Company Registry Lookup (GLEIF, UK, France)

Company Registry Lookup (GLEIF, UK, France)

This Actor looks up and matches companies in three public registers and returns one clean, company-level record format:

• GLEIF, the global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) register. No key needed.
• The French company register, through the French government company search API (Sirene and RNE data). No key needed.
• UK Companies House, through its public API. This one needs your own free API key (see below).

It has two modes:

1. Entity match searches one or many company names across every enabled register and returns ranked matches with a 0 to 100 name score.
2. Entity lookup returns the full record for an identifier (an LEI, a UK company number, a French SIREN or SIRET) or for a company name.

Company-level fields only. The Actor never reads or returns officers, directors, persons with significant control, sole traders or any non-public French unit.

This is a data lookup tool. It is not KYC, sanctions, AML or compliance screening, and it does not check ownership, officers or watch lists.

Who is it for

• Data and operations teams who need to clean up a list of company names and attach a registry identifier to each.
• Sales, finance and procurement teams who want the legal name, registered address, status and incorporation date for a company.
• Developers who want one JSON shape for GLEIF, Companies House and the French register instead of three different APIs.

What you get

Field	Meaning
legal_name, other_names	Registered legal name, and other or previous names where the source publishes them
identifier, identifier_type, lei, uk_company_number, fr_siren	Identifiers in the source register
jurisdiction, country	Where the company is registered
registered_address, address_text	Registered address, structured and as one line (GLEIF also gives a headquarters address)
status, status_raw	Normalized status (active, inactive, other, unknown) and the source's own value
incorporation_date, dissolution_date	Dates in YYYY-MM-DD where published
legal_form_code, legal_form	GLEIF ELF code, INSEE legal category code, or UK company type with a plain-language label
industry_codes	UK SIC 2007 codes, French NAF codes. GLEIF publishes none.
parents, children	GLEIF direct and ultimate parent, direct child count and a list, where GLEIF publishes them
filings	UK only: number of filings in the Companies House filing history
establishments	France only: establishment counts and employee band code
match_score, rank	Match mode only

GLEIF and French legal forms are returned as codes. They are not translated into text.

Input

Field	Meaning
mode	entity-match or entity-lookup
queries	One name or identifier per line. Up to 200 in match mode, 500 in lookup mode.
includeGleif, includeFrance	On by default. No key needed.
includeUk, companiesHouseApiKey	Off by default. Needs your own free key.
maxMatches, minScore	Match mode: how many matches per name (default 10) and the lowest score kept (default 40)
matchesPerName	Lookup mode with a name: how many best matches to return in full (default 1)
includeRelationships, maxChildren, includeFilingCounts	Lookup mode extras

In lookup mode the Actor recognizes the identifier type from its shape: 20 characters with valid LEI check digits, 9 digits for a SIREN, 14 digits for a SIRET, 6 to 8 digits or a letter prefix (such as SC123456) for a UK company number. Anything else is treated as a company name.

Example input (this is the default prefill):

{
    "mode": "entity-match",
    "queries": ["Siemens"],
    "includeGleif": true,
    "includeFrance": true,
    "includeUk": false,
    "maxMatches": 10
}

Getting a Companies House key

Register at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk, create an application of type API key, and paste the key into the secret input field. The key is stored encrypted, is used only for requests to Companies House, and is never written to the output or the log. Without a key, the UK source is skipped, the run continues with the other sources, and nothing is charged for the UK source.

Output

One dataset row per match, per entity, or per query that returned nothing (a notice row with a code and message, never charged). This is a real match row from a platform run:

{
    "record_type": "match",
    "query": "Siemens",
    "rank": 2,
    "match_score": 100,
    "source": "france",
    "identifier": "562016774",
    "identifier_type": "SIREN",
    "legal_name": "SIEMENS S.A.S",
    "jurisdiction": "FR",
    "address_text": "16 PLACE DE L'IRIS, COURBEVOIE, 92400, FRANCE",
    "status": "active",
    "incorporation_date": "1956-01-01",
    "legal_form_code": "5710",
    "industry_codes": [{ "scheme": "NAF rev. 2 (2008)", "code": "26.30Z", "role": "main" }],
    "size_category": "GE",
    "source_url": "https://annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr/entreprise/562016774",
    "data_licence": "Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Sirene open data)"
}

A GLEIF lookup of W38RGI023J3WT1HWRP32 returns Siemens Aktiengesellschaft with its registered address in Munich, the registration authority and number, the LEI renewal date, and 460 direct children (the first ones listed).

How matching works

Names are compared after removing case, accents, punctuation and legal-form words such as Ltd, SAS, AG and Aktiengesellschaft. Identical names score 100. Otherwise the score is the larger of a word overlap score and a character similarity score, with a small bonus when the candidate starts with your words. Equal scores are ordered by status (active first), then by each register's own relevance order, so results alternate between registers. Many companies share a name across countries, so a score of 100 is a name match, not proof that two records are the same company.

Pricing

Pay per event. You pay only for results, never for failed or empty queries.

Event	Price	When it is charged
Entity match search	$0.02	Once per name that returns at least one match, whatever the number of matches
Entity lookup	$0.01	Once per entity record returned in lookup mode

Platform usage is included in these prices. Set a maximum cost per run in the Apify run options and the Actor will stop before going over it.

Data sources, licences and rate limits

• GLEIF (api.gleif.org). The LEI Data Terms of Use state that the data are provided under CC0. The terms also say you may not imply that your product is provided, supported or authorized by GLEIF. No rate limit is stated in the GLEIF documentation reviewed for this Actor, so the Actor makes at most about one request per second to be safe.
• French company register (recherche-entreprises.api.gouv.fr). The service lists a limit of 7 calls per second and no key; the Actor uses about 3 per second. The underlying Sirene dataset is published on data.gouv.fr under Licence Ouverte 2.0. The API does not return non-diffusible units, and the Actor also drops sole traders (entrepreneurs individuels) and any unit not marked fully diffusible.
• UK Companies House (api.company-information.service.gov.uk). Requires an API key. Companies House documents a limit of 600 requests per 5 minutes per application and says it can ban applications that exceed or bypass it. The Actor stays at about 85 requests per minute and retries politely on 429. You are responsible for following the Companies House API terms for your key. The registered office address of a small UK company can be a private address; it is part of the public register and is returned as company data.

The Actor uses only these official APIs. It does not bypass any login, CAPTCHA or rate limit.

FAQ

Does it return directors or owners? No. Officers, directors and persons with significant control are excluded by design.

Why is a UK result missing? The UK source needs includeUk switched on and your own key. Check the notice rows for the reason.

Why does the same company appear twice? A company can have a GLEIF record and a national register record. They are separate rows with their own identifiers.

Can I look up by company number in GLEIF? GLEIF is queried by LEI or by name. Use the French or UK source for national numbers.

How fresh is the data? The Actor queries the live APIs on each run. GLEIF publishes its data in daily files, so a very recent change may take a day to appear.

Limitations

• Name search quality depends on each register's search. Very common names return many equal-score matches; raise minScore or add a distinguishing word.
• GLEIF parent and child relationships exist only where the company has reported them.
• GLEIF has no industry codes. French legal forms and GLEIF legal forms are codes.
• The UK path was tested live with a Companies House key in October 2026: name matching, lookups by company number (including Scottish SC numbers), filing counts and not-found notices all worked.

Support

Use the Issues tab of this Actor for questions and bug reports.

This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, Companies House, the UK government, the French government, INSEE or data.gouv.fr. Names are used only to describe the data sources.