TDLR Texas Contractor & Trade License Scraper

Pull licensed Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) contractor and trade businesses — Electrical Contractors, Elevator Contractors, Appliance Installation Contractors, Electrical Sign Contractors, Water Well Drillers, Service Contract Providers, cosmetology establishments, and more — with business address, phone, owner contact, and current (live-checked or inferred) Active / Expired / Revoked status.

Disclaimer — please read before running. This actor is an independent data tool built by StackRelay. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR) or the State of Texas. Results are a best-effort, point-in-time snapshot of public TDLR sources — the state Open Data (Socrata) dataset and, in enriched mode, the public tdlr.texas.gov license search — provided AS-IS with no warranty of accuracy, completeness, or timeliness. The bulk dataset refreshes on a lag (roughly weekly), so status and expiration can be stale; the live check overrides it when it succeeds but can fall back to a Socrata-inferred status — check each record's source field (socrata+live vs socrata). Every record carries a source_url linking to the official TDLR detail page and a scraped_at timestamp: verify independently at the source before acting on any record. Output contains personal data (owner names, addresses, phone); if you process data about EU/UK residents you may be an independent data controller under GDPR/UK GDPR. This actor's output is not a consumer report and must not be used for FCRA-regulated purposes — employment, tenant, or credit screening decisions about an individual. By running this actor you agree to the ./DEVELOPER_TERMS.md.

Other TDLR actors scrape the public search form and return a thin record (name, county, license #). This one combines the state's own Open Data API (full address, phone, mailing contact, geocoded lat/lon — for the ~108k business-entity licenses where the state publishes contact info) with a live lookup against tdlr.texas.gov for the current license status the API doesn't expose. You get the rich business dataset and a current status check on every record.

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Who this is for

Sales teams selling to Texas contractors. HVAC equipment vendors, electrical supply distributors, software vendors, marketing agencies — every business-entity license ships with line-1 address, county, and phone. Filter to a county or ZIP prefix and you have a deduplicated territory list ready for the CRM (dedupe on the composite key (license_type_code, license_number, license_subtype) — see the FAQ; license_number alone is not unique).

Underwriters and verification services. Insurance carriers, lien-search providers, and procurement teams who need to confirm a contractor's license is currently active before a deal closes. Pass a list of license numbers in licenseNumbers and get back live status from tdlr.texas.gov for each — much cheaper than building and maintaining your own scraper.

Renewal-monitoring services. Schedule a weekly run with expirationDateTo set to today + 60 days to catch every license about to lapse. Powers renewal-reminder businesses, supplier-compliance teams, and trade-association membership programs.

Recruiters and staffing firms. Filter by license type and county to surface every Master Electrician, Journeyman, A/C Technician, or other licensed tradesperson in a target metro.

Researchers and analysts. The county / city / ZIP filters and the structured output make Texas trade-license demographics, regional density studies, and competitive analysis trivial.

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What you get

One JSON object per license, pushed to the Apify dataset. A sample of four records covering an Electrical Contractor, Appliance Installation Contractor, Elevator Contractor (non-enrichable — source: "socrata"), and a cosmetology Full Service Establishment with a DBA is in example_output.json. Single-record preview (Appliance Installation Contractor, enriched mode):

{
  "license_number": "641",
  "license_type_code": "AIRREF",
  "license_type": "Appliance Installation Contractor",
  "license_subtype": "RAIC",
  "license_status": "Active",
  "license_status_raw": "Active",
  "expiration_date": "2026-04-19",
  "original_issue_date": "2015-03-17",
  "continuing_education_flag": false,
  "business_name": "POOL CARE SPECIALISTS",
  "dba": null,
  "owner_name": "POOL CARE SPECIALISTS",
  "business_address": {
    "line1": "STE 107123",
    "line2": "2201 LONG PRAIRIE RD",
    "city": "FLOWER MOUND",
    "state": "TX",
    "zip": "75022",
    "county": "DENTON"
  },
  "business_phone": "+1-972-829-8485",
  "mailing_address": {
    "line1": "STE 107123",
    "line2": "2201 LONG PRAIRIE RD",
    "city": "FLOWER MOUND",
    "state": "TX",
    "zip": "75022-4832",
    "county": "DENTON"
  },
  "owner_phone": "+1-972-829-8485",
  "endorsement": null,
  "location": { "latitude": 33.0264, "longitude": -97.0811 },
  "location_precision": "address",
  "source_name": "Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR) — Open Data (Socrata) + public license search",
  "source": "socrata+live",
  "source_url": "https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/LicenseSearch/SearchResultDetail.asp?1=ACTELE00000641&2=RAIC",
  "scraped_at": "2026-04-22T21:40:00.000Z"
}

