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Sirene API🇫🇷 INSEE Sirene · enriched
Sirene API: French SIREN and SIRET data in one REST call
The official INSEE Sirene API is free and solid for SIREN lookups, but it returns no phone number, no email and no website, and employee counts are bands only. CompanyData gives you 14.4 million French businesses with those fields, through one REST API.
150 free calls in week one · No credit card needed · The same API covers 200+ countries
14,460,018
French businesses
50+
data fields per record
SIREN
official ID on every record
<200 ms
median response time
GET /api/company/search?nationalId=652014051
Carrefour SA
Massy, France
SIREN652014051
Legal formSociété Anonyme (SA)
NAF code4711F · Hypermarkets
Trade nameCarrefour
Websitecarrefour.com
Source: INSEE Sirene · example200 OK · 162 ms
The basics
What is the Sirene API?
INSEE runs the Sirene register and exposes it at portail-api.insee.fr, free under Open Licence 2.0. You query a SIREN (9 digits) or SIRET (14 digits) and get the legal name and trade names, legal form, registered address, NAF activity code and an employee band. Trade names are a genuine strength here: enseigne, denomination usuelle and sigle all come back. For a lookup on a SIREN it works well.
The limits are in what the register does not hold. There are no phone numbers, no email addresses and no websites at all, employee figures are bands rather than exact counts, and there are no directors, owners or financials, French structured accounts come from INPI's separate RNE API. CompanyData starts from the same register and adds those fields, with the same SIREN and NAF codes, in one API that also covers 200+ other countries.
The official API, in short
- SIREN and SIRET lookups, with trade names, NAF code and legal form
- Free under Open Licence 2.0, static key in the X-INSEE-Api-Key-Integration header
- 30 requests a minute, HTTP 429 on breach
- No phone number, no email and no website
- Employee counts are bands only, never exact
- No directors, owners or financials, INPI's RNE API is separate
Try it live
Look up any French business
Register fields plus the enrichment layer, in one response. Pick a business, you need no key for the example.
- Official SIREN and NAF codes on every record
- Phone, email and website where available
- The same request in 200+ countries
Side by side
Sirene API and CompanyData, field by field
The Sirene register covers registration well. CompanyData delivers 50+ enriched fields per French business in one call.
| Data point | Official register | CompanyData API |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses in the file | ✗ ~13.7 million | 14,460,018 |
| Name and trade names | ✓ | ✓ |
| SIREN and SIRET | ✓ | 14,458,891 |
| Registered address | 4,233,384 | 14,420,952 |
| NAF activity code | ✓ | ✓ |
| Legal form | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employee count | ✗ bands only, no exact figure | ✓ exact where available |
| Website | ✗ | 2,635,578 |
| Phone number | ✗ | 4,045,632 |
| Mobile number | ✗ | 983,701 |
| Business email address | ✗ | 1,487,693 |
| Director or contact person | ✗ | 11,069,056 |
| Revenue and financials | ✗ no, INPI RNE is a separate API | ✓ structured fields |
| Group structure | ✗ | ✓ included |
| International records | ✗ | 365M worldwide |
Our column counts every registered entity we hold for this country, active or inactive. Some registers only serve active entities through their API, which we think is a gap: a holding or a trust can be dormant and still matter as an entity, so we keep it. Measured live in our own file, August 2026, and refreshed monthly. Register figure: legal units not administratively ceased in Sirene, 2022. INSEE notes Sirene is an administrative directory and does not guarantee real activity; 6.0 million were economically active in 2024.
Search and filter
The Sirene API is built for per-business lookups, and deep paging caps at debut=10000 before you switch to a cursor. CompanyData layers segmentation on top: filter by NAF, revenue, headcount, region or city, and export in bulk with enrichment included.
Price
The Sirene API is free but rate-limited to 30 requests a minute, and long queries need a POST to avoid a 414. CompanyData charges from €0.02 per credit, with 150 free calls in your first week and one API for 200+ countries.
See the difference
More fields than the Sirene register returns
Directors, revenue, phone numbers and email addresses: one lookup away. Defaults to France, switch country whenever you like.
Try one:
Best practice
Connecting to the official INSEE Sirene API yourself
The official API is a tidy product with sharp edges. Here is how to get a key in three steps, and the things that cost small teams the most time, whether you enrich with us or not.
1
Register on the new portal
Sign up on portail-api.insee.fr. The old portal closed for good on 10 September 2025, so OAuth Consumer Key/Secret credentials are dead and any pre-2025 tutorial will fail.
2
Use the integration key header
The key is static with no expiry, and it goes in a header named literally X-INSEE-Api-Key-Integration. Not Authorization, not a bearer token.
3
Mind the SIREN check digit
SIREN is 9 digits, SIRET is 14 (SIREN plus a 5-digit NIC), both validated with a Luhn check. La Poste (SIREN 356000000) is the documented exception that fails the check legitimately.
Honestly: the official Sirene API is fine if you want to validate SIREN numbers or pull a trade name. Once you need phone numbers, email addresses, exact headcount or international coverage, you end up with us.
Get your API key01
The header is X-INSEE-Api-Key-Integration
A static key with no expiry, not an Authorization header and not a bearer token. Most 401s come from the key sitting in the wrong field.
