Calgary Building Permits – Open Data API

Building Permits for Calgary only, from the city's official open dataset (~502,000 source rows), via the Socrata SODA API — no website scraping.

• Key fields: permitNumber, permitType, permitClass, workType, status, issuedDate, estimatedValueCad, residentialUnits, communityCode, latitude.
• Licence: Open Government Licence – City of Calgary (v2.1); every record carries the required credit, "Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary.", followed by the version (v2.1) and licence link.
• Output: structured JSON, or CSV / Excel from the Apify dataset. Filters run at the source (type, status, issued dates and more), 100 permits by default, up to 50,000 per run with Fetch all on (the full dataset is ~502,000, so use date ranges for more).
• Privacy: reduced, not anonymous. Street addresses, names and free-text descriptions removed; coordinates rounded to ~1 km.
• Not the same as Calgary Development Permits: this Actor covers building permits (construction approvals, dataset c2es-76ed); that one covers land-use development permits (dataset 6933-unw5).
• Cost control: each permit is a billable result (about $0.003). The default is 100 permits per run. Turn on Fetch all to get up to 50,000, and set a maximum cost per run in Apify's run options as a safety limit.

Why not build it yourself? No ArcGIS/Socrata paging, field mapping, date normalising or de-duplication to write and maintain. You get one tidy row per permit with consistent field names and ISO dates.

Price: $0.003 per result (three-tenths of a cent; 1,000 results = $3.00), no start fee. You pay only for permits returned.

What it does

This Actor reads building permits from the City of Calgary's official open dataset (Calgary open data, about 502,000 source rows) through the Socrata SODA API. It does not scrape any website.

Rows are deduplicated so you get one record per permit number.

Free open data vs. this Actor

The dataset is free on the Calgary open-data portal. Use that for a one-off download. This Actor is for:

• Filters at the source: permit type, status, issued dates (dateFrom/dateTo), minimum and maximum value, keyword
• Clean JSON: ISO dates, consistent field names, one row per permit
• Privacy trimming: no street addresses, no free-text descriptions, no names
• Scheduled runs and Apify API / Sheets / Make / Zapier exports

Who it's for

• Contractors and suppliers (windows, HVAC, roofing, landscaping) watching new work in Calgary
• Developers and real-estate analysts tracking construction activity
• Housing researchers counting permits and new units

What data you get

Field	Meaning
permitNumber	City permit number
permitType	Permit type / class
permitCategory	Permit type group (city mapping)
permitClass	Permit class
permitClassGroup	Permit class group
useCategory	Use category (Residential / Non-Residential)
workType	Kind of work
workClassGroup	Work class group
workCategory	Simplified work category
status	Permit status
applicationDate	YYYY-MM-DD
issuedDate	YYYY-MM-DD
completedDate	YYYY-MM-DD
estimatedValueCad	Estimated construction value (CAD)
residentialUnits	Residential units
areaSqft	Total floor area (sq ft)
communityCode	Community code
neighbourhood	Neighbourhood
latitude	Latitude, rounded to 2 decimals (about 1 km)
longitude	Longitude, rounded to 2 decimals (about 1 km)
futureDate	True if the issue date is after today
source	Source portal
licence	Required attribution and licence link

Input

Field	Key	Notes
Permit type contains	permitType	e.g. Single Construction Permit, Commercial / Multi Family Project (case-insensitive).
Work type contains	workType	e.g. New, Improvement, Demolition.
Status contains	status	e.g. Issued Permit, Completed.
Date from	dateFrom	YYYY-MM-DD, issued on/after (older name issuedFrom still works)
Date to	dateTo	YYYY-MM-DD, issued on/before (older name issuedTo still works)
Minimum construction value (CAD)	minValue	Optional.
Maximum construction value (CAD)	maxValue	Optional.
Keyword	keyword	Server-side filter on permit type, class/work type and permit number.
Max permits	maxItems	1–50,000, default 100.
Fetch all (up to 50,000 permits)	fetchAll	true/false, default false. About $0.003 per permit.

Bad dates or an inverted date range fail before any API call, with a clear error.

Example input:

{"permitType": "Single Construction Permit", "dateFrom": "2025-01-01", "maxItems": 200, "minValue": 1000000}

Pricing

Pay per result: you are charged only for permits returned (one result = one permit). $0.003 per result (three-tenths of a cent), no start fee.

Coming soon

Archive queries (changes since a date, the permit list as of a date, and per-permit history) are coming once our Calgary archive is loaded. Until then, use the date filters in the normal mode.

Licence and privacy

• Licence: Open Government Licence – City of Calgary (v2.1). Reuse, including commercial use, is allowed. Every record includes the required credit and a link to the licence terms.
• No endorsement: this Actor is independent. It does not use Calgary names or logos as branding and does not imply municipal endorsement.
• Privacy: The output is reduced, not anonymous: permit numbers can be looked up in City records and may be tied to a property, and a permit can still relate to an identifiable homeowner. Street addresses (civic number, street name and unit) and free-text work descriptions are removed. Coordinates are rounded to 2 decimals (about 1 km). Owner, applicant and contractor names are not exported. Records still include permit number, permit type and category, status, dates, construction value and unit counts, and (where the source has them) ward, neighbourhood or building-use category. Also not exported: applicant and contractor names (applicantname, contractorname), the free-text description, the original address and the location address/geometry lists.

Limits

• Coverage is the City of Calgary only.
• Data freshness and completeness match the Calgary open-data feed. This Actor does not add or correct permits.
• Default 100 permits per run; hard cap 50,000 per run, even with Fetch all. Pages of 1,000 with a 1 s pause between pages (the portal's robots.txt asks for a 1 s crawl delay).
• Fields can be null when the source left them blank.

FAQ

Is this scraping? No. It queries the city's public Socrata (SODA) open-data API.

Does it include owner or applicant names or addresses? No. Street addresses, names and descriptions are removed, but the data is reduced, not anonymous: a permit number can be looked up in City records and may relate to a specific property.

Can I use it commercially? Yes, under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary (v2.1), with attribution and without implying endorsement.