CA liquor license lookup: the ABC search, step by step

California’s liquor license lookup is free, public and updated every business day.

The search box is the part everyone knows. The daily reports behind it are the part that’s actually useful.

To run a CA liquor license lookup, go to the ABC’s License Lookup and search by license number, licensee name, business address or business name. Each record shows the license type, status, owner, address and conditions. Pending applications show up within two business days of ABC accepting them, and the free daily export lists all 129,748 records in one file.

I run RestoSignals, which pulls that export every day to find restaurants before they open. Here’s how the whole system works, including the parts the lookup page doesn’t explain.

How do you look up a liquor license in California?

You look up a California liquor license on the ABC’s free License Lookup at abc.ca.gov. Pick one of four searches: license number, licensee name, business address or business name. Enter the details the way ABC stores them, then open the record. It shows the license type, status code, owner, premises, conditions and original issue date. No account or fee is needed.

Here’s the short version:

1. Open the ABC License Lookup.
2. Pick a search mode.
3. Type the details using ABC’s abbreviations.
4. Open the record and read the status and license type.
5. For brand-new applications, check the daily reports instead.

The lookup page never mentions that last step. I’ll get to it below.

Which ABC search should you use?

Use the ABC business address search when you know where a place is, and the license number search when you have the number. The licensee name search finds the legal owner, often an LLC, and the business name search finds the DBA on the sign. Address is the most reliable for a restaurant you can see, because names change and owners hide behind companies.

Search	Use it when	Tip
License number	You have the number	Enter the last six digits only
Licensee name	You know the owner or company	Put THE at the end of a company name
Business address	You know the location	Use ST, AVE, W; spell out “FIRST”
Business name	You know the name on the sign	A partial name works

The abbreviation rules trip people up.

ABC writes “123 FIRST ST,” not “123 1st Street.” Search the wrong way and you’ll get zero results for a license that exists.

There are also location reports.

Licenses by city shows up to 10 cities at once for one license type. You can do the same by zip code, county or census tract.

What do the ABC license statuses mean?

ABC license status codes tell you whether a business can legally sell alcohol right now. ACTIVE means it can. PEND means ABC accepted the application but hasn’t issued the license. SUREND means the licensee surrendered it, and REV means it was revoked. ABC’s own FAQ counts a license as active if it’s ACTIVE, R64B, SUREND under Rule 65, or SUSPEND.

These are the codes you’ll see most, from ABC’s lookup glossary:

Code	Meaning	What it tells a vendor
ACTIVE	Active	Licensed and in good standing
PEND	Pending application	Not licensed yet; often a place still in buildout
R64B	Issue and hold	License exists but isn’t in use at the premises
SUREND / R65	Surrendered, not in use	Closed or between operators
SUSPEND	Suspended	Disciplinary action in force
REVP	Revocation pending for unpaid renewal	Renewal fee not paid
REV / A/REV	Revoked	License is gone
WDRL / DENY	Withdrawn or denied	The application ended

In the October 26, 2026 export, 105,082 records were ACTIVE licenses. Another 2,180 were surrendered, 420 had a revocation pending and 300 were suspended.

If you sell to bars, check the status before you extend credit. A suspension or a pending revocation is right there on the record.

What do California license types 41, 47 and 48 mean?

California license types say what a business can pour and who can come in. A type 41 is beer and wine for a restaurant. A type 47 is a full bar (beer, wine and spirits) for a restaurant. A type 48 is a full bar for a bar or nightclub with no food requirement and no minors. Types 20 and 21 are off-sale licenses for stores.

Here’s what’s active right now, counted from ABC’s license types and the October 26, 2026 export:

Type	What it allows	Active in California
41	On-sale beer and wine, eating place	24,020
47	On-sale general (full bar), eating place	17,602
48	On-sale general, public premises (bars, clubs)	2,437
21	Off-sale general (liquor stores)	13,969
20	Off-sale beer and wine (markets)	12,629
58	Caterer’s permit	6,327

The 41 versus 47 split is the one to watch. Owners mix them up too: on r/restaurantowners, a family restaurant in the Los Angeles area asked about a “permit 47” when they wanted beer and wine only. That’s a 41.

