Zabalist API · v1
The Texas construction data other APIs can’t join
Permits, statewide TDLR project registrations, government bids, and a deduplicated contractor graph — resolved to the same entity ids, so a name on a permit and a bidder on a solicitation are provably the same company.
500 calls/month free · no credit card · keys issue instantly
curl -G "https://www.zabalist.com/api/public/v1/contractors/verify" \
-H "X-API-Key: $ZABALIST_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "name=Chapman A/C and Heating" \
-d city=Austin -d trade=hvacconst res = await fetch(
'https://www.zabalist.com/api/public/v1/contractors/verify?' +
new URLSearchParams({ name: 'Chapman A/C and Heating', city: 'Austin' }),
{ headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.ZABALIST_API_KEY } }
);
const { match } = await res.json();
// match.licenses[0].status === 'active'
// match.activity.project_count === 412{
"match": {
"id": "ent_6VN2QK9WPT3XMRBH",
"name": "Chapman Air Conditioning & Heating LLC",
"dbas": ["Chapman A/C", "CHAPMAN AIR COND & HTG"],
"confidence": 0.94,
"licenses": [
{ "number": "TACLA00123456C", "status": "active", "trade": "hvac" }
],
"activity": { "project_count": 412, "permit_count": 1877 },
"risk_flags": []
}
}Four datasets, one entity graph
Each of these is available separately from someone. The product is that they are joined to the same contractor identities, which is what turns four datasets into one answer.
TDLR project registrations
339,897 rows · 256 counties
Statewide commercial and accessibility-reviewed construction filings, with the contractor, owner, and design firm on each one resolved to stable entity ids.
Contractor entity graph
142,781 entities · 888,179 links
Deduplicated companies with their DBAs, license registrations, work history, and derived risk flags. This is the join nobody else productizes.
Government bids
24,397 solicitations · 254 counties
Texas state procurement with status history, award records, and SBA 8(a) / HUBZone / WOSB certification enrichment layered on top.
Permits & property
147,173 permits · Travis County
City of Austin building permits on a rolling two-year window, joined to appraisal, deed chain, and value history for Travis County parcels.
Six endpoints
All REST, all JSON, all GET. One header to authenticate, one cursor to paginate.
/permitsSearch Austin and Travis County building permits by address, ZIP, type, status, and issue date.
/projectsSearch TDLR-registered construction projects across all 256 Texas counties by county, city, trade, value, and filing date.
/contractors/verifyResolve a messy contractor name, address, or license number to a canonical Texas entity with live TDLR license status.
/contractors/{id}/historyFull work history for a resolved contractor: projects, permits, bids, awards, values, recency, and geographic footprint.
/bidsTexas government solicitations across all 254 counties, with agency, NIGP category, due dates, and SBA/HUB set-aside data.
/usageCurrent billing period usage for the calling key: calls made, calls included, verify lookups, and overage to date.
Where we win, and where we don’t
If you need national permit coverage, buy a national permit vendor — we would lose that comparison and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If you need Texas answered properly, nothing below competes.
| Product | Entry price | TX license joins | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zabalist | Free – $399/mo | Yes | TX depth: TDLR licenses + entity graph + bids |
| PermitStack Business | $149/mo | No | National permits, no license joins |
| Shovels | from $599/mo | No | National permits, contractor scoring |
| Construction Monitor | $200–800/mo | No | Permit leads, sold per territory |
| GovWin IQ | $12K–$42K+/yr (~$29K typical) | No | Enterprise GovCon, no permit or license data |
Competitor prices are their published list prices as of August 2026 and are shown for orientation, not as a quote.
Coverage limits, stated up front
Statewide today: TDLR project registrations (256 counties) and government bids (254 counties). These are the datasets to build on if you need Texas-wide answers now.
Austin/Travis today: building permits on a rolling two-year window, and property appraisal, deed, and value history. Statewide permit ingestion for DFW, Houston, and San Antonio is in progress and will widen the Permits endpoint without a breaking change.
We publish this because an integration built on a coverage assumption we never stated is an integration that churns. If your use case needs a metro we do not cover yet, tell us — it changes our build order.
| Dataset | Coverage | Status |
|---|---|---|
| TDLR project registrations | Statewide — 256 counties | Live |
| Government bids (ESBD) | Statewide — 254 counties | Live |
| Contractor entity graph & work history | Statewide — 142,781 entities, 888,179 links | Live |
| Building permits | City of Austin, rolling 2-year window | Live, Austin-only |
| Property appraisal, deed & value history | Travis County (TCAD) | Live, Austin-only |
| DFW / Houston / San Antonio permits | Not yet ingested | Rolling out |
Pricing
Compare plans in detail →Free
$0
no card required
- 500 API calls per month
- 10 requests/minute
- Texas project search (TDLR statewide, 254 counties of public bids)
Most popular
Growth
$149/mo
- 100,000 API calls per month
- 300 requests/minute
- Everything in Developer
Annual billing is ten months for twelve. Contractor Verify lookups beyond your plan allowance bill at $0.15 each.
How Zabalist compares
All comparisons →Every comparison below is sourced from the vendor’s own published material and dated, including the cases where the other product is the better fit.
Questions
- What geographic area does the Zabalist API cover?
- Texas. TDLR project registrations cover 256 counties and 1,829 cities, and government bid data covers all 254 counties. Building permits are City of Austin on a rolling two-year window, and property history (appraisal, deed chain, value history) is Travis County only. Statewide permit expansion to DFW, Houston, and San Antonio is in progress.
- Is there a free tier for the Zabalist API?
- Yes. The Free plan includes 500 API calls per month at 10 requests per minute, with no credit card required. It covers project search, company resolution, Austin permit lookup, and MCP server access for AI agents.
- How is the Zabalist API different from PermitStack or Shovels?
- Those products sell national permit row coverage, and they have more permit rows than we do. Zabalist sells the cross-source join instead: TDLR statewide license and project registrations, a deduplicated contractor entity graph with 888,179 work-history links, government bids with SBA and HUB certification enrichment, and Travis County property history, all resolved to the same contractor identities. No national permit vendor offers TDLR license joins at any price.
- How does Contractor Verify billing work?
- Contractor Verify calls are entity-resolution joins rather than row lookups, so each paid plan includes an allowance — 500 on Developer, 5,000 on Growth, 25,000 on Scale — and additional lookups bill at $0.15 each. Every other endpoint counts only against your monthly call quota.
- How do I authenticate with the Zabalist API?
- Pass your secret key in the X-API-Key request header. Keys are created from your dashboard, are shown exactly once at creation, and are hashed at rest. Rate limits and quotas are counted per key rather than per IP, so shared serverless egress does not collapse customers into one bucket.
Start with the free tier
500 calls a month, no card, key issued instantly. Upgrade when the integration is real, not before.
Need a territory feed, a bulk license, or something the API doesn’t cover? [email protected]