OpenSanctions
ResearchDatasetsShowcaseDocumentationAbout
Overview
Understanding the data
Entity structureFlat and nested entitiesData dictionaryEntity risk taggingIdentifiers and de-duplicationPolitical positionsSanctions programsData enrichment
Bulk data
Data formatsDownloading the dataThe data delivery serviceDataset metadataUsing delta filesStatement-based data
API
Getting startedAuthentication
The matching API
Quickstart tutorialThe requestThe responseTuning the matching algorithmSupported matching algorithms
The entities APIThe search APIOn-premise deployment
Change policy
Open source
yente followthemoney zavod ContributingMatcher training data
FAQ

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

Use the APILicense in bulk

Frequently asked questions

Is there an API for matching entity lists against OpenSanctions?

Category: API · Last updated: 2026-06-01 · Permalink

The core goal of OpenSanctions is providing high-quality bulk data access to its users. Besides doing so, we also maintain the OpenSanctions API that makes it easy to search the data or to match the sanctions data against a list of customers or suspects.

If you provide another API that uses the OpenSanctions data, we’d love to hear about it and link to it from this site. Please take note of the commercial licensing rules if you do so.

Related questions

  • 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?
  • 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?
« Back to full FAQ index
Got questions? Our support is here to help.
You can also join the discussion forum to meet the community.
What we do
  • About OpenSanctions
  • Documentation
  • Commercial use
Datasets
  • Global sanctions
  • Specialized datasets
  • EveryPolitician.org
Keep updated
  • Newsletter
  • LinkedIn
  • Github code
Get in touch
  • Get support
  • Talk to sales
  • Forum

The data is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution NonCommercial

Made with across Europe · API console · System status · Changelog · Trust Center · Privacy · Security · For LLMs · Impressum

We are ISO27001 certified!
OpenSanctions · Supreme Data on Supreme Leaders
OpenSanctions Datenbanken GmbH · info@opensanctions.org · https://opensanctions.org/meeting