Frequently asked questions

tl;dr: The default data collection is updated every 6 hours. Use the dataset metadata to see if a new release is available.

OpenSanctions data is updated in two phases:

• Data Sources: Sanctions lists are updated every 4 to 12 hours. Other sources like PEPs and regulatory watchlists are updated daily or weekly.
• Data Collections: Aggregated data collections are updated multiple times a day (approximately every six hours).

Exact Timing:

• We do not specify exact publication times. A practical approach is to check the metadata index for the availability of new data every 30 minutes to pull the new data soon after it become available. See our documentation on downloading the data and keeping it fresh.
• Our hosted API checks for new data every 30 minutes.
• The self-hosted API service, Yente, checks for new data every hour by default.
• You can check the last_export property in the dataset metadata for the most recent export time.