How Alabama's business registry works
Alabama reports a live company's status as Exists. Not Active, not Good Standing — the Secretary of State's business search labels a going concern Exists, and everything else is a departure from it: Dissolved, Cancelled, Withdrawn, Revoked, Merged. BizVerify maps Exists to status: active with good_standing: true, and maps the terminal labels to dissolved, withdrawn, revoked, or merged.
The wrinkle is what else lives in that search index. Alabama requires a Certificate of Name Reservation before you can file formation documents, so the same index that holds live entities also holds Name Reservation records, Registered Name records, and Previous Name records — none of which are companies you can transact with. A KYB check that matches a name and stops can land on a reservation that never became an entity. BizVerify maps those name-only records to status: inactive with good_standing: null — a signal to treat them as "not a live entity," not as a dissolved one.
The search is run by the Secretary of State's Business Entities Division and is free. It covers business corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, LLPs, nonprofit corporations, and professional entities, each with an entity ID, formation date, place of formation, registered agent, and principal address — and, unusually for a free state surface, officers and their roles. That depth is why Alabama supports both a quick check and deep verification: deep returns the registered agent, the officers, the principal address, the formation date, and the place of formation. BizVerify returns the Alabama entity ID as jurisdiction_id.
What Alabama specifically charges and requires
Formation
Alabama charges a flat $200 Secretary of State filing fee to form a domestic LLC, a business corporation, or a nonprofit — the fee doesn't scale with shares or members. A foreign LLC registers for $150. Before any of those, Alabama requires a Certificate of Name Reservation: you reserve the name first, then file the Certificate of Formation with the reservation attached.
Annual obligations
Alabama is unusually light on recurring state filings, and 2024 made it lighter. The state's minimum Business Privilege Tax was eliminated: for tax years beginning after December 31, 2023, an entity whose business privilege tax is calculated at $100 or less owes nothing and isn't required to file a Business Privilege Tax Return. And since January 1, 2024, the only entities that file a Secretary of State Annual Report are domestic and foreign for-profit corporations and professional corporations — LLCs, nonprofits, and partnerships don't file one at all. A for-profit or professional corporation files its annual report with the Secretary of State, for a $10 fee, between January 1 and March 15.
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| Domestic LLC Certificate of Formation | $200 |
| Domestic corporation Certificate of Formation | $200 |
| Foreign LLC Application for Registration | $150 |
| Corporation Annual Report (for-profit / professional) | $10 |
Registered agent
Every Alabama entity keeps a registered agent with an Alabama address on file. Deep verification returns the registered agent and address, the officers and their roles, the principal address, the formation date, and the place of formation.
Common ways developers use Alabama verification
Verify-before-provision in an AI agent
An onboarding agent verifies a customer's Alabama LLC with verify_business({ entity_name, jurisdiction: "us-al" }) through the BizVerify MCP server before provisioning. Alabama's index is full of name reservations and previous names, so the agent checks that status is active — the entity Exists — not inactive, a name-only record that was never a live company. A clean active result lets it auto-approve; anything else routes to review. The same call runs from Claude Code or a LangChain agent.
Not mistaking a name reservation for a company
Because Alabama requires a name reservation before formation, a name search can return a Name Reservation or Previous Name record that looks like a hit but isn't a transactable entity. BizVerify collapses those to status: inactive, good_standing: null, distinct from a real entity that Exists. KYB tooling that treats any name match as a live company would onboard a counterparty that was never actually formed.
Marketplace seller onboarding
Alabama's flat $200 formation fee and light ongoing requirements make it an easy state to form in, so marketplaces see a lot of young Alabama LLCs. Verifying that a new seller's entity Exists — returned as status: active — before enabling payouts screens out reservations and dissolved shells in one call. A quick check is one credit and fast enough for an inline signup flow; wire it through Zapier or n8n once.
Cap-table and diligence tooling
Alabama's detail record is richer than most free state surfaces — it lists officers and their roles alongside the registered agent and place of formation. Deep verification for us-al returns all of it, so cap-table and diligence tools get the officer list, registered agent, principal address, formation date, and place of formation in one structured response — the fields a KYB pipeline assembles into a company profile.
Frequently asked questions
What does the status Exists mean for an Alabama entity?
Exists is how the Alabama Secretary of State labels a live, active entity — it's the state's equivalent of Active. BizVerify normalizes it to status: active with good_standing: true. Anything else — Dissolved, Cancelled, Withdrawn, Revoked, Merged — is a departure from Exists and maps to a terminal status. If an Alabama entity comes back active, its underlying label is Exists.
Why does an Alabama search return name reservations and previous names?
Alabama requires a Certificate of Name Reservation before you can file formation documents, so the Secretary of State's index carries name reservations, registered names, and previous names alongside live entities. Those aren't transactable companies. BizVerify maps them to status: inactive with good_standing: null, so they read as "not a live entity" rather than as an active or dissolved one.
Does an Alabama LLC have to file an annual report?
No. Since January 1, 2024, the only entities that file a Secretary of State Annual Report are domestic and foreign for-profit corporations and professional corporations. Alabama LLCs, nonprofits, and partnerships don't file one with the Secretary of State at all. Separately, the state's minimum Business Privilege Tax was eliminated for tax years beginning after 2023 for entities whose tax is $100 or less.
Do you return officers for an Alabama entity?
Yes. Alabama's detail record lists officers and their roles, which is unusual for a free state surface. Deep verification for us-al returns the officers, the registered agent and address, the principal address, the formation date, and the place of formation. If you need the people behind an Alabama entity, the officer list comes back in the officers field.
Which identifier do you return for an Alabama entity?
The jurisdiction_id is the Alabama Secretary of State entity ID. Store it to re-check the same entity later without relying on a name match — useful in Alabama specifically, where the index mixes live entities with name reservations and previous names that can share or resemble a name.
How current is Alabama entity data?
Status reflects the Secretary of State record at the time the check runs — no cached snapshot. A newly dissolved entity, or a name reservation that matured into a formed entity, shows the current state on the next check. Deep verification returns the officers, registered agent, principal address, formation date, and place of formation from that same live record.
What does deep verification add over a quick check for Alabama?
A quick check returns the entity name, type, Alabama entity ID, status, and good_standing — enough to confirm the entity Exists. Deep verification adds the registered agent and address, the officers and their roles, the principal address, the formation date, and the place of formation. Use quick on the hot path; use deep when you need the full record.