Field reference

Field	Type	Notes
license_number	string	Primary key (composite with license_type_code)
license_type_code	string | null	Canonical TDLR short code (e.g. ELCTRC)
license_type	string	Spelled-out name (e.g. Electrical Contractor)
license_subtype	string | null	Subtype code (distinguishes Master/Journeyman/etc. on same type_code)
license_status	enum | null	Active / Expired / Canceled / Revoked / Suspended / Other. Verified live from tdlr.texas.gov when possible; otherwise inferred from expiration_date (Active / Expired only). Check source to tell which
license_status_raw	string | null	Raw status text from the live lookup. null when status was inferred from expiration date
expiration_date	ISO date	YYYY-MM-DD. Verified live from tdlr.texas.gov in enriched mode; falls back to the Socrata value (refreshed weekly) when the live page can't be parsed. In api_only mode always uses the Socrata value, which can lag the live site by up to 7 days for recently-renewed licenses
original_issue_date	ISO date | null	Enriched mode only
continuing_education_flag	boolean
business_name / owner_name	string
business_address / mailing_address	object | fields null	{ line1, line2, city, state, zip, county }
business_phone / owner_phone	string | null	E.164 where possible
endorsement	string | null	For license types that have endorsements
location	object	{ latitude, longitude } from the state's geocoded business address; both fields null if not published
location_precision	string | null	"address" (real geocode), "city" (state's geocoder fell back to a city centroid — every record in that city shares the same coords), or null. Filter on "address" for radius-search use cases
source_name	string	Human-readable label of the data source. Identical on every row — travels with exported data so the origin is always identifiable
source	"socrata" | "socrata+live"	Which data sources contributed. "socrata" means the live check did not run/succeed and status is inferred — treat as potentially stale
source_url	string | null	Direct deep-link to tdlr.texas.gov — verify each record here before relying on it
scraped_at	ISO timestamp	Point-in-time the record was fetched; the record is accurate only as of this time

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Coverage: which license types come back with full contact info?

The state's Open Data dataset publishes business addresses for business-entity license types and leaves individual licenses with just name + county + license #. Use requireBusinessAddress: true to filter to only the rich rows.

Business entities with full address + phone (~108k records total):

License type	Records with full contact
Full Service Establishment (cosmetology)	35,399
Mini Establishment (cosmetology)	21,883
Electrical Contractor	13,796
Devices (motor fuel)	13,384
Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment	7,721
Esthetician Establishment	4,681
Water Well Driller/Pump Installer	1,170
Manicurist Establishment	868
Appliance Installation Contractor	828
Used Auto Parts Recycler	731
Eyelash Extension Establishment	668
Cosmetology Private School	648
Electrical Sign Contractor	646
Registered Accessibility Specialist	633
Service Contract Provider	572
Professional Employer Organization	428
Elevator Contractor	360
…and others

Individual licenses (thin records — name, county, license #, live status only): A/C Contractor (20,167), A/C Technician (58,095), Journeyman Electrician (44,155), Master Electrician (19,572), Apprentice Electrician, Residential Wireman, cosmetologists, barbers, combative sports contestants, athletic trainers, midwives, dietitians, massage therapists, dyslexia practitioners, and most other person-held licenses.

This is a Texas-side regulatory choice — TDLR publishes business addresses but not individuals' home addresses. When you need contact info, filter on requireBusinessAddress: true.

