Does Philadelphia issue its own contractor licenses?

Yes. Philadelphia licenses certain trades at the city level rather than (or in addition to) the Pennsylvania state board. TradesAPI verifies Philadelphia municipal licenses through the same GET /verify endpoint, passing city=philadelphia alongside the state.

How do I verify a Philadelphia contractor license?

Call TradesAPI's GET /verify with state=PA, city=philadelphia, and the license number to get a normalized result — valid/invalid, status, and expiration — in one request, or search the city portal by hand.

What Philadelphia trades can I verify?

TradesAPI covers these Philadelphia trade types today: Electrical, General Contractor, Plumbing.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · contractor license lookup

How to verify a contractor license in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Check any Philadelphia contractor license — status and expiration — through one normalized API, or look it up by hand on the city licensing portal. Philadelphia licenses trades at the city level, not just the Pennsylvania state board.

Philadelphia coverage: Operational · live status

What you can verify

Data source: Official Philadelphia licensing portal

Jurisdiction: Philadelphia (municipal), Pennsylvania

Trade types

ElectricalGeneral ContractorPlumbing

Looking for the Pennsylvania state board instead? See the Pennsylvania contractor license guide.

One call. State and city licenses, same schema.

The /verify response is identical in shape whether the license is issued by a state board or a city — add the city parameter and your integration code stays the same:

GET /verify?state=PA&city=philadelphia&license=SAMPLE-12345&trade=electrical

{
  "valid": true,
  "name": "SAMPLE CONTRACTING LLC",
  "license_number": "SAMPLE-12345",
  "trade": "electrical",
  "expiration": "05/12/2027",
  "status": "Active",
  "state": "PA",
  "disciplinary_actions": [],
  "source_url": "https://li.phila.gov/contractor-lookup",
  "cached": false,
  "checked_at": "2026-06-22T05:14:00Z"
}

Example response showing the normalized schema. Wire it up against deterministic fixtures in the sandbox — no credit cost.

Verify Philadelphia licenses programmatically

# Verify a Philadelphia contractor license with one API call
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://www.tradesapi.com/verify?state=PA&city=philadelphia&license=SAMPLE-12345&trade=electrical"

The official Philadelphia licensing portal is at https://li.phila.gov/contractor-lookup — free to search by hand. TradesAPI wraps it in the same /verify call you use for every state, so city and state licenses come back in one normalized schema.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Philadelphia issue its own contractor licenses?: Yes. Philadelphia licenses certain trades at the city level rather than (or in addition to) the Pennsylvania state board. TradesAPI verifies Philadelphia municipal licenses through the same GET /verify endpoint, passing city=philadelphia alongside the state.
How do I verify a Philadelphia contractor license?: Call TradesAPI's GET /verify with state=PA, city=philadelphia, and the license number to get a normalized result — valid/invalid, status, and expiration — in one request, or search the city portal by hand.
What Philadelphia trades can I verify?: TradesAPI covers these Philadelphia trade types today: Electrical, General Contractor, Plumbing.