Chicago Building Permits Scraper (Contractors, Owners)

Extract City of Chicago building permits with owner and contractor contacts, reported construction cost and full work descriptions, across all 50 wards and 77 community areas.

30+ fields per record

Chicago, IL coverage

JSON / CSV / Excel output formats

Updated 2026-07-05

What you get

Each record is a single issued Chicago building permit with the project details, the money, and every named contact so you can turn permits into construction sales leads. Fields:

• permitNumber: the city permit number
• permitId: the permit record identifier
• permitType: permit category, for example New Construction, Renovation/Alteration, Signs, Wrecking/Demolition
• reviewType: the review track the permit went through
• permitStatus: current status, for example Active
• permitMilestone: latest milestone, for example Inspections
• workType: the type of work, for example Nonstructural Interior Work or Small-Scale Solar PV System
• workDescription: the full narrative scope of work, including unit counts and materials
• permitConditions: special conditions attached to the permit when present
• address: full street address in Chicago
• streetNumber, streetDirection, streetName: the address parts
• applicationDate: when the permit application started
• issueDate: when the permit was issued
• processingDays: days from application to issue
• reportedCost: the reported construction cost in US dollars
• totalFee: total permit fee
• feesPaid: fees paid to date
• feesUnpaid: fees still owed
• ownerName, ownerCity, ownerState: the property owner on the permit
• contractorName, contractorType, contractorCity, contractorState: the lead contractor, preferring the general contractor when one is listed
• contacts: the full contact roster on the permit, each with type, name, city, state and ZIP, covering owner, general and trade contractors, architects, expediters and applicants
• ward: Chicago ward number
• communityArea: Chicago community area number
• censusTract: census tract
• pinList: parcel identification numbers tied to the permit
• latitude, longitude: map coordinates
• observedAt: when this permit was last seen by the scraper

Who is it for

Use case	Who benefits
Fresh construction sales leads by project type and value	Building material suppliers, subcontractors, equipment rental
Contractor and owner prospecting with contact details	Roofers, solar installers, HVAC and plumbing companies
Real estate and development market research	Investors, developers, appraisers, brokers
Territory and competitor tracking by ward	Sales teams, franchise owners, market analysts
Permit volume and construction spend analysis	Economists, journalists, urban planners, data teams

Frequently Asked Questions

What area does this Chicago building permits scraper cover?
It covers building permits issued across the entire City of Chicago, spanning all 50 wards and 77 community areas. You can pull citywide results or narrow to a single ward, community area or street.

How many permits can I collect in one run?
As many as you need. Set Max Items to cap the run, or leave it high to pull large historical batches. Results come back newest issued first and paginate automatically.

Can I filter to a specific type of project or a minimum construction cost?
Yes. Filter by permit type such as New Construction or Renovation/Alteration, set a minimum reported cost to focus on higher-value projects, restrict a date range, or target a ward, community area or street.

Does it include the owner and contractor for each permit?
Yes. Every record flattens the property owner and the lead contractor into their own fields, and the full contacts list keeps every party on the permit, including trade contractors, architects and expediters with their city, state and ZIP.

What happens if a permit is missing some fields?
Optional fields such as special permit conditions or an owner name are returned as null when the city record does not include them, rather than being dropped, so your export stays consistent.

Export, API and AI agents (x402 + MCP)

Export the scraped data to JSON, CSV or Excel, pull it as a dataset through the Apify API, or wire it into your app with no code. This web scraper and data extractor also works for bulk data extraction and scheduled runs.

For AI agents: this Actor is available on x402, Apify's agentic payment standard built with Coinbase. An AI agent can discover, pay for and run it on its own with a funded wallet and a single HTTP request: no account, no subscription, no API key and no human in the loop. It also runs as an MCP tool inside Claude, Cursor and other AI clients out of the box. Learn more about x402 agentic payments on Apify.

Related scrapers

Need data from the same space? Here are other scrapers we build and maintain:

• NYC DOB Building Permits Scraper: New York City construction permits with contractor and owner contacts.
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• SEC EDGAR Filings Scraper: US company filings and disclosures from the federal EDGAR system.
• USASpending Awards Scraper: US federal contract and grant awards with recipients and amounts.
• NY DOS Business Scraper: New York State registered business entities and filing details.
• Texas TDLR Scraper: Texas licensed contractors and regulated businesses with license status.

More scrapers at scrapers.lat

This actor is built and maintained by scrapers.lat, where we publish scrapers for Latin American and US public platforms: real estate, jobs, e-commerce, company registries and government data. Browse the full catalog, see live sample output for each one, or ask us for a custom scraper at scrapers.lat.

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This actor is an independent tool and has no affiliation with the City of Chicago. It only accesses building permit data that the city publishes as public records. Use it in accordance with the applicable terms of use.