Type a candidate name or an existing PT to look up. We hit the live Indonesian company registry (Companies House Indonesia) and run five checks — length, alphabet, allowed words, Indonesian entity form, and uniqueness — to tell you whether your candidate is ready to file as a PT, or what matches the registry already has. Free. No login.
Indonesia's naming rules sit in Government Regulation 43/2011 and are operationalised by the OSS portal at filing time. They feed straight into PT PMA incorporation — every downstream step (NIB, NPWP, an investor KITAS, bank introduction) chains off an approved company name. The rules are deliberately conservative — easier to block a name than undo a registered conflict later.
The name must start with PT (Perseroan Terbatas) for limited-liability companies, CV for partnerships, UD for sole proprietorships, or the equivalent. Open public companies append Tbk. A PT PMA — the foreign-investment vehicle most expats use — is written as 'PT [Name] PMA' or simply 'PT [Name]' with the PMA status carried in the license, not the name.
Strip the prefix and the filler words and what remains — the distinctive element — must have at least three syllables. 'PT XL' fails; 'PT XL Axiata' passes. The rule keeps single-syllable, single-character, and acronym-only names from blanket-blocking common words.
The name can't be confusingly similar to an already-registered PT, and it can't reuse a recognized brand fragment (Apple, Coca-Cola, BCA, Tokopedia, etc.) even when the trademark holder hasn't registered a PT here. Sharing generic words ('Maju', 'Indonesia', 'Group') is fine; sharing the distinctive element is not.
Words OSS rejects on sight include vulgarities (Bahasa and English), religious figures and concepts, names of state institutions (TNI, POLRI, KPK, BUMN), the names of presidents and national heroes, and a handful of foreign-language words that mean something offensive in Bahasa. Edge cases — religious-adjacent words used commercially, e.g. 'Halal' — are usually approved but checked.
A PT PMDN (wholly Indonesian-owned) name must be written in Bahasa Indonesia. A PT PMA (any foreign ownership) is free to use English, Mandarin, Arabic, or any other language using the Latin alphabet — the legal-entity prefix (PT) stays Indonesian either way. This is PP 43/2011 Article 11 and it's the one rule where foreign founders have more flexibility than domestic ones.
From our PT PMA incorporation pipeline. English-speaking founders rarely see these coming, but each one is easy to spot when you know the pattern.
Calling your café 'PT Apple Bali Coffee' or your e-commerce shop 'PT Tokopedia Mart' gets paused on brand collision — the regulator screens against a maintained list of well-known international and local marks, even when the rights-holder has no PT here. Fix: lean into the local concept, not the borrowed brand.
'PT Indonesia Maju Bersama' has no distinctive content after the filler is stripped — all three words are generic. The portal flags it as too common. Adding a specific element ('PT Bumi Indonesia Maju') usually fixes it.
'PT Velocity' doesn't pass the three-word rule on the distinctive element. Velocity is fine on its own, but the regulator wants the body to be three words to make it specific enough. 'PT Velocity Logistics Indo' usually clears it.
'PT Garuda Pratama' is held up because Garuda is a restricted national symbol. 'PT Allah Anugerah' runs into religious-name restrictions. The list extends to TNI, POLRI, KPK, BUMN, names of sitting and former presidents, and several Quranic and biblical names.
'PT Bali Bites Kopi' is too close to 'PT Bali Bites Cafe' (existing). Even with one different word, the distinctive element 'Bali Bites' overlaps fully. The fix is a different distinctive element, not different filler.
The same tool runs as an Indonesia company search — type an existing name (or part of one) and we hit Companies House Indonesia to surface matching PTs, their business numbers, legal entity type, and registered address. The five-rule scorecard sits on top so you can also vet a brand-new candidate in the same step.
Three sources feed the search: BKPM/OSS (the live business registration portal), the Companies House Indonesia dataset (refreshed every 24h), and the AHU registry (the Ministry of Law list of every PT). Together they cover the full Indonesian company registry for foreign-investment and domestic entities.
Have a 13-digit NIB instead? Use the NIB check to verify status, investment type (PMA / PMDN), and business scale.
