LEI Company Lookup (GLEIF) – legal entities, parents and groups

Call this Actor to find a company's LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) and its official register data: legal name, legal form (with a readable label), registry number, legal and headquarters address (country, city, postcode), status, renewal dates, managing LEI issuer, and the direct and ultimate parent (or the reason none is reported). Use search when you only know a name, country or legal form, lookup when you already have LEIs, subsidiaries to list the entities of a group. Data comes from the public GLEIF API; it is legal entities only (see Privacy / GDPR by design).

Unofficial tool. Not provided, supported or endorsed by GLEIF or any LEI issuer (LOU). It reads the public GLEIF data and adds filters, flat clean field names, legal-form labels, parent chains and agent-friendly notes.

Minimal input per mode

Mode	Minimal input	What comes back
search	{"legalName": "Airbus", "countries": ["FR"], "maxResults": 5}	LEI records whose legal name starts with "Airbus", legal address in France
lookup	{"mode": "lookup", "leis": ["529900RJ7K80E91EKN44"], "includeParents": true}	one full record per LEI, with direct and ultimate parent
subsidiaries	{"mode": "subsidiaries", "leis": ["529900S21EQ1BO4ESM68"], "maxResults": 10}	entities that report this LEI as their direct parent ("subsidiaryLevel": "ultimate" = the whole group)

Empty input {} returns the 20 most recently updated LEI records (non-empty, useful as a health check).

Short real output (lookup with parentChain, 5 Nov 2026; the full record has about 45 fields, every record also carries attribution and extractedAt):

{
  "lei": "529900RJ7K80E91EKN44",
  "legalName": "TotalEnergies Aviation Suisse SA",
  "category": "GENERAL",
  "entityStatus": "ACTIVE",
  "legalFormCode": "MVII",
  "legalFormLabel": "Company limited by shares",
  "jurisdiction": "CH",
  "registrationNumber": "CHE-105.924.515",
  "legalAddressCountry": "CH",
  "legalAddressCity": "Genève",
  "legalAddressPostalCode": "1215",
  "registrationStatus": "ISSUED",
  "nextRenewalDate": "2027-08-25T10:39:13Z",
  "managingLou": "5299000J2N45DDNE4Y28",
  "parentsStatus": "ok",
  "directParentLei": "529900S21EQ1BO4ESM68",
  "directParentName": "TotalEnergies SE",
  "ultimateParentLei": "529900S21EQ1BO4ESM68",
  "ultimateParentName": "TotalEnergies SE",
  "parentChain": [{ "level": 1, "lei": "529900S21EQ1BO4ESM68", "legalName": "TotalEnergies SE", "country": "FR" }]
}

For AI agents (MCP)

• One call = one answer. Default maxResults is 20; keep it small and raise it only when the run SUMMARY says capped: true. Empty input is valid and returns data.
• Pick the mode by what you have. Name or country but no LEI: search. LEI known: lookup (batches of up to 2000 LEIs). Parent LEI known and you want its group: subsidiaries.
• legalName matches the START of the name (case-insensitive): "Total" finds "TotalEnergies SE" but not "Groupe Total". For words anywhere use nameMatch: "fulltext", for typos nameMatch: "fuzzy". A French SIREN or other registry number can be searched with registrationNumber, written as the registry shows it (for example 383 474 814).
• Speed and limits. A search takes 1-5 s. Parents cost 1 to 2 extra GLEIF calls per record (parentChain: one per level); GLEIF allows 60 requests per minute, so with includeParents keep maxResults at 50 or less for a quick answer. The Actor throttles itself, retries on HTTP 429 and returns partial results (flagged) before the platform time limit.
• Errors fail fast in the form Field X invalid: expected Y, got Z, example W (for example Field countries invalid: expected ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes, got "FRA", example ["FR", "DE"].). Fix that field and call again; nothing is charged.
• 0 results is not an error. The run succeeds with an empty dataset and the key-value record SUMMARY has note saying why (no match, every match is a sole proprietor removed by design, unknown LEIs...) and how to widen the search. The same note explains truncated (capped), partial and cost-capped runs.
• parentsStatus is ok, partial (some parent data could not be fetched: run again) or not-requested. A record with no parent has directParentException / ultimateParentException set to GLEIF's reason (for example NON_CONSOLIDATING, NATURAL_PERSONS, NO_KNOWN_PERSON).

