Australia company data API: look up and validate an ACN or ABN

A customer types an ACN, an ABN or the first letters of a name; your form fills in the company name, type, status and the state and postcode of the registered office from ASIC and the Australian Business Register. One key and one response shape, the same as every other country the API covers.

Company records from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Business Register (ABR): company name, legal form and class, status (including strike-off in progress, external administration and deregistration), the state and postcode of the registered office, the ABN, previous names, the VAT (GST) number and dates; updated weekly. Proprietary, public and foreign companies (ACN and ARBN) only. The register gives the state and the postcode, not a street address. ASIC does not separate liquidation from administration, so external administration shows as insolvent and there is no in_liquidation status. No officers, no registry-compliance signal, no activity code, no share capital and no insolvency notices. Associations, cooperatives, other bodies, individuals and sole traders are never served. Register-change events (name, status, legal form and registered address changes, dated by the weekly read that first shows it, none before the first load in October 2026) and company monitoring are available. The data are licensed CC BY 3.0 AU with no sublicensing: the credit and the licence link travel with every answer.

What the Australian record gives your product

  • Exact match on the ACN or ARBN: company_number=004028077 with country=AU. Bare digits or the 3-3-3 form; the check digit is enforced.
  • ABN search: abn=49004028077 with country=AU.
  • GST lookup: vat= with the bare ABN, for GST-registered companies only.
  • Autocomplete by name: a normalised, partial match ranked by a match score, one call per keystroke.
  • The fields a form needs: company name, type, status, state and postcode, previous names.

What Australia does not carry

No street address, officers, activity code, share capital or insolvency notices, and no in_liquidation status. Associations, cooperatives, individuals and sole traders are never served.

Pricing

Australia is included in every plan at no upcharge. 14-day free trial, card required, nothing charged for 14 days.

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Contains data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Company Dataset and the Australian Business Register (ABN Bulk Extract), licensed CC BY 3.0 AU (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/). Adapted by Prometiam (joined, normalised, status derived). CC BY 3.0 AU

What the Australian record gives your product

FieldWhat it holds for Australia
company_numberThe ACN or ARBN in the 3-3-3 form: 004 028 077. identifier_kind says ACN or ARBN.
company_name, previous_namesThe current name and the earlier ones.
legal_form, legal_form_fullAPTY, APUB or FNOS, with the class (limited by shares, limited by guarantee, no liability).
status, stageThe standard reading of the register’s state; the register’s own code is kept in status_code.
postal_code, regionThe postcode and the state or territory of the registered office. No street address.
abnThe 11-digit ABN, when the company has one.
vat_number, vat_number_sourceThe bare ABN while it is active and registered for GST, source register; otherwise null.

Frequently asked questions

How do I look up an Australian company by ACN from an API?
Call GET /companies/search?company_number=004028077&country=AU. Bare digits or the 3-3-3 form work, and an ACN or ARBN prefix is dropped. The check digit is enforced: a number that fails it, or an 11-digit ABN, is a 400 validation error.
Can I look up an Australian company by ABN?
Yes. Pass the 11-digit ABN as abn with country=AU, for example 49004028077. An ABN that fails its own check is a 400 validation error.
Can I look up an Australian company by GST number?
Yes, with the bare ABN: vat=49004028077 with country=AU. Only companies whose ABN is active and registered for GST carry a GST (VAT) number, so vat= finds those and no others.
Is the ACN check digit enforced?
Yes. The check (weights 8 to 1, ten minus the remainder after dividing by ten) is enforced for the ACN and the ARBN, and the ABN has its own check, the weighted sum divisible by 89. Validate in your form to save the call.
Does the Australian record include a street address, officers or insolvency notices?
No. Australia gives the state and the postcode of the registered office, not a street address. There are no officers, no registry-compliance signal, no activity code, no share capital and no insolvency notices, and no in_liquidation status because ASIC does not separate liquidation from administration. Register-change events (name, status, legal form and registered address changes, dated by the weekly read that first shows it, none before the first load in October 2026) and company monitoring are available.
Which Australian entities does it cover?
Proprietary, public and foreign companies with an ACN or an ARBN. Associations, cooperatives, other bodies, individuals and sole traders are never served.
How fresh is the data?
Weekly.
Under what licence is the data published?
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU), with no sublicensing. The credit and the licence link travel with every answer.
Can I call the API from the browser?
You can, but a key in the browser is public. Proxy the search through your server. Rate limits are per key.
Is there a way to try it before signing up?
Yes: the free ACN lookup runs the same call with a shared key.