02
The old portal closed on 10 September 2025
OAuth Consumer Key/Secret credentials are dead, so every pre-2025 tutorial fails. The new portal issues a single static integration key instead.
03
Employee counts are bands, not numbers
trancheEffectifs gives a band and a reference year, never an exact headcount. Segmenting by business size needs a source that carries the real figure.
04
Deep paging caps at 10,000
debut caps at 10000; beyond that you must switch to the curseur. And long queries need a POST, because a GET returns 414.
05
Refresh overnight, call after 10:00
The register refreshes overnight and INSEE recommends calling after 10:00. Around a million units are partially masked via statutDiffusion=P.
06
NAF rev.2 to NAF 2025 transition
Both activitePrincipale fields coexist during the transition, so pin the nomenclature you read or you will mix two coding schemes.
Use cases
What teams use French register data for
KYB and onboarding
Verify French counterparties on their SIREN. Status, legal form and registered address automatically verifiable.
Lead generation
Build prospect lists filtered by NAF code, region, revenue or business size.
CRM enrichment
Fill in SIREN numbers, NAF codes, revenue and contact details in bulk across your French accounts.
Risk and compliance
Track closures, insolvencies and status changes across your French supplier base.
Form autofill
Type-ahead on trade names in your signup form, so SIREN and address arrive exactly as the register writes them.
ERP and finance systems
Link suppliers and customers to a SIREN once and keep name, status and address current automatically.
Beyond France
France is one of 200+ countries on the same API
The same request, the same response schema, from Sirene to Companies House, the Handelsregister and KVK. Build the French connection once and take it across the border.
View the Company Data API
More local registers
The same API, register by register
Customer stories
What teams build with register data
Onboarding, KYB and supplier checks in production, on the same endpoints you tried above.
BankID · Digital identity
Live business KYC inside BankID
Norway's national trust mark verifies businesses against the register in real time, cutting verification time by 99%.
Read the story
Cellbunq · KYB
Global KYB compliance on one integration
Up-to-date business details from around the world, screened straight inside the onboarding flow.
Read the story
Zen.com · Fintech
Customer onboarding without the friction
Large-scale KYB verification through business lookup, built straight into the signup path.
Read the story
Sumsub · KYB platform
Verifying the address and the director, at scale
350M statutory addresses and registry director records inside Sumsub's global KYB flows, so shell offices and nominee directors get caught at onboarding.
Read the story
Veriff · Identity verification
UBO checks where the paperwork is hardest
Registry-sourced business and UBO data across Africa, Asia and Latin America, with 80% fewer manual reviews.
Read the storySirene API pricing
Transparent, credit-based pricing. Start with a free trial.
Free trial
Make your first 150 lookups free
- 150 lookups and 10 exports in week one, key right after signup
- 1 credit per business retrieved, then usage-based
- No credit card, no contract, no sales call
Questions? Ask a human.
No ticket queue. Your question lands with our data team and you get an answer within 24 hours.
Amsterdam HQVijzelgracht 53D · +31 20 705 2360
BerlinFriedrichstraße 123 · +49 30 21480480
DubaiBuilding A1, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis
Mon to Fri 9:00 to 17:30 CET · info@companydata.com
What our customers say
Real feedback from the people using CompanyData every day.
★★★★★
The best data company we have worked with.
Helmut Huberti, M.D.
World Arthrosis Org., Heidelberg
★★★★★
Great feedback from our team on the data quality.
Stefania Guerra
Dyson, Milan
Frequently asked questions
What is the Sirene API?
The Sirene API is INSEE's programming interface to the French Sirene register. You query a SIREN (9 digits) or SIRET (14 digits) and get the legal name, trade names, legal form, registered address, NAF activity code and an employee band. It is free under Open Licence 2.0.
Is the Sirene API free?
Yes. The INSEE Sirene API is free under Open Licence 2.0, keyed by a static X-INSEE-Api-Key-Integration header. It is rate-limited to 30 requests a minute, and long queries need a POST to avoid a 414.
At CompanyData you make your first 150 lookups free in week one, then pay usage-based.
Does the Sirene API return phone numbers and email addresses?
No. The Sirene register holds no phone numbers, email addresses or websites at all. Employee figures are bands rather than exact counts, and there are no directors, owners or financials.
For phone and email you need an enriched source. We deliver those fields on the records where they are available.
What is the difference between SIREN and SIRET?
SIREN is a 9-digit identifier for the legal unit. SIRET is 14 digits: the SIREN plus a 5-digit NIC that identifies a specific establishment. Both carry a Luhn check digit, with La Poste (SIREN 356000000) as the documented exception that fails the check legitimately.
Can I get director or ownership data from the Sirene API?
No. Sirene carries no directors, owners or group structure. French structured accounts and beneficial ownership sit in INPI's separate RNE API, not in Sirene.
Can I retrieve Sirene data in bulk?
Deep paging caps at debut=10000, beyond which you switch to the curseur, and the API is rate-limited to 30 requests a minute. We support bulk selections, filtered by NAF code, region, revenue and business size, with export to Excel, CSV or straight over the API.
How many French businesses do you cover?
14.4 million French records, including sole traders and establishments, refreshed continuously from the register and other official sources.
Make 150 free API calls before you spend a thing
Tell us which French businesses you need. You get a trial key with 150 lookups and 10 exports, plus a real sample response for your audience, within 24 hours.
or call +31 (0)20 705 2360