Texas LLC name search

What a Texas LLC name must include

Texas accepts these endings for a limited liability company:

• Limited Liability Company
• Limited Company

A Texas LLC's name must include “limited liability company” or “limited company”, or an abbreviation of either, such as “LLC” or “L.L.C.”. “Limited” or “company” on its own won't do. Banned outright: “lotto”, “lottery”, “bail bond” and any false hint of government ties. Approval comes first for banking and trust terms (Banking Commissioner), higher-education words such as “College”, “University” or “Law School” (the Coordinating Board), Olympic words (U.S. Olympic Committee) and veterans' words that suggest a veterans' group. Use “insurance” or “surety” only in a qualified way, such as “insurance agency”. The Secretary of State also turns away grossly offensive names (1 TAC §§ 79.33-79.36).

How Texas decides two names are the same

Your LLC name must be distinguishable from every domestic and registered foreign filing entity, foreign entities' fictitious names, registered series, and reserved or registered names (BOC § 5.053). Texas sorts near-matches into tiers. Capitalization, punctuation, accents, spacing, symbols, articles, conjunctions or a doubled letter never make a difference, even with permission (“Texxas Strong” is “Texas Strong”, “One World” is “1 World”). An ending swap (“Sampson, Inc.” against “Sampson, PLLC”), an abbreviation like “Bros.”, a plural or possessive, or a state tacked onto a city works only with the other company's notarized consent, which can't be waived even for related or inactive companies. New key words, reordered key words, same-root words, a foreign word (“Tejas” beside “Texas”) or a sound-alike with another meaning all pass. A court judgment giving you the right to the name also works.

Where the rules are written. Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §§ 5.053-5.064 (names), 5.101-5.106 (reservation), 4.151-4.154 (fees); 1 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 79.30-79.46 (entity name rules); Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 71 (assumed names); Tex. Gov't Code § 405.031 (certificate fees).

Searching for an LLC name in Texas

SOSPortal, the Secretary of State's filing system that took over from SOSDirect, charges $1 for each business entity search. To check for free, use the Comptroller's Franchise Tax Account Status Search, which looks up an entity name, taxpayer number or file number, or ask the Corporations Section for a preliminary availability opinion by phone at 512-463-5555 or by email. Search singular and plural forms too, since in Texas a plural only gets through with consent.

Open the official Texas entity search

Leave the ending off when you search, so every version of the name shows up, then compare each result word by word. If one matches apart from spacing, punctuation or a plural, change a real word in your name.

Checked against 3,243,098 Texas names. When Texas is selected, the LLC name check also looks your name up in our copy of “Active Franchise Taxpayers”, published by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and last updated October 3, 2026. Matches come back in three lists: the same words, longer names that open with yours, and names starting with the same two words. Each shows the entity's type, status and number. The state's own search is still the final word, since its records move ahead of our copy.

Holding the name: Texas LLC name reservation

Reserve an LLC name with Form 501, online through SOSPortal around the clock or by mail. It costs $40 and holds the name for 120 days (BOC § 5.104). Renew by sending a fresh application within the 30 days before it lapses, as often as you need; pulling a reservation costs nothing. A reservation isn't tied to one entity type, so it can serve an LLC or any other filing entity.

File a Texas name reservation

Forming the LLC in Texas

The Certificate of Formation for an LLC (Form 205) costs $300 (BOC §§ 4.152(1), 4.154). Paying by card online adds $0.25 plus 2.25%, and if you want a draft checked before you file, preclearance costs $50.

File the Certificate of Formation online

There's no annual report at the Secretary of State. Each year by May 15 (or the next business day), the LLC reports to the Comptroller instead: a franchise tax report, or just a Public Information Report or Ownership Report if its total revenue is at or below the no-tax-due threshold. That threshold is $2,650,000 for 2026 and 2027, up from $2,470,000 for 2024 and 2025. The tax rates are 0.375% for retail and wholesale businesses and 0.75% for the rest, with an EZ computation at 0.331% when revenue is $20 million or less. No newspaper notice is involved. The Secretary of State's Certificate of Fact – Status is $15, and the Comptroller separately issues certificates of account status, which some call good standing certificates.

When the LLC trades under another name

An LLC, PLLC included, files any assumed name only with the Secretary of State, on an assumed name certificate (Form 503) for $25; since September 1, 2019 it no longer files with the county as well. A certificate covers the term it names, up to 10 years, and abandoning a name later costs $10. Don't count on an assumed name for exclusivity: the Secretary of State accepts duplicates, so other businesses may hold the same one.

Sources

• Namefilingsfaqs, sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• Entitynames (PDF), direct.sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• Options, sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• Copies, sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• Modernization, sos.state.tx.us, checked 2026-10-07
• tcss.legis.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• tcss.legis.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• tcss.legis.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• tcss.legis.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Franchise, comptroller.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Search, comptroller.texas.gov, checked 2026-10-07

These are the official pages behind every fact above. If one of them now says something different, it's right and this page is out of date.