How to Search Florida Business Records

Florida is one of the largest states for business registrations in the United States. With over 3 million active business entities, Florida's Division of Corporations maintains one of the most extensive public business databases in the country.

The Florida Division of Corporations operates under the Florida Department of State and is responsible for:

• Registering new business entities (LLCs, corporations, partnerships, etc.)
• Maintaining records of all registered entities
• Processing annual reports
• Recording changes (amendments, name changes, dissolutions, mergers)
• Providing public access to business entity records through Sunbiz

Florida is notable for several reasons:

• High volume. Florida consistently ranks among the top states for new business formations, driven by favorable tax policy (no state income tax), a large population, and a business-friendly regulatory environment.
• Comprehensive public data. Florida provides more detail in its free public search than many other states, including officer names, registered agent information, and full annual report histories.
• Sunbiz. Florida's online portal (sunbiz.org) is one of the best-known state business search tools and is widely used by attorneys, researchers, and business professionals.

Whether you are verifying a Florida business, conducting due diligence, or building an application that needs Florida entity data, this guide covers everything you need to know.

Sunbiz (sunbiz.org) is the public-facing website of the Florida Division of Corporations. It provides free access to all business entity records filed with the state of Florida.

What you can do on Sunbiz:

• Search for business entities by name, officer/registered agent name, or document number.
• View entity details including status, formation date, principal address, registered agent, and officers/directors.
• View filing history and annual reports.
• Search for fictitious name registrations (DBAs).
• Look up UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filings.
• Download entity filing documents.

Sunbiz data fields for a typical Florida entity:

• Document Number (Florida's unique entity identifier)
• Entity Name
• Entity Type (e.g., "Florida Limited Liability Company," "Foreign Profit Corporation")
• Filing Date
• Status (Active, Inactive, Dissolved, etc.)
• Last Event (most recent filing action)
• Principal Address
• Mailing Address
• Registered Agent Name and Address
• Officer/Director Names, Titles, and Addresses
• Annual Report history

Sunbiz is well-maintained and generally reliable. However, it is designed for interactive, one-at-a-time lookups — not for bulk data retrieval or programmatic access.

Here is how to search for a business entity on Sunbiz:

Step 1: Go to sunbiz.org

Navigate to the Florida Division of Corporations website at sunbiz.org. On the homepage, you will see several search options.

Step 2: Choose your search type

Sunbiz offers multiple search methods:

• Entity Name Search: The most common search. Enter the business name (or part of it) to find matching entities. You can search by "starts with" or "contains."
• Officer/Registered Agent Search: Search by the name of an officer, director, or registered agent. Useful when you know a person's name but not the business name.
• Document Number Search: If you have the entity's document number (filing number), enter it for an exact match. Florida document numbers follow a format like "L21000123456" for LLCs or "P21000045678" for corporations.

Step 3: Review results

Sunbiz returns a list of matching entities. Each result shows the entity name, document number, and status. Click on an entity name to view its full details.

Step 4: Review entity details

The detail page shows all available information for the entity. Key sections to review:

• Filing Information: Entity type, filing date, status, and last event.
• Principal Address: The business's primary address.
• Registered Agent: Name and address of the agent designated for service of process.
• Officer/Director Detail: Names, titles, and addresses of officers and directors (for corporations) or managers/members (for LLCs).
• Annual Reports: A table showing all annual reports filed, with dates and associated changes.

Tips for Sunbiz searches:

• Use the "starts with" option for name searches to get more focused results. "Contains" searches can return hundreds of matches.
• If you cannot find a business, try searching without the entity suffix (drop "LLC," "Inc.," "Corp.").
• Florida document numbers are the most reliable way to find a specific entity. If you have one, use the document number search.
• The officer/registered agent search is helpful but searches exact names — "John Smith" will not match "J. Smith."

Florida uses specific designations for different entity types. Here is what you will see in Sunbiz records:

Domestic entities (formed in Florida):

• Florida Limited Liability Company — An LLC formed in Florida. This is the most common entity type in the state.
• Florida Profit Corporation — A for-profit corporation formed in Florida.
• Florida Not For Profit Corporation — A nonprofit corporation formed in Florida.
• Florida Limited Partnership — An LP formed in Florida.
• Florida Limited Liability Limited Partnership — An LLLP formed in Florida (a limited partnership where the general partner also has limited liability).

Foreign entities (formed outside Florida, registered to do business here):

• Foreign Limited Liability Company — An LLC formed in another state or country, registered in Florida.
• Foreign Profit Corporation — A for-profit corporation formed elsewhere, registered in Florida.
• Foreign Not For Profit Corporation — A nonprofit formed elsewhere, registered in Florida.
• Foreign Limited Partnership — An LP formed elsewhere, registered in Florida.

