Georgia business lookup

Search our directory first

USA Business Search lists Georgia businesses built from Foursquare open place data plus listings that owners submit. Use it when you need to reach a business: its phone number, website, address and category. Start on the Georgia hub and drill into a city, or go straight to a large market:

Search a distinctive word from the name rather than the full legal name, because many Georgia companies operate under a trade name that differs from what is on file with the state. If the listing looks out of date, the owner can claim and correct it. A directory listing does not mean we verified or endorse the business.

Verify a business with the Georgia Secretary of State

The official record lives in the Georgia Corporations Division eCorp business search. Searching is free and needs no account. You can search four ways:

• Business name, including partial names.
• Control number, the ID the state assigns every entity.
• Registered agent, useful when one agent serves several related companies.
• Officer name, which helps when you know the person but not the company.

A record shows the entity type, control number, formation date, current status (for example Active/Compliance or Admin. Dissolved), principal office address, registered agent and the officers listed on the latest annual registration. The filing history lets you open past filings as PDFs.

Need proof a company exists and is current? Georgia calls its good-standing document a Certificate of Existence. It costs $10 when ordered online through eCorp (you need a free eCorp account), or $20 on paper, per the Corporations Division fee schedule, as of October 2026. It arrives as a PDF you can send to a bank or landlord.

"Active" means the paperwork is current. The Secretary of State does not rate or license a business through this record.

Trade names (DBAs) are filed by county

Georgia does not keep trade names in the state database. Under O.C.G.A. 10-1-490, a business using a name other than its legal name registers it with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the business is chiefly carried on, as Georgia.gov explains. The owner must also publish a notice once a week for two weeks in the county's legal organ newspaper. Filing fees are set by each county.

So if eCorp shows nothing for a name on a truck or storefront, ask the clerk's office in that county, or search the statewide index run by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority. A trade name does not create a separate company; it points back to the person or entity that filed it.

Check a contractor or professional license

Georgia licenses construction trades at the state level through the Secretary of State's Professional Licensing Boards Division. Look up any license on the license verification site.

• Residential and general contractors: the State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors licenses contractors when the job's value exceeds $2,500, under O.C.G.A. 43-41.
• Specialty trades: the Construction Industry Licensing Board covers conditioned air (HVAC), electrical, low-voltage, master and journeyman plumbers, and utility contractors.
• Local permits: Atlanta, Savannah and other cities still issue building permits and business tax certificates, so check the permit office too.

Our state category pages, such as plumbers in Georgia, help you build a shortlist. Confirm each license yourself before you sign.

Starting a business in Georgia

If you will use a name other than your legal name, add the county trade name filing and newspaper notice. Most cities and counties also require a business tax certificate (often called an occupation tax certificate) before you open.

Georgia business lookup FAQs