New York Secretary of State Business Entity Search Scraper

Search the New York Department of State's free public business entity registry. Look up a business by entity name, DOS ID number, registered agent, county, entity type, jurisdiction (state/country of formation), city, ZIP code, or officer/CEO name — and get entity type, formation date, county, jurisdiction, registered agent, service-of-process address, officer, and business location details. HTTP-only via the Department of State's official open-data API — no login, no CAPTCHA, no proxy required.

Data Source & Usage Notes

Read this before running a large job.

• Source: data.ny.gov, the New York Department of State's official open-data portal, dataset "Active Corporations: Beginning 1800" (resource ID n9v6-gdp6). This is the Department of State's own machine-readable mirror of the same live business-entity registry that powers its public search page.
• Why the open-data API instead of the live search page? The Department of State's own HTML search application (dos.ny.gov/corps/bus_entity_search.html, which redirects to apps.dos.ny.gov/publicInquiry/) resets the connection for non-browser/datacenter traffic on every request — confirmed live from two independent network paths. Its open-data API has no such restriction: it is a plain public JSON REST endpoint, refreshed regularly, with no login and no CAPTCHA.
• Every record is a currently Active entity. The underlying dataset is scoped to active entities only, so status is always "Active" on every record. New York does not publish a free open-data feed of dissolved/inactive entities.
• No proxy needed. This is a plain public JSON API — no anti-bot measures were observed and none of Apify's proxy groups are used.

Why New York instead of Missouri?

This actor was originally scoped as a Missouri Secretary of State business entity search (bsd.sos.mo.gov / www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity). Live verification showed the entire sos.mo.gov domain — including the bare homepage, not just the search subpages — returns a flat Cloudflare 403 Forbidden on every request, from curl with a real browser User-Agent and from an independent fetch tool on a separate network path alike. This is a domain-wide block on non-browser/datacenter traffic, not a per-page anomaly, and it would equally block Apify's free AUTO proxy group. Per this project's zero-cost reliability policy, the target was replaced with New York's Secretary of State business entity registry — published as a free, no-login, no-CAPTCHA open-data API by the NY Department of State, confirmed live and returning real data.

What this actor does

• 10 search modes, covering every reliable, no-auth axis the source's open-data API supports:
  • byEntityName — entity name, with begins-with / contains / exact match
  • byIdentificationNumber — one or more exact DOS ID numbers
  • byRegisteredAgent — registered agent name, with begins-with / contains match
  • byCounty — browse by New York county (service-of-process address)
  • byEntityType — browse by entity type (LLC, corporation, not-for-profit, etc.)
  • byJurisdiction — browse by state/country of formation (domestic NY vs. foreign entities)
  • byCity — city of the service-of-process address, with begins-with / contains match
  • byOfficerName — officer/chairman/CEO name on file, with begins-with / contains match
  • byZipCode — exact 5-digit ZIP code of the service-of-process address (populated on ~98% of records)
  • byState — browse by US state/territory (2-letter code) of the service-of-process address (not the jurisdiction of formation)
• Optional formation-date range filter (formationDateFrom / formationDateTo) on every mode
• Full entity detail on every record — type, formation date, county, jurisdiction, registered agent, service-of-process address, officer (when on file), and business location (when on file)
• Empty fields are omitted

What's NOT included (and why)

• Inactive/dissolved entities — the source dataset is scoped to currently Active entities only; New York does not publish a free open-data feed of historical/dissolved filings.
• Filing history / document images — the open-data API exposes current entity-level data only, not a timeline of individual filed documents; certified copies and filing history require the Department of State's paid ordering channels.
• Officer/CEO name (officerName) — only present for a minority of entities (mostly not-for-profits and older filings); most active LLCs and business corporations don't have this field on file, and it is omitted when absent rather than left null.
• Business location (businessLocationName/businessLocationAddress) — only present on file for a subset of entities (roughly 8%); omitted when absent.

