ABN Lookup & Bulk Enrichment — validate ABNs, ACNs & business names in bulk

Bulk ABN lookup against the official Australian Business Register (ABR): paste a list of ABNs, ACNs, or business names and get back verified entity details — ABN status, entity type, GST registration status, registered business names, state and postcode — as a clean dataset you can export to CSV, Excel, or JSON. Built for CRM cleanup, supplier verification, and lead-list validation at $5.00 per 1,000 results.

What you can do with it

• Bulk ABN validation — check hundreds or thousands of ABNs in one run, with local checksum validation before any API call (invalid numbers never waste a lookup)
• Check GST registration status for a supplier list before issuing invoices (gstRegistered: true/false plus the registration date)
• Business name to ABN lookup — resolve company names to their ABN with the ABR's relevance score, keeping only matches above your threshold
• ACN to ABN lookup — company numbers resolve to full entity details
• Clean a CRM or lead list — dedupe and enrich Australian B2B records with authoritative government data
• Verify entity type — distinguish sole traders, companies, trusts, and partnerships before a deal

Why this actor

• Official data. Results for valid ABNs, ACNs, and business-name matches come live from the Australian Business Register's own web services — not a stale copy. (Numbers that fail checksum are rejected locally and marked in your results without an API call.)
• Transparent pricing. $5.00 per 1,000 results, period. 5,000 results cost $25. No compute-unit surprises.
• Fast and light. Pure HTTP, no browsers, polite rate-limiting. A 1,000-entry ABN/ACN list finishes in ~4-7 minutes (business-name queries make up to 4 API calls each, so they run slower); up to 5,000 queries per run.
• Actively maintained. Automated regression testing; issues answered fast.
• Agent-ready. Compact structured output (<1KB per item) works cleanly via the Apify MCP server and API.

Pricing

Job	Results	Cost
Validate a 200-supplier list	200	$1.00
Clean a 5,000-entry CRM	5,000	$25.00
Enrich 20,000 leads	20,000	$100.00

You pay only for results returned (pay-per-result) — note a business-name query returns up to 3 matched results by default, each billed as one result. Data-level failures (invalid checksum, no name match, ABR errors) return an item with an error field explaining why. The one exception: an invalid access key terminates the run with a clear error message instead of producing error items.

Quick start

1. Get your free ABR key (one-time, ~5 minutes). The official ABN Lookup web services are free but each user needs their own access key (GUID). Register at abr.business.gov.au/Tools/WebServices — the GUID arrives by email.
2. Paste the GUID into the ABR GUID field (stored encrypted).
3. Paste your ABNs / ACNs / business names into queries — mixed lists are fine, each entry is auto-detected.
4. Run. Export the dataset as CSV/Excel/JSON, or fetch it via API.

Example output

{
  "query": "49 004 028 077",
  "queryType": "abn",
  "abn": "49004028077",
  "abnStatus": "Active",
  "abnStatusEffectiveFrom": "1999-11-01",
  "entityName": "BHP GROUP LIMITED",
  "entityTypeCode": "PUB",
  "entityTypeName": "Australian Public Company",
  "gstRegistered": true,
  "gstRegisteredFrom": "2000-07-01",
  "businessNames": ["BHP", "BHP GROUP"],
  "state": "NSW",
  "postcode": "2000",
  "matchScore": null,
  "error": null,
  "retrievedAt": "2026-07-22T10:15:00.000Z"
}

Input options

Field	Default	What it does
queries	2 sample queries	ABNs (11 digits), ACNs (9 digits), or business names — auto-detected
abrGuid	—	Your free ABR web-services GUID (encrypted)
nameMatchLimit	3	Max candidates enriched per name query
minNameScore	80	Drop name matches below this ABR relevance score (0–100)
requestDelayMs	200	Politeness delay between API calls

FAQ

What if I run it without a GUID? The run finishes instantly with setup instructions in the log — no results are produced and nothing is charged.

Is the GUID really free? Yes. The Australian Business Register issues web-services access keys free of charge — registration takes about five minutes and the GUID is emailed to you. This actor uses your key, so your usage stays within your own ABR agreement.

Is this official, current data? Yes — every valid query hits the ABR's live web services at query time; checksum-invalid numbers are flagged locally without a call. Nothing is cached or resold from a stale database.

What does gstRegistered mean? Whether the entity is currently registered for GST, with gstRegisteredFrom giving the effective date. Useful for checking whether a supplier's invoice should include GST.

How accurate is business-name matching? The ABR returns a relevance score (0–100) per candidate. By default only matches scoring 80+ are enriched (top 3 per name); tune minNameScore and nameMatchLimit to be stricter or broader. Exact registered names typically score 95+.

Can I run huge lists? Up to 5,000 queries per run, processed sequentially with a politeness delay (5,000 ABN/ACN lookups ≈ 25-35 minutes with defaults; business-name queries take roughly 4x longer each). For larger jobs, split the list into multiple runs.

What happens if a lookup fails? For data-level failures (invalid ABN checksum, no name match above threshold, ABR error message) you get an item with the error field populated, so reconciliation against your source list is trivial. An invalid access key instead terminates the run with a clear message.

Are these "business names" or "trading names"? The businessNames field carries what the ABR's service returns for the entity — its registered business names. Note the ABR stopped collecting trading names in May 2012; historical trading names have no legal status and cannot be relied on for business identity (ABR's own guidance). Use entityName (the legal entity name) for identity purposes.

Which ABR interface does this use? The official ABN Lookup JSON services (ABN, ACN and name search) — the exact scope the ABR provides in JSON — under your own free GUID registration.

Can AI agents use this? Yes — the actor works through the Apify API and MCP server, and the compact JSON output is designed to be agent-friendly.

Support & maintenance

This actor is covered by automated regression tests against the live ABR service. Found a problem or need a field added? Open an issue on the Issues tab — it gets a response fast.

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Disclaimer

Data is retrieved as-is from the Australian Business Register at query time. Verify outputs before relying on them for invoicing, tax, compliance, or business decisions — you are responsible for how you use the data and for confirming it against official sources where it matters. This actor provides data lookup only; it does not provide professional, tax, legal, or financial advice, and no warranty of accuracy or completeness is given.

Data sourced live from the Australian Business Register under your own free ABR web-services registration. Use business data responsibly — this actor is not intended for collecting personal information.