Free and non-commercial use

There are two ways to use OpenSanctions for free: the bulk data is free for anyone to use non-commercially, and free API keys are a grant we make to support public-interest work.

The bulk data is free for non-commercial use #

The complete database is published under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license and available as a bulk download without a sign-up or API key. If your use is non-commercial (e.g. a student project, a hobby analysis, personal research), you don't need our permission to download the data.

You can also run our on-premise API (yente) on your own hardware to search and match against our data, your own data, or a combination of the two.

Free API keys support public-interest work #

Operating the API costs us money, so free keys are a deliberate grant that we issue to people whose work we want to support. That covers:

• Journalists (staff or freelance) publishing findings in the public interest. That includes journalists at commercial media organizations.
• Advocacy groups and nonprofits working to improve democratic governance or to expose corruption and financial crime.
• Academic researchers with an institutional affiliation, studying sanctions policy, illicit finance, or related topics.
• Public institutions of countries invaded by the Russian Armed Forces (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova).

We verify before granting: expect us to ask for your outlet and a byline or portfolio, a nonprofit registration, or an institutional email address. To request a key, create an account using your work email address and fill out the form provided. For many news organizations (including GIJN member organizations), NGOs, and academic institutions, we issue free keys automatically based on your email domain.

What free access does not cover #

Any use inside a for-profit business requires a data license. Compliance screening is a commercial use even though it generates no revenue: it's a cost of doing business, like the rest of your compliance program. This applies regardless of how much of the data you use or how you access it. However, you can evaluate the API on a trial, and our commercial options scale down to low-volume use.

The free key program also doesn't cover hobby projects, coursework, or investigation work without a public-interest mandate. That includes OSINT research done as a business or for clients. If your use is genuinely non-commercial, the bulk data above is yours to work with.

Nonprofits with compliance obligations get a discount, not free access #

Some nonprofits need more than the data: they screen grantees, partners, or payments to meet legal obligations, and they need the contract, service guarantees, and support that regulated screening requires. Contractual commitments are the one thing we can't give away because they carry real liability on our side. What we offer instead is discounted commercial terms for nonprofit compliance use. Talk to our sales team to work out terms.