Other designations:

• Fictitious Name — A "Doing Business As" (DBA) registration. Not a separate entity — it registers a trade name for an existing entity or individual.
• General Partnership — Florida allows (but does not require) general partnerships to register.
• Professional entities — Florida has Professional Service Corporations (P.A.) and Professional Limited Liability Companies (PLLC) for licensed professionals.

Understanding these designations helps you interpret search results. For example, if you see a "Foreign Limited Liability Company" in Florida, it means the LLC was formed in another state (like Delaware) but is authorized to operate in Florida.

Florida requires all registered business entities to file an annual report each year. Understanding annual reports is important because they are the primary mechanism for keeping entity records current.

Key facts about Florida annual reports:

• Due date: May 1 of each year.
• Filing fee: $138.75 for most entity types.
• Late fee: If not filed by the third Friday in September, a $400 late fee is added.
• Consequence of non-filing: If the annual report is not filed (even with the late fee) by the end of the year, the entity is administratively dissolved or revoked.

What is included in an annual report:

• Florida annual reports update the following information:
• Entity name (or confirm it is unchanged)
• Principal address
• Mailing address
• Registered agent name and address
• Officer and director names and addresses

This is why annual report data is valuable — it provides the most recently confirmed information about the entity's officers, addresses, and agent.

Checking annual report history on Sunbiz:

On an entity's detail page, the "Annual Reports" section shows a table of all filed reports, including the report year and filing date. A gap in annual reports indicates the entity may have been dissolved and reinstated, or that it is currently at risk of dissolution.

Annual report data in the API:

curl "https://api.filed.dev/v1/entity/fl-L21000123456" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key"

The Filed API returns the most current information from the entity's latest annual report, including updated officer and address data.

Both Sunbiz and the Filed API give you access to Florida business entity data. Here is when to use each:

Use Sunbiz when:

• You need to look up a single entity interactively.
• You need to download official filing documents (articles, amendments).
• You need to file a document with the Florida Division of Corporations.
• You want to search fictitious names or UCC filings (which the API does not currently cover).

Use the Filed API when:

• You need structured, machine-readable data (JSON instead of HTML).
• You are building an application that integrates Florida business data.
• You need to perform bulk searches or lookups (dozens, hundreds, or thousands per day).
• You want to search across Florida and other states simultaneously.
• You need to integrate business data into compliance, CRM, or onboarding workflows.
• You want consistent data formatting without scraping or parsing HTML.

Comparison:

For developers and businesses that need Florida entity data at scale, the API is the practical choice. For occasional one-off research, Sunbiz works well.

Example: Searching Florida businesses via the API

# Search for businesses in Florida
curl "https://api.filed.dev/v1/search?q=Ocean+View+Realty&state=FL" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key"

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "fl-P19000067890",
      "name": "OCEAN VIEW REALTY INC",
      "state": "FL",
      "type": "Florida Profit Corporation",
      "status": "Active",
      "filing_date": "2019-01-14",
      "filing_number": "P19000067890",
      "registered_agent": {
        "name": "Maria Chen",
        "address": "321 Seaside Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139"
      },
      "officers": [
        { "name": "Maria Chen", "title": "President" },
        { "name": "David Chen", "title": "Vice President" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

See our state coverage page for Florida for more details on available data and field coverage.

Here are practical scenarios where you would search Florida business records, and how to approach each:

Scenario 1: Verifying a Florida contractor

You are hiring a construction company in Florida and want to verify it is a real, active business.

1. Search Sunbiz (or the API) by the company name.
2. Confirm the entity exists and its status is "Active."
3. Check the filing date — does it match how long the company claims to have been in business?
4. Note the principal address — does it match the address the company gave you?
5. Check the officers — is the person you are dealing with listed?

Scenario 2: Service of process on a Florida LLC

You need to serve legal papers on a Florida LLC.

1. Search Sunbiz by entity name or document number.
2. Find the registered agent name and address.
3. Verify the agent is active (not resigned).
4. Serve the registered agent at the listed address.

Scenario 3: Checking if a business name is available in Florida

You want to form a new LLC in Florida and need to check if your desired name is taken.

1. Search Sunbiz using an entity name search.
2. Check for exact matches and similar names.
3. Florida requires each entity name to be "distinguishable on the records" — meaning it cannot be identical or confusingly similar to an existing name.

Scenario 4: Bulk verification of Florida vendors

Your company works with hundreds of Florida-based vendors and needs to verify they are all active and in good standing.

1. Use the Filed API to programmatically search for each vendor.
2. Check the status field in each response.
3. Flag any vendors with a status other than "Active."
4. Store the results for compliance documentation.

# Example: Verify multiple businesses
for company in "ACME LLC" "SUMMIT CORP" "COASTAL INC"; do
  curl -s "https://api.filed.dev/v1/search?q=$(echo $company | tr ' ' '+')&state=FL" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key" | jq '.results[0].status'
done

Florida's extensive public records make it one of the best states for business verification. Whether you use Sunbiz for occasional lookups or the Filed API for programmatic access, the data is comprehensive and regularly updated.