New York City contractor license verification API

Look up any New York City contractor license by number or by business name and get one normalized JSON record back, sourced from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) and Department of Buildings (DOB).

Try a free lookup — no signup, right here on this page. For programmatic access, take a free API key — 250 requests a month, no card. Also on RapidAPI and, if you would rather not write code at all, the Apify Store.

Look up a license by number

curl "https://contractor-license-verification2.p.rapidapi.com/v1/licenses/NY/0673029-DCA" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: contractor-license-verification2.p.rapidapi.com"

0673029-DCA is a real NY license (TRI-BORO INSULATING & ROOFING COMPANY, INCORPORATED), so you can run that call as written.

Search by business name

curl "https://contractor-license-verification2.p.rapidapi.com/v1/licenses/NY/search?name=ACME&limit=10" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: contractor-license-verification2.p.rapidapi.com"

Partial, case-insensitive match. A search hit returns the same full record as a lookup by number, so there is no second call to make.

What Department of Consumer and Worker Protection publishes

• Two registers under one state code: DCWP home improvement contractors and DOB general contractors, master plumbers and electrical contractors
• License status, plus the city's own raw wording
• Issue and expiration dates (DCWP)
• Qualifier name — the individual holding the license (DOB)
• Full street address and borough

What it does not

• Surety bond
• Workers' compensation
• General liability insurance
• Disciplinary actions

Every response carries a data_completeness map saying which fields this source actually supplies, so an absent bond reads as “not published” rather than “no bond”. Records are never padded with guesses.

Before you build on it

This is New York City, not New York State. New York issues no statewide contractor license — licensing is municipal — so a contractor licensed by Buffalo or Yonkers is not in this data. DOB publishes no license dates, so DOB records carry no issue or expiration date; each record's data_completeness says which register answered and what it supplied.

Other states

How do I check if a contractor is licensed in New York City?

Enter the New York City license number — or the business name if you don't have it — in the free lookup above or the API. Swanum reads the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection record and returns license status, classifications and expiration date as one JSON object.

How do I check if a contractor is licensed?

Give this API the license number if you have it, or the business name if you don't. Both return the same normalized record, so nothing downstream needs to know which one you used.

Can I look up a contractor license by company name instead of a number?

Yes — the search endpoint does a partial, case-insensitive match and can return multiple matching licenses per name.

Does this include contractor complaints or disciplinary actions?

Colorado, Illinois and California. Their feeds carry the case number, action and date — Illinois adds IDFPR's own reason — and when the state has nothing on a license you get an empty list rather than a null, so you can tell 'clean' from 'unknown'. For the other six the field is null, meaning this source does not report it — not that the contractor is clean. Oregon CCB, Washington L&I and Connecticut eLicense all publish disciplinary history on the record's own page; it just isn't in the extract they publish for bulk use, so follow source_url for those three.

Is there a free way to try contractor license verification?

Yes — the free lookup page needs no signup at all, and a free API key gives you 100 requests a month with no card. The API also has a free tier on RapidAPI.

Which states does this cover?

CA, CO (electrical and plumbing trades only), CT, FL, IL (roofing contractors only), NYC, OR (general contractors from the CCB, plus electricians, plumbers and the boiler and elevator trades from the Building Codes Division), TX, and WA. New York is New York City only; New York State itself issues no statewide contractor license.