Free tool
Free OFAC SDN Search Tool: SDN List Search & OFAC Check
A free OFAC search tool and SDN lookup: type a name, company or crypto address and get an SDN, non-SDN or not-listed result with the list it came from and a link to the official record — no signup, nothing stored. Results come from the live SDN publication stream (re-ingested every 15 minutes) plus the other sanctions and crime lists CompliAPI screens, and every match names the list it was found on. Use it as a free OFAC search before you onboard a counterparty, as an OFAC check on a vendor, or as a free sanctions check across the EU, UK, French, Japanese and Israeli lists in the same query: type the name, read the verdict, open the official record.
Tip: wrap a pattern in /slashes/ to search with a case-insensitive regular expression.
This is not the official OFAC tool — for authoritative confirmation of a designation, use OFAC's Sanctions List Search.
Example OFAC SDN search results
A few well-known designations to try as an SDN lookup in the search box above, with the list and OFAC program each one resolves to. Every result links to the official record the same way.
| Search | List | Program | What it is | Official record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lazarus Group | US OFAC SDN | DPRK3 | North Korean state hacking group, listed by ETH and BTC address — also on the FBI Lazarus address list | OFAC entry |
| Garantex Europe OU | US OFAC SDN | CYBER4, RUSSIA-EO14024 | Russia-linked exchange listed by wallet address — also on the French Trésor asset-freeze register | OFAC entry |
| Hydra Market | US OFAC SDN | CYBER2 | Darknet marketplace designated in April 2022, listed by Bitcoin address | OFAC entry |
| Sinbad | US OFAC SDN | CYBER2, DPRK3 | Mixer; listed with email addresses and websites as well as wallet addresses | OFAC entry |
| Blender.io | US OFAC SDN | CYBER2 | The first mixer OFAC designated (May 2022), listed by Bitcoin address | OFAC entry |
| SUEX OTC, s.r.o. | US OFAC SDN | CYBER2 | OFAC's first virtual-currency exchange designation (September 2021), listed by Bitcoin and Ethereum address | OFAC entry |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | US OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN) | CMIC-EO13959 | A non-SDN result: on the Chinese Military-Industrial Complex list, matched by registration number — a securities restriction, not a blocking designation | OFAC entry |
What this SDN list search covers
The primary source is the US OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, re-ingested from Treasury's publication stream every 15 minutes, and OFAC's separate Consolidated (non-SDN) list — the two are different lists with different legal consequences, a distinction our SDN vs non-SDN guide walks through. The same search also checks every other list CompliAPI screens — the EU, UK, Swiss SECO, UN Security Council, Canadian, Australian DFAT, French, Japanese and Israeli sanctions registers plus crime-intelligence sources — and labels each match with its list, so an SDN hit is always distinguishable.
The search matches every listed party's name and aliases — including the many individuals and companies listed with no identifier at all — as well as identifier values themselves: crypto addresses, email addresses, websites, government ID numbers such as passports and registration numbers, ship IMO numbers, and OFAC-sanctioned countries. Checking a ship? The free vessel search narrows results to ships and matches IMO numbers exactly. Want the raw files instead? The OFAC export files guide lists every download URL and schema, from sdn.csv to sdn_advanced.xml.
Reading your SDN check results
An exact match means the value you searched equals a listed identifier or a listed party's name. Anything else is a partial match, ranked by trigram similarity — name fragments and substrings will match, but the search is not typo-tolerant beyond that, so try alternate spellings and name orders (OFAC records individuals as "LASTNAME, Firstname").
Every result carries its list attribution: which list, its type (sanctions, crime intelligence, or risk exposure), and the OFAC sanctions program where recorded — the details a compliance officer needs to write down. Entries marked Delisted have been removed from their source list; recent removals are tracked here.
A hit is a starting point, not a determination: name matches produce false positives, and a potential SDN match obligates you to verify the identity against the official record (linked on each result) before blocking or reporting. A clear result is equally not a clearance — it means no match on the lists searched, nothing more.
Running an OFAC check on a company or vendor works the same way: no match means no listed name or identifier matched on the lists searched. It does not look through to subsidiaries or owners — whether a company is blocked because a listed party owns 50 percent or more of it is a separate ownership analysis under OFAC's 50 Percent Rule, described on the SDN list page. For definitive confirmation, use the official tool.
Searching crypto addresses against the SDN list
OFAC designates digital-currency addresses alongside names — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and more — but the official search treats them as ordinary ID fields. Here, addresses are first-class: paste any address and it is matched against every listed address on the SDN list and the other screened lists, including FBI-attributed Lazarus Group addresses and ransomware payment addresses. Sanctioned-wallet exposure is one of the fastest-moving parts of OFAC enforcement; our guide to OFAC-sanctioned crypto wallets covers how addresses end up designated and what a match means.