Who uses it

• KYB / onboarding and compliance teams: confirm that a counterparty exists, is active, has a valid (non-lapsed) LEI, and see who is above it in the group.
• Credit, risk and procurement analysts: group structure from a subsidiary up to its ultimate parent, and from a parent down to its entities.
• Sales and lead generation: companies in a country with a given legal form, or LEIs due for renewal in the next weeks (renewalFrom / renewalTo) or newly registered (registeredFrom).
• Data teams: enrich a customer or supplier list with LEI, official legal name, legal form label, jurisdiction and registry number.
• AI agents that need a reliable identifier for a company mentioned in a document.

What you get

One flat record per LEI. Main fields: lei, legalName, category, subCategory, entityStatus, legalFormCode, legalFormLabel (from the GLEIF ELF code list), legalFormOther, jurisdiction, registrationAuthorityId, registrationNumber, legalAddress{Country,Region,City,PostalCode}, headquartersAddress{Country,Region,City,PostalCode}, entityCreationDate, entityExpirationDate, entityExpirationReason, successorLei, registrationStatus, initialRegistrationDate, lastUpdateDate, nextRenewalDate, managingLou, corroborationLevel, conformityFlag, then parentsStatus, directParent{Lei,Name,Country,Exception}, ultimateParent{Lei,Name,Country,Exception}, parentChain, parentsNote, childOfLei, childRelationship (subsidiaries mode), gleifUrl, attribution, extractedAt.

No street address lines, alternative names, contacts or other free text are output: only the structured fields above.

Quick start

All active French SAS that renewed last month

{ "countries": ["FR"], "legalForms": ["6CHY"], "entityStatuses": ["ACTIVE"], "registrationStatuses": ["ISSUED"], "lastUpdatedFrom": "2026-10-01", "maxResults": 100 }

LEIs about to lapse in Monaco

{ "countries": ["MC"], "renewalFrom": "2026-11-01", "renewalTo": "2026-12-31", "sortBy": "renewalAsc", "maxResults": 50 }

Group structure of a subsidiary

{ "mode": "lookup", "leis": ["529900RJ7K80E91EKN44"], "parentChain": true }

Find a company despite a typo

{ "legalName": "airbsu", "nameMatch": "fuzzy" }

Newly registered funds in Luxembourg

{ "countries": ["LU"], "categories": ["FUND"], "registeredFrom": "2026-10-01", "sortBy": "registeredDesc", "maxResults": 100 }

Filters (search mode)

Field	Meaning
legalName, nameMatch	name text; prefix (default), fulltext or fuzzy
countries	ISO alpha-2 codes of the legal address (any of)
jurisdictions	registration jurisdiction, e.g. US-DE (any of)
legalForms	4-character ELF codes, e.g. 6CHY = French SAS (any of)
entityStatuses	ACTIVE, INACTIVE
registrationStatuses	ISSUED, LAPSED, ANNULLED, ...
categories	GENERAL, FUND, BRANCH, RESIDENT_GOVERNMENT_ENTITY, INTERNATIONAL_ORGANIZATION (sole proprietors do not exist here, by design)
registrationNumber	national registry number, as written in the registry
lastUpdatedFrom/To, renewalFrom/To, registeredFrom/To	date windows, YYYY-MM-DD
sortBy	lastUpdatedDesc, lastUpdatedAsc, registeredDesc, renewalAsc

Filters are combined with AND; lists are OR. includeParents / parentChain work in every mode.

Privacy / GDPR by design

This Actor is deliberately built not to return data about natural persons. This filtering is applied on purpose, to respect the GDPR; it cannot be switched off.