Output per entity

• entityName
• idNumber — New York DOS ID number
• entityType — e.g. DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION
• status — always Active (see Data Source notes)
• formationDate — YYYY-MM-DD
• county — county of the service-of-process address
• jurisdiction — state/country of formation
• principalAddress, principalCity, principalState, principalZip — service-of-process (DOS process) address
• serviceOfProcessName — name DOS mails legal process to
• registeredAgentName, registeredAgentAddress — when on file
• officerName, officerAddress — chairman/CEO on file, when present
• businessLocationName, businessLocationAddress — when on file
• sourceUrl — direct link to the entity's record on the official open-data API
• recordType: "entity", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byEntityName	One of the 10 search modes
entityName	string	AMAZON	mode=byEntityName
entityNameMatchType	string	startsWith	startsWith/contains/exact
idNumbers	array	["4087072"]	mode=byIdentificationNumber — one or more DOS ID numbers
agentName	string	–	mode=byRegisteredAgent
agentMatchType	string	contains	startsWith/contains
county	string	New York	mode=byCounty — one of the 62 NY counties
entityType	string	DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY	mode=byEntityType
jurisdiction	string	Delaware	mode=byJurisdiction
city	string	BROOKLYN	mode=byCity
cityMatchType	string	startsWith	startsWith/contains
officerName	string	–	mode=byOfficerName
officerMatchType	string	contains	startsWith/contains
zipCode	string	10001	mode=byZipCode — 5-digit US ZIP (ZIP+4 accepted, truncated)
state	string	NY	mode=byState — 2-letter US state/territory postal code of service-of-process address
formationDateFrom	string	–	Optional, YYYY-MM-DD, all modes
formationDateTo	string	–	Optional, YYYY-MM-DD, all modes
maxItems	int	25	Hard cap (1–5000)

Example: search by entity name prefix

{
  "mode": "byEntityName",
  "entityName": "TESLA",
  "entityNameMatchType": "startsWith",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Example: lookup by exact DOS ID number(s)

{
  "mode": "byIdentificationNumber",
  "idNumbers": ["4087072", "4335119"]
}

Example: browse by county + entity type + date range

{
  "mode": "byCounty",
  "county": "Kings",
  "formationDateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "formationDateTo": "2024-01-31",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: search by registered agent

{
  "mode": "byRegisteredAgent",
  "agentName": "CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY",
  "agentMatchType": "contains",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: browse foreign entities by jurisdiction

{
  "mode": "byJurisdiction",
  "jurisdiction": "Delaware",
  "entityType": "FOREIGN LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: browse by ZIP code

{
  "mode": "byZipCode",
  "zipCode": "10001",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: browse by service-of-process state

{
  "mode": "byState",
  "state": "CA",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Use cases

• Due diligence — confirm a counterparty's New York formation date, entity type, and registered agent before contracting
• Compliance & KYC — cross-check a business's legal entity name and DOS ID number
• Registered agent research — find every entity a specific agent represents in New York
• Market research — pull every active entity of a given type/county/jurisdiction/ZIP code
• Local prospecting — build a lead list of every active business registered at a specific ZIP code
• Company name availability checks — see what similarly-named entities already exist before choosing a new name
• Out-of-state incorporation research — find every entity formed under a specific jurisdiction (e.g. Delaware) doing business in New York

FAQ

What's the data source? The New York Department of State's official open-data portal (data.ny.gov), dataset "Active Corporations: Beginning 1800". This actor is an independent third-party tool and is not affiliated with the State of New York.

Is this data official / legally binding? No. For a certified Certificate of Status or certified copies, use the Department of State's paid ordering channels. This actor returns the same free-tier informational data the Department of State publishes as open data.

Why does every record show status: Active? The underlying open-data feed only covers currently active entities — New York does not publish a free feed of inactive/dissolved entities.

Why did my run return 0 results? Either the query genuinely has no match, or the match type (begins-with vs. contains vs. exact) is narrower than expected. Try a broader match type or a shorter search term.

What's the difference between the match types? Begins with matches the start of the field; Contains matches anywhere within it; Exact match (entity name only) requires the full name.

How fresh is the data? The Department of State refreshes this open-data feed on an ongoing basis (typically daily/weekly); it is not instantaneous but is not a stale annual snapshot either.

Why is officerName empty for most results? New York only requires officer/chairman information on file for a subset of entity types (mostly not-for-profits and some older filings); it is genuinely absent for most LLCs and business corporations, so it's omitted rather than shown as blank.