API Sirene: what the free government API gives you, and what it does not
Yes, the French company register can be queried for free: INSEE’s Sirene API (a free key, 30 requests a minute) and DINUM’s Recherche d’entreprises API (no key, 7 requests a second, Sirene plus INPI data) return identity, legal form, NAF code, address, headcount band and establishments (INSEE; api.gouv.fr). Neither tells you whether the VAT number is active, issues a Kbis-equivalent proof, or opens published accounts and beneficial owners. For most invoicing and supplier checks they are enough; this page is about where they stop.
- INSEE API Sirene 3.11:
/siren/{siren}for the legal unit (unité légale),/siret/{siret}for an establishment, with their history periods. Free, with a key from the INSEE API portal sent inX-INSEE-Api-Key-Integration; 30 requests a minute. - Recherche d’entreprises (DINUM):
/search?q=by name, SIREN or SIRET; no key; 7 requests a second shared by everyone; adds officers from the INPI register (RNE) and labels. - Both give: identity, legal form code, NAF code, status, dates, address, headcount band, company category, establishments. Neither gives: the VAT number’s registration status, financial statements, beneficial owners, or a legal proof of registration.
- Partial diffusion: individuals who opposed publication have parts of their record withheld; some units are not published at all.
What does each free API return?
| INSEE API Sirene | Recherche d’entreprises | Veriport /fr/company | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key | Yes (free, INSEE portal) | No | Our key; INSEE key on our side |
| Rate | 30 / minute | 7 / second, shared | Your tier’s rate; we pace upstream and cache |
| Legal form, NAF, status, address, headcount band | Codes | Codes | Codes + labels + NAF section |
| Establishments | Per SIRET, with history | Head office + matches | Head office + the SIRET asked |
| Officers (dirigeants) | No | Yes (INPI RNE) | Yes, where the RNE data lists them |
| VAT number | No | Not reliably | Computed, plus /vat/validate on VIES |
| When the source is down | Error | Error | Cached answer marked stale, or 503 with Retry-After |
| Answer shape | INSEE nested periods | Search result | One flat, documented record with source and fetchedOn |
What does neither free API give you?
- Whether the VAT number is active. The French VAT number can be computed from the SIREN, but only VIES says whether it is registered for intra-EU transactions today.
- A legal proof. A Kbis extract (or the INPI register extract) is the document a court or a bank accepts; an API answer is information.
- Financial statements and beneficial owners. Published accounts are a separate INPI dataset with its own access rules; the beneficial-owner register is not open to the public.
- Everything about restricted units. Some units are excluded from publication, and individuals may oppose the publication of their address.
When should you call INSEE directly?
If you need establishment history, the full period-by-period record, or bulk extraction (the monthly Sirene stock files are free downloads), go to INSEE: the API and the stock files are the source. If you need one clean record per identifier inside an invoicing or onboarding flow, with officers and a fallback when the source is down, a wrapper saves the mapping work.
Questions
- Is the Sirene API really free?
- Yes: INSEE publishes the register as open data; the API needs a free key from its portal and is limited per application.
- Why does a company show no address?
- Because its record is in partial diffusion: individuals may oppose the publication of some data, and the sources then withhold it. The
diffusionfield saysP.
SIREN or SIRET → one normalised record.
Read the endpointSources
- INSEE — API Sirene 3.11 (siren/{siren}, siret/{siret}), key-based through the INSEE API portal, 30 requests a minute — INSEE, consulted 2026-10-24. Called only when INSEE_SIRENE_API_KEY is set; never from this build.
- API Recherche d’entreprises — open search API over INSEE Sirene and INPI RNE data (no key, 7 requests a second), OpenAPI document — DINUM / Annuaire des Entreprises, consulted 2026-10-24
- INPI — Registre national des entreprises (RNE), open data on company officers (dirigeants) re-served by the Recherche d’entreprises API — INPI, consulted 2026-10-24
- INSEE — Nomenclature d’activités française (NAF rév. 2) and the legal-category (catégorie juridique) and headcount-band code lists — INSEE, consulted 2026-10-24
- VIES REST API — check-vat-number, check-status (technical information) — European Commission, DG TAXUD, consulted 2026-10-24