How do I look up a building permit in California?

Building permits in California are public records filed with each city or county building department. PermitGrab tracks 38 California cities and republishes the records — pick your city below to browse permits by address, contractor, type and value, free.

Are building permits public record in California?

Yes. Building permits are public records in California. Cities publish them through open-data portals and permit systems; PermitGrab aggregates available official feeds and shows each market's source date.

How many building permits were filed in California recently?

Across the 38 California cities PermitGrab tracks, 24,109 permits were filed in the last 30 days, out of 190,870 on record.

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California Building Permit Lookup — Free

Building permits are public record. PermitGrab tracks 38 California cities with live data pulled from official city permit systems — browse by address, contractor, permit type and value. No signup needed to look.

190,870

Permits on record

24,109

Filed last 30 days

Cities covered

City	Last 30 days	On record	Newest permit	Status
Los Angeles, CA	3,401	101,995	2026-09-19	this week
San Diego, CA	2,759	15,648	2026-09-21	this week
Sacramento County, CA	2,554	13,132	2026-09-21	this week
San Jose, CA	2,134	10,549	2026-09-21	this week
Sacramento, CA	1,620	9,186	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Santa Clara, CA	1,026	2,508	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Santa Clara County, CA	876	2,267	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Fremont, CA	710	2,473	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Anaheim, CA	697	6,283	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Moreno Valley, CA	691	2,671	2026-09-21	this week
Stockton, CA	688	2,942	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Berkeley, CA	554	2,166	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Chula Vista, CA	553	1,139	2026-09-08	this month
Livermore, CA	523	1,489	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Concord, CA	514	1,338	2026-09-21	this week
Palmdale, CA	442	1,144	2026-09-21	this week
Bakersfield, CA	421	1,983	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Marin County, CA	370	1,375	2026-09-21	this week
Pleasanton, CA	369	1,014	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Thousand Oaks, CA	366	1,263	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Manteca, CA	331	934	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Menlo Park, CA	290	908	2026-09-21	this week
Butte County, CA	283	812	2026-09-21	this week
Culver City, CA	280	784	2026-09-21	this week
Palm Springs, CA	256	991	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
West Sacramento, CA	242	791	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Downey, CA	210	616	2026-09-21	this week
Brea, CA	192	497	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Yuba City, CA	190	500	2026-09-16	this week
Humboldt County, CA	157	493	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Martinez, CA	152	425	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Pittsburg, CA	140	140	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
San Benito County, CA	54	141	2026-09-22	fresh — under 24h
Port Of San Francisco, CA	30	88	2026-09-21	this week
Rancho Cucamonga, CA	25	80	2026-09-21	this week
Long Beach, CA	6	96	2026-09-17	this week
San Quentin, CA	2	5	2026-08-06	last 90 days
Olema, CA	1	4	2026-07-29	last 90 days

How to look up a building permit in California

Pick the city where the property sits — permits are filed with the local building department, not the state. Use the table above for any of the 38 California cities we cover.
Search by address or contractor. Each city page lists recent permits with the address, permit type, declared value, status and (where the city publishes it) the contractor of record.
Open a record to review the details that its public source provides. Available fields can include a project description, owner or applicant information, contractor details, and related permit history.

PermitGrab refreshes California permit data as official municipal sources publish it; the table shows the newest source date we hold for each city. If your city isn't listed, the building department may not publish a public data feed yet.

Contractors: turn these permits into leads.

Access current permit records in covered California markets, plus contractor, owner, and project fields where the public source provides them. Source dates and available fields vary by city.

Choose markets for a free trial →

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