New business license lists: where to get them free, by city and state

You can get lists of new business licenses for free from many city and county governments, which publish them as open data with an issue or start date. Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Diego all do, and counties such as Gwinnett, Georgia post weekly lists. For new LLCs and corporations, several states publish their filings as data, including New York, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut and Florida. Paid vendors sell the same signal compiled, with phones and contact names added.

Below are the sources we checked, with what each contains and real October 2026 counts, then a routine that turns them into a monthly pipeline. For the bigger picture on why new businesses make good prospects, read how to find new businesses in your area.

Which cities publish new business licenses as open data?#

These are official datasets, free to download as CSV and free to query through an API. Counts are records with a start or issue date in October 2026, queried on November 3, 2026.

A few notes from working with these:

• Dates mean different things. Chicago marks a brand-new license with an application type of "ISSUE"; renewals are separate. LA and San Francisco use a "location start date", which a business reports and which can be backdated. Seattle stores its start date as text (YYYYMMDD) and includes some future dates, such as 2027. Filter carefully.
• Not every big city has one. We found no general business license dataset for Boston, Baltimore, Sacramento or Portland, Oregon, and New York City's DCWP license data showed no new licenses after April 2026 when we checked. NYC's DCWP only licenses certain trades anyway.
• Austin and Dallas don't publish a general business license dataset we could find. For Texas, the Comptroller publishes Active Sales Tax Permit Holders with a permit issue date. In October 2026 it showed 1,007 new outlet permits in Austin and 810 in Dallas. It only covers businesses that collect sales tax.

To pull a month from a Socrata portal (Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans), add a filter to the dataset's API URL. For Chicago:

https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/r5kz-chrr.json?$where=application_type='ISSUE' AND date_issued between '2026-10-01T00:00:00' and '2026-10-31T23:59:59'

Or use the portal's own filter and Export > CSV button. No account needed.

Which counties post weekly or monthly new business lists?#

Smaller governments often publish a PDF or web list instead of a dataset. Examples:

To find yours, search "[city or county] new business license list" or "[county] weekly business license report". Local news sites sometimes republish these lists; go to the government source when you can, since it's free and complete.

Which states publish new LLC and corporation filings?#

State filings catch a business earlier than a license, often before it has a location. Several states publish them as data:

Expect a lot of noise. Many new entities are holding companies, property LLCs ("2611 SE 51st Ave LLC") or side projects that never trade. If dozens of filings share one address, it's a registered agent. Keep entities with a trade in the name and drop the rest.

For looking up a single company rather than a list, see how to find who owns an LLC, by state.

Should I buy a new business list instead?#

Buy when you need national coverage, phone numbers or contact names without the matching work. Vendors compile filings, licenses and other sources into one file. As of November 2026, from their own pages:

Two cautions. Paid lists still come from the same public records, so they're only as fresh as their last update. And LeadsPlease itself notes that "not all new businesses have email addresses setup right away." Our post on buying a business email list covers the wider trade-offs.

How do I turn license lists into a monthly pipeline?#

Pull the records, clean them, match each one to something you can contact, then repeat on the same day each month. The matching step is where most of the work is, because license records rarely include an email.

1. Pick your sources. One city or county dataset for licenses, plus your state's filings if you sell pre-opening services (insurance, payroll, fit-out).
2. Pull last month. Filter by issue or start date. Save the raw file with the month in its name.
3. Filter to your trades. Use the license type, business activity or NAICS code. A restaurant supplier keeps food service; a web designer keeps retail, services and trades.
4. Drop the noise. Remove renewals, rental licenses, holding companies and registered-agent addresses.
5. Match to a contact. Search each business name and address to find its website or Google Maps listing. That's where the phone, website and email come from. Expect some to have nothing yet; keep them and check again next month.
6. Find and verify emails. Pull the published address from the website and verify it before sending. See how to find the email of any local business.
7. Dedupe and load. Check against last month's list and your do-not-contact list, then load the rest into your CRM or sending tool. The lead list template has the columns and dedupe formulas.

