How to search the Brazil company registry (CNPJ lookup).
The official, free tools to check one company in Brazil, what each returns, the CNPJ format, and how to get every company at once.
Official lookup tools
Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral
- Run by
- Receita Federal
- Search by
- CNPJ
- What you get
- legal and trade name, opening date, legal nature, main and secondary CNAE activity codes, address, registration status
- Address
solucoes.receita.fazenda.gov.br
Links checked on 2026-11-10. The sites are in Spanish or Portuguese.
Brazil has no free name search on the federal register: the Receita lookup needs the CNPJ. To find companies by name, activity or city you need the monthly open data, which is what the LatSouth Brazil file is built from. How to read a CNPJ.
The CNPJ format
14 characters, 00.000.000/0001-00: an 8-character company root, a 4-digit establishment number (0001 is usually the head office) and 2 check digits. From July 2026 new CNPJs may also contain letters.
Every company at once
The lookups answer "does this company exist, and is it active?" one company at a time. For market sizing, territory planning or a prospect list you need the whole register, filtered by industry and state: Brazil company data shows the counts by sector and state for free, with a 25-row sample, built from the Receita Federal (CNPJ registry).
Questions
How do I look up a company in Brazil?
Start with Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral, run by Receita Federal: it is free and needs no account. The table lists what it returns.
What is the CNPJ format?
14 characters, 00.000.000/0001-00: an 8-character company root, a 4-digit establishment number (0001 is usually the head office) and 2 check digits. From July 2026 new CNPJs may also contain letters.
Can I get a list of all companies in Brazil?
Not from the lookup tools, which return one company at a time. LatSouth publishes counts by sector and state and sells the full file in English, built from the Receita Federal (CNPJ registry).
Related guides
Other countries
All of Brazil's companies, not one at a time.
Counts by sector and state, a free sample and the full file in English.