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OpenSanctions is free for non-commercial users. Businesses must acquire a data license to use the dataset.

Frequently asked questions

You can find answers to the most common questions about OpenSanctions here, including detailed information about the structure of the database, the commercial product, and technical details of the API and bulk data.

Bulk data

How often is OpenSanctions data updated, and can we know the exact time of updates?
What are the differences between the main dataset and the KYB collection?
Does the data contain securities identifiers (ISINs) and ticker symbols for companies?
If I run the published source code, will it rebuild the full database?
How can I use the full KYB datasets?

API

Should I use the SaaS API or a yente on-premise?
What are the API usage limits and how can I optimize my API calls?
How does query scoping affect the entities returned by the API?
What uses of the API are metered and cost money?
Is there an API for matching entity lists against OpenSanctions?
Should I use the /match or the /search API?
Can the API absorb a high request volume?
When do I use the /entities endpoint?
When do I use the /search API?
Why do results in the /match and /search endpoints not include relationships?
How can I tune scoring to reduce false positives?
What details should I supply for entity matching?
What are the known limitations of the matching API?
What is the API key quota, and how can I change the quota?
Can I embed OpenSanctions entity profiles as an iframe?

Concepts

What is an entity?
What is a dataset?
What is a collection?
What is an entity of interest?
What is a target?
What are sanctions programs?
What is a politically exposed person (PEP)?
What is dataset coverage?

Basics

What is OpenSanctions and who is it for?
Does OpenSanctions contain only sanctions lists?
Where does the data come from?
Can I contribute a new data source?
Can I use this data for commercial purposes?
Does the database cover crypto sanctions?
Do you include adverse media in the database?
Do you include EU sanctions before they're in the FSF database?
Does the data include securities identifiers (ISINs) for companies?

Data structure

Does OpenSanctions use the same identifiers as Wikidata?
How are entity captions used?
How does the nested format represent entity networks?
What does "last change" indicate?

Policy

Will you delete data about me?

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