GST data providers in India: GSPs, APIs and what's legal

The quick answer

A "GST data provider" can mean four different things: a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) licensed by GSTN to connect software to the GST system, an e-invoice registration portal (IRP), a company selling a GSTIN verification API, or a seller of "GST database" lead lists. The first three are official or work on top of official data; GSTN publishes the current list of 62 empanelled GSPs and 6 IRPs. For lead lists, remember that GST returns are confidential under section 158 of the CGST Act: only the profile the GST portal shows for a GSTIN is public, so a list that claims to hold other businesses' sales or return figures deserves hard questions before you pay.

This guide explains each kind of GST data provider, what the GST system shows and keeps private, how to choose a verification API, what to ask a list seller, and how to build a B2B prospect list you can check against the GST portal yourself.

Four things sold as "GST data"

Search for a GST data provider and the results mix tax software, APIs and lead lists as if they were one product. They are not. Before you compare prices, decide which of these you actually need:

What you are buying	What it does	Whose data it handles	Where to check the provider
GST Suvidha Provider (GSP)	Connects tax and accounting software to the GST system through GSTN's APIs, for uploading invoices and filing returns	Your own GST data, with your authorisation	GSTN's list of empanelled GSPs
Application Service Provider (ASP)	The app you use (billing, accounting, return filing), which reaches GST through a GSP; sometimes the same company	Your own data	Ask which GSP it connects through, then check that GSP on GSTN's list
Invoice Registration Portal (IRP)	Registers B2B e-invoices, returns an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and a signed QR code	Your invoices	GSTN's list of empanelled IRPs
GSTIN verification API or look-up tool	Returns a GSTIN's public profile (name, status, constitution, address, filing record) inside your own software	Other businesses' public GST profile	Compare its answers with the GST portal's own Search Taxpayer result for a few GSTINs
"GST database" or "GST leads" list	A spreadsheet of businesses, often sold to sales teams and loan agents, sometimes with GSTINs and claimed turnover	Other businesses' data, from whatever source the seller used	No official register of sellers; ask where every column came from

The first three serve a business's own compliance. The fourth is prospecting, and the last is where buyers most often get misled, because it borrows the authority of the word "GST" for data that may have nothing to do with the GST system.

What the GST system shows and what it keeps private

GSTN reports 1.70 crore registered taxpayers on its home page statistics (as on 30 September 2026), with a cumulative 199.12 crore returns filed and 833.82 crore e-way bills. That is the universe every GST data product draws on, but very little of it is public.

The GST portal's own help page, FAQs on Search Taxpayers, lists exactly what anyone can see by entering a GSTIN, and what needs a login:

Shown without logging in	Shown only after logging in to the GST portal	Not shown to other businesses at all
GSTIN/UIN, legal name of business, trade name, effective date of registration, constitution of business, GSTIN status, taxpayer type, administrative office, principal place of business, effective date of cancellation, nature of business activities, goods and services dealt in, details of returns filed	Names of the proprietor, directors or promoters; contact details of the principal and additional places of business; e-way bill history; compliance rating; annual aggregate turnover; percentage of tax paid in cash	The returns themselves: invoice-level sales and purchases, the customers and suppliers in them, tax computations and documents filed with the department

The step-by-step Search Taxpayer manual adds that the pre-login search takes one GSTIN at a time behind a captcha, that a "Show Filing Table" button lists the returns filed for a chosen financial year, and that logged-in users also see a GST compliance rating on a scale of 0 to 10 and a "Gross Taxable Income" slab taken from income tax data.

The reason the third column stays private is in the law. Section 158(1) of the CGST Act, as printed in the CBIC's updated text of the Act, says that "all particulars contained in any statement made, return furnished or accounts or documents produced in accordance with this Act" shall not be disclosed, except in the situations listed in sub-section (3), such as prosecutions, other government departments, audits and publication of class-level information "in the public interest". Selling a business's return data to a sales team is not one of them.

So when a seller offers "GST sales data", "GST purchase data" or "GSTR-1 data" of businesses that are not you, ask what it really is. It may be the public profile repackaged, figures estimated from other sources, or data that should never have left the system. None of these is a reason to trust a claimed turnover figure for credit or sales decisions.

