# Chicago Business License Search

> Chicago Business License Search is a paid API for AI agents from api.companyrecords-api.workers.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-24).

Searches Chicago's active business license registry by company name and returns license type, business activity, address, ward, and license dates.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.companyrecords-api.workers.dev/api/b2b/chicago-business-licenses?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-24
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/chicago-business-license-search-16ab15c2
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_c6pJWtqBFq95-6-z-oJiq

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability chicago-business-license-search-16ab15c2
```

Example prompt: Can you check if 'Montrose Behavioral Health Hospital' has an active business license in Chicago — I need the license type, address, and expiration date?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to verify or look up active business licenses specifically within the City of Chicago. It is ideal for due-diligence workflows, contractor vetting, compliance checks, or enriching company profiles with official municipal licensing data. Prefer this over general web search when you need structured, authoritative data from Chicago's official open data portal including license numbers, expiration dates, and ward information.

## Known failure modes

- Query string shorter than 2 or longer than 60 characters returns validation error
- Special characters outside letters/digits/spaces and . , & - are rejected
- No matching active licenses returns empty results array with count 0
- Business exists but license is expired — won't appear in active license results
- Socrata upstream outage may cause delayed or failed responses
- Ambiguous name matches many businesses — returns up to limit (max 25) rows without guaranteed exact match

## How this service works

Pay-per-call company registry, government, legal and B2B data tools for AI agents, from official registers and public sources. Payment: x402, USDC on Base, Solana, Arc, Polygon, Arbitrum, Monad, World Chain, Optimism, Avalanche, Celo or Stellar, or RLUSD/XRP on the XRP Ledger. No signup, no API key; a failed call is not charged.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with a count of matching records, the original query, the Socrata source URL, a checkedAt timestamp, and an array of results each containing: legalName, tradeName, licenseNumber, licenseDescription, businessActivity, address, ward, licenseStart, and expirationDate.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Legal or doing-business-as name part, letters, digits, spaces and . , & - only, 2 to 60 characters"
      },
      "limit": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Rows to return, 1 to 25 (default 10)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 5,
  "query": "hospital",
  "source": "https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/uupf-x98q.json",
  "results": [
   {
    "ward": "46",
    "address": "4840 N MARINE DR 5 FLOORS, CHICAGO, IL, 60640",
    "legalName": "CHICAGO BH HOSPITAL, LLC",
    "tradeName": "Montrose Behavioral Health Hospital",
    "licenseStart": "2028-07-16",
    "licenseNumber": "2948166",
    "expirationDate": "2030-07-15",
    "businessActivity": "Operation of General Medical / Surgical Hospital",
    "licenseDescription": "Regulated Business License"
   },
   {
    "ward": "42",
    "address": "20 W KINZIE ST 1-6, CHICAGO, IL, 60654",
    "legalName": "URBANA VARRO HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LLC",
    "tradeName": "KINZIE HOTEL",
    "licenseStart": "2026-12-16",
    "licenseNumber": "2608571",
    "expirationDate": "2028-12-15",
    "businessActivity": "Operation of a Health Club | Hotel - 7 or More Sleeping Rooms",
    "licenseDescription": "Regulated Business License"
   }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-23T09:37:40.967Z"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/chicago-business-license-search-16ab15c2/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.companyrecords-api.workers.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.companyrecords-api.workers.dev/llms.txt)