How ASIC company name search and matching works

Searching the ASIC register by name is not a plain text search. ASIC applies the identical-name rules from the Corporations Regulations, so "Childs Play Pty Ltd", "Child & Play" and "CHILDSPLAY" are all the same name, then scores every candidate as a percentage similarity to what you typed. Understanding those rules explains why a search returns what it does, why misspellings find nothing, and when you need the exact-match option or an offline search. asicapi's GET /v1/companies/search passes your query to ASIC's search engine and returns the scored matches as JSON.

Identical names under the Corporations Regulations

Schedule 6 of the Corporations Regulations sets out what is disregarded when deciding whether two names are identical for sections 147 and 601DC of the Corporations Act 2001. ASIC's search applies the same rules:

• a definite or indefinite article ("The", "A", "An") as the first word;
• the legal elements "Proprietary", "Pty", "Limited", "Ltd", "No Liability" and "NL";
• whether a word is singular or plural;
• the type, size and case of letters, the size of numbers, accents, spaces and punctuation;
• the use of a word from one column of the following table where the other name uses its alternative.

Beyond the regulations, the search also ignores the words "and" and "&" entirely, the phrases "in liq" and "in liquidation", and the characters ' " , . ( ). A hyphen is ignored except with "Co": "Co Operative" becomes "Company Operative" but "Co-operative" stays "Cooperative".

Plurals and possessives

All words are reduced to singular before matching. Three plural forms are recognised: words ending in S, words ending in ES, and irregular plurals from the Macquarie Dictionary (knife and knives). Because the singular of an ES word cannot always be derived, the search tries both: "LENSES" is searched as "LENS" and "LENSE".

A possessive on an ordinary word is treated as a plural ("ROSE'S" becomes "ROSES"). After a word already ending in S it is dropped ("CHRIS'S FISH SHOP" is "CHRIS FISH SHOP"). After an initial it is treated both as a plural marker and as another initial, so "J B'S TRUCK STOP" matches "J B TRUCK STOP" and "J B S TRUCK STOP".

Numbers

Although the regulations treat "1" and "ONE" as different, the search converts number words to digits up to the hundreds: "TWENTY SECOND STREET" also matches "22ND STREET" and "ONE TWO THREE CONSULTING" matches "123 CONSULTING". Zero to ten, 100, 1000 and 2000 are treated as common words. Punctuation inside a number splits it, so "1,000" is searched as "1" and "000" while "1000" is searched whole. A number preceded by "NO" or "NUMBER" has the "NO" dropped, and if it is not at the start of the name it is treated like a word in brackets.

Common words, initials and acronyms

Common words such as BROKER, BUILDING, CORPORATION, FINANCE and NEWSAGENT are too frequent to search on alone. "ACME FINANCE" first looks for both words together and then falls back to "ACME"; "FINANCE" alone only finds a company called exactly "FINANCE PTY LTD". Single characters and all numbers are common. "CO" gets special handling: "JOE BLOGGS & CO" is indexed both with and without the "CO", so a search for "JOE BLOGGS" is an exact match.

Initials are one- or two-character words next to a longer word. One or two initials are only used together with the following word: "J.E BLOGGS" indexes "JEBLOGGS", "JBLOGGS" and "EBLOGGS". Three or more initials are merged into one word: "A.C.M.E SUPERANNUATION FUND" is treated as "ACME SUPERANNUATION FUND". An "&" between initials keeps them separate, so "C.W. & N.A. KENT" indexes "CWKENT" and "NAKENT" while "C.W.N.A. KENT" indexes "CWNA" and "KENT".

Brackets are treated as acronyms or qualifiers. If everything in the brackets is single letters, it is an acronym: "(S.W.A.T)" becomes a separate key "SWAT". State abbreviations and AUST, UK, USA and NZ are not treated as acronyms. Other bracketed words are removed to form an exact-match key, and compressed into a secondary key: "P W BETTS (WALCHA & BEGA) PTY LTD" is an exact match for "P W BETTS" and also indexed under "WALCHABEGA".

Trustees, executors and trading names

Names of non-company entities often take the form "X AS TRUSTEE FOR THE Y FAMILY TRUST" or "X TRADING AS Y". The search recognises phrases such as "as trustee for", "ATF", "in trust for", "executor of", "the estate of", "trading as", "T/A" and "PROP:" and splits the name into a primary and a secondary name, each indexed separately. Searching for either "JAMES WILLIAM DOUGHERTY" or "W M DOUGHERTY FAMILY TRUST" finds the record.

