Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh)
Verify a Pittsburgh contractor license with one API call.
Pennsylvania has no statewide contractor license. Better Vetters checks a contractor against the City of Pittsburgh’s contractor and trade licenses and Pittsburgh building permits, then returns a verdict, a 0 to 100 trust score, and the records behind them. Results say “Licensed in Pittsburgh”, never statewide. $0.15 per check, and every new API key includes 20 free checks.
What you get
City of Pittsburgh records in one response.
The City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections publishes its licenses and permits as open data through the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center.
City license status and expiry
General contractor, sign contractor, electrical, HVAC mechanical, and fire suppression licenses: number, type, status (active, expired, suspended, revoked), and expiry.
Pittsburgh permit activity
Permits issued since 2023-01-01 that name the contractor, with the count in the last 12 months and the latest permit date.
Freshness
Licenses update weekly and permits daily at the source; each response shows when we last refreshed.
Sources
Three City of Pittsburgh datasets.
Record counts are a snapshot from November 11, 2026. Live counts: GET /v1/coverage.
| Data | Source dataset | Records | License | Publisher cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | City of Pittsburgh PLI Licensed Contractors (General and Sign Contractor) | 5,645 | CC0 | Weekly |
| License | City of Pittsburgh PLI Trade Licenses (electrical, HVAC, fire suppression) | 2,273 | CC0 | Weekly |
| Permits | City of Pittsburgh PLI Permits naming a contractor, 2023-01-01 on | 25,264 | CC BY 4.0 (attribution required) | Daily |
Pittsburgh permit data: City of Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections, published by the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center under CC BY 4.0.
Try it
A Pennsylvania check in one request.
Set state to PA. name is the only required field; add license_number to raise confidence.
curl -s -X POST https://api.bettervetters.com/v1/contractor/check \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BV_API_KEY" \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{"name":"Example Construction LLC","state":"PA","city":"Pittsburgh"}'Fields are documented in the docs. For Pennsylvania, license.scope reads “Licensed in Pittsburgh (City of Pittsburgh licence)”, discipline.available is false, insurance_bond is empty, and attributions carries the CC BY credit for Pittsburgh permit data.
How to read the result
- Read
verdictandtrust_score.trustedneeds a score of 80 or more and a match confidence of 0.8 or more. - Read
license.scope: a Pittsburgh match is a city license, not a Pennsylvania state license. - If the result is
not_found, it only means no Pittsburgh record matched. It says nothing about the rest of Pennsylvania. - Cite
data_freshnesswhen you show the result to a person.
Limits
What a Pennsylvania check does not tell you.
Not covered
- Any contractor licensing outside the City of Pittsburgh, including Philadelphia
- Pennsylvania Attorney General Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration
- Insurance, bond, complaints, and discipline
- Addresses and phone numbers (the license data has none)
Good to know
- HIC registration is a registration, not a license, and not an endorsement
- A missing record is not proof of a problem
- This is public records, not a consumer report. Do not use it for employment, credit, insurance, or tenant-screening decisions
Other covered places: Washington · Texas · New York City · Oregon · Connecticut. See all sources on the Coverage page.
FAQ
Pennsylvania contractor verification FAQ.
Can I verify a Pennsylvania contractor license through an API?
Only in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania has no statewide contractor license, so there is no state license file to check. Better Vetters checks the City of Pittsburgh’s contractor and trade licenses and Pittsburgh building permits. Send POST /v1/contractor/check with state set to PA; a match says Licensed in Pittsburgh in license.scope, never statewide.
What is Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration?
Under the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, contractors who do at least $5,000 of home improvement work a year register with the Pennsylvania Attorney General and get a registration number that starts with PA. It is a consumer-protection registration, not a license: there is no skills test, and registration is not an endorsement or approval of the contractor’s work.
Does Better Vetters check PA HIC registration?
No. The Attorney General offers a per-search lookup only, with no bulk open-data feed, so Better Vetters does not check HIC registration. To confirm a registration, use the Attorney General’s Home Improvement Contractor search.
What does a not-found mean in Pennsylvania?
Only that no City of Pittsburgh license matched. It says nothing about contractors elsewhere in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, which is not covered. The response adds the reason LIMITED_COVERAGE_IN_STATE so an agent does not read it as a red flag.
Which Pittsburgh licenses and permits are covered?
City of Pittsburgh general contractor and sign contractor licenses, electrical, HVAC mechanical, and fire suppression trade licenses (status and expiry), and Pittsburgh permits issued since 2023-01-01 that name a contractor. The license data has no address or phone, so matching relies on the name and, if you have it, the license number (for example BL004697).
Why did my Pennsylvania check return needs_review?
needs_review means the closest record was only a fuzzy name match: confidence below 0.8 with no license-number match. The score is capped at 50. Add license_number and check again.
Check a Pittsburgh contractor.
20 free checks, then $0.15 per check.
# Get a key (20 free checks, no card). The key is shown once.
curl -s -X POST https://api.bettervetters.com/v1/keys \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{"label":"my-agent"}'