A 47 falls under California’s quota of one on-sale general license per 2,000 residents in a county. New ones come out once a year, through ABC’s priority drawing. In August 2026, ABC announced five new on-sale general licenses for San Luis Obispo County, with a $19,840 priority application fee.

Everywhere else, a restaurant buys an existing 47 from someone who has one.

That’s why a 47 can cost six figures and a 41 can’t. I covered the full price picture in how much a liquor license costs.

How do you find pending liquor license applications in California?

You find pending California liquor license applications in three places: the License Lookup, where they show as PEND within two business days of acceptance; ABC’s daily New Applications report, which lists every application taken on a given date; and the free Daily Data Export. On October 26, 2026, the export held 7,377 pending applications, including 3,337 for restaurant types 41 and 47.

The New Applications report is the one most people miss. Pick a date and you get every application ABC took that day, with the owner, premises address, mailing address and the type of transaction.

That transaction type matters.

ORI means an original license. PER means a person-to-person transfer, which is usually an existing place changing hands.

Here’s where the pending restaurant applications are:

County	Pending type 41 + 47
Los Angeles	676
San Diego	255
Orange	239
Santa Clara	175
Riverside	134
San Francisco	124
San Bernardino	113

A few things I didn’t expect when I counted.

About 21% of those 3,337 pending applications (703 of them) show no premises address at all in the export. You can’t map them until the address appears.

And 66% list a mailing address. That’s usually where the owner or their company gets mail, and it exists before the restaurant has a phone.

Locals already use this. On r/OaklandFood, neighbors confirmed a new restaurant was coming by finding its pending license on the ABC lookup.

How long does a California liquor license take?

A California liquor license usually takes two to three months. ABC says most investigations take about 55 to 65 days, and a license can’t be issued in under 30 days because the applicant has to post a public notice at the premises for 30 days. Protests from neighbors or police add more. Our tracking shows most applications are still pending five weeks in.

Those numbers come from ABC’s licensing FAQ, which also warns applicants not to plan a grand opening before approval.

I wanted to see it in real data.

RestoSignals has saved a copy of ABC’s pending list every day since September 19, 2026.

On that first day, 2,682 type 41 and 47 applications were pending. By October 26, 334 of them had been issued. That’s 12.5% in five weeks.

Meanwhile, new ones kept coming: 984 new type 41 and 47 applications appeared in those 37 days. That’s about 27 a day.

So at any moment, California has a few thousand restaurants sitting in the window between “applied” and “licensed.” That’s usually two to three months of buildout.

Why can’t you find a license in the ABC lookup?

You usually can’t find a California liquor license because the search doesn’t match how ABC stored it. The license may sit under an LLC instead of the restaurant name, the address may need ABC’s abbreviations, or a new application may not be posted yet. ABC says pending applications appear within two business days of acceptance, so a filing from this morning won’t show.

Here’s the checklist I run when a search comes back empty:

1. Try the address instead of the name. Restaurants change names. Addresses rarely move.
2. Rewrite the street the ABC way: ST, AVE, BLVD, and “FIRST” instead of “1st.”
3. Search the owner’s company. Many licenses are held by an LLC or corporation with a different name from the sign.
4. Use only the last six digits of a license number.
5. Wait two business days for a brand-new application.
6. Check the daily Status Changes report if a license was just issued, transferred or surrendered.

Transfers confuse searches too. During a sale, you may find the seller’s active license and a separate pending application from the buyer at the same address.

If none of that works, call ABC at 916-419-2500 or your district office. They can confirm a record over the phone.

How do you download every California liquor license?

You can download every California liquor license free from ABC’s Daily Data Export on the Licensing Reports page. It’s a zipped CSV, refreshed each business day at 7 a.m. Pacific, with one row per license type per file number. The October 26, 2026 file had 129,748 records with owner names, premises addresses, mailing addresses, counties and original issue dates.

