How do you check whether a US business is still active?

To check whether a US business is still active, look it up in the Secretary of State registry of the state where it is registered and read its status. There is no national lookup. Read the exact label the registry uses, because "active" is not standardized: across the 50 state registries, at least 130 different status labels all mean a company is active.

How do you check if a business is still active?

A US company is chartered by a state, not the federal government, so whether it still exists is recorded in that state's registry. There is no national business registry to query, and the federal government does not track company status. The record lives with the Secretary of State, or an equivalent office such as a Department of State, in the state where the entity is registered.

The check is three steps. Find the state where the entity is registered. Search that state's registry by name or by registry number, the identifier the state assigned at formation. Then read the status field on the record. The NASS corporations directory links all 50 official portals, and searching a single state is free.

The last step is where most checks go wrong. People look for the word "active" and stop. The registries do not agree on that word, and some use a label that looks reassuring while flagging a problem underneath.

Why "active" is not one word

Across the 50 registries, at least 130 distinct status labels all resolve to the same underlying meaning: the company is active. A registry might write "Active," but it might just as well write "Good Standing," "Exists," "Registered," "Organized," or "Current-Active." The same healthy state, a different word in each state.

Here is what an active company looks like in six states, taken from the labels the registries actually publish:

Each label is verifiable on that state's own free entity search. None is an error. Each is one state's vocabulary for the same condition. The counts here are distinct status_raw labels, the verbatim string each registry publishes, across 91.9 million entity records from the 50 state registries as of July 2026. Another 268 distinct labels all mean the entity is dissolved.

The practical consequence: you cannot check a company in a state you do not know by string-matching on "active." You have to read the label the registry assigned and understand what it means there.

Is "active" the same as good standing?

No, and the gap is the one that catches people. Active usually means only that the entity exists and has not been dissolved. Good standing is stronger: it means the entity is also current on its required reports, fees, and registered agent, and is eligible for an official certificate. A company can be active and not in good standing at the same time.

The registries say so directly. On file are more than 206,000 records labeled Active - Not In Good Standing for failure to file Annual Report, along with Active/Noncompliance and Active (Delinquent). The word "active" is right there, and so is the warning. California goes further and packs the good-standing flags into the status string itself: Active; SOS:Good; FTB:Good; Agent:Good; VCFCF:Good means active and clear on all four checks, while flipping FTB:Good to FTB:Not Good means the same company is active but has a Franchise Tax Board problem.

If your check needs to confirm the company is current, not just that it exists, look for the good-standing signal specifically. It appears under at least 21 different label spellings, and a plain "Active" is not one of them.

What "dissolved" actually means

A dissolved status is not a single event either. The 268 labels that mean dissolved separate into a few real categories, and the category tells you how the company ended.

• A voluntary dissolution is one the owners filed to close, with labels like Voluntarily Dissolved and Dissolved - Certificate of Dissolution. It is meant to be permanent.
• An administrative dissolution is one the state closed for a compliance failure, most often a missed annual report or unpaid fee, not a decision by the owners. It appears as Administratively Dissolved, Admin. Dissolved, and Inactive (Administratively Dissolved), under at least 31 distinct spellings. An administratively dissolved company can often be reinstated by curing the lapse.
• A revoked or forfeited status usually describes a foreign registration the state withdrew, or a charter the state forfeited for a tax or reporting failure, with labels like Forfeited and Forfeited Charter.

The distinction changes what the record tells you. A voluntary dissolution is a company that chose to wind down. An administrative dissolution is often a live business that fell behind on paperwork and may still be operating while the state considers it closed. Both read as "not active," but they are not the same fact.

One thing they share: the record never disappears. State registries do not delete, so a company dissolved a decade ago still appears, marked dissolved rather than removed. Fewer than four in ten registration records carry an active status. Finding the record is not the same as finding a live company.

When two state databases disagree

In some states, an entity's status lives in more than one place, and the two can tell different stories. In Texas, the Secretary of State tracks the entity's existence while the Comptroller tracks its franchise-tax standing, so a company can read as existing with the Secretary of State while the Comptroller shows its right to transact business forfeited for unpaid tax. California splits the same way between the Secretary of State and the Franchise Tax Board, which is why its status strings carry separate SOS: and FTB: flags.

When you need a definitive answer, check which authority governs the question you are asking. For "does this entity legally exist," the Secretary of State is the record. For "can it currently transact business and sign an enforceable contract," the tax authority's standing can override a healthy-looking registry status.

Checking status across many companies at once

Checking one company is a free registry search. Checking thousands, or re-checking a portfolio every month, means doing that across many states and reconciling labels that do not agree. GovFiles normalizes all 50 state registries into one schema and classifies every status into a fixed set of values, active, inactive, dissolved, suspended, merged, withdrawn, or unknown, while preserving the registry's original wording in a status_raw field so nothing is lost in translation.

# Look up one entity by jurisdiction code + registry number
curl -H "X-API-Key: $KEY" \
  "https://api.govfiles.dev/v2/companies/us_il/CORP10843481"

{
  "jurisdiction_code": "us_il",
  "entity_number": "CORP10843481",
  "legal_name": "WALGREEN CO.",
  "status": "active",
  "status_raw": "Goodstanding"
}

The status value is comparable across states; the status_raw value is the exact label Illinois published, "Goodstanding," which a string match on "active" would miss. To resolve a name to the right record first, POST /v2/companies/search returns the candidates so you can pick by registry number, then read each one's status.

Frequently asked

How do you check whether a US business is still active? Look the company up in the Secretary of State registry of the state where it is registered, and read the status the registry assigns. There is no national lookup, so the check happens state by state, and searching a single state's registry is free. Read the exact label rather than assuming a shared vocabulary: across the 50 registries at least 130 distinct status labels all mean a company is active, from "Good Standing" to "Exists" to "Active/Compliance."

Is "active" the same as good standing? No. A registry can label a company active and still flag that it is behind on its filings or fees. Real labels on file include "Active - Not In Good Standing for failure to file Annual Report" and "Active/Noncompliance." Active usually means the entity has not been dissolved; good standing means it is also current on its reports, fees, and registered agent. An entity can be the first without being the second.

What is the difference between dissolved, administratively dissolved, and revoked? A voluntary dissolution is an entity the owners chose to close. An administrative dissolution is one the state closed for a compliance failure, most often a missed annual report or unpaid fee. Revoked and forfeited usually describe a foreign registration or a charter the state withdrew. The distinction matters because an administratively dissolved company can often be reinstated, while a voluntary dissolution is meant to be permanent.

Can a dissolved company still appear in the registry? Yes. State registries do not delete records, so a company that dissolved years ago still appears, marked with a dissolved or inactive status rather than removed. Fewer than four in ten registration records on file carry an active status. Finding a record is not the same as finding a live company: read the status, not just the name.