In brief
- There are four official and free ways to export companies from the Sirene database: the stock files on data.gouv.fr, the “Constituer une liste” tool of the Annuaire des Entreprises, INSEE’s Sirene API and the Recherche d’entreprises API.
- For a list by industry and department, the Annuaire des Entreprises is usually enough, up to 200,000 establishments per export.
- Beyond that, or for detailed cross-filtering, you have to process the establishments stock file, which is too large for Excel.
- None of these exports contains a phone number, an email address or a website.
INSEE’s Sirene database lists French businesses and their establishments with their SIREN and SIRET numbers, main activity (APE code) and address. What it contains and what it does not is explained in our article The Sirene database: SIREN, SIRET and public data. This article answers a more practical question: how do you turn it into a usable list, for example all active plumbers in one department?
Four ways to export the Sirene database
You can scroll the table horizontally.
| Access | What you get | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Stock files (data.gouv.fr) | the whole register, one snapshot a month, as compressed CSV or Parquet, no account | size: the establishments file of 1 November 2026 is about 2.9 GB compressed (2.2 GB as Parquet) |
| “Constituer une liste” (Annuaire des Entreprises) | a filtered list of establishments as CSV, no account | at most 200,000 establishments per export; no contact details |
| Sirene API (INSEE) | single or multi-criteria queries, current and historical data, daily updates | free account required; 30 requests per minute for open-data use |
| Recherche d’entreprises API | company search with filters, no account | 7 requests per second per IP address, 25 results per page; built for search, not bulk extraction |
The simplest method: “Constituer une liste”
The Annuaire des Entreprises, a public service run on data.gouv.fr, offers the “Constituer une liste” tool. It builds a list of establishments (SIRET level) from several criteria combined: activity (NAF codes or sections), location (municipality, department or region), headcount band, legal category, administrative status (active or ceased) and, if needed, head offices only. The file is downloaded as CSV. According to the service, data are available 24 hours after they are updated in the register.
According to the public source code of the service, checked on 8 November 2026, a request for more than 200,000 establishments is not carried out. For a large industry at national level, such as restaurants or specialised construction trades, split the request by region or department.
The service states it plainly: the lists contain no names of directors, no email addresses, no websites and no phone numbers, and some information on units with partial dissemination is missing.
Working with the stock file
The stock files are published every month on the Sirene dataset page on data.gouv.fr, as ZIP (CSV) and Parquet. They are a snapshot of the register on the last day of the previous month, including ceased legal units and closed establishments. CSV is due to be dropped in the second half of 2027, leaving Parquet only.
The establishments file is far larger than the roughly one million rows an Excel sheet accepts. You need a tool that reads a large file without loading it all into memory: a local database, a Python or R script, or software that reads Parquet directly. The useful variables for a targeted list:
| Variable | Use |
|---|---|
etatAdministratifEtablissement | keep the value A (active); F means a closed establishment |
activitePrincipaleEtablissement | APE code of the establishment in NAF rev. 2, for example 43.22A; the future NAF 2025 code is given for information in activitePrincipaleNAF25Etablissement |
codeCommuneEtablissement | official geographic code of the municipality: its first two characters give the department (2A and 2B for Corsica, three digits overseas) |
codePostalEtablissement | postcode of the address, useful for mail, but less reliable than the municipality code for a filter by department |
etablissementSiege | identifies the head office when you want one row per company rather than per site |
statutDiffusionEtablissement | O full dissemination, P partial dissemination after an objection |
The postcode and the municipality code do not always match: some municipalities have the postcode of a neighbouring department. Cases and figures are in our guide lists of companies by department.
The two APIs
INSEE’s Sirene API is mainly for keeping a database up to date: it gives access to current and historical data since 1973 and lets you retrieve the records changed each day. It requires an account on INSEE’s API portal and limits open-data use to 30 requests per minute. Version 4 has been in open beta since 13 October 2026 and is due to become the official version in mid-2027.
The Recherche d’entreprises API is open without an account. According to its documentation of the Recherche d’entreprises API, it accepts at most 7 requests per second per IP address and returns at most 25 results per page. It can be filtered by main activity, department, postcode, region or administrative status; the activity filter applies to the legal unit, not to its establishments. Handy for checking a company or a short list, it is not designed for downloading an entire industry.
Pitfalls of a Sirene export
- Closed and ceased units. The stock contains the full history. Without a filter on administrative status, the list mixes active and defunct businesses.
- Establishment or company. A branch network has one SIREN and several SIRET numbers. Decide before exporting whether you want one row per site or one row per company.
- One APE code per establishment. The code describes the declared main activity, not everything the business does. To target a service, combine several codes (see NAF and APE codes).
- The switch to NAF 2025. According to data.gouv.fr, the files released in early January 2027 will contain NAF 2025 codes only. A list filtered on old codes will have to be reviewed.
- Partial dissemination. For units with status
P, the address within the municipality is hidden and, for natural persons, so is their identity. INSEE points out that it is up to you to take account of each natural person’s most recent dissemination status. - Identifiers stored as numbers. SIREN, SIRET and postcodes lose their leading zeros in a spreadsheet. Import them as text.
What a Sirene export will not give you
A Sirene list is an excellent starting point for counting and locating a target. To contact it, the essentials are missing: no phone number, no email, no website. That is what a firmdata.fr file adds. On 4 November 2026, our database held 1,577,933 records, of which 1,326,371 had a phone number, 1,247,091 a website and 659,494 their own email address. They come from Overture Maps and from company websites; matching with the Sirene database, which will add SIREN, SIRET and NAF code, is in progress.
An export of a whole industry starts at €229 (price list). The columns and a sample file are shown on the export and sample file page, the industries on French company data by industry. To choose between a free source and a purchased file, see also our comparison of company data sources.
Frequently asked questions
Can the Sirene database be exported for free?
Yes. The complete stock files can be downloaded from data.gouv.fr without an account under Licence Ouverte 2.0, and the Annuaire des Entreprises lets you download a filtered list of establishments as CSV at no cost. Only INSEE’s Sirene API requires an account, which is also free.
How many establishments can be exported from the Annuaire des Entreprises?
According to the public source code of the service, checked on 8 November 2026, an export of more than 200,000 establishments is refused. For a longer list, split the request, for example by department, or work on the stock file directly.
Why does my Sirene export have no phone numbers or emails?
Because the Sirene register does not record them. The Annuaire des Entreprises says so itself: its lists contain no names of directors, no email addresses, no websites and no phone numbers. These details come from other sources, above all from company websites.
As of 8 November 2026. Sources: data.gouv.fr (Sirene database and its stock files of 1 November 2026, Sirene API pages), documentation of the Recherche d’entreprises API, public source code of the Annuaire des Entreprises, all retrieved on 8 November 2026.
