FDIC BankFind is free and holds eight datasets, and 1Lookup returns one finished bank record for $0.010 when the bank is found.

Querying the FDIC's public bank data. The institutions endpoint documents the record field by field: the certificate number, name, active status, the day an institution became inactive, primary regulator, charter, bank class, address, website, offices, assets, deposits and the bank holding company. Seven more datasets sit beside it: locations (branches), history (structure change events), summary, failures, summary of deposits, financial data and demographics.

It is free. The documentation page lists no plan, quota or charge, and says users are currently not required to register and obtain a key to query it, although a link on the page lets you obtain one and the OpenAPI definition lists an api_key parameter. Output is JSON or CSV, chosen with the Accept header. Checked October 2026.

2 credits per bank found, free when the FDIC directory has no match. On the Starter plan ($99 a month for 20,000 credits) a lookup is about $0.010, which covers 10,000 banks a month and is $9.90 per 1,000. At the Enterprise end of the rate card it is about $0.004. FDIC BankFind is the cheaper bill: it is free, against $99 for a Starter month.

BankFind returns the FDIC's fields as the FDIC defines them: the primary regulator as a code such as OCC, FDIC, STATE or FED, the bank class as a code such as N, NM, SM or SB, money in thousands of dollars, and a name search as a list of matches to choose from, with filter and field values entered in uppercase. 1Lookup returns the same institution facts as one finished record: the charter in words, the regulator as a name, whole dollars with the report date, the holding company, the Federal Reserve ID number, the best match chosen and the other matches listed, from one request and one balance.

On price, breadth and depth. It is free, and it serves eight datasets where 1Lookup returns the institution record: every branch location, the history of structure changes, quarterly financial data and summary of deposits among them, and its OpenAPI definition describes historical data from 1934 onward. It takes up to 10,000 records per request, with query-string filters, sorting and paging. 1Lookup returns the number of offices but not branch addresses, and one bank per lookup.

BankFind is the FDIC's own source, and its financial values carry a report date field that names the last day of the reporting period. 1Lookup reads the same directory when you look a bank up and shows the quarter in report_date. A repeat lookup of the same bank by the same user within 7 days comes from the cache at no charge.

Yes, in a simpler way. A name search needs every word of the name to appear, returns the best match in full and lists up to nine others, and a two-letter state narrows it. BankFind's name search is fuzzy and returns a list of up to 10,000 records that you sort and filter yourself.

If you want to pull FDIC data for free and can read its codes, BankFind is the simplest source, and nothing beats it on price. If you want one bank as a finished record, in words and whole dollars, from a name or a certificate number, with bulk CSV files and one balance that also pays for phone, email and IP checks, 1Lookup's Bank Lookup bills 2 credits only when the bank is found.

If you want the FDIC's raw data, or its branches, history and financials, for free and you can handle codes, uppercase filters and thousands of dollars, yes. The documentation words key-free access as currently, and the OpenAPI definition is titled as a beta at version 0.1.0, so a product that depends on it should expect change. If you want a finished record for one bank without the assembly work, compare the per-lookup price of 1Lookup.