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Kentucky Business Entity Search

Kentucky’s Business Entity Search lets you search by business name or organization number, or by the city or ZIP code of the principal office. Separate free searches cover officers and registered agents. The main search, profile and image list needed no login or payment.

Official agency: Kentucky Secretary of State, business filings and records services

Open Official Government SearchOpens sosbes.sos.ky.gov in a new tab. This is the official government site, not EntityLocator.

Direct links on the official site

Search methods offered

  • I want to Search ByBusiness Name or Organization Number; City Name of principal office; or Zip Codes of principal office. One “I want to Search For” box follows.
  • Show active entities onlyA checkbox, unchecked in the main search we inspected. Uncheck it to find inactive entities.
  • Advanced SearchIndustry Type, County, Number of Employees (Small 0–19, Medium 20–99, Large 100+), plus active-only, veteran-owned and Vapor Vendors checkboxes.
  • Current Representative searchLast, First and Middle Name. Covers current corporate officers and LLC members or managers as of the latest annual report. It excludes trust trustees and general partners of RLLPs and limited partnerships.
  • Founding Representative searchA name box. Covers names from the initial organization documents, who are not necessarily current personnel.
  • Registered Agent searchAn agent name box, with sorting by RA Name, Organization Name or Organization Number.

How to search

  1. Open the Kentucky Business Entity Search using the button above. Don’t use the Business Registration Portal, File LLC or File Annual Report links for a lookup.
  2. Choose Business Name or Organization Number, then enter it in “I want to Search For”. Use the city or ZIP option only to search by the principal office’s location.
  3. Set the active-only checkbox on purpose. Leave it unchecked when you need inactive, dissolved or historical matches.
  4. Select Search, then compare Company Name, Company ID, Status and Company Type. Use Next Page if needed.
  5. Select the company name to open its profile.
  6. Read Status and Standing separately, along with the dates, principal office and registered agent.
  7. Select Show Images for available filing images. For a person or registered agent, use the matching separate search page.

What you can expect to find

  • Results show Company Name, Company ID, Status and Company Type. A search for a large company name returned 111 results, 50 per page, including assumed names, inactive entries and loosely related names such as “Human Action”, so don’t expect literal exact matching.
  • A profile can show the name, profit or nonprofit classification, company type, industry, employee-size category, primary county, Status, Standing, state, file date, authority date, last annual report date, principal office address, and registered agent name and address.
  • The profile has Show Images, Show Activities, Show Assumed Names, Show Former Names, Show Current Officers, Show Initial Officers and Show Microfilm controls. We expanded only Show Images, which listed the filing title, file date, number of pages and document links.
  • The page says documents filed on or after September 15, 2004 are available as scans or PDFs, and earlier documents become available as imaged. We didn’t open a PDF.
  • The main form has no starts-with, contains or exact selector.

Limitations, fees and notices

  • The main search, profile and image list were free to use. The officer and registered agent searches say they are free of charge.
  • Records are separate paid services: $10 for a Certificate of Existence or Authorization, $5 for copies up to five pages plus $0.50 for each additional page, and an added $5 certification charge for certified copies. Filing fees and name or reservation services are separate, and we didn’t review them fully.
  • No CAPTCHA appeared in the paths we tested. That doesn’t mean it never will.
  • The Current Representative search relies on the latest filed annual report. Registered agent information is updated at registration and when changes are filed.
  • A normal entity search is not an official name approval. Use the separate name availability search, which we didn’t inspect.

Sources and research notes

Sources reviewed: . Official sites change; always confirm current details on the government site.

Research for this guide used the official Kentucky sites in a web browser. A name search, one corporation profile and its image list were tested, and the three representative and agent search pages were opened.

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