Search people by name and date of birth

Every director, secretary, liquidator, auditor and recorded shareholder on the ASIC register is indexed by name and, where ASIC holds it, by date and place of birth. The people search is the first step in finding out which Australian companies a person is or was involved with. You supply a family name and at least one given name, optionally narrow the results with a birth date range, and receive a list of matching people. The search is free and never billed. Each match carries a person id, and the sequence from there is: search here, then purchase a person extract for the ids you want with POST /v1/people/extracts, then read the extract as often as you like with get a person, roles, shareholdings and documents. Only the purchase is billed; see the purchasing guide.

Query parameters

Whether an extract is current or historical, and whether it includes shareholdings, is chosen when you purchase (history and includeShareholdings in the body of POST /v1/people/extracts), not on the search.

Example request

curl "https://api.asicapi.dev/v1/people/search?familyName=SMITH&givenName=JANE&givenName2=LOUISE&birthDateFrom=1970-01-01&birthDateTo=1979-12-31" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASICAPI_KEY"

Example response

{
  "object": "personSearch",
  "searchId": "psr_01J9AB3CD4EFG5HJ6KM7NP8QR",
  "createdAt": "2026-09-04T03:12:45Z",
  "expiresAt": "2026-10-04T03:12:45Z",
  "data": [
    {
      "object": "personMatch",
      "id": "prs_8f3k2m9q",
      "name": {
        "familyName": "SMITH",
        "givenNames": ["JANE", "LOUISE"],
        "formatted": "JANE LOUISE SMITH"
      },
      "birth": {
        "date": "1975-04-03",
        "locality": "MELBOURNE",
        "stateOrCountry": "VIC"
      },
      "formerName": null
    },
    {
      "object": "personMatch",
      "id": "prs_2d7h4n1x",
      "name": {
        "familyName": "SMITH",
        "givenNames": ["JANE", "LOUISE"],
        "formatted": "JANE LOUISE SMITH"
      },
      "birth": {
        "date": "1971-11-22",
        "locality": "BRISBANE",
        "stateOrCountry": "QLD"
      },
      "formerName": null
    },
    {
      "object": "personMatch",
      "id": "prs_9k2p6w3z",
      "name": {
        "familyName": "WILLIAMS",
        "givenNames": ["JANE", "LOUISE"],
        "formatted": "JANE LOUISE WILLIAMS"
      },
      "birth": {
        "date": null,
        "locality": null,
        "stateOrCountry": null
      },
      "formerName": {
        "familyName": "SMITH",
        "givenNames": ["JANE", "LOUISE"],
        "formatted": "JANE LOUISE SMITH"
      }
    }
  ],
  "totalCount": 3,
  "meta": {
    "billable": false,
    "product": null,
    "requestId": "req_01J9AB3CD4EFG5HJ"
  }
}

Response fields

Errors

A too_many_matches error looks like this:

{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request_error",
    "code": "too_many_matches",
    "message": "ASIC matched approximately 1240 names for SMITH, JOHN. Provide a second given name or a birth date range.",
    "param": null,
    "asicCode": "PN52",
    "details": { "fuzzyCount": 1240 },
    "requestId": "req_01J9AB3CD4EFG5HJ",
    "docUrl": "https://asicapi.dev/docs/errors#too_many_matches"
  }
}

Notes from the ASIC register

• Search, purchase, read. ASIC treats a people search as the first stage of a personal name extract. The search returns names and a search results identifier; the extract is then requested for all or some of those names. asicapi keeps the same model: the search is free, the person ids it returns are bound to the search, the extract is purchased and billed once with POST /v1/people/extracts, and reading the extract afterwards is free. A search on its own never costs anything, so search as often as you need to narrow the candidates before buying.
• Thirty-day validity. ASIC retains name search results for one month. asicapi exposes this as expiresAt. After that time a purchase using this searchId returns search_expired (HTTP 410) and you must search again. Extracts already purchased are unaffected.
• Birth date range matching. When you supply a birth date range, ASIC returns names whose recorded birth date falls inside the range and also names that have no birth date recorded. Do not treat a match with birth.date null as confirmed; the person may have been born outside your range.
• Former names. A person is returned when either their current name or a former name matches the search. When a former name matched, formerName is set and name is the current name, so the family name in name may differ from the familyName you searched. When the current name matched, formerName is null even if the person has former names on the register.
• One entry may cover several people. Where ASIC has no birth details for two or more people with the same name, their roles may be recorded under a single name entry. Extracts for such a match carry a same-name notice; see get a person.
• Ordering. Matches are returned in ASIC's order, which is not alphabetical or by birth date. Sort client side if you need a stable presentation.
• Sandbox. With a test key, ASIC's sample data replaces names with placeholders such as FAMILY NAME, GIVEN NAME1. Search behaviour, ids and expiry work exactly as in production. See sandbox.

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