# philadelphia-business-license-records

> https://philadelphia-business-license-records.pages.dev

## What this site answers

One query, one record. Key: **the license number**.
Format: ^[0-9A-Za-z-]{1,40}$
Entities: 44478

## Source

- Origin: City of Philadelphia, Department of Licenses and Inspections — Licenses and Inspections Business Licenses
- URL: https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=SELECT+%2A,+ST_Y(the_geom)+AS+lat,+ST_X(the_geom)+AS+lng+FROM+business_licenses&filename=business_licenses&format=csv&skipfields=cartodb_id
- Last collected: 2026-10-10
- Re-use: public record published as open data, no license stated

## Access points

Every HTML page has a Markdown twin at the same path with the `.md` extension. Example: `/how-to-read/` -> `/how-to-read.md`. Links inside the Markdown files already point to the twins.

Search index, served as JSON with open CORS:

- `https://philadelphia-business-license-records.pages.dev/d/n/cles.json` — the name-index keys
- `https://philadelphia-business-license-records.pages.dev/d/n/<key>.json` — names starting with that key -> [identifier, name, city, state, type]
- `https://philadelphia-business-license-records.pages.dev/d/r/<fragment>.json` — records; fragment = hash of the identifier: h = 0, then for each character h = (h*31 + character code) modulo 4096; in hexadecimal on 3 digits
- `/sitemap.xml` — every page

These paths are **version 1** and will not change without notice. Bulk access, an availability guarantee or a change feed goes through `/pro/`.

Indexable pages: 11

## What this site is NOT

- This is not the official register and does not replace consulting it.
- Holding a licence is the minimum legal requirement, not a quality mark.
- One record per identifier.
- No individuals.
- Only a legal name carrying a company word is shown; the trade-name field, which often holds a contact person, is not. Licenses held by individuals — more than half of the City's file — are left out, as are inactive, expired and closed licenses.
- This site ranks no one.

## Privacy

Only names carrying a company word are published; individuals are left out.