GST Suvidha Providers: the official list

GSTN's GSP ecosystem page explains the idea: taxpayers can use the GST portal directly, or "via his choice of third party applications" which "connect with GST system via secure GST System APIs". The companies allowed to make that connection are GST Suvidha Providers.

The current list of empanelled GSPs, after the fifth batch of selection, has 62 names (checked on 6 November 2026). They fall into a few kinds:

• Accounting and ERP software makers, such as Tally (India), Zoho Corporation, Ramco Systems, Focus Softnet, Relyon Softech and Winman Software, so their own products can file GST.
• GST and compliance specialists, such as ClearTax (Defmacro Software), IRIS Business Services, Masters India, Cygnet Infotech, Vayana (Vay Network Services), Webtel Electrosoft and Adaequare.
• Consulting and audit firms: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, Ernst & Young, KPMG India, PricewaterhouseCoopers and BDO India.
• Large companies and financial institutions: Amazon Seller Services, Reliance Corporate IT Park, Tata Consultancy Services, Canara Bank, CDSL Ventures and Protean eGov Technologies.

GSTN's FAQs for GSPs answer the questions buyers usually have. GSPs "are free to charge the tax payers depending on the services they offer", and their pricing "would be left entirely to the GSPs". A taxpayer may use more than one: "one GSP for registration and another for returns filing". A GSP must connect to the GST system "from an entity based in India only". And the taxpayer "is free to choose his Application Providers and / or GSP irrespective and independent to the other".

That last answer matters when you pick software. Many billing and return-filing apps are ASPs that ride on someone else's GSP licence. That is normal; just ask which GSP they use and check it on GSTN's list.

Invoice Registration Portals

E-invoicing has its own providers. GSTN's IRP concept page says the GST Council, in its 43rd meeting, approved private IRPs alongside the portal run by NIC, and that GSTN owns the IRP web addresses einvoice1.gst.gov.in to einvoice10.gst.gov.in. Its list of empanelled IRPs has six entries: NIC 1, NIC 2, Cygnet Infotech, ClearTax (Defmacro Software), Ernst & Young and IRIS Business Services. An IRP registers your invoices; it is not a source of other businesses' data.

Choosing a GSTIN verification API

A verification API does one job: you send a GSTIN, it returns that GSTIN's public profile, so your vendor onboarding form, billing software or CRM can check it without someone opening the portal. Typical uses are checking a new supplier before the first purchase order, checking a customer's GSTIN before raising a B2B invoice, and re-checking existing vendors for cancelled registrations before you rely on their invoices for input tax credit.

Because the underlying data is the portal's public profile, the providers differ mainly in freshness, coverage of fields and service terms. Ask each one:

Question	Why it matters	A good answer
Is the response live from the GST system or from your cache?	Status changes (suspension, cancellation) matter more than names	Live, or cached with the date of the last check returned in every response
Which fields do you return?	You may need the filing record, not just name and status	The pre-login fields in the table above, including return filing details; anything extra explained
Are you a GSP, or which GSP do you use?	Shows how the provider reaches the GST system	A name you can find on GSTN's empanelled list
How do you charge?	Per-call pricing adds up when you re-check thousands of vendors	A clear rate card, a free test allowance, no charge for failed calls
What do you store about my searches?	Your vendor and customer list is your own business data	A written data processing and retention policy
Will you return "turnover" or "sales" figures?	Return data is confidential under section 158	Only what the portal shows; any estimate labelled as an estimate

For a few checks a month, you do not need an API at all: the portal's Search Taxpayer screen is free. Our company search guide shows how to read a GSTIN, what its 15 characters mean, and how to combine the GST, MCA, IEC and Udyam look-ups into one check.

Buying a "GST database": what to ask the seller

Lists sold as "GST database", "GST leads" or "GST registered companies data" are aimed at sales teams, loan agents and software firms. Some are ordinary business directories with a GSTIN column added. Before you pay, ask these five questions and expect a straight answer:

1. Where did each column come from? Names and addresses can come from directories and the public GST profile. Turnover, sales or purchase figures for other businesses cannot lawfully come from their returns, for the reason above.
2. How old is it? Registrations are cancelled and suspended all the time. A list should say when it was built, and you should re-check any GSTIN on the portal before relying on it.
3. Can I see real rows first? A sample of real records, not a made-up example, tells you more than any claim of accuracy.
4. Whose numbers are these? A proprietorship's legal name is often the owner's own name, and the phone number may be a personal mobile. B2B use is fine; treat it as business contact data and handle it with care under the DPDP Act.
5. What does the seller promise? Be wary of "100% verified" or "guaranteed" data. Contact details go out of date every month, and nobody can promise every number works.

