The present work compares two of the instruments of classification of archival records. One for the state public administration of São Paulo and another for the state public administration of Rio de Janeiro. It is a research that is characterized as descriptive and uses the comparative method for object analysis. The instruments were compared in two steps. The first step from the presentation texts and the introduction of the documents, considering the context and elaboration information. The second step considering the classification units themselves, from the most general to the more specific grading levels. With the analysis it was possible to perceive that there are much more similarities than differences between the presented instruments. Both instruments tend to have their application facilitated by the use of the records typologies contained in the two instruments. The main difference is in the form of elaboration of the most specific level for the most general presented in the classification instrument of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Such difference may mean, in the practice of using the instruments, a more reliable representation of the reality represented since the elaboration of the instruments begins in the identification and grouping of the documentary typologies originating from each administrative action.