• Fail-closed allow-list. A record is kept only if GLEIF's entity.category is one of GENERAL, FUND, BRANCH, RESIDENT_GOVERNMENT_ENTITY, INTERNATIONAL_ORGANIZATION (legal entities and arrangements). SOLE_PROPRIETOR (individuals acting in a business capacity) is always dropped; an empty, missing, unreadable or unknown category is dropped too. The API request itself already asks only for the allowed categories, and the code checks every record again.
• Second safety net. Records whose legal form is a sole-trader form (60 ELF codes found in the GLEIF code list such as "Sole Proprietorship", "eenmanszaak", "Einzelunternehmen", "Entreprise individuelle", plus the registrant's free-text legal form mentioning an individual) are dropped even when the category looks fine. Brazilian/Latin-American "Empresa Individual de Responsabilidad Limitada" are dropped too (one-owner vehicles): deliberately over-cautious.
• Structured company fields only. No street lines, alternative names, e-mail or phone are output. Parents are shown (LEI, name, country) only when they pass the same check.
• Measured (5 Nov 2026, live GLEIF register, 3,000 records, 150 random records from each of 20 countries FR DE GB US IT ES NL IN BR JP CH LU PL SE CN AU CA ZA NO BE): 97.5 % kept (2,925), 2.5 % dropped (75): 73 sole proprietors by category (2.4 %) and 2 by the legal-form safety net (0.1 %). In the full register 132,791 of 3,485,407 LEIs (3.8 %) are sole proprietors; the share varies by country (sole proprietors per LEI of the country, counted on the live API: India 22.7 %, Poland 13.2 %, Brazil 5.3 %, Italy 4.8 %, Netherlands 3.2 %, Switzerland 0.6 %, Germany 0.6 %, China 0.4 %, France 0.2 %, USA 0.1 %, UK and Japan about 0 %).
• Residual risks, stated honestly. (1) A legal entity can carry a person's name (a company, a one-person SAS/GmbH, a medical practice SELARL, a foundation or a trust named after a family): it is a legal entity, so it stays, and its name and registered address are public company data. (2) Funds and trusts are returned. (3) The check relies on the category and legal form declared in the register; a mistake there is not detectable. (4) Registry numbers (registrationNumber) of companies are returned as published. You remain responsible for your own use of the data.
• Nothing about you is stored. The Actor keeps no state between runs and stores nothing about who calls it beyond the run's own dataset, key-value record and logs in your Apify account.

Limits and disclaimer

• Freshness: GLEIF publishes the Golden Copy every day (the API reflects it); a company that has just obtained a LEI may appear after a few hours.
• Quality: the data is declared by the entities and validated by LEI issuers (see corroborationLevel); no warranty, check the official GLEIF record (gleifUrl) before relying on it.
• Coverage: only entities that have a LEI (about 3.5 million worldwide). Not every company has one.
• Depth limits: GLEIF serves at most 10,000 children of one LEI per query; a search returns up to your maxResults (max 10,000) records.
• Speed: GLEIF documents a limit of 60 requests per minute per user; the Actor spaces its calls accordingly (20 immediate, then 1 per second). Measured on 5 Nov 2026: 0.1 to 0.4 s per call; a search of 20 records takes about 1 s; 37 records with includeParents took 39 s (59 GLEIF calls, throttled); allow about 1 s per extra call beyond the first 20.
• Source and licence: GLEIF API (documentation: api.gleif.org/docs). LEI data is published under the CC0 1.0 public domain dedication (GLEIF LEI Data Terms of Use: "The data available through the Access Service are provided under the CC0 licence"). The terms ask that you do not suggest that your service is provided or endorsed by GLEIF or a LOU; this Actor does not.
• Unofficial service, not endorsed by GLEIF.

Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription:

Event	Price	Per 1,000
lei-record: one LEI record delivered	0.004 USD	4 USD per 1,000 records
Actor start (once per run)	0.00005 USD	n/a

Parents, parent chains and the legal-form labels are included in the record price. Records removed by the GDPR filter, filters or the cost cap are not delivered and not charged. Use the platform's Maximum cost per run to cap spend: the Actor reads it, stops cleanly and returns what it already delivered (the cap must allow at least one record).

En français

Outil non officiel sur le registre public GLEIF des identifiants d'entités juridiques (LEI, données CC0) : recherche par nom, pays, forme juridique ou dates, consultation par LEI, société mère directe et ultime, filiales. Seules les personnes morales sont renvoyées : les entrepreneurs individuels (personnes physiques) sont systématiquement exclus (RGPD dès la conception).