Multi-State Contractor & Trade License Lookup

Pain points

• Checking a contractor's license means visiting each state's board site, one at a time.
• Every state board has a different website, search form, and data format.
• Hard to confirm a subcontractor or vendor is licensed — and still current — across the states you work in.

What we solve

• One search across multiple states' official license registries at once.
• Results normalized to the same fields no matter which state they came from.
• Look up by license number, business name, or person.
• Returns status, license type, expiration, location, plus bond/insurance where the state publishes it.
• Pay only per match — searches with no matches are free.

Summary

Check a contractor or tradesperson's license across several states at once, instead of visiting each state board by hand. Give a license number, business name, or person's name and the actor searches every selected state's official open-data license registry, returning one normalized row per match: license number, business/person, license type, status, expiration, location, and (where the state publishes it) bond and insurance. Built for subcontractor vetting, insurance/KYC checks, compliance, and lead enrichment. Covers Washington, Oregon, Texas, and Connecticut; coverage grows as more states are added.

Who it's for

• General contractors vetting subcontractors before a hire
• Insurance underwriters and KYC / onboarding teams
• Compliance and risk teams verifying vendors across states
• RevOps, agencies, and data teams enriching contractor lists

How to use

Set the input, run the actor, and collect results from the run's dataset (export to JSON/CSV/Excel, or pull via the Apify API). Example input:

{
  "query": "construction",
  "states": [
    "WA",
    "OR",
    "TX",
    "CT"
  ]
}

See Inputs below for every available field.

What you get

One row per record:

Field	Description
state	State the license is from (2-letter code)
license_number	The license/registration number
business_name	Licensed business name
person_name	Associated person (owner/principal/responsible individual), where published
license_type	License classification / trade
status	License status (where the state publishes it)
issue_date / expiration_date	Issue and expiration dates
city / county / address / zip_code	Location fields the state exposes
phone	Listed phone, where available
bond_amount / bond_company / insurance_company	Bond & insurance, where the state publishes them (e.g. OR)
matched_by	Whether the match came from a license-number or name search
source_url	The state's official license-verification page

Sample:

{
  "state": "OR",
  "license_number": "100362",
  "business_name": "GARY EPPING CONSTRUCTION CO INC",
  "person_name": "GARY EPPING",
  "license_type": "Residential General Contractor",
  "status": "Active",
  "issue_date": "1990-05-01T00:00:00.000",
  "expiration_date": "2026-05-01T00:00:00.000",
  "city": "SALEM",
  "county": "MARION",
  "bond_amount": "25000",
  "bond_company": "Western Surety Company",
  "insurance_company": "Oregon Mutual",
  "matched_by": "business_name",
  "source_url": "https://search.ccb.state.or.us/search/"
}

Inputs

Field	Required	Type	Default	Description
query	yes	string	"construction"	A license number, business name, or person's name to verify/search. We search every selected state and return all matches.
states	no	array	—	Which states to search (2-letter codes). Leave empty to search all supported states. Supported: WA, OR, TX, CT.
maxResults	no	integer	50	Cap on matches returned across all states (bounds cost).
proxyConfiguration	no	object	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Optional. The state open-data APIs are reachable directly; a proxy is not needed.

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

You pay per result (dataset-item) — no charge for empty runs. Example: 1000 license matches at $0.004/result ≈ $4.00.

You're only charged per license match returned — searches with no matches are free. Apify platform usage (compute) is billed separately per your plan.

Use cases

• Subcontractor vetting — a GC confirms a sub is licensed and current before signing, across every state they operate in.
• Insurance & KYC — underwriters verify a contractor's license at onboarding without checking each state board by hand.
• Compliance & due diligence — risk teams pull license status, type, and (where published) bond/insurance in one call.
• Lead enrichment — RevOps and agencies append verified license data to a list of contractor businesses.

Why this actor

• One search across multiple states' official registries — no visiting each board by hand.
• Normalized output: the same fields regardless of which state a license came from.
• Official open-data sources; pay only per match, and searches with no matches are free.

Limitations & updates

Covers only the states listed (currently WA, OR, TX, CT) — each backed by that state's official Socrata open-data registry; more states are added over time. Some states license only specific trades (e.g. CT covers Home Improvement Contractors; electrician/plumber may require separate state actors), and expose different fields — anything a state doesn't publish (e.g. TX has no street address or status; WA's dataset has no bond; CT has no person name or address) comes back null. Data is as-published by each state and may lag the board's live record. Not all US states are covered; states without open data are handled by separate per-state actors.

FAQ

Which states are covered?

Washington, Oregon, Texas, and Connecticut today, with more open-data states added over time. Pick states with the states input, or leave it empty to search all.

Where does the data come from?

Each state's official open-data license registry (WA L&I, OR CCB, TX TDLR, CT DCP). It's public, non-personal license data — not a third-party copy.

Can I search by name, not just license number?

Yes — pass a license number, a business name, or a person's name; we match and return all hits across the selected states.

How am I charged?

Pay-per-result: you're charged per matched license returned. Searches that return nothing are free.

Do all states return the same fields?

Core fields (license number, business, type, status, location) are consistent. Some states add extras like bond/insurance (OR); trades-only states (TX) have no general-contractor license.

How fresh is the data?

It reflects each state's published open-data feed, which the states refresh on their own cadence (typically daily to weekly).

Which actor to choose

Part of the contractor-license suite — pick the actor for the state(s) you need:

• Multi-State Contractor & Trade License Lookup (this actor) — verify/search licenses across the open-data states (WA, OR, TX, CT, and more) in one run.
• California Contractor License Lookup — verify/search California CSLB licenses (business, license #, or owner/personnel name).