# Building permit data API: free endpoints and paid options

By Rotomal team · Updated 2026-10-29 · Part of [Permit Weekly](https://rotomal.com/permit-leads/)

**Short answer:** You can query building permits for free through the open-data APIs of the cities that publish them: Socrata endpoints for New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Dallas and others; ArcGIS FeatureServer layers for Miami-Dade County, Columbus and Fort Worth; and CKAN or Carto SQL for Boston, San Antonio, San Jose and Philadelphia. None needs a key for light use. Paid national APIs combine many sources: Shovels, for example, lists 500 free credits a month, then $599 or $999 a month, at one credit per record (checked 29 October 2026).

## Free official permit APIs, by platform

Every city below answered our queries on 29 October 2026. Dataset links are in our building permit data sources guide.

| Platform | Cities | Where it lives |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Socrata (SODA) | New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Cincinnati, East Baton Rouge Parish, New Orleans, Mesa, Kansas City, Montgomery County MD, Norfolk, Collin CAD | Each city's own Socrata portal (for example data.cityofchicago.org, data.austintexas.gov, dallasopendata.com); filter, group and count without a key |
| ArcGIS FeatureServer | Miami-Dade County, Columbus, Fort Worth | County and city ArcGIS permit layers on services.arcgis.com; filter and count records |
| CKAN DataStore | Boston, San Antonio, San Jose | Each city's CKAN open data portal, for example Boston's (data.boston.gov); record search and SQL |
| Carto SQL | Philadelphia | Philadelphia's Carto SQL interface (phl.carto.com) |
| CSV files | San Diego | Yearly files on seshat.datasd.org, for example approvals_issued_2026_datasd.csv |

## What the free endpoints answered on 29 October 2026

Each of these questions was answered directly by the city's own endpoint, with no key and no download, for permits from 1 October 2026 to the newest record:

- Austin's open data portal (data.austintexas.gov): permits in ZIP 78704 counted by contractor company.
- Chicago's open data portal (data.cityofchicago.org): permits counted by type.
- The Miami-Dade County ArcGIS permit layer (services.arcgis.com): a count of permits.
- Boston's open data portal (data.boston.gov): a count of permits, through its SQL interface.
- Philadelphia's Carto SQL interface (phl.carto.com): permits counted by type.

## Which city APIs name the contractor

The contractor field is what turns permit data into competitor and subcontracting leads, and it varies most. Our counts for permits issued 1–28 October 2026:

| City | Contractor field | Filled |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Austin | contractor_company_name, contractor_phone | 4,061 of 4,425 (92%) |
| New York City | applicant_business_name, applicant_license | 13,410 of 13,410 |
| Miami-Dade County | ContractorName, ContractorPhone | 5,021 of 5,021 (phone on 81%) |
| Columbus | APPLICANT_BUS_NAME | 3,303 of 3,564 (93%) |
| Philadelphia | contractorname | 3,177 of 3,657 (87%) |
| Chicago | contact_1_type to contact_15_type, any contractor role | 2,465 of 2,536 (97%) |
| Seattle | contractorcompanyname | 33 of 475 (7%) |
| Dallas | contractor | 12 of 5,250 (0.2%) |
| San Francisco | Separate Building Permits Contacts dataset, role = contractor | Join on permit_number (not counted) |
| Los Angeles | None | No contractor column |

Seattle's dataset does have a contractor column, but it was filled on only 476 of the 5,395 permits issued so far in 2026.

## Limits and gotchas

- Socrata works without a key, but requests without an app token share a pool by IP address and can be throttled with HTTP 429. Register a free app token for regular jobs.
- ArcGIS layers cap the records per request (1,000 for Fort Worth's permit table), so larger pulls come back over several pages.
- Date formats differ between Socrata and ArcGIS, and Dallas stores its issue date as text (10/28/26).
- Field names and permit types differ in every city. Check each dataset's published column list before you rely on a field.
- Portals move. Fort Worth's old dataset link no longer opens a dataset, and San Francisco's portal now redirects from data.sfgov.org to data.sf.gov.

## Paid permit data APIs

| Provider | Price, checked 29 Oct 2026 | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Shovels | Free: 500 credits a month, up to 10 results per query, 1 year of history. Basic $599 a month (25,000 credits), Pro $999 a month (50,000 credits). 1 credit = 1 record. | Cleaned, normalized records; Basic and Pro billed monthly |
| Construction Monitor | No prices on its site | Lists a developer API; its homepage reported 2,791,382 permits in the last 12 months |
| Apify actors | Per-result pricing set by each actor's author | The building-permit-monitor actor reads five cities' open-data APIs: Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City |

A paid API is worth checking where cities publish no permit dataset, such as Houston and Phoenix: ask the vendor for its record count and newest record date there before you buy. Where a city publishes open data, its free endpoint is the original source.

## If you want leads, not an API

Permit Weekly is not an API product. It sends one trade's permits for your ZIP codes as a weekly email and CSV, can push them to a CRM by webhook or Zapier on Pro, and can be read by an AI assistant through an MCP connector. Before you pay, we confirm coverage for your ZIP codes by email.

## FAQ

### Is there a free building permit API?

Yes, city by city. Cities that publish permits as open data expose them through their portal's API (Socrata, ArcGIS, CKAN or Carto), free and usually without a key. There is no free API covering every US city.

### Do I need an API key for city permit data?

Not for light use. Socrata recommends a free app token for regular jobs, since requests without one share a pool by IP address and can be throttled.

### Which building permit APIs include the contractor?

In our 29 October 2026 check, Austin, New York City, Miami-Dade County, Columbus, Philadelphia and Chicago (among the listed contacts) named the contractor on 87% to 100% of October permits. Dallas and Seattle rarely fill it, and Los Angeles has no contractor column.

### How much does a building permit data API cost?

City APIs are free. Shovels lists a free plan with 500 credits a month and paid plans at $599 and $999 a month, at one credit per record; Construction Monitor does not publish prices.

### Is there one API for all US building permits?

Not a free one. Nationwide record-level permit data is sold by vendors such as Shovels and Construction Monitor, and many cities publish nothing machine-readable.

## Sources

- Socrata developer docs: queries with SoQL https://dev.socrata.com/docs/queries/
- Socrata developer docs: application tokens and throttling https://dev.socrata.com/docs/app-tokens.html
- Esri: ArcGIS REST API, Query (Feature Service/Layer) https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/services-reference/enterprise/query-feature-service-layer/
- Austin open data: Issued Construction Permits https://data.austintexas.gov/d/3syk-w9eu
- Chicago open data: Building Permits https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/ydr8-5enu
- Seattle open data: Building Permits https://data.seattle.gov/d/76t5-zqzr
- Dallas open data: Building Permits https://www.dallasopendata.com/d/e7gq-4sah
- New York City open data: DOB NOW: Build – Approved Permits https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/rbx6-tga4
- San Francisco open data: Building Permits Contacts https://data.sf.gov/d/3pee-9qhc
- Miami-Dade County: permit feed (ArcGIS item) https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=6db5f56e886446df88313ca279e59120
- City of Columbus: Building Permits (ArcGIS item) https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=f7a785b863454d96a0fe3f5aa5368e7d
- Boston open data: Approved Building Permits https://data.boston.gov/dataset/approved-building-permits
- OpenDataPhilly: L&I Building and Zoning Permits https://opendataphilly.org/datasets/licenses-and-inspections-building-and-zoning-permits/
- Shovels: pricing https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
- Construction Monitor: homepage https://www.constructionmonitor.com/
- Apify: Building Permit Monitor actor https://apify.com/lowlanddata/building-permit-monitor

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