Chicago Building Permits API – Contractor & Construction Leads

City of Chicago issued building permits from the official Chicago Data Portal (dataset ydr8-5enu): address, coordinates, valuation, every contractor by role (general, electrical, plumbing, ventilation/refrigeration, mason…), and sub-trade tags with provenance. HVAC, electrical and plumbing tags also come from the listed contractor roles. Owner records are excluded, and permits where the owner acts as their own contractor ("OWNER AS GENERAL CONTRACTOR", "OWNER ACTING AS OWN PLUMBER") are skipped entirely by default (excludeOwnerBuilders), because they are homeowner jobs, not contractor leads.

Use it for: contractor leads and construction leads (new jobs by trade), a building permits API for your CRM, or a permit data CSV/Excel export for market research. Runs on a schedule; export CSV, Excel, JSON or call the API.

Sample rows (table)

issueDate	address	workType	contractorName	valuation	trades
2026-10-18	5901 W BERENICE AVE, CHICAGO, IL	Renovation/Alteration	HAZI ENTERPRISE LLC	$200,000	HVAC, electrical, masonry/facade, plumbi
2026-10-18	3402 S LOWE AVE, CHICAGO, IL	Detached Frame Garage	KUO CONSTRUCTION, INC.	$10,000	electrical, framing, roofing
2026-10-16	732 S KENNETH AVE, CHICAGO, IL	Renovation/Alteration	ROSS HAITH	$10,000	HVAC, electrical, plumbing, concrete, wi
2026-10-16	1737 N SAWYER AVE, CHICAGO, IL	Renovation/Alteration	DOLGIN CONSTRUCTION, INC.	$150,000	HVAC, electrical, plumbing, demolition,
2026-10-16	2309 S LOOMIS ST, CHICAGO, IL	Renovation/Alteration	SACHSE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT COMP	$2,490,632	HVAC, electrical, masonry/facade, plumbi

Quick start

Example input (also prefilled in the input form):

{
  "days": 7,
  "trades": [
    "HVAC",
    "roofing"
  ],
  "excludeRenewals": true,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "explicitTradesOnly": true
}

Input

Field	Description
days	How many days back from today to include, by permit issue date (1-366).
trades	Only return permits tagged with at least one of these trades. Leave empty for all trades.
explicitTradesOnly	When filtering by trade, match only trades stated by the permit type, a listed contractor role or the description, and ignore 'implied' tags (e.g. roofing implied by a new house). On by default for lead generation; turn off to include implied new-build trades.
excludeRenewals	Skip permit renewals/reinstatements (often old jobs re-issued). Recommended for lead generation.
excludeOwnerBuilders	Skip permits where the owner acts as their own contractor ("OWNER AS GENERAL CONTRACTOR", "OWNER ACTING AS OWN PLUMBER"). Default on.
dateFrom	Earliest issue date, YYYY-MM-DD. When set, overrides 'Days back'.
dateTo	Latest issue date, YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today.
minValuation	Only permits with a declared valuation at or above this amount. Rows with no or zero valuation are dropped when this is set.
excludeNonBuilding	Skip administrative and non-building records (administrative changes, reinstatement-only and similar no-work records).
maxItems	Maximum number of records to return (1-50,000).

Fields

Every Ledger permit Actor (Deschutes/Bend, Chicago, NYC) outputs the same fields:

Field	Meaning
recordId	Unique row key. One job can produce several rows (NYC: one per work type; Bend: one per sub-permit such as building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical). Dedupe on permitID if you want one row per permit.
permitID	The agency's permit/application number.
jurisdiction	City or county that issued the permit.
address	Site address as published.
parcel	Tax lot / PIN / BBL (see completeness).
latitude, longitude	WGS84 coordinates where the source publishes them (Chicago, NYC); null for Deschutes/Bend.
workType	The agency's work/permit-type label (e.g. Plumbing, Electrical, New - Single Family Dwelling).
permitType, permitSubtype	The agency's broader permit category and subtype (see "Source mapping").
filingReason, isRenewal	Why it was filed; true for renewals/reinstatements (usually old jobs).
description	Free-text scope of work.
status	Permit status as published. A value ending in "(inferred: …)" means the source left it blank and we derived it.
contractorName	The agency's main contractor field (general contractor where known). Never a record the agency labels as owner.
contractors	All contractor roles listed on the permit, [{role, name}].
contractorLicense	{type, number} where published (NYC).
valuation	Declared job value in USD (null if not published).
squareFeet	Square footage where published.
applicationDate, approvedDate, issueDate, expirationDate, finalDate	ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD); null when the source doesn't publish that date.
trades	All sub-trades the job likely needs, including implied ones.
explicitTrades	Only trades stated by the permit type, a listed contractor role, or the description.
tradeDetails	[{trade, source, confidence}]: source permitType/contractorRole (high), keyword (medium), implied (low, e.g. a new house implies roofing).
sourceUrl	Link to the record (or the official export containing it) at the source.
source	Publisher and dataset name.

