California ABC License Lookup API

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (CA ABC) maintains a public license lookup at abc.ca.gov/licensing/license-lookup. NexusFeed calls that endpoint with a stateless HTTP GET and parses the returned HTML table — no CAPTCHA, no Playwright rendering required. This makes California the fastest and cheapest ABC state in the API.

State overview

Field	Value
State code	CA
Agency	California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
Source URL	`https://www.abc.ca.gov/licensing/license-lookup/`
Authentication	None required
CAPTCHA	None
Search supported	Yes (`dba_name`, `owner_name`, `address`)
Lookup supported	Yes
Extraction method	`structured_parse`
Cache TTL	24 hours

Search example

curl "https://api.nexusfeed.dev/v1/abc/search?state=CA&dba_name=TRADER%20JOE" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

import httpx

resp = httpx.get(
    "https://api.nexusfeed.dev/v1/abc/search",
    params={"state": "CA", "dba_name": "TRADER JOE"},
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY"},
)
for record in resp.json()["results"]:
    print(record["license_number"], record["status"], record["expiration_date"])

Lookup example

curl "https://api.nexusfeed.dev/v1/abc/license/47-123456?state=CA" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

The lookup endpoint first tries CA ABC’s RPTTYPE=11 parameter (direct license number lookup). If the response is an error page or an empty result, it falls back to a RPTTYPE=15 name search with post-filtering on the license number. Both paths report as structured_parse.

Example response

{
  "state": "CA",
  "query": {"dba_name": "TRADER JOE"},
  "total_results": 3,
  "results": [
    {
      "license_number": "47-123456",
      "license_type_code": "47",
      "dba_name": "TRADER JOE'S #123",
      "owner_name": "TRADER JOE'S COMPANY",
      "status": "ACTIVE",
      "expiration_date": "2026-09-30",
      "address": "1234 MAIN ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90001",
      "county": "LOS ANGELES"
    }
  ],
  "_verifiability": {
    "source_timestamp": "2026-04-10T14:22:11Z",
    "extraction_confidence": 1.0,
    "raw_data_evidence_url": "https://www.abc.ca.gov/licensing/license-lookup/?RPTTYPE=15&DBANAME=TRADER%20JOE",
    "extraction_method": "structured_parse",
    "data_freshness_ttl_seconds": 86400
  }
}

California license types (most common)

Code	Type
`20`	Off-Sale Beer & Wine
`21`	Off-Sale General
`41`	On-Sale Beer & Wine — Eating Place
`47`	On-Sale General — Eating Place
`48`	On-Sale General — Public Premises (bar)
`58`	Caterer’s Permit
`75`	On-Sale General — Brewpub

Full list is published by CA ABC at abc.ca.gov/licensing/license-types.

Use cases

Verifying a California bar, restaurant, grocery, or liquor store holds an active license before onboarding as a distributor account.
Confirming an expiration date before binding a liquor liability insurance policy.
Checking whether a specific license has been suspended or revoked before a compliance decision.
Due diligence on a business for sale — confirming its ABC license is currently in good standing.

Getting Started

Products

LTL Carriers

ABC States

MCP Server

California ABC License Lookup API

State overview

Search example

Lookup example

Example response

California license types (most common)

Use cases

​State overview

​Search example

​Lookup example

​Example response

​California license types (most common)

​Use cases

State overview

Search example

Lookup example

Example response

California license types (most common)

Use cases