Scoring

Every candidate is scored from 0 to 100 for similarity with the requested name. A name the rules consider identical scores 100. Searching for "CHILD'S PLAY" produces:

Results sort by score by default (sortBy=score); sortBy=name sorts alphabetically. minScore discards weaker matches; minScore=100 returns only identical names. Former names are included by default (includeFormerNames=true) and flagged with isFormerName; demoteFormerNames=true reduces a former name's perfect score to 99 so only current names can be exact matches.

How the search proceeds

ASIC first looks for an exact match on the whole name with spaces removed. It then searches left-to-right word pairs ("KRYPTON FINANCIAL", "FINANCIAL SERVICES"), preferring the first pair, then individual non-common words, then the first word. The words INC, ASSOCIATE and ASSOCIATION are skipped when building pairs, and adjacent numbers are joined. A misspelt word finds nothing: "KRIPTON" will not find "KRYPTON".

Exact match versus standard search

exact=true asks ASIC for the single organisation whose exact-match key equals your name and returns no_matches if there is none. It is faster than a standard search with minScore=100, which reads and scores every candidate, though the results are usually the same.

The 100 result cap and offline search

ASIC returns at most 100 names online. If more than 100 exact matches exist, or no exact matches and more than 100 partial matches, the search fails with too_many_matches (HTTP 422) and reports the counts. If fewer than 100 names are found but all are discarded by your filters, you get no_matches with the counts in the error details. When totalCount exceeds the number returned, the rest are available through POST /v1/companies/search/offline, which queues the full result set as an asynchronous order: the response is 202 Accepted with an offlineSearch object, you poll it or receive the offline_search.ready webhook, and then download the results. The offline search is the only name search that attracts an ASIC fee, incurred when the order is accepted. See purchasing.

Search scopes

ASIC indexes names in groups by type and status so that hundreds of deregistered companies or interstate business names do not crowd out what you want. The scope parameter picks a group:

Example

curl "https://api.asicapi.dev/v1/companies/search?q=CHILD'S%20PLAY&scope=registered-companies&minScore=90" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASICAPI_KEY"

{
  "object": "list",
  "data": [
    {
      "object": "companyMatch",
      "name": "CHILDS PLAY PTY LTD",
      "isFormerName": false,
      "score": 100,
      "company": {
        "acn": "004249987",
        "formatted": "004 249 987",
        "numberType": { "code": "ACN", "label": "Australian Company Number" },
        "name": "CHILDS PLAY PTY LTD",
        "type": { "code": "APTY", "label": "Australian Proprietary Company" },
        "status": { "code": "REGD", "label": "Registered" },
        "abn": null,
        "registeredCharity": false
      },
      "stateNumber": null,
      "asicIdentifier": null,
      "registrationDate": "1998-09-14",
      "reviewDate": "2026-09-14",
      "state": null,
      "controllingJurisdiction": { "code": "ASIC", "label": "Australian Securities and Investments Commission" },
      "partialAddress": { "locality": "BRISBANE", "state": "QLD", "postcode": "4000" }
    },
    {
      "object": "companyMatch",
      "name": "CHILD'S PLAY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD",
      "isFormerName": false,
      "score": 96,
      "company": {
        "acn": "001000004",
        "formatted": "001 000 004",
        "numberType": { "code": "ACN", "label": "Australian Company Number" },
        "name": "CHILD'S PLAY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD",
        "type": { "code": "APTY", "label": "Australian Proprietary Company" },
        "status": { "code": "REGD", "label": "Registered" },
        "abn": null,
        "registeredCharity": false
      },
      "stateNumber": null,
      "asicIdentifier": null,
      "registrationDate": "2011-02-02",
      "reviewDate": "2026-02-02",
      "state": null,
      "controllingJurisdiction": { "code": "ASIC", "label": "Australian Securities and Investments Commission" },
      "partialAddress": { "locality": "PERTH", "state": "WA", "postcode": "6000" }
    }
  ],
  "hasMore": false,
  "nextCursor": null,
  "totalCount": 2,
  "meta": { "billable": false, "product": null, "requestId": "req_01J8ZK3V7Q0M2X" }
}

Searching by number is simpler: q=004085616 or q=53004085616 looks up the ACN or ABN directly and returns a single match.

Searches are free

An online name search in the ASIC jurisdiction is a free lookup: meta.billable is false and no ASIC fee is incurred, however many searches you run. A search that hits a state or territory business-name index (jurisdiction set to a state code) may attract that state's fee. When you hold a fee waiver for such a search, the waiverToken it gives you is passed in the body of a later POST /v1/companies/{id}/extracts, not on the search itself. Search results carry only the company summary; the full record behind a match is a purchased company extract.

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