What does sp. z o.o. mean?

It is the abbreviation of spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością, a Polish limited liability company. Its minimum share capital is PLN 5,000 and its owners are liable only up to their contributions.

What is the difference between sp. z o.o. and S.A.?

The S.A. needs PLN 100,000 of capital, as a rule a supervisory board, and can be listed; the sp. z o.o. needs PLN 5,000, is simpler to run and cannot be listed.

Sp. z o.o. vs S.A. in Poland: Key Differences

Sp. z o.o. or S.A.? Compare capital, governance, shares and listing of the two main Polish company forms, and check which one a company is with the API.

The spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością (sp. z o.o.) is the usual Polish company for small and medium businesses; the spółka akcyjna (S.A.) is the joint-stock company for larger and listed businesses. Both limit the owners’ liability to their contributions.

sp. z o.o. vs S.A. at a glance

	sp. z o.o.	S.A.
Full name	Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością	Spółka akcyjna
Owners’ liability	Limited to contributions	Limited to contributions
Minimum share capital	PLN 5,000	PLN 100,000
Ownership is held as	Udziały (shares in a limited liability company)	Akcje (shares)
Governance	Management board (zarząd) and shareholders’ meeting; a supervisory board is optional in most cases	Management board, as a rule a supervisory board (rada nadzorcza), and a general meeting
Can be listed	No	Yes
Typical use	Small and medium businesses and subsidiaries	Larger and listed companies

A third share company, the prosta spółka akcyjna (P.S.A., the simple joint-stock company), exists since 2021 with a minimum share capital of PLN 1.

A general comparison of the usual rules, not legal advice: a company’s own articles and the current law of its country decide the details.

How to check which one a company is

The API returns legal_form as sp. z o.o. or S.A. (and P.S.A., sp.k., sp.j. for the others), with the register’s own wording in local_legal_form. Search by name, or look the company up by its KRS number.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?country=PL&name=<company name>"

# read on each result:
#   "legal_form"        -> "sp. z o.o." or "S.A."
#   "legal_form_family" -> "private_limited_company" or "public_limited_company"

The API's legal_form values for these two: sp. z o.o. is Limited liability company; S.A. is Joint-stock company.

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Frequently asked questions

What does sp. z o.o. mean?: It is the abbreviation of spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością, a Polish limited liability company. Its minimum share capital is PLN 5,000 and its owners are liable only up to their contributions.
What is the difference between sp. z o.o. and S.A.?: The S.A. needs PLN 100,000 of capital, as a rule a supervisory board, and can be listed; the sp. z o.o. needs PLN 5,000, is simpler to run and cannot be listed.