Starleads wrote this guide, and Starleads sells B2B contact lists. Our lists do not include GSTINs, turnover or any GST return data. They hold business name, contact person and designation where known, category, mobile and alternate mobile, landline, email, website, address, locality, city, state and PIN code, compiled from business directories and similar sources and cleaned of duplicates. If a GSTIN matters to you, ask the business for it and check it on the portal, as in the steps below.

For a wider comparison of list sellers and enrichment tools, see our guide to B2B data providers in India; for registered small businesses specifically, the MSME database guide explains what Udyam data does and does not show.

Where GST-registered businesses are: Starleads' figures

GST registration is compulsory above a turnover threshold. Section 22 of the CGST Act sets it at twenty lakh rupees in a financial year, ten lakh in special category States, and lets the government raise it to up to forty lakh for suppliers who deal only in goods. Most trading, manufacturing and service firms that sell to other businesses are therefore registered, which is why a business list is usually a list of GST-registered firms, even when it carries no GSTIN.

The figures below are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, from our published figures on 6 November 2026, not an official census of GST registrations. They show where the businesses on our lists sit:

State	Businesses in Starleads' general directory	Biggest city list in the state
Maharashtra	11,30,630	Mumbai, 5,77,978
Delhi	9,85,771	New Delhi, 2,92,834
Tamil Nadu	5,34,044	Chennai, 2,97,138
Karnataka	5,23,289	Bengaluru, 3,39,403
Telangana	4,59,878	Hyderabad, 4,09,205
Gujarat	4,45,819	Ahmedabad, 1,56,718
Uttar Pradesh	3,78,337	Ghaziabad 67,925 and Noida 66,688
Rajasthan	2,10,678	Jaipur, 1,19,033

By trade, the lists most often bought by people who search for GST data are the trading ones. Our Dealers & Traders list has 93,784 businesses in 34 states and 580 cities, 79% with a mobile number and 25% with an email. The Suppliers & Distributors list has 1,01,800 businesses, 96% with a mobile number. For cross-border trade, the Importers list has 1,08,764 contacts (90% with a mobile) and the Exporters list 1,75,373 (71% with a mobile, 85% with an email).

Selling GST software or services? Start with CAs

GSTN's FAQs describe tax return preparers, the chartered accountants and tax consultants who file for their clients, as people who "may also subscribe to services of GSP or Application Providers". For a GSP, an ASP or a verification API, one practising CA can bring dozens of client businesses, which makes CAs the natural first market.

Our Chartered Accountants & Tax Consultants list has 47,994 contacts in 179 cities, covering CA firms, tax consultants, GST and income tax practitioners, auditors and bookkeepers. 97% have a mobile number and 83% an email address, so it works for both email and calls. Most contacts are in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Every list page shows 60 real sample rows with a free Excel download, and you can buy one of 16 cities instead of all of India. City, state and specialisation lists cost ₹499 each and the All-India file ₹1,999, plus 18% GST.

CAs and tax consultants by city

• Mumbai 15,641 contacts · 76% email · 95% mobile ₹499
• Bengaluru 4,072 contacts · 76% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Kolkata 3,121 contacts · 97% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Hyderabad 2,711 contacts · 95% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Pune 2,489 contacts · 83% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Gurugram 1,670 contacts · 94% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Ahmedabad 1,608 contacts · 95% email · 98% mobile ₹499
• Jaipur 1,300 contacts · 73% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 834 contacts · 94% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Noida 784 contacts · 90% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Vadodara 684 contacts · 70% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Surat 462 contacts · 56% email · 99% mobile ₹499

Time your outreach around their calendar: CAs are hardest to reach in the days before monthly and quarterly GST return due dates and in the income tax and audit season. Our chartered accountants list guide explains how to verify a CA and how to approach CA firms.

