Companies House Company Search

Search the UK Companies House register by company name or keyword.

Each run returns, per company: name, company number, status, type, incorporation date, ceased date (if any), address and a link to the register record. With Include company profile on, it also returns SIC codes, registered office, jurisdiction, and charge and insolvency flags.

You need your own free key

1. Sign in to the Companies House Developer Hub and create an application.
2. Create a REST key under it.
3. Paste the key into Your Companies House API key. It is used only for your runs.

Limits

• Companies House allows 600 requests per 5 minutes per key. The Actor paces its calls and stops with a clear message if the limit is hit.
• Max API requests caps each run. With profiles on, each company costs one extra request.
• Only new companies remembers what earlier runs returned, so a scheduled run returns only new matches.

Data

The register is Crown copyright, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where stated otherwise.

Pricing

Companies House Company Search uses pay per event. You pay $0.005 to start a run and $0.0001 for each company, so 1,000 companies cost about $0.105. There is no monthly fee. Set a maximum cost on a run and it stops cleanly when it reaches it.

Use cases

• Check that a UK company exists and see its status and incorporation date.
• Build a list of companies by name or keyword for market research.
• Spot insolvency and charge flags before you deal with a company.
• Enrich a customer or supplier list with SIC codes and registered offices.

Use it from Python or JavaScript

Every Apify actor has an API. Replace the token with yours from the Apify Console.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("My_agent_C/companies-house-companies-scraper").call(run_input={
  "apiKey": "YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_KEY",
  "query": "bakery",
  "includeProfile": True,
  "maxRecords": 100
})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('My_agent_C/companies-house-companies-scraper').call({
  "apiKey": "YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_KEY",
  "query": "bakery",
  "includeProfile": true,
  "maxRecords": 100
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

You can also run it on a schedule, send results to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or n8n, or call it from an AI agent through the Apify MCP server.

More questions

How do I search UK companies by name? Add your free Companies House key, enter a name or keyword, and run the actor. It returns the register record for each match.

Do I need an API key for Companies House? Yes, a free key from the Companies House Developer Hub. Each user brings their own.

Is Companies House data free to use? Yes. The register is public and the REST API is free with a key.

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