What is a Kbis extract?
The Kbis is the official extract of a company’s entry in the French trade and companies register, the registre du commerce et des sociétés (RCS). It is issued by the court registry, the greffe, and it describes the registration as it stands on the day it is issued: identity of the company, registered office, capital, activity, directors and any insolvency proceedings.
K, Kbis or L: which extract is yours?
The letters follow the form of the business. The extract K concerns sole traders, people registered in their own name, including micro-entrepreneurs. The extract Kbis concerns companies. The official service-public.gouv.fr guide, checked October 2026, also mentions the extracts L and Lbis, delivered for a secondary establishment. In everyday French, “the Kbis” has come to mean all of them.
What the extract contains
A Kbis gathers, on one page, the information the register holds about the company: its name, legal form, registered capital and registered office; its SIREN and the code of its main activity; the identity of its legal representatives; the date of registration; and, where relevant, a mention of liquidation or of collective proceedings. The identifiers themselves are explained in the guide to SIRET, SIREN and VAT numbers.
Who issues it, and what does it prove?
Only the greffe can issue it. Under article R123-150 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce), checked October 2026, the registrars are bound, and alone entitled, to deliver certificates, copies and extracts of the entries in the register. Article R123-152 adds what the extract is worth: it states the registration as of the day of issue, and it is taken as accurate until the contrary is proved.
Why it carries more weight than a SIRET
A SIRET comes from the SIRENE directory kept by INSEE and tells you that an establishment exists. The Kbis comes from the register where the company’s legal life is recorded. A commercial company acquires its legal personality on registration in that register (article L210-6), and a registered person cannot rely, against third parties, on facts that should have been registered but were not (article L123-9). The extract is the snapshot of that public record.
Who will ask you for it, and how recent must it be?
Banks, landlords, clients, marketplaces and suppliers ask for it, because it is the one document that proves, on a given day, who the company is and who may sign for it. In most cases the extract requested must be less than three months old, according to the official guide at service-public.gouv.fr. The French administration itself no longer asks for it: it reads the register directly.
| Who asks | Why | What they usually require |
|---|---|---|
| A bank opening the company’s account | To identify the company and its representatives | A Kbis less than three months old, with the directors’ identity documents |
| A landlord signing a commercial lease | To check the tenant’s existence, capital and representative | A recent Kbis, often with the statuts |
| A client or a marketplace | To verify a supplier before paying or listing it | A recent Kbis, sometimes renewed every year |
| A notaire or a lawyer at a signature | To confirm who has power to sign | A Kbis issued in the previous days |
No law sets a validity period for the extract. The three-month habit comes from the counterparties, who want a snapshot recent enough to trust.
How do you get a Kbis, including from abroad?
The director of a commercial company can download the extract of their own company at no charge through monidenum.fr, the identification service run by the court registries, as the official guide confirms. Anyone can order the extract of any company through infogreffe.fr, the registries’ online service, for a fee set by regulation. Both work from abroad with an internet connection; no visit to a French registry is needed.
Using it outside France
The extract is issued in French. A foreign bank, investor or administration may ask for a sworn translation, and sometimes for an apostille, which certifies the signature of the French authority. Ask the recipient which of the two they need before ordering: the apostille is obtained in France, the translation can be done anywhere.
Kbis, SIRENE notice or SIRET: which document for which request?
Three documents are often confused because they overlap. The SIRENE notice, the avis de situation issued by INSEE, states a company’s numbers and activity code. The Kbis states the full registration from the greffe. The SIRET is not a document at all: it is a number that both documents display.
| Request | Document that answers it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| “Send me your SIRET” | The number itself, or the SIRENE notice | INSEE directory |
| “Send me your Kbis” | The extract from the register | Greffe, through monidenum.fr or infogreffe.fr |
| “Prove that you can sign for the company” | A recent Kbis naming you as legal representative | Greffe |
| “Prove that the company exists” | Either document; the Kbis if the recipient wants legal weight | INSEE or greffe |
What happens if the Kbis is out of date?
The register only knows what has been declared to it. A change of director, of registered office, of capital or of activity is declared through the single online window, the guichet unique, in the same way as the creation (article L123-33). Until it is declared, the Kbis keeps showing the old situation, and article L123-9 prevents the company from relying on the undeclared change against third parties.
A new director who signs before the change is registered, a bank that still has the former president on file, a lease signed at an address the register does not know: each of these is a Kbis problem before it is a legal one. Keeping the register current is part of the annual routine described in the guide to starting a business in France, and Concord handles the filings behind it.