UK Company Lookup and Filing Monitor (Companies House)

Look up UK companies and watch them for new filings, using the official Companies House API. Search by company name, pull the full record for any company number (status, registered office, SIC codes, accounts and confirmation statement dates, optionally directors and people with significant control), or monitor a list of companies and get only the filings you have not seen before.

You need your own free Companies House API key. The Actor calls the official Companies House Public Data API with your key, so requests count against your own allowance. Getting a key takes a few minutes (see "Get your API key" below).

Who it is for

• Sales, marketing and lead-generation teams enriching lists of UK companies.
• Compliance, KYC and due-diligence teams checking company status, officers and controllers.
• Accountants, credit and risk analysts watching customers or suppliers for new accounts, charges, insolvency notices and officer changes.
• Journalists and researchers following specific companies.
• Automations and AI agents that need a dependable UK company data feed.

Three modes

Mode	Give it	You get
Search	Company names or parts of names	One row per matching company: number, name, status, type, incorporation date, address.
Lookup	Company numbers	One full record per company: status, registered office, SIC codes, accounts and confirmation statement dates and whether they are overdue, charges and insolvency flags, previous names. Optionally the officers and the persons with significant control.
Monitor	Company numbers	One row per new filing: date, category, what was filed, form type, and links to the filing on the Companies House website.

Company numbers have eight characters (for example 00000006 or SC123456). A number written without its leading zeros is padded for you. Use Search first if you only know a name.

Get your API key

1. Register on the Companies House developer hub and create an application.
2. Add a REST key to the application. Do not restrict it to particular IP addresses or web addresses; Apify runs from changing addresses.
3. Paste the key into the Companies House API key field. It is stored as a secret setting, so it is hidden after you save it.

Companies House allows 600 requests every 5 minutes per key. The Actor paces itself to stay inside that. A lookup uses one request per company (two more with officers and controllers); monitor uses two or more per company (the company record, then its filing history).

Example rows

Monitor mode (illustrative values):

{
  "companyNumber": "00000006",
  "companyName": "EXAMPLE TRADING LIMITED",
  "date": "2026-10-01",
  "category": "accounts",
  "title": "Accounts with accounts type micro entity",
  "type": "AA",
  "documentUrl": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00000006/filing-history/EXAMPLE/document?format=pdf&download=0",
  "filingHistoryUrl": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00000006/filing-history"
}

Lookup mode returns fields such as status, companyType, dateOfCreation, registeredOffice, sicCodes, accountsNextDue, accountsOverdue, confirmationStatementNextDue, hasCharges, hasInsolvencyHistory, previousNames, and (when you ask for them) officers and personsWithSignificantControl.

Input

Field	What it does
companiesHouseApiKey	Your Companies House API key (required).
mode	search, lookup or monitor. Default lookup.
searchTerms, activeOnly	Search mode: names to search, and whether to leave out dissolved companies (on by default).
companyNumbers	Lookup and monitor modes: the companies to read.
includeOfficers, includeResignedOfficers	Lookup mode: add directors and secretaries; optionally those who resigned. One extra request per company.
includePersonsWithSignificantControl	Lookup mode: add the people and companies recorded as controlling the company. One extra request per company.
categories	Monitor mode: only these kinds of filing (accounts, officers, mortgage, insolvency and others). Empty means all.
daysBack, dateFrom	Monitor mode: how far back to look the first time. Default 30 days.
onlyNew	Monitor mode: deliver only filings not delivered before. On by default.
maxResults	Stop after this many rows. Default 100.
maxRequests	Safety limit on requests per run. Default 300.

Alerts on a schedule

1. Choose Monitor mode, paste your key and list your company numbers.
2. Leave onlyNew on and set daysBack to a little more than the gap between runs.
3. Schedule the Actor from the Apify Console (for example every morning).
4. Each run delivers only filings you have not seen. If a run stops early (cost cap, request cap or time limit), the next run continues where it stopped.

The "already delivered" list is kept in a storage called uk-company-monitor-state in your own Apify account, with one list per company, so adding companies to your list never repeats the others.

Pricing

You pay per row delivered (pay per event): one price for a company row (search and lookup) and one for a filing row (monitor). Apify's platform usage is included, so you are not billed for it separately. See the Pricing tab for current prices. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options to cap spending: the Actor stops as soon as the cap is reached. Companies House does not charge for the API.

Limits and good to know

• Rate limit. If Companies House asks for fewer requests, the run ends with a note and keeps what was delivered. Wait five minutes and run again.
• Companies that are not found are listed in the run's status message and are not charged.
• Long lists. Officer and controller lists are cut at 200 entries per company, and the status message says so when that happens.
• Filing descriptions. The register gives each filing a short code; the Actor turns it into readable text when the register does not supply one. The description field keeps the original code.
• Document links open the filing on the Companies House website. Some older filings have no document.
• Personal data. Officer and controller records include names, month and year of birth, nationality and correspondence address as published on the public register. If you store or use that data, you are responsible for handling it lawfully (for example under UK GDPR).
• The register shows what companies have filed. Filings can be late, wrong or corrected later; check the filing on the Companies House website before you rely on it.

Data source and disclaimer

Data comes from the Companies House Public Data API and is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Companies House or any government body.