The Australian Company Number: 9 digits, shown in groups of three such as 004 028 077, with the ninth a check digit. The check is enforced, so a number that fails it is refused. A foreign company registered in Australia has an ARBN instead, from the same number space.

What is the difference between an ACN and an ABN?

The ACN is ASIC’s 9-digit company number. The ABN is the 11-digit business number of the Australian Business Register, with its own check; it is a different number, not derived from the ACN. A company normally has both. Search an ABN with abn=, not as company_number.

Is the ABN the Australian VAT number?

Australia has GST rather than VAT, and the GST number is the ABN. The record gives vat_number as the bare 11-digit ABN only while the ABN is active and the business is registered for GST, and null otherwise. Search it with vat= and country=AU.

Does the record include a street address?

No. The register gives the state and the postcode of the registered office, not a street address.

Which Australian entities are included?

Proprietary, public and foreign companies, identified by an ACN or an ARBN. Associations, cooperatives, other registered bodies, individuals and sole traders are never served, so a lookup of one returns nothing even though it exists.

Under what licence is the data published?

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU), with no sublicensing. The credit line and the licence link travel with every answer.

What is the ASIC company register (ACN, ABN and GST)?

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) registers Australian companies and foreign companies carrying on business in Australia. A company has an ACN (Australian Company Number) or, if foreign, an ARBN, both 9 digits written in groups of three, such as 004 028 077 for BHP Group Limited. The Australian Business Register (ABR) adds the 11-digit ABN, here 49 004 028 077, and the GST status.

The ACN, the ARBN and the ABN

The ACN and the ARBN share one 9-digit number space with an enforced check digit. The ABN is a separate 11-digit number from the ABR with its own check (the weighted sum must divide by 89). The Prometiam VAT number for an Australian company is its bare ABN, given only while the ABN is active and registered for GST.

What Prometiam serves for Australia

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.

Querying Australian companies

GET /companies/search?company_number=004028077&country=AU returns the record; abn=49004028077 finds it by ABN, and vat=49004028077 finds a GST-registered company. The free ACN lookup runs the same call without a key.

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Official sources: ASIC · Australian Business Register · data.gov.au. 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

Who supplies what

Name	What it is
ASIC	The corporate regulator and company registrar. The source of the company name, ACN or ARBN, type and class, status, registration and deregistration dates, state and previous names.
ABR (Australian Business Register)	Run by the Australian Taxation Office. The source of the ABN, whether it is active, and whether the business is registered for GST.
data.gov.au	The national open data portal, where both are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.
Credit line	Prometiam’s Australian records carry "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)."

What an Australian record holds

Field	Notes
Company name	The current name as registered. Earlier names are in `previous_names`.
Number	`company_number` is the ACN or ARBN in ASIC’s 3-3-3 form; `identifier_kind` says which. The ABN is in `abn`.
Legal form	APTY (Australian proprietary company), APUB (Australian public company) or FNOS (foreign company registered in Australia), with the class: limited by shares, limited by guarantee, no liability or unlimited. The register’s own status code is kept beside the standard status.
Status	Registered; strike-off action in progress; external administration (served as in administration); deregistered.
Location	The state or territory in `region` (NSW, VIC, QLD...) and the postcode in `postal_code`. There is no street address.
VAT (GST) number	The bare ABN while the ABN is active and the business is registered for GST; otherwise null.
Dates	The registration date, and the deregistration date where there is one. If a company has simply left ASIC’s file, it is served as deregistered and the date is marked as inferred.

Frequently asked questions

What is the ASIC company register?: The register of companies kept by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Together with the ABN data of the Australian Business Register it is the source of the Australian company records Prometiam serves.
What is an ACN?: The Australian Company Number: 9 digits, shown in groups of three such as 004 028 077, with the ninth a check digit. The check is enforced, so a number that fails it is refused. A foreign company registered in Australia has an ARBN instead, from the same number space.
What is the difference between an ACN and an ABN?: The ACN is ASIC’s 9-digit company number. The ABN is the 11-digit business number of the Australian Business Register, with its own check; it is a different number, not derived from the ACN. A company normally has both. Search an ABN with abn=, not as company_number.
Is the ABN the Australian VAT number?: Australia has GST rather than VAT, and the GST number is the ABN. The record gives vat_number as the bare 11-digit ABN only while the ABN is active and the business is registered for GST, and null otherwise. Search it with vat= and country=AU.
Does the record include a street address?: No. The register gives the state and the postcode of the registered office, not a street address.
Is there a liquidation status?: No. ASIC does not separate liquidation from administration, so external administration shows as insolvent and there is no in_liquidation status. There are no insolvency notices.
Does Prometiam serve officers, company events or insolvency notices for Australia?: No. Australian records are company-level: no officers, no registry-compliance signal, no activity code, no share capital and no insolvency notices. 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 are included?: Proprietary, public and foreign companies, identified by an ACN or an ARBN. Associations, cooperatives, other registered bodies, individuals and sole traders are never served, so a lookup of one returns nothing even though it exists.
How often is the data updated?: Weekly.
Under what licence is the data published?: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU), with no sublicensing. The credit line and the licence link travel with every answer.