UK Companies House

UK Companies House Data from the UK government

API keyHTTPSNo CORSGovernment

Verified today: 100% uptime

Is UK Companies House free, and does it need an API key?

Free UK government API for company records, officers and filing history. Reading public data needs only an API key; OAuth is only for filing on a company's behalf.

Price: Free
API key: Required, free signup

How to get an UK Companies House API key

Register on the Companies House developer hub.
Create an application and add an API key to it.
Send the key as the username in HTTP Basic auth, with an empty password.

Get a key ↗

Send it as curl -u YOUR_KEY: https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00000006

Checked by hand on 2026-10-24 against Companies House API: authorisation. Providers change their terms, so confirm on their own pages before you commit.

API key

Required, free signup

HTTPS

Supported

Browser calls

No, needs a proxy

Status

Live · 100/100

Overview & Architectural Role

UK Companies House provides programmatic access to uk companies house data from the uk government. Delivered over secure HTTPS protocols, it exposes structured endpoints designed to integrate cleanly into modern frontend frameworks, backend microservices, and automated data pipelines without requiring local database provisioning.

Who it is built for

Engineers building web dashboards, mobile applications, CLI utilities, or background cron workers in need of reliable government data feeds.

Architectural Advantage

Consuming UK Companies House removes the operational overhead of running custom scrapers, orchestrating headless browser fleets, or manually seeding and maintaining a local database. Instead of reverse-engineering volatile DOM layouts or dealing with anti-bot IP blocks, your application connects directly to a standardized JSON interface designed for backend ingestion with consistent schema schemas. Dedicated authentication ensures rate quotas and credential tracking per project environment.

What our checks found

Health score: 100/100
Reliability: 100%
Average latency: 796ms

Last checked 2026-10-24. Measured independently, not self-reported by the provider.

Core Use Cases & Architecture Ideas

Practical real-world patterns for integrating UK Companies House into software systems.

Automated SaaS Feature Integration

Embed data and functionality from UK Companies House directly into application onboarding, profile enrichment, or reporting dashboards.

Architecture: Backend service worker fetches UK Companies House during user workflows, caches responses in Redis, and hydrates UI state.

Scheduled Reporting & Monitoring Bot

Periodically extract updates from UK Companies House to generate daily digests, analytics reports, or Slack notifications.

Architecture: A scheduled GitHub Action or cron worker executes a lightweight script calling UK Companies House, formatting markdown summaries for stakeholders.

Rapid Prototyping & Hackathon Showcase

Provide real-world mock data and operational endpoints for client demos, portfolio apps, or MVP validation.

Architecture: Static client SPA queries UK Companies House directly to populate mock dashboards, graphs, and interactive UI states without a custom backend.

Code Implementation Examples

Production-ready starting templates with error handling for UK Companies House.

// Requires an API key. Check the docs for whether it goes in a header or a query parameter.
// Modern native fetch with error handling
async function callApi() {
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/api/v1/resource', {
      method: 'GET',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY',
      Accept: 'application/json',
    },
    });

    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}: ${response.statusText}`);
    }

    const data = await response.json();
    console.log('Response payload:', data);
    return data;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('API request failed:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

// callApi();

This API does not send CORS headers, so a browser will block a direct call from your front end. Call it from your server, or put a small proxy in front of it.

Response Payload & Live Testing

Inspect the expected JSON structure returned by UK Companies House.

Expected JSON Response Payload

Authentic sample payload structure to evaluate schema attributes before integration.

{
  "status": 200,
  "api": "UK Companies House",
  "endpoint": "/uk-companies-house",
  "data": {
    "id": 101,
    "title": "UK Companies House Sample Payload",
    "description": "UK Companies House Data from the UK government",
    "verified": true,
    "category": "Government",
    "updated_at": "2026-10-24T07:40:04.788Z"
  },
  "meta": {
    "response_time_ms": 796,
    "cached": false
  }
}

Format: application/json

Integration Considerations & Best Practices

Technical factors to keep in mind when integrating UK Companies House into production environments.

Implement In-Memory or Edge Caching

Avoid triggering rate limits on public feeds by caching response payloads in Redis, Vercel KV, or standard HTTP Cache-Control headers with a 5-to-15 minute TTL.

Shield Credentials in Backend Route Handlers

Never expose private API keys in client-side JavaScript or bundle environments. Proxy requests through a Next.js API route or serverless backend to keep secret keys out of public DevTools inspection.

CORS Proxy Required for Browser Frontend Calls

This API does not send Access-Control-Allow-Origin response headers. Direct fetch() calls from browser JavaScript will fail due to Same-Origin Policy. Route your calls through a server backend or lightweight edge proxy.

Validate HTTP Status Before Parsing JSON

Always inspect response.ok before executing response.json(). Upstream services returning 4xx or 502 Bad Gateway often serve HTML error pages, which cause syntax errors when parsed as JSON.

Where this listing comes from

Access and search Interpol Red Notices

No keyCORSHTTPS

Verified today: 100% uptime

View Details

UK Companies House — common questions

Answered from what our own scheduled checks found, not from the provider's marketing.

Is the UK Companies House API free?

Free UK government API for company records, officers and filing history. Reading public data needs only an API key; OAuth is only for filing on a company's behalf. Checked on 2026-10-24.

Does UK Companies House need an API key?

Yes, and it is free: you get one by signing up. Send it as curl -u YOUR_KEY: https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00000006.

How do I get an UK Companies House API key?

1. Register on the Companies House developer hub. 2. Create an application and add an API key to it. 3. Send the key as the username in HTTP Basic auth, with an empty password.

Can I call UK Companies House from browser JavaScript?

Not directly. UK Companies House did not return CORS headers when we checked, so the browser will block your page from reading the response even though the request itself succeeds. Call it from a server, or put a small proxy in front of it.

Is UK Companies House still working?

Yes, as of 2026-10-24. Our automated check reached UK Companies House and recorded a 100% reliability score with a median response time of 796 ms. We re-check on a schedule, and this page updates with the result.