Source mapping

Source field	Ledger field
work_type (falls back to permit_type when blank, which is most non-express permits)	workType
permit_type / review_type / permit_milestone	permitType / permitSubtype / filingReason
permit_status; when blank (about 8% of records) we output ISSUED (inferred: source status blank, issue date present)	status
contact_N_type/name where the role is a CONTRACTOR and not OWNER	contractors, contractorName (GC first)
reported_cost, pin_list, latitude, longitude, application_start_date, issue_date	valuation, parcel, latitude, longitude, applicationDate, issueDate
Reinstated permits (PERMIT - REINSTATE REVOKED PMT) are flagged isRenewal and excluded by default. minValuation and the date range are applied at the source.

Completeness

Measured on all 2,694 records issued 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-18 (default filters):

Contractor name	Valuation > 0	Parcel (PIN)	Lat/lon	Status inferred
98%	87%	80%	98%	8%

Sample output

(Generated 2026-10-19 by the current version.)

{
  "recordId": "3453472",
  "permitID": "101085337",
  "jurisdiction": "Chicago",
  "address": "5901 W BERENICE AVE, CHICAGO, IL",
  "latitude": 41.95023073559158,
  "longitude": -87.77435488410342,
  "workType": "Renovation/Alteration",
  "permitType": "PERMIT - RENOVATION/ALTERATION",
  "isRenewal": false,
  "description": "SPR 2019 CBCERECT REAR 2 STORY FRAME ADDITION, INTERIOR REHABILITATION AND NEW REAR OPEN WOOD DECK AT EXISTING 2 STORY WITH BASEMENT SFR AS PER PLAN.",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "contractorName": "HAZI ENTERPRISE LLC",
  "contractors": [
    {
      "role": "CONTRACTOR-ELECTRICAL",
      "name": "SWITCH ELECTRIC, INC"
    },
    {
      "role": "CONTRACTOR-GENERAL CONTRACTOR",
      "name": "HAZI ENTERPRISE LLC"
    },
    {
      "role": "MASONRY CONTRACTOR",
      "name": "BUCOVINA INC."
    },
    {
      "role": "CONTRACTOR-PLUMBER/PLUMBING",
      "name": "JAM PLUMBING SERVICES,INC."
    },
    {
      "role": "CONTRACTOR-REFRIGERATION",
      "name": "GOLD COAST HVAC"
    },
    {
      "role": "CONTRACTOR-VENTILATION",
      "name": "GOLD COAST HVAC"
    }
  ],
  "valuation": 200000.0,
  "issueDate": "2026-10-18",
  "trades": [
    "HVAC",
    "electrical",
    "masonry/facade",
    "plumbing",
    "framing",
    "general contracting",
    "decks/porches"
  ],
  "explicitTrades": [
    "HVAC",
    "electrical",
    "masonry/facade",
    "plumbing",
    "framing",
    "general contracting",
    "decks/porches"
  ],
  "tradeDetails": [
    {
      "trade": "HVAC",
      "source": "contractorRole",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "trade": "electrical",
      "source": "contractorRole",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "trade": "masonry/facade",
      "source": "contractorRole",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "trade": "plumbing",
      "source": "contractorRole",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "trade": "framing",
      "source": "keyword",
      "confidence": "medium"
    },
    {
      "trade": "general contracting",
      "source": "keyword",
      "confidence": "medium"
    },
    {
      "trade": "decks/porches",
      "source": "keyword",
      "confidence": "medium"
    }
  ],
  "sourceUrl": "https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/ydr8-5enu.json?permit_=101085337"
}

Pricing

Pay per result: $2.50 per 1,000 permit records ($0.0025 per result), plus a $0.00005 Apify start fee per run. You pay only for rows written to your dataset; Apify platform usage (compute) is included in that price, not billed separately. Set a maximum cost per run in Apify Console or the API and the run stops at that limit. Users on the Apify free plan can try it within their free monthly credit.

Privacy

Owner and homeowner records are not included: no field or contact role that the agency labels as owner is exported. Personal phone numbers and emails are not exported either. Contractor names are the agency's contractor field as published. Most are businesses, but some are sole proprietors or individual licensees (e.g. a licensed individual general or alarm contractor). Treat contractor contact as B2B. Follow the TCPA, CAN-SPAM, do-not-call rules and the source's terms; contact at a permit address should be by mail only unless you have consent.

Reliability

Each run reads the official feed live. Requests retry up to 3 times with backoff (2 s, 4 s, 8 s) on rate limits, server errors and timeouts. If a run finds 0 matching records it pushes nothing and sets a status message saying so. A change in the source's columns stops the run with a clear error.

Limitations

• Trade tags are rules applied to permit types, contractor roles and descriptions, so they are not guaranteed. With a trade filter set, only explicit (stated) trades match by default; set explicitTradesOnly to false to include implied new-build trades.
• The City's terms let it "require a user of this data to terminate any and all display, distribution or other use" at any time; if that happens this Actor will stop serving the data.
• Not affiliated with or endorsed by the data publisher.

Attribution and terms

Source: City of Chicago Data Portal, Building Permits (ydr8-5enu).

Required City of Chicago disclaimer

This site provides applications using data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago. The City of Chicago makes no claims as to the content, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the data provided at this site. The data provided at this site is subject to change at any time. It is understood that the data provided at this site is being used at one's own risk.