Company Registers by Country
Every country keeps an official register of its legally registered businesses. Each one works differently: some are free and instant, others charge per document or hide the useful parts behind a login. These guides show you how to search each register, what it costs, and how to verify a business step by step.
Argentina Company Register
A free national search by name or CUIT (the RNS) shows tax registration data only. Company files sit with IGJ in Buenos Aires City or a provincial registry, and IGJ charges in modules for every copy and certificate.
2,335,779 registered businesses
Australia Company Register
Two registers side by side: ASIC for companies, the ABR behind ABN Lookup for everyone else, sole traders included. Free to search, thin on accounts.
8,568,817 registered businesses
Austria Company Register
One national FN number, annual accounts for EUR 1.52 a document, and no public API. Access at scale runs through ten accredited clearing agents instead.
865,758 registered businesses
Belgium Company Register
One national number per company, free search, free annual accounts in XBRL. The catch is that the register holds almost no contact data and the API is sold in prepaid blocks.
2,384,537 registered businesses
Brazil Company Register
One national CNPJ for every company and branch, the CNPJ registrations as free open data updated monthly, and an official API priced per lookup. The catch is that the web lookup takes a CNPJ only, behind an hCaptcha.
29,860,126 registered businesses
Bulgaria Company Register
One 9-digit UIC per company, a free record with directors and capital, and annual accounts free to download from the same record. The catch: the data is in Cyrillic and the scanned case file needs an electronic signature or an Agency certificate.
1,248,186 registered businesses
Canada Company Register
A free federal search with directors, ownership data, and filing status, plus a lookup API and an open data set that is typically updated daily. The catch is that it only covers federal corporations: provincial companies sit in 13 other registries.
4,287,728 registered businesses
Chile Company Register
Two registers and one RUT: the free Tu Empresa en un Día register for companies formed online since 2013, and paid Registros de Comercio at local Conservadores for the rest. RES certificates need a ClaveÚnica.
2,337,074 registered businesses
China Company Register
One 18-character code per company and annual reports that must publish phone and email. The catch: a CAPTCHA before results, a register in Chinese, and revenue figures the company may keep private.
80,839,200 registered businesses
Colombia Company Register
58 chambers of commerce, one national RUES search, and certificates from COP 6,100. Basic data is free by law and published monthly as open data, but financial statements sit outside the RUES and the search returned nothing to us from abroad.
3,592,700 registered businesses
Czech Republic Company Register
Free search, free extracts, free annual accounts, and a free official API in ARES. The catch is that the portal is Czech only, the accounts are PDFs rather than data, and the beneficial owners register closed to the public in December 2025.
3,514,138 registered businesses
Denmark Company Register
One 8-digit CVR number, a free record with directors, staff counts and annual reports, and a free official API. The catch is the paperwork to get that API, and beneficial owners have been off the public record since September 2025.
956,685 registered businesses
Estonia Company Register
Register data free to everyone since October 2022, with the board, shareholders, annual reports, and quarterly tax and staff figures on one record. The official API is free too, but only after you sign a contract with RIK.
364,477 registered businesses
Finland Company Register
One Business ID per company, a free Trade Register extract, and a free official open data API. The catch is that filed accounts cost EUR 5.02 each and only about 5 per cent arrive as machine-readable iXBRL.
1,346,897 registered businesses
France Company Register
Two free official APIs and a single national number, which is more than most of Europe offers. The catch is that roughly 45% of annual accounts are filed confidentially.
14,507,126 registered businesses
Germany Company Register
Free to search, free documents since 2022, but split across three systems and roughly 150 local courts. How to find the right one.
6,787,743 registered businesses
Greece Company Register
One 12-digit GEMI number per entity, free records with directors and filed financial statements, and an official open data API on request. The catch is that nearly everything is written in Greek.
1,127,892 registered businesses
Hungary Company Register
Free company search, free annual reports, and free filed documents for anyone with a Hungarian login. The catch: Hungarian only, a CAPTCHA on every search and record, and nothing free counts as an official document.
1,305,177 registered businesses
India Company Register
Every company gets a CIN, and filed documents are open to anyone by law, at INR 100 to view a company's file. The catch: master data, documents, and even the filing-status check sit behind an MCA21 login.
35,677,344 registered businesses
Indonesia Company Register
A name search behind reCAPTCHA, three identifiers from three systems, and PT data sold per download from IDR 100,000. The voucher form asks for an Indonesian ID or tax number.
2,984,044 registered businesses
Ireland Company Register
Free search on CORE, a free official API, and a daily open data file. The catch is that directors and accounts sit inside filed documents at €2.50 each.
401,198 registered businesses
Israel Company Register
One nine-digit number per company, a free lookup and a free daily open data file. The lookup is Hebrew only, and directors and shareholders cost NIS 12 per extract.
948,241 registered businesses
Italy Company Register
Rich data, honest prices, and one national identifier that is also the tax code. The trap is the REA number, which is provincial and comes in multiples.
7,003,310 registered businesses
Japan Company Register
One 13-digit corporate number per company and a free lookup that shows only name and address. Directors and capital sit in the paid commercial register, and full accounts are on EDINET only for companies that file securities reports.
