MorningSheetSeattle business license lookup: two free city tools
Seattle licenses businesses separately from the state, and the city's records are often fresher and closer to the ground. One tool answers a name; the other hands you the whole list.
A business operating in Seattle carries two registrations: its Washington state license (with its UBI) and a City of Seattle business license tax certificate. That second, city-level record is the useful one for anyone working a Seattle territory — it's local, it's current, and it comes with an address.
This guide is part of our Washington business lookup series — the city license is source #3 of six.
Tool 1: the licensed-business directory
The city's find-a-licensed-business directory searches active Seattle licenses by business name, industry type, or ZIP code. It's the verify-one-business tool: confirm a prospect holds a current city license, catch the trade name behind an LLC, or check what else operates at an address.
The industry-type and ZIP filters make it a rough territory browser too — every licensed restaurant in 98103, say — though it shows you the stock of businesses, not the flow of new ones.
Tool 2: the open-data portal
For the flow, go to data.seattle.gov, the city's open-data portal, which publishes business-license data as downloadable datasets. Sort by issue date and you have the closest free thing to a "new in Seattle this month" list — in bulk, with addresses, ready for a spreadsheet.
The catch is what a license row is: a registration event, not an opening. Some licenses are renewals or relocations, home-based businesses outnumber storefronts, and the license date can land months before or after the doors actually open.
City record vs. state record
The state's DOR Business Lookup casts a wider net (all of Washington), but the city record wins on the two things a Seattle rep cares about: freshness and address-level detail. Work them together — state for identity, city for location and timing — and add the permit record when you need to know when. For what's actually opening right now, our weekly Seattle restaurant roundup and the Seattle new-business page show the fused result.
Quick answers
How do I look up a business license in Seattle?
Search the free seattle.gov directory by name, industry, or ZIP; pull bulk or recent data from data.seattle.gov.
Do Seattle businesses need a city license on top of the state one?
Yes — a city business license tax certificate, separate from the state license and UBI.
Can I get a list of new Seattle business licenses?
Download the license dataset from the open-data portal and sort by issue date.
Is it free?
Both tools are free and public, no account required.