California Business Leads - Secretary of State Entity Records

Get verified California business leads with registered agents, standing status, and filing dates. Search the CA Secretary of State database for any LLC, corporation, or limited partnership. Target newly registered entities for B2B outreach, insurance sales, legal services, and compliance. Results in minutes, not days.

Works immediately -- no API key required. The actor uses browser scraping by default. Optionally provide a CA SOS CALICO API key for faster results.

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What You Get

Each result is one business entity record.

Field	Type	Description
entityId	string	Official CA entity number (e.g. C4903785)
entityName	string	Registered entity name
entityType	string	LLC, Corporation, LP, etc.
statusDescription	string	Active, Dissolved, Suspended, etc.
filingDate	string	Date of original filing
jurisdiction	string	State or country of formation
agentName	string	Registered agent of service
agentAddress1	string	Agent street address
agentCity	string	Agent city
agentState	string	Agent state
agentZipCode	string	Agent ZIP code
entityStreetAddress1	string	Principal address
entityCity	string	Principal city
entityState	string	Principal state
entityZipCode	string	Principal ZIP code
mailingStreetAddress1	string	Mailing address
mailingCity	string	Mailing city
mailingState	string	Mailing state
mailingZipCode	string	Mailing ZIP code
standingSOS	integer	Secretary of State standing code
standingFTB	integer	Franchise Tax Board standing code
standingAgent	integer	Agent standing code
standingVCFCF	integer	VCFCF standing code
searchTerm	string	Keyword used to find this entity

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Who Uses This

Business bankers targeting newly registered LLCs and corps for business checking accounts, credit lines, and merchant services. Filter by filing date to find entities registered this week.

Insurance agents selling general liability, E&O, and workers' comp to new businesses. Registered agent names and principal addresses are ready for outreach.

Accountants and CPAs prospecting new business clients at tax season. New LLC filings mean new businesses that need bookkeeping, payroll, and tax prep.

Web agencies and SaaS sales teams building targeted prospect lists of California businesses. Search by keyword and filter by filing date to focus on recently formed companies.

Compliance and legal teams verifying that a counterparty is active and in good standing with the Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board before executing contracts, extending credit, or onboarding a vendor.

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How to Use

Quick Start (no API key needed)

Just configure your search and run. The actor scrapes bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov directly using a headless browser. Residential proxies are used by default.

Search by keyword:

{
  "searchTerms": ["Acme", "Pacific Holdings"],
  "maxResults": 50
}

Look up specific entities by number:

{
  "entityNumbers": ["C4903785", "201527510001"]
}

Faster mode with API key (optional)

For faster results and higher throughput, get a free CA SOS API key:

1. Visit calicodev.sos.ca.gov and register for a developer account
2. Generate an API key
3. Pass it in the apiKey input field, or set CA_SOS_API_KEY as an environment variable in Actor settings

With an API key, the actor queries the official CALICO API directly (no browser needed, faster, up to 150 results per keyword).

Input reference

Parameter	Type	Description
apiKey	string	Optional CA SOS CALICO API key for faster results
searchTerms	string[]	Keywords to search in entity names
entityNumbers	string[]	Specific CA entity numbers for exact lookup
createdDateStart	string	Only return entities filed on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
createdDateEnd	string	Only return entities filed on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
beginsWith	boolean	When true, only matches names starting with the keyword. Default: false
maxResults	integer	Maximum number of results to return. 0 for no limit
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings for browser mode (residential recommended)

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Cost Estimate

Pricing is $0.005 per result + $0.10 per run start.

Run size	Estimated cost
10 results	~$0.15
100 results	~$0.60
500 results	~$2.60
1,000 results	~$5.10

Browser mode uses more compute time than API mode due to headless Chrome overhead.

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Output Formats

Results are available in JSON, CSV, and Excel from the Apify dataset viewer. You can also connect the output to downstream tools via the Apify API or webhooks.

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FAQ

Do I need to provide my own API key? No. The actor works without an API key by scraping the CA SOS website directly. An optional API key enables faster, higher-throughput access via the official CALICO API.

How many results does a keyword search return? In API mode: up to 150 per keyword (CA SOS API limit). In browser mode: depends on the website's pagination, typically 50-100 per keyword.

What does the standing code mean? Standing codes indicate whether the entity is in good standing with the relevant agency. A value of 1 typically indicates good standing; other values indicate delinquency, suspension, or forfeiture.

Can I look up an entity by its exact CA entity number? Yes. Use the entityNumbers field with the full entity number (e.g. C4903785 or 201527510001).

Is the data real-time? Yes. The actor queries the live CA SOS database on each run.