is the Texas SOS's official online portal for business entity searches. It's available 24/7 and costs $1.00 per search — a statutory fee that supports the system's operations.

Step-by-Step: Running a Search

1. Go to SOSDirect at sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda
2. Log in with an existing account or select "I will use a temporary login" — no registration required for one-off searches
3. Once logged in, click the "Business Organizations" tab in the top navigation bar
4. Select your search type: by entity name, registered agent name, officer name, or SOS file number
5. Enter your search term and hit Search — results are returned instantly
6. Select the matching entity to view its full record

What you'll be charged: The $1.00 fee is billed per search query, not per result viewed.

What the Search Returns

A successful Texas SOS entity search returns:

• Legal entity name and any assumed names (DBAs)
• Entity type (LLC, Corporation, LP, LLP, etc.)
• Registered agent name and address
• Date of formation or registration
• Current status (Active, Forfeited, Withdrawn, Dissolved)
• SOS file number
• Principal office address

What it doesn't return: EINs, financial data, ownership/UBO information, or sanctions screening. For compliance-grade KYB, SOS data is the starting point — not the complete picture.

When Manual SOS Search Isn't Enough: KYB-Grade Verification

Tools like SOSDirect and the Comptroller tool are excellent for one-off lookups. But for compliance teams, onboarding platforms, or anyone verifying businesses at scale, manual searches create three problems:

• No audit trail — a manual search leaves no verifiable record for regulators
• Stale data — you're only checking what's in the database at that moment, with no ongoing monitoring
• Incomplete picture — SOS data alone doesn't cover EINs, sanctions, watchlists, UBOs, or adverse media

This is where automated business verification APIs close the gap. Signzy's Secretary of State verification pulls Texas SOS data in real time and combines it with 30+ additional data points — EIN validation, watchlist screening, UBO checks, and document OCR — in a single API call.

Texas SOS Business Search vs Signzy’s Business Verification API

Signzy’s API marketplace is a one-stop solution for your business’ identification and verification needs. Let’s take a look at how Signzy’s business verification can do everything that the Texas SOS does and more.

Business verification with Signzy goes beyond just the above information that is provided by the SOS platform. The additional information provided by Signzy includes:

• Entity Verification: Signzy’s API can provide you with the information of the business you’re looking into as well as verify the legitimacy of the entity as well.
• Watchlist Screenings: Our API also scans multiple records to see if the concerned business is on any watchlist.
• Business Website Verification: Signzy’s API finds and brings up the business website that you’re looking for.
• Social Presence: This helps you find the business’s social media presence to better understand its branding and marketing strategies.
• Liens and UCC Filing: This information helps gauge the company’s liabilities and any charges it may have on its assets.
• Bankruptcies: Signzy’s API looks up and fetches any bankruptcy filings that the concerned business may have made in the past. This can help you gauge the company’s financial history.
• Address Classification: Signzy’s API can even fetch information on the USPS address classification to know the type of location the business is operating out of.

On top of this, Signzy’s API gives you access to all of the SOS data and additional information on a single platform through its API. This ensures that the business you are looking for is not just registered with the government for the sake of it, but also has operations and a history.

Conclusion

The state of Texas poses a lot of potential for businesses, as a result, the number of businesses is booming. This growth is accompanied by the necessity to verify the identity of said businesses to ensure the security of your business, compliance with existing regulations, and safety of your clientele as well.