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Quick start — three common jobs

1. Every active Electrical Contractor business in the Houston area (full contact)

{
  "licenseTypes": ["Electrical Contractor"],
  "counties": ["HARRIS", "FORT BEND", "MONTGOMERY"],
  "activeOnly": true,
  "requireBusinessAddress": true,
  "searchMode": "enriched",
  "maxResults": 5000
}

2. Every licensed contractor business in Texas expiring in the next 90 days

{
  "licenseTypes": [
    "Electrical Contractor",
    "Electrical Sign Contractor",
    "Elevator Contractor",
    "Appliance Installation Contractor",
    "Water Well Driller/Pump Installer",
    "Service Contract Provider"
  ],
  "expirationDateFrom": "2026-04-22",
  "expirationDateTo": "2026-07-22",
  "activeOnly": true,
  "requireBusinessAddress": true,
  "searchMode": "enriched",
  "maxResults": 10000
}

3. Every individual Master Electrician (thin records, live status)

{
  "licenseTypes": ["Master Electrician", "Journeyman Electrician"],
  "activeOnly": true,
  "requireBusinessAddress": false,
  "searchMode": "enriched",
  "maxResults": 5000
}

---

Input reference

See the run-form descriptions on each field; highlights:

• searchMode — enriched (default) adds a live tdlr.texas.gov lookup per result for current status, original issue date, and endorsement. api_only skips enrichment (cheaper, faster, no live status).
• licenseTypes — exact Socrata license type names. Leave empty for all 85+ types. See the coverage table above.
• requireBusinessAddress — set true to get only records with full address/phone; false (default) to include everything.
• businessNameContains / ownerNameContains — case-insensitive substring filters.
• activeOnly — drop Expired/Canceled/Revoked/Suspended. In enriched mode uses the live status; in API-only uses expiration_date >= today.
• maxResults — hard cap; every record pushed is billable.
• maxConcurrency — only matters in enriched mode. Default 3 (residential proxies are slower per-request; higher concurrency burns proxy budget without proportional speed gain).
• proxyConfiguration — Apify datacenter proxy is used by default and works well for most runs. If you see a high rate of enrichment timeout warnings in the log, TDLR's live site may be blocking the datacenter IP in use — switch the proxy group to Residential in the proxy configuration field to resolve this. Residential proxy is billed at Apify's standard rate (~$8/GB) against your Apify account; at typical enrichment page sizes (~35 KB each), 10,000 enriched records costs roughly $2.80 in proxy fees.

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How the data is sourced

1. Bulk data: data.texas.gov/resource/7358-krk7.json — the state's own open-data publication, "TDLR - All Licenses", ~962k rows total (~108k with full business contact info), updated weekly.
2. Live status: https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/LicenseSearch/SearchResultDetail.asp — the public license detail page. The correct URL prefix is subtype-specific (e.g. Electrical Contractor → EECELE, Appliance Installation Contractor → ACTELE, Full Service Establishment → COSSHP). The actor resolves the URL per record by POSTing to the site's own search form and following the redirect, so new license subtypes keep working without maintenance. Source of license_status, expiration_date, original_issue_date, and endorsement in enriched mode — using the live page for these fields keeps the output current with the site (Socrata refreshes weekly and can lag real-world renewals).

Both sources are public. No authentication bypass. Live-status requests are rate-limited by the maxConcurrency input.

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Data freshness and accuracy

Bulk data refreshes weekly. Socrata syncs from TDLR's authoritative database every ~7 days. A license that renewed yesterday may show its old expiration date in api_only mode. In enriched mode the live tdlr.texas.gov lookup overrides the Socrata value when it succeeds, giving you the current expiration and status as of the moment the actor ran. If the live lookup fails (upstream site unavailable, proxy blocked, or a non-enrichable license type), the record falls back to the Socrata value and source stays "socrata" — treat those as potentially up to ~7 days stale and re-verify at the source_url. Every record is a point-in-time snapshot, accurate only as of its scraped_at timestamp.

Geolocation precision is mixed. The state geocoder occasionally falls back to a city centroid when it can't resolve a specific street address — e.g. Houston's centroid (29.76078, -95.36952) shows up on every record where the geocoder couldn't pin a Houston street. The location_precision field tells you which is which: "address" for real geocodes, "city" for centroid fallbacks, null when no location was published. Filter on location_precision === "address" for any use case that depends on per-record coordinates — radius search, mapping, distance ranking. City-precision records still have signal for city-level mapping.

