Compare / US building permits leads
Building permit lead APIs compared (October 2026)
Building permit data sources for lead generation, as listed on 2026-10-22. Coverage is the biggest difference: some cover a few cities, some thousands of jurisdictions.
Disclosure: this page is written by johto.data, which makes one of the tools listed. Apify prices are each listing's pay-per-event list price for the Apify FREE plan tier, pulled from the public Apify Store API (api.apify.com/v2/store) on 2026-10-22; paid Apify plans get small tier discounts. Prices change, so check each link before buying. We list what each vendor states; we did not benchmark their data quality.
Short answer
Pick johto.data if your market is one of our 6 cities and you want one normalized schema at $0.003 per permit with no subscription. It is not the cheapest per row (pink_comic lists $0.002) and it is not nationwide; for national coverage Shovels lists 2,820+ jurisdictions.
On the Apify Store (pay per result, callable via API and MCP)
| Actor | What it covers | Listed price |
|---|---|---|
| johto.data/us-city-building-permits-leads (ours) | US building permits leads | $0.003 per permit returned; $0.005 per run |
| pink_comic/building-permits-construction-leads | Contractor and construction leads | $0.002 per item, $0.0001 per run |
| samstorm/building-permit-lead-scraper | Contractor lead generation | $0.003 per item |
| hanamira/building-permits-search | Building permits search | $0.004 per item |
| handstands.io/us-building-permit-scraper | US permits, construction lead gen | $0.01 per item |
| greatwork/us-building-permits | US permits, contractor leads | $0.012 per permit, $0.01 per run |
Other options (APIs, feeds and official sources)
| Option | What its own page states |
|---|---|
| Shovels API | Permits and contractor records from 2,820+ jurisdictions in all 50 states, per its site. API key. |
| PermitStack | US permit API with self-serve keys and a free tier; lists solar permits for 274 cities. |
| PingPermit | Scored permits from 19 US markets, refreshed nightly. |
| City open-data portals | Free at the source if you only need one city and can handle its schema. |
How to choose
- Coverage: which states, cities or sources you actually need.
- Pricing model: per row with no minimum vs. a monthly plan. Per-row is cheaper for occasional or agent-driven calls; a plan can be cheaper at high, steady volume.
- Freshness: live per call vs. a scheduled file.
- Delivery: REST call, MCP tool for AI agents, or an emailed file.
- Source: official data you can verify, vs. a third-party aggregator.
johto.data at a glance
- Price: $0.003 per permit returned; $0.005 per run
- Sources: Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Baton Rouge and Marin County open-data portals
- Freshness: As fresh as each city's portal at run time. Baton Rouge lags about a week.
- Coverage: 6 cities/counties. Field coverage varies by city (test run, Oct 2026): contractor names in Cincinnati 99% and Austin 91% (with phone ~90%); none in SF or Marin.
- Docs: inputs, outputs and examples
FAQ
What is the cheapest building permit API on Apify?
Of the listings above, pink_comic/building-permits-construction-leads lists $0.002 per item; johto.data lists $0.003 per permit plus $0.005 per run.
Which permit API covers the whole US?
Shovels states coverage of 2,820+ jurisdictions across all 50 states. johto.data covers 6 cities.