Get it from Licensing Reports, under “Daily Data Export.” There’s a CSV version and a fixed-width version.

A few columns you’ll use most:

• “Lic or App” tells you if it’s a license or an application.
• “Type Status” holds the status code (ACTIVE, PEND and so on).
• “Primary Name” is the owner, often an LLC.
• “Mail Addr 1” is where the owner gets mail.

One warning: the file is about 28 MB unzipped. Excel opens it, but slowly.

And it’s a snapshot. To know what’s new, you have to compare today’s file with yesterday’s.

That’s the part I automated.

Why do vendors check California liquor license applications?

Vendors check California liquor license applications because a pending type 41 or 47 is one of the earliest public signs that a restaurant is coming. It shows up months before opening, names the owner and often gives a mailing address. Beverage distributors check licenses for a second reason: under California’s three-tier system, they sell to licensed retailers.

Timing decides most of these deals.

In a 2025 survey of 220 restaurant operators, reported by Restaurant Technology News, 71% said they start choosing their main vendors more than 90 days before opening.

A pending liquor application is often the first public record inside that window.

You can work it by hand: pull the New Applications report each morning, filter to your county, drop the transfers and look up each owner.

Or you can let software do it.

RestoSignals reads the ABC export daily, matches it with Los Angeles and San Francisco business registrations, and scores each venue. On October 26, 2026, it held 4,358 California venues, with 31 scored as hot.

To be clear about the limits: we track California’s liquor applications and two cities’ business filings. We don’t have California phone numbers yet.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if a business has a liquor license in California?

Use the free License Lookup on the California ABC website, abc.ca.gov. You can search by license number, licensee name, business address or business name. Each record shows the license type, status, owner, premises address, conditions and original issue date. Pending applications appear within two business days of ABC accepting them.

What does pending mean on the ABC license lookup?

PEND means ABC has accepted the application but hasn’t issued the license yet. The investigation is still running, the 30-day public notice period may still be open, and the business can’t sell alcohol on that application. ABC says most investigations take about 55 to 65 days, and no license can be issued in less than 30.

How long does it take to get a liquor license in California?

ABC says most investigations take about 55 to 65 days, and a license can’t be issued in under 30 days because of the public notice period. Protests add time. In our tracking of ABC data, only 12.5% of type 41 and 47 applications pending on September 19, 2026 had been issued five weeks later.

What is the difference between a type 41 and a type 47 license?

Both are for restaurants that operate as bona fide eating places. A type 41 allows beer and wine only. A type 47 adds distilled spirits, so it’s a full bar license for a restaurant. Type 47 licenses fall under California’s county quota of one on-sale general license per 2,000 residents, which makes them far more expensive in most counties.

Can I see new liquor license applications in California?

Yes. ABC publishes a daily New Applications report on its Licensing Reports page, listing every application taken that day with the owner, premises address and mailing address. It also publishes a free Daily Data Export with every license and pending application in the state, refreshed each business day.

How many years is a liquor license good for in California?

One year at a time. Every active restaurant and bar license in ABC’s October 26, 2026 export (types 41, 47 and 48, 44,059 in all) has a 12-month term, renewed each year with an annual fee. The license itself doesn’t expire if renewals are paid, and it can be sold to a new owner through an ABC transfer.

Check the pending list, not just the license

Looking up one license tells you about a place that’s already open. The pending list tells you who opens next. Pull ABC’s New Applications report for your county this week, drop the transfers, and contact the owners at the mailing address on file before they pick their vendors.

Or see California’s new venues on RestoSignals free, with owner names and scores already matched, and unlock full contacts for $29 a month.

For the same walkthrough in other states, read the Illinois and Texas liquor license lookup guides.

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Mukul Dutt is the founder of RestoSignals, which tracks restaurants and bars before they open by fusing public liquor, permit and business-filing records into one scored venue with owner contact. License counts are from the California ABC Daily Data Export dated October 26, 2026. Issue-rate figures come from RestoSignals’ daily copies of ABC’s pending list from September 19 to October 26, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.