SEC EDGAR API Guide 2026: How to Access Company Filings Data

The SEC EDGAR API is one of the most valuable free data sources available to developers, analysts, and researchers. It provides programmatic access to every filing submitted by every public company in the United States — over 10 million documents going back decades. No API key, no payment, no subscription required.

This guide covers the full EDGAR API as of 2026: all major endpoints, the authentication requirement, rate limits, and practical code examples for the most common use cases. For a quick lookup of company financials from any filing, you can also use TL;DR Filing's company search to get summarized data without writing any code.

Authentication: User-Agent Header Required

The EDGAR API requires no API key, but it does require a User-Agent header in every request identifying who you are. The SEC's acceptable use policy asks that you include your name and email address so they can contact you if your usage causes issues. Requests without a User-Agent header may be rate-limited or blocked.

User-Agent: YourName [email protected]

In practice, any identifying string works. Requests from automated scripts without a User-Agent often fail with a 403 response. Always include this header.

Core API Endpoints

1. Company Submissions (Filing History)

Returns all metadata about a company's filings — what they filed, when, and accession numbers to access the documents.

Parameter	Description
CIK_PADDED	10-digit Central Index Key with leading zeros. Apple = 0000320193

The response includes company name, SIC code, state of incorporation, and a filings object containing arrays of recent filings. Older filings may be in a separate paginated file referenced in the response.

2. XBRL Company Facts

Returns all structured financial data ever reported by a company in XBRL format — every line item from every 10-K and 10-Q, organized by taxonomy and concept.

The response is a large JSON object containing all XBRL-tagged financial data. It is organized by taxonomy (typically us-gaap or ifrs-full), then by concept name (e.g., Revenues, NetIncomeLoss, Assets), then by units (USD, shares, etc.), then by individual reported values with filing dates and form types.

3. XBRL Company Concept

Returns data for a single XBRL concept across all periods — faster than companyfacts when you only need one metric.

Parameter	Common Values
CONCEPT	Revenues, NetIncomeLoss, Assets, Liabilities, EarningsPerShareBasic, CommonStockSharesOutstanding

4. XBRL Frames (Cross-Company Data)

Returns a single XBRL concept for all companies that reported it in a specific period — useful for building comparative databases.

For example, to get all companies' annual revenue for 2024: /api/xbrl/frames/us-gaap/Revenues/USD/CY2024.json

5. Company Search (EDGAR Full-Text Search)

To find a company's CIK by name or ticker, query the EDGAR company search:

For programmatic ticker-to-CIK lookups, the bulk CIK mapping file is the most reliable option:

This file contains all companies with their CIK, ticker, and name — small enough to download once and query locally.

Rate Limits

The EDGAR API enforces a rate limit of 10 requests per second per IP address. Exceeding this triggers a 429 response and may result in a temporary IP block. Best practices:

• Add a 100ms delay between requests in automated scripts
• Cache responses locally — company facts for a given company rarely change more than quarterly
• Use the bulk data downloads for large-scale analysis rather than hitting the API per-company
• Set a descriptive User-Agent so the SEC can contact you rather than block you

Python Examples

Get Company Filing History

import requests
import time

HEADERS = {"User-Agent": "YourName [email protected]"}

def get_company_submissions(cik: str) -> dict:
    """Fetch all filing metadata for a company by CIK."""
    cik_padded = str(cik).zfill(10)
    url = f"https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK{cik_padded}.json"
    r = requests.get(url, headers=HEADERS)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()

# Example: Apple (CIK 320193)
apple = get_company_submissions("320193")
print(apple["name"])           # Apple Inc.
print(apple["sic"])            # 3571 (Electronic Computers)
recent = apple["filings"]["recent"]
# Recent filings as parallel arrays
forms = recent["form"]         # ["10-K", "10-Q", "8-K", ...]
dates = recent["filingDate"]   # ["2024-11-01", ...]
accessions = recent["accessionNumber"]

