Getting started with the API

The OpenSanctions API does three things: /match screens people and companies against the database, /search provides full-text search, and /entities returns the complete record for a single entity.

Make your first request #

• The quickstart tutorial walks you through your first screening call and how to interpret the response.
• Authentication explains how to send your API key with each request.
• Working in Python? The yente-client package provides a typed SDK for the API, the yente-cli command-line tool, and an MCP server that lets LLM agents run screening queries.
• For other languages, the interactive API documentation describes every endpoint in detail, and the OpenAPI JSON spec can be used to generate a client.

The endpoints #

• The matching API (/match) is the core of a screening workflow: you describe an entity in as much detail as you can, and it returns scored candidates from the database. Deep dives on the request and the response explain every field.
• The entities API (/entities/<id>) returns everything we know about one entity, with related records nested inline.
• The search API (/search) is full-text search, like the search box on this website. It's built for user-facing search interfaces, not for screening.

Understand the results #

• The data dictionary lists all the entity types, properties, and relationships used in the data.
• Risk topics and sanctions programs tell you why an entity is listed: whether a match is sanctioned, sanction-linked, a PEP, or some other category of risk.
• Nested entities explains how related records such as sanction details, family relationships, and business relationships are embedded in API responses.

Build a screening process #

• Learn how to tune the matching algorithm to fit your use case and reduce the number of false matches, and read up on the supported matching algorithms.
• Set up a continuous monitoring workflow to re-screen your counterparties as the watchlist data changes, catching new designations after onboarding.
• If your screening data must stay within your own infrastructure, the same API runs on-premise under a data license.

Commercials #

The OpenSanctions API is paid from prepaid credit bundles. One credit covers one metered operation (what counts), and larger bundles cost less per query. Credits are valid for a year, and there is no subscription or contract lock-in.

• Find more details in the commercial FAQ.
• Screening more than a million entities a year? Talk to sales for a custom bundle.
• Visit your customer portal to buy credits, view usage, manage your API keys, and configure auto-recharge.