# Company Registry Search (LEI / GLEIF) (`pontio/company-registry`) Actor

Look up companies worldwide by name or LEI: legal name, status, local registry number, legal form and addresses, from the official GLEIF index.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pontio/company-registry.md
- **Developed by:** [Gabor Molnar](https://apify.com/pontio) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 company founds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Company Registry Search (LEI / GLEIF)

Look up companies worldwide by name or by LEI code and get one clean, normalized record per company: legal name, whether it is active, its number in the local business register, legal form, legal and head-office addresses. The data comes from GLEIF, the official global index of Legal Entity Identifiers, which covers over 3 million legal entities worldwide. Pass one query or a list of up to 1,000 in a single run. You pay only for lookups that found a company.

### What you get

One dataset item per query you send. Here is one, for input `Tesco PLC` with `maxMatches: 1`:

```json
{
  "query": "Tesco PLC",
  "queryType": "name",
  "reasonCode": "found",
  "totalMatches": 13,
  "matches": [
    {
      "lei": "2138002P5RNKC5W2JZ46",
      "legalName": "TESCO PLC",
      "otherNames": [],
      "entityStatus": "ACTIVE",
      "leiStatus": "ISSUED",
      "jurisdiction": "GB",
      "legalForm": "B6ES",
      "registrationAuthority": "RA000585",
      "registrationNumber": "00445790",
      "legalAddress": {
        "lines": ["TESCO HOUSE", "SHIRE PARK, KESTREL WAY"],
        "city": "WELWYN GARDEN CITY",
        "region": "GB-HRT",
        "postalCode": "AL7 1GA",
        "country": "GB"
      },
      "headquartersAddress": { "...": "same shape" },
      "creationDate": "1947-11-27T00:00:00Z",
      "leiLastUpdated": "2025-11-21T07:42:21Z",
      "openCorporatesId": "gb/00445790",
      "bic": ["TSCOGB2LTPF", "TSCOGB2LXXX"]
    }
  ]
}
```

### Use it when

- You have a list of company names and need each one's official legal name, status and registry number.
- You hold LEI codes (from trade reporting, KYC files or a bond prospectus) and want the entity behind each.
- You want to know whether a counterparty is still active, or whether its LEI has lapsed.
- An agent needs a typed company record instead of a web search.

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `queries` | array of strings | yes | Company names or 20-character LEI codes, up to 1,000 per run. An LEI is recognized automatically, with or without spaces and in any case. Repeats (the same name ignoring case and spacing, or the same LEI) are looked up and charged once. |
| `country` | string | no | Only return companies whose legal address is in this country, as an ISO 3166 two-letter code (`DE`, `GB`, `US`; `UK` is read as `GB`). An unknown code rejects the run before any lookup. Applies to name searches, not to LEI lookups. |
| `maxMatches` | integer | no | How many companies to return per name search, best match first, 1 to 100. Default 5. The charge is per search, not per company. |

### Output

| Field | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| `query` | Your query, as sent. |
| `queryType` | `lei` or `name`; `null` when the query had nothing to search for. |
| `reasonCode` | What happened. See the pricing table. |
| `totalMatches` | How many records match in total. `matches` holds the first `maxMatches`. |
| `matches[].lei` | The 20-character Legal Entity Identifier. |
| `matches[].legalName`, `otherNames` | The registered legal name, plus trading names and transliterations GLEIF holds. |
| `matches[].entityStatus` | `ACTIVE`, or `INACTIVE` for a dissolved or merged entity. |
| `matches[].leiStatus` | The LEI's own status. `ISSUED` is current; `LAPSED` means the entity stopped renewing it, which says nothing about whether the company still trades. |
| `matches[].jurisdiction` | Where the entity is incorporated, e.g. `GB` or `US-DE`. |
| `matches[].legalForm` | ISO 20275 legal-form code (e.g. `B6ES` is a UK public limited company), or GLEIF's free text when there is no code. |
| `matches[].registrationAuthority`, `registrationNumber` | The local business register (GLEIF's `RA…` code, e.g. `RA000585` is Companies House) and the company's number in it. |
| `matches[].legalAddress`, `headquartersAddress` | Address lines, city, region, postal code and country. |
| `matches[].creationDate` | When the entity was founded, where GLEIF knows it. |
| `matches[].leiLastUpdated` | When the record was last updated. |
| `matches[].openCorporatesId`, `bic` | The matching OpenCorporates id and SWIFT BICs, where GLEIF links them. |

A name search returns the `maxMatches` companies GLEIF ranks best for that name. If one of them has exactly the legal name you asked for, ignoring case, it moves to the top. The Actor does not look beyond those results, so an exact match that GLEIF ranks lower can be missing. Raise `maxMatches` if you need it.

### Pricing

Pay per event, $2.00 per 1,000 successful lookups ($0.002 each), charged on the `company-registry-found` event.

One charge per query that found at least one company, however many matches it returns. Lookups that found nothing are free.

| `reasonCode` | Charged |
| --- | --- |
| `found` | yes |
| `no_match` (no LEI holder matches the name) | no |
| `lei_not_found` (a well-formed LEI GLEIF has no record of) | no |
| `invalid_lei` (20 characters shaped like an LEI whose check digits are wrong: a typo) | no |
| `invalid_query` (nothing searchable: no letter or digit) | no |
| `upstream_error` (GLEIF failed or timed out) | no |

If you set a maximum total charge for a run, the Actor stops as soon as that limit is reached instead of working for free. Items after that point are left out of the dataset and not charged, and the run log says how many; submit them in a new run.

### Limits

- Only entities that hold an LEI are in the index. Banks, listed companies, funds and most firms that trade financial instruments have one. Many small private companies do not. So `no_match` means "no LEI holder by that name", not "no such company".
- Name search matches words in the name; it does not correct spelling.
- Queries are looked up one after another. If you set a maximum charge for the run, or the run reaches its timeout, it stops there. The items already written stay in the dataset, so you can re-run the remainder.

### Data source

GLEIF publishes the LEI data under CC0, free for any use. This Actor queries GLEIF's public API directly and keeps no copy.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/pontio/company-registry/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Company names or LEI codes, one per line (max 1000 per run). Repeats (same name ignoring case and spacing, or same LEI) are answered and charged once.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Only return companies whose legal address is in this country (ISO 3166 two-letter code, e.g. DE, GB, US). Applies to name searches, not LEI lookups.

## `maxMatches` (type: `integer`):

How many matching companies to return per name search, best match first (1-100). The charge is per search, not per company.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "Tesco PLC"
  ],
  "maxMatches": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One item per input, in this run's default dataset.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "Tesco PLC"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pontio/company-registry").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "queries": ["Tesco PLC"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pontio/company-registry").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "Tesco PLC"
  ]
}' |
apify call pontio/company-registry --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pontio/company-registry"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/p6ZJWeEsrdqlzfonr/builds/Qir4qdnHEYfRnUhqO/openapi.json