Out-of-Texas geocodes are dropped. A few licensee records geocode to the wrong state (Pasadena, CA instead of Pasadena, TX is the classic). Those are nulled out rather than shipped as bad data.

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FAQ

How do I export to Excel or CSV? Apify ships every dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, RSS, or HTML directly from the run page — no extra step. The actor comes pre-configured with an Overview view that surfaces the most useful columns for spreadsheet work.

Can I run this on a schedule? Yes. Apify Schedules can run this actor daily, weekly, or monthly with the same inputs. A common pattern: a weekly run with expirationDateTo set to today + 60 days, feeding a renewal-watch list. Pair it with the Notify on finish setting to get an email or webhook when each run completes.

Can I use this data for marketing outreach? TDLR licensee data is public record under the Texas Public Information Act (Government Code Chapter 552), and this actor accesses only public state endpoints. When using the data for outreach, you remain responsible for honoring federal TCPA rules and Texas's own Telephone Solicitation Act — DNC compliance, written-consent requirements, and call-time-of-day limits are on you.

Does this include bonds, insurance, or complaint/enforcement history? No. TDLR doesn't publish bond, insurance, or complaint data in a machine-readable form on its license search or Open Data portal — that information is only available by Texas Public Information Act request.

Why two direct TDLR competitors on the Apify Store? They scrape the public search form only, so they return the thin fields the form exposes (name, county, license #, status, expiration). They miss the full address, phone, mailing info, owner contact, and geocoded lat/lon that the state's Open Data API publishes for business-entity licenses.

Does license_number uniquely identify a license? No — the same license number can recur across (and within) license types. For example, Service Contract Provider #109 belongs to two separate businesses under subtypes PROVIDER and ADMIN. The unique composite key is (license_type_code, license_number, license_subtype). Buyers deduplicating across runs should key on all three.

Pricing? Per-result. Every fully-formed record pushed to the dataset counts.

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Data accuracy & legal notes

• What this data is. A best-effort, point-in-time snapshot of public TDLR sources — the state Open Data (Socrata) dataset and, in enriched mode, the public tdlr.texas.gov license search. The actor is a pipe, not an oracle: fields are passed through with formatting normalization only (phone/date formats, address structuring). Coverage and field completeness vary by license type (business entities carry full contact info; individuals do not).
• It can be wrong or stale. The bulk Socrata dataset refreshes roughly weekly, so status and expiration can lag the real world by up to ~7 days; the live check overrides this only when it succeeds. Check each record's source field (socrata+live vs socrata). A record is accurate only as of its scraped_at timestamp. Every record carries a source_url to the official TDLR detail page — independently verify any record there before relying on it.
• Personal data. Output includes personal data about individuals (owner names, addresses, phone). If you process data about EU/UK residents you may be an independent data controller under GDPR/UK GDPR and are responsible for a lawful basis and honoring data-subject rights. For outreach you remain responsible for TCPA, the Texas Telephone Solicitation Act, and DNC compliance.
• Prohibited uses. The output is not a "consumer report" and StackRelay is not a consumer reporting agency. Do not use this data for FCRA-regulated purposes — determining an individual's eligibility for employment, housing/tenancy, credit, or insurance. Verifying a contractor's license status for compliance, verification, and lead generation is the intended use.
• Not affiliated. This actor is independently developed by StackRelay and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by TDLR or the State of Texas. Only publicly available data is accessed.
• A disclaimer travels with every run in the key-value store record META, and every dataset row carries source_name, source, source_url, and scraped_at provenance fields.

Full terms: see ./DEVELOPER_TERMS.md. These notes are for the developer's protection and are not legal advice.

Changelog

0.1.1 — Added location_precision field ("address" / "city" / null) so buyers can distinguish real geocodes from the state geocoder's city-centroid fallbacks. Stopped routing Socrata calls through Apify Proxy (the public Open Data API throttles shared datacenter IPs); proxy is still used for live tdlr.texas.gov enrichment. Hardened got-scraping retries against transient upstream 5xx.

0.1.0 — Initial release. Hybrid Socrata + live-status enrichment. 85+ license types supported; 17 business-entity types carry full contact info.