A worked example: if Chicago issues about 600 new licenses in a month and you sell to restaurants and cafes, filtering to food-service activities leaves you a much smaller set, and matching leaves fewer still with a website or email. Track your own numbers at each step for two months before you plan around them, and use the lead list calculator to see how many contacts your reply-rate target needs.

What are the limits of license lists?#

They tell you a business exists on paper, not that it's open or reachable.

• Timing varies. A license can be issued months before opening, or after the business has been trading for a while.
• Coverage varies. Some cities license almost every business; others license only regulated trades (Cincinnati's dataset, for example, covers types like amusement and massage businesses).
• Contact data is thin. Most records have a name and address. Phones are rare and emails rarer (Connecticut's registry is an exception with a business email field).
• Home businesses are mixed in. Many new licenses are home-based. That's fine if you sell to them, and noise if you don't.
• Personal data. Some datasets include an owner's name and mailing address. Contact the business, not the person's home, and follow the rules for each channel (see cold email laws).

How does Google Maps fit in?#

It's the other end of the timeline. A license list catches a business when it registers; Google Maps catches it when it becomes visible to customers, usually with a phone number, website and category. Repeating the same Maps searches each month and keeping only the listings you haven't seen before gives you a second new-business feed that doesn't depend on your city publishing anything. A business that's new to your search isn't always newly opened, so check review counts or an opening date before you call it new.

FAQ#

Where can I get a list of new business licenses?#

From your city or county. Many cities publish business licenses as open data with an issue or start date, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Diego. Some counties, like Gwinnett County, Georgia and Clark County, Nevada, post weekly or monthly lists. Search your city's open data portal for "business license".

Are new business license lists free?#

The official ones are. City and state open data portals publish them for free, usually with a free API and CSV download. Paid vendors such as Data Axle and LeadsPlease sell compiled new business lists with extra fields like phone and contact name.

How do I get a list of new LLCs in my state?#

Check whether your Secretary of State publishes filings as data. New York publishes the last 30 days of filings daily, Colorado publishes every entity with its formation date, Oregon publishes the businesses registered last month, Connecticut publishes its business registry daily, and Florida offers free daily filing files.

How many new business licenses are issued each month?#

It depends on the city. In October 2026, Chicago's open data recorded 595 newly issued licenses, San Francisco 905 newly registered business locations and Seattle 470 business license start dates. Those counts include home businesses and ones that may never open a storefront.

Are new business license lists good for sales leads?#

Yes, for anything a business buys in its first months: insurance, payroll, payments, signage, websites, supplies. The catch is contact data. Most license records have a name and address but no email and often no phone, so you match each record to its website or Google Maps listing before you can reach it.

Sources#

1. City of Chicago, Business Licenses (queried November 3, 2026).
2. City of Los Angeles, Listing of Active Businesses.
3. City and County of San Francisco, Registered Business Locations.
4. City of Seattle, Active Business License Tax Certificate.
5. City and County of Denver, Open Data Catalog (Active Business Licenses).
6. City of Philadelphia, Licenses and Inspections Business Licenses.
7. City of New Orleans, Occupational Business Licenses.
8. City of San Diego, Business Tax Certificates.
9. District of Columbia, Basic Business License in Last 30 Days.
10. Texas Comptroller, Active Sales Tax Permit Holders.
11. Gwinnett County, Business license weekly listing.
12. Clark County, Nevada, New businesses.
13. City of Chandler, Business registration.
14. New York Department of State, Daily Corporation and Other Entity Filing Data.
15. Colorado Department of State, Business Entities in Colorado.
16. Oregon Secretary of State, New Businesses Registered Last Month.
17. Connecticut Secretary of the State, Business Registry: Business Master.
18. Florida Division of Corporations, Sunbiz data downloads.
19. Data Axle, New business lists; LeadsPlease, New business list; NextMark, New Business Filings data card; OpenCorporates, Pricing.