What the prefix or suffix tells you about a company you find in the registry.
| Form | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PT (Perseroan Terbatas) | Limited liability company | The default Indonesian company form. Foreign-owned variant is PT PMA; wholly Indonesian-owned is PT PMDN. Distinction lives in the license, not the name. |
| PT … Tbk | Public limited company (Terbuka) | Mandatory Tbk suffix for companies publicly listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). UU 40/2007 Article 16(3). |
| CV (Commanditaire Vennootschap) | Limited partnership | Indonesian limited partnership form. Not available to foreign investors. |
| UD (Usaha Dagang) | Sole proprietorship | Indonesian sole-proprietor form. Not available to foreign investors. |
Search the Indonesian company registry by name, or vet a new candidate — get a verdict, see which existing PTs matched, and route straight to the team if you want to file.
Government Regulation 43 of 2011 on Procedures for the Names of Limited Liability Companies. The principal source of the legal-prefix rule, the three-syllable rule, and the foreign-language allowance.
Law No. 40 of 2007 on Limited Liability Companies. Section 16 mandates the PT prefix and prohibits names already used by another PT or in conflict with public order.
Law No. 20 of 2016 on Marks and Geographical Indications. Provides the trademark/brand-conflict basis BKPM uses when rejecting well-known mark collisions.
What foreign founders ask before vetting a PT PMA name.
A PT name files cleanly when it carries the PT prefix, has at least three words in the distinctive part, uses only the Roman alphabet, avoids profane and state-restricted vocabulary, does not include foreign legal-form tokens (Inc., Ltd, GmbH, Pte, Sdn Bhd), and is not confusingly similar to an existing PT in the registry. PP No. 43/2011 sets the framework.
It depends on ownership. PP 43/2011 Article 11 requires PT PMDN (wholly Indonesian-owned) entities to use Bahasa Indonesia in the company name. PT PMA (any foreign ownership) is not bound to Bahasa and can use English, Mandarin, Arabic, or any other language using the Latin alphabet. The legal-entity prefix (PT) is always Indonesian regardless.
Sharing generic words like "Indonesia", "Maju", or "Group" is normal and not blocking. Sharing the distinctive element with an existing PT (e.g. "Bali Bites" vs "Bali Bites Cafe") is usually blocked. Our tool runs a Jaro-Winkler similarity on the significant tokens after stripping legal prefixes and generic filler.
Yes — the foreign investor (or their incorporation agent) chooses the name. The naming framework distinguishes by ownership in one important way: PP 43/2011 Article 11 requires PT PMDN (wholly Indonesian-owned) entities to use Bahasa Indonesia in the company name. PT PMA (any foreign ownership) has no such requirement and can use English, Mandarin, Arabic, or any other language using Latin script. All the other structural rules — PT prefix, distinctness, allowed words, no foreign legal-form designators — apply equally to both.
The OSS portal returns an error code and you re-submit with a new candidate. No fee is lost, but each round adds 1-3 working days to the incorporation timeline because downstream steps (NIB, NPWP, bank introduction) can only start once a name is approved. Vetting up front avoids the round-trip.
Type an existing PT name (or part of one) into the tool above. It hits the live Indonesian company registry via Companies House Indonesia and returns matching PTs with their business number, legal entity type, and address. The data is sourced from BKPM/OSS, AHU (Ministry of Law), and the Companies House Indonesia dataset, covering both PT PMA (foreign-investment) and PT PMDN (domestic) entities.
PT is the abbreviation of Perseroan Terbatas, the Indonesian equivalent of a limited liability company. Every limited-liability entity registered in Indonesia carries the PT prefix as required by Article 16(2) of Law No. 40 of 2007 on Limited Liability Companies. A PT PMA is a PT with foreign ownership; a PT PMDN is wholly Indonesian-owned.
Tbk (Terbuka) is appended to the end of an Indonesian company name when the company is publicly listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). For example, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. The Tbk suffix is mandatory for open companies under UU 40/2007 Art. 16(3); it does not apply to private PTs.
A PT is the generic Indonesian limited-liability company. A PT PMA (Penanaman Modal Asing — foreign investment) is a PT with at least some foreign ownership and a higher minimum paid-up capital (IDR 10 billion / ~USD 650,000 in pledged investment). Both are searched and registered in the same BKPM/OSS registry; the PMA designation lives in the license, not the name. One naming consequence: PT PMDN (wholly Indonesian-owned) names must be written in Bahasa Indonesia per PP 43/2011 Article 11; PT PMA names can be in English or another foreign language.
Reviewed by Emerhub's Jakarta incorporation team. Last updated June 3, 2026. We file PT PMA names for clients weekly; the scorecard reflects what we see at OSS.
Our Jakarta team handles dozens of PT PMA filings a month. We vet the name, file the OSS submission, and own the back-and-forth so the entity is ready when your investor KITAS and bank account go in.