SBA.gov's Business License and Permit Search Tool provides small business owners with a list of federal, state and local permits, licenses, and registrations needed to run a business. When links to specific local licenses are not available, the tool returns local websites (when available) to point users to official resources for their local government agencies.
The API is RESTful and output formats are available in XML and JSON. There is a DTD for the XML output available.
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_category/CATEGORY.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_category/doing%20business%20as.xml
CATEGORY
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/all_by_state/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/all_by_state/ca.xml
STATE_ABBREVIATION
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_business_type/BUSINESS_TYPE.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_business_type/child%20care%20services.xml
BUSINESS_TYPE
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific types of businesses:
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific employer requirements:
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_and_county/BUSINESS_TYPE/STATE_ABBREVIATION/COUNTY_NAME.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_and_county/child%20care%20services/ca/orange%20county.xml
BUSINESS_TYPE
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific types of businesses:
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific employer requirements:
STATE_ABBREVIATION
COUNTY_NAME
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_and_city/BUSINESS_TYPE/STATE_ABBREVIATION/CITY_NAME.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_and_city/child%20care%20services/ca/orange%20county.xml
BUSINESS_TYPE
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific types of businesses:
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific employer requirements:
STATE_ABBREVIATION
CITY_NAME
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_zip/BUSINESS_TYPE/ZIP_CODE.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/by_zip/child%20care%20services/90210.xml
BUSINESS_TYPE
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific types of businesses:
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific employer requirements:
ZIP_CODE
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_only/BUSINESS_TYPE/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT
http://api.sba.gov/license_permit/state_only/child%20care%20services/ca.xml
BUSINESS_TYPE
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific types of businesses:
Parameter values for retrieving data about specific employer requirements:
STATE_ABBREVIATION
FORMAT
xml
or json
, case sensitive.The XML response is well-documented in the XML DTD for this document type.
The document root element's tag-name is <result>
, which contains the child elements
<county_sites>
, <local_sites>
, <state_sites>
, <sites_for_business_type>
and <sites_for_category>
. Each record within the document is contained within
one of these elements, consisting of a <site>
element which contains sub-elements as
detailed in the JSON Format documentation below. Each of
these sub-elements contains its relevant data as Parsed Character Data.
The JSON response consists of an object containing the following properties, each of which is an array:
Each one of these arrays contains zero or more anonymous objects, each of which represent a site. Each of these objects has the following properties:
Field Name | Description | Type | Max. Length |
Possible Values |
---|---|---|---|---|
link_title |
Title of a link to a business license or permit resource. | String | 255 | |
description |
Description of the business license or permit resource. | String | 255 | |
url |
The URL for the business license or permit resource. | String | 255 | |
category |
This is a broad category label for licenses and permits required by all business types. | String | 50 | Tax Registration |
county |
The name of a county (or equivalent) within a U.S. state or territory boundary. At this time, this value will always be empty. | String | 255 | |
state |
Two letter postal abbreviation for a U.S. state or territory. | String | 2 | |
business_type |
One of the standard business types to which business license and permit resources apply. | String | 50 | Auto Dealership |
section |
Details of business licenses and permits applicable to a specific business_type. | String | 50 | Disability Insurance |
resource_group_description |
Describes the business and permit resources that appear under a category or section (when not a null value). | String | 64K |