How to build a GST-checked prospect list, step by step

If what you really want is a list of GST-registered businesses to sell to, you can build one that is lawful, current and checked, without buying anyone's tax data:

1. Define the buyer. Write down the trade, the states or cities, and the size of business you sell to. "Electrical goods dealers in Pune and Nashik" is a list; "all GST companies" is not.
2. Get the base list. Download the free 60-row sample of the matching Starleads list and look at the real rows before buying. If you need several trades, the list builder combines up to 10 industries and any states or cities in one file.
3. Scrub before any promotional call or SMS. Check numbers against TRAI's DND preferences, which people and businesses register through 1909, the TRAI app or their operator, as listed on TRAI's customer preference registration page. Our DND check guide shows how. Bulk SMS also needs DLT registration of your sender header and templates (see our DLT guide).
4. Ask for the GSTIN at first contact. A business that is interested will share its GSTIN for a quotation; it is printed on its invoices and letterhead anyway. This is more reliable than any GSTIN column in a bought file.
5. Check it on the portal or your API. Confirm the legal name matches, the status is active and recent returns appear in the filing table. Note the constitution, which tells you whether you are dealing with a proprietor, a partnership firm or a company before you agree credit terms.
6. Record what you checked and when. Keep the GSTIN, status and date in your CRM, and re-check before large orders or credit. A registration that was active in April can be cancelled by October.
7. Respect opt-outs. Say who you are in every call and email, stop when someone asks you to, and remove them from future campaigns.

This order matters. Checking GSTINs before the first conversation wastes API calls on businesses that will never buy; checking after interest costs one look-up per real prospect.

The rules in one place

• GST returns are confidential. Section 158 of the CGST Act bars disclosure of particulars in returns, statements and documents filed under the Act, outside the listed exceptions.
• The public profile is public, one GSTIN at a time. The portal shows it to anyone with the GSTIN; some details need a login.
• GSPs and IRPs are empanelled by GSTN. Check any provider that claims to be one against GSTN's own lists.
• Calls and SMS follow TRAI's rules. Respect DND preferences for promotional messages; use DLT-registered headers and templates for SMS.
• Personal data rules apply to people. A proprietor's name and mobile number are personal data even in a B2B list. Use them for business purposes, keep them safe and honour removal requests.

Starleads sells business and professional contacts only. We do not sell consumer lists, or lists of people picked out by their wealth, investments or other personal details.

Questions people ask about GST data

Who is a GST data provider?

Usually one of four things: a GST Suvidha Provider that connects software to the GST system, an Invoice Registration Portal for e-invoices, a company selling a GSTIN verification API, or a seller of business lists marketed as "GST data". Only the first two are empanelled by GSTN, and GSTN publishes both lists.

How many GST Suvidha Providers are there?

GSTN's current list, after the fifth batch of empanelment, has 62 GSPs, from software makers such as Tally and Zoho to consulting firms such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, and institutions such as Canara Bank and CDSL Ventures. GSTN also lists six IRPs for e-invoicing.

What is the difference between a GSP and an ASP?

A GSP holds the connection to the GST system's APIs. An ASP is the application a business or tax professional actually uses, such as billing or return filing software, which reaches the GST system through a GSP. GSTN's FAQs say a taxpayer can choose the two independently, and the same company can be both.

Is GST data public?

Partly. Anyone can see a registered business's profile by entering its GSTIN on the GST portal: names, status, constitution, address, nature of business and the returns filed. Logged-in users see more, such as the promoters' names and annual aggregate turnover. The contents of returns are confidential under section 158 of the CGST Act.

Can I search GST details by business name?

The portal's Search Taxpayer FAQ says you need to provide the GSTIN to search a normal taxpayer. Take it from the business's invoice, quotation or website, or ask for it. Sites offering a search by name are not the official portal, so confirm what they show on the portal itself.

Is it legal to buy a GST database?

Buying a business contact list for B2B marketing is lawful when the data was lawfully collected and you follow TRAI's calling and SMS rules and the DPDP Act. Be careful with lists that claim to contain other businesses' return, sales or purchase figures: that information is confidential under the GST law, and such claims are either estimates or data that should not be on sale.

Do Starleads lists include GST numbers?

No. They include business names, contact persons where known, mobile numbers, emails and addresses. Ask an interested business for its GSTIN and check it on the GST portal, which also tells you whether the registration is active.

How can I check whether a GSTIN is genuine?

Enter it in Search Taxpayer on the GST portal. A genuine, active GSTIN shows a legal name, an "Active" status and a filing record. If the name differs from the invoice, the status is suspended or cancelled, or no returns appear for months, clear it with the business before you pay or claim credit.