Need to run SDN checks automatically?
This page is the manual version of what the CompliAPI screening API does programmatically: exact-match screening with a sanctioned / flagged verdict, an audit trail of every check, and the same list attribution — one authenticated GET request per identifier. The free tier includes 1,000 requests a month.
GET /api/v1/screen/crypto/{address}
curl https://api.compliapi.com/api/v1/screen/crypto/0x098B716B8Aaf21512996dC57EB0615e2383E2f96 \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $COMPLIAPI_TOKEN"Response
{
"value": "0x098b716b8aaf21512996dc57eb0615e2383e2f96",
"flagged": true,
"sanctioned": true,
"lists_checked": ["ofac", "us_fbi_lazarus_crypto", "il_mod_crypto", "fr_tresor", "jp_mof_sanctions", "uk_fcdo_sanctions"],
"matches": [
{
"list": "ofac",
"list_name": "US OFAC SDN",
"list_type": "sanctions",
"match": "exact",
"value": "0x098B716B8Aaf21512996dC57EB0615e2383E2f96",
"source_url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=27307",
"metadata": { "symbol": "ETH", "sdn_name": "LAZARUS GROUP", "programs": "DPRK3" }
}
]
}More about the OFAC screening APISearch sanctions data with fuzzy and regex matchingLook up recently delisted entities
Frequently asked questions
Is this the official OFAC sanctions search?
No. The official tool is OFAC's Sanctions List Search at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov, and it remains the authoritative place to confirm a designation. This search runs on CompliAPI's independently maintained copy of the SDN publication stream, refreshed every 15 minutes, and adds capabilities the official tool lacks — crypto-address lookup and attribution across additional sanctions and crime lists.
Do you store what I search for?
No. This free search is unauthenticated and is deliberately excluded from request logging — searched names and addresses are not stored. Paid API screening calls are the opposite by design: each one is written to your organization's audit trail so you can evidence checks later.
What is SDN search?
An SDN search — also called an SDN lookup or SDN check — is a check of a name, alias or identifier against OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals list, the US Treasury's list of blocked persons and entities. It has three outcomes: a match on the SDN list, a match on OFAC's separate Consolidated (non-SDN) list, or no match on the lists searched — each shown here with the list and a link to the official record. The official place to run one is OFAC's Sanctions List Search; this page runs the same lookup on CompliAPI's copy, re-ingested every 15 minutes, with crypto addresses as first-class input. A hit is a candidate to verify against the official record, not a determination. If you are checking more than a handful of names, the API is the right tool — the free tier includes 1,000 screening requests a month, as of October 2026.
What does a “Delisted” result mean?
The entry was removed from its source list — OFAC delists parties when designations are lifted. Delisted entries rank below active ones here and are excluded from API screening verdicts, but they are worth reviewing: a counterparty's delisting history can still be relevant to your risk assessment. The delisted entities page tracks recent removals.
How to check if a vessel is sanctioned?
Search by IMO number rather than by name: the seven-digit IMO number stays with a hull through renamings and reflaggings, and sanctioned ships change names often. The free vessel search at /tools/vessel-search matches IMO numbers and MMSIs exactly, and vessel names and aliases, across the US OFAC SDN list, the UK Sanctions List, the Swiss SECO list, Canada's and Australia's consolidated lists and the French Trésor register, naming the list and linking the official record on every result. This SDN search matches the same ship IMO numbers and names, but mixes them with people and companies. To confirm an OFAC vessel designation, open the record in OFAC's Sanctions List Search; in software, GET /screen/vessel/{identifier} takes an IMO or MMSI and returns the same match.
What is the OFAC search?
OFAC's Sanctions List Search at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov is the US Treasury's own name lookup against the SDN and Consolidated (non-SDN) lists. When a compliance procedure calls for “an OFAC search”, it means checking a counterparty's name against those lists before doing business with them. This page runs the same lookup on CompliAPI's copy of the lists, re-ingested every 15 minutes, and adds what the official tool lacks: crypto-address matching and the other sanctions and crime lists in one search.
What is OFAC on a background check?
An “OFAC” line on a background, tenant or vendor report means the name was compared with the OFAC SDN list, and often the Consolidated list too. A hit is a potential sanctions match to verify against the official record, not a criminal record or a credit item — and on common names most hits are false positives. To verify one, open the OFAC entry, compare the identifiers it lists (date of birth, nationality, passport or registration numbers, addresses) with the person or company in front of you, and document what you found.
Screen against live SDN data
Get a free API key and run your first automated check in minutes — the same engine behind this search.
Free tier: 1,000 requests a month. No credit card required.