6,802,243 registered businesses
Luxembourg Company Register
Four registers under one roof, a free gazette, and an API with a published price. The catch is that seeing a company's filings needs a Luxembourg digital identity.
166,274 registered businesses
Malaysia Company Register
One commission for companies, businesses, and LLPs, and a RM15.40 company profile that includes revenue and profit. The catch: the free search only tells you how many matches it found.
792,264 registered businesses
Mexico Company Register
One national electronic folio per company since SIGER 2.0, but every search needs an account and a CURP, fees are set state by state, and the register holds no financial statements.
1,770,304 registered businesses
Netherlands Company Register
One national register covering sole traders too, so the index is unusually complete. Free to search, but every document beyond the basics is metered.
3,860,251 registered businesses
New Zealand Company Register
Records, directors, shareholdings, filed documents and a monthly bulk download, all free. The gap is accounts: only FMC reporting entities and large overseas-linked companies have to file them.
1,014,708 registered businesses
Norway Company Register
One nine-digit number, free search, free annual accounts, and a free open data API with no sign-up. The catches are a 10,000-hit cap on every result list and accounts PDFs on the search portal with the text converted to graphics.
1,990,667 registered businesses
Poland Company Register
Free search, free extracts with legal force, a free official API, and financial statements free to download, as XML unless the company reports under IFRS. The catch is that the portal is Polish only, there is no person search, and sole traders sit in a different register.
6,309,235 registered businesses
Portugal Company Register
One nine-digit NIPC per company and free publications, but the record itself sits behind a €25-a-year online certificate, with no name search for the record and no public API.
849,176 registered businesses
Romania Company Register
One national trade register, a free basic record behind a free account, RON 30 certificates, and ONRC's list of registered firms as free open data. The catch is a Romanian-only portal and two number formats.
2,010,298 registered businesses
Saudi Arabia Company Register
One registration and one national number per business since the 2025 law, and a free search behind a CAPTCHA. Owners, managers, and articles are sold per call through the Wathq API.
843,266 registered businesses
Singapore Company Register
One UEN per entity and a free basic record on Bizfile. Officers cost S$5.50, filed accounts S$11 and up, and solvent exempt private companies do not have to file accounts at all.
631,493 registered businesses
Slovakia Company Register
Eight registry courts, one search, one eight-digit IČO. Search, sealed electronic extracts, annual accounts, and an official REST API are all free. Most of the record content stays in Slovak.
1,200,113 registered businesses
South Korea Company Register
A court-run register with no free view: every record costs KRW 700 to read online, in Korean, behind a login and a security plug-in. Tax status and audited accounts sit in two other, free systems.
2,683,605 registered businesses
Spain Company Register
Kept province by province, but with shared national portals on top. The core record is free, extracts cost from €2.60, and accounts really are public.
5,428,173 registered businesses
Sweden Company Register
Free search, free bulk basic data, and annual reports for SEK 75. The catch is that directors and signatories sit on a paid certificate or behind an e-ID login.
1,850,173 registered businesses
Switzerland Company Register
Europe's most pleasant register to search: free, unlimited, four languages, official API. Also the hardest to get financials from, because nobody files any.
1,365,528 registered businesses
Taiwan Company Register
One eight-digit Unified Business Number, a free record with directors' shareholdings, and a free open data API. The catch: names stay in Chinese, dates in the ROC calendar, and the register publishes no accounts.
1,875,391 registered businesses
Thailand Company Register
One 13-digit number and a free record with directors, signing rules, and five years of revenue and profit. The catch is the language: the English view drops the directors. Certified proof is a DBD certificate, 40 baht an item for a limited company.
1,016,409 registered businesses
Turkey Company Register
238 registry offices, one permanent MERSİS number per company, and a gazette archive back to 1957. The catch: a security code on the name check, a login for every notice, and no accounts search. Listed companies report on KAP.
1,411,287 registered businesses
United Arab Emirates Company Register
Licences, not one register: every emirate and free zone keeps its own, and the national copy sits behind a UAE PASS login. Dubai's directory is free, and the DIFC publishes directors and shareholders free online.
817,823 registered businesses
United Kingdom Company Register
The most open register of any major economy. Free search, free accounts PDFs, free API, public beneficial owners. One catch: most filings show no revenue.
8,852,655 registered businesses
United States Company Register
No national register. Fifty state registries, fifty formats, and no public financials unless the entity files with the SEC. How to work them anyway.
64,593,043 registered businesses
Vietnam Company Register
One enterprise code that is also the tax code, and a free basic record behind a reCAPTCHA. Certificates, company histories, and joint stock company accounts are sold per copy, from VND 20,000.
1,828,939 registered businesses
Beyond searching one business at a time
Register websites are built for looking up a single business. They are not built for pulling a list, enriching a CRM or running checks at volume. When you need that, there are three routes:
- Free lookup tools to check one business quickly without visiting the register yourself.
- A company data API to query official registry records in real time from your own systems, with per-country register APIs for single-market use.
- Bulk registry data when you need whole markets delivered as a file rather than queried one record at a time.
We keep official registry records for over 190+ countries, refreshed monthly from the registers themselves.