Get Annual Revenue for a Company

def get_annual_revenue(cik: str) -> list:
    """Return annual revenue figures from 10-K filings."""
    cik_padded = str(cik).zfill(10)
    url = (
        f"https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyconcept/"
        f"CIK{cik_padded}/us-gaap/Revenues.json"
    )
    r = requests.get(url, headers=HEADERS)
    r.raise_for_status()
    data = r.json()

    annual = [
        item for item in data["units"]["USD"]
        if item.get("form") == "10-K" and item.get("filed")
    ]
    annual.sort(key=lambda x: x["end"], reverse=True)
    return annual

revenue = get_annual_revenue("320193")
for row in revenue[:5]:
    print(f"{row['end']}: ${row['val']:,.0f}")

Ticker to CIK Lookup

def build_ticker_map() -> dict:
    """Download and return a dict mapping ticker -> CIK."""
    url = "https://www.sec.gov/files/company_tickers.json"
    r = requests.get(url, headers=HEADERS)
    r.raise_for_status()
    data = r.json()
    return {v["ticker"]: str(v["cik_str"]) for v in data.values()}

tickers = build_ticker_map()
msft_cik = tickers["MSFT"]   # "789019"

JavaScript Example

const HEADERS = { "User-Agent": "YourName [email protected]" };

async function getCompanyFacts(cik) {
  const cikPadded = String(cik).padStart(10, "0");
  const url = `https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK${cikPadded}.json`;
  const res = await fetch(url, { headers: HEADERS });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
  return res.json();
}

async function getNetIncome(cik) {
  const facts = await getCompanyFacts(cik);
  const concept = facts.facts?.["us-gaap"]?.NetIncomeLoss?.units?.USD ?? [];
  return concept
    .filter(d => d.form === "10-K")
    .sort((a, b) => b.end.localeCompare(a.end));
}

// Usage
getNetIncome("320193").then(data => {
  data.slice(0, 3).forEach(d => {
    console.log(`${d.end}: $${(d.val / 1e9).toFixed(1)}B`);
  });
});

Common Use Cases

Use Case	Endpoint / Approach
Track a specific metric over time (revenue, EPS)	companyconcept with the relevant GAAP tag
Get all recent filings for a company	submissions endpoint, filter by form type
Compare a metric across all public companies	frames endpoint for a specific year
Read a specific filing document	Construct URL from accession number in submissions response
Find a company's CIK by ticker	company_tickers.json bulk file
Large-scale financial database	DERA bulk downloads (quarterly)

Accessing Actual Filing Documents

To access the HTML or text of a specific filing (not just the metadata), construct the document URL from the accession number:

# Accession number format: 0001234567-24-000001
# Convert to path format: 0001234567-24-000001 -> 0001234567/24/000001
# Full URL:
# https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/{CIK}/{ACCESSION_NO_DASHES}/{FILENAME}

def get_filing_index_url(cik, accession_number):
    acc_clean = accession_number.replace("-", "")
    return (
        f"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/{cik}/"
        f"{acc_clean}/{accession_number}-index.htm"
    )

The filing index page lists all documents in the filing (10-K, exhibits, XBRL files). Parse this page to find the primary document URL.

For pre-summarized filing data without writing any code, search any company on TL;DR Filing to see key metrics pulled directly from SEC data. You can also browse all public companies or look up specific tickers to compare financial trends across filings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the SEC EDGAR API free?

Yes, completely free. No API key, no registration, no rate-limit tiers. The only requirement is the User-Agent header identifying yourself.

What is a CIK number?

CIK (Central Index Key) is the unique numeric identifier the SEC assigns to every filer. Apple's CIK is 320193, Microsoft's is 789019. Find any company's CIK using the company_tickers.json file or by searching EDGAR directly.

Why does companyfacts return empty data for some concepts?

Not all companies use the same XBRL tags. Try alternate tags — some use RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax instead of Revenues. Check the companyfacts JSON to see which tags a specific company actually reports.

Can I get historical data going back before XBRL was required?

XBRL reporting became mandatory for large accelerated filers in 2009 and extended to all filers by 2011. Filings before that exist as text and HTML documents accessible through the Archives but not through the structured XBRL API endpoints.