How to find a company's NAICS code by name

This guide is for sellers building target lists, procurement and compliance teams checking a supplier, and owners who need their own code for a form. It starts with where to look up another company's code and ends with how to set your own.

Where company NAICS codes are published

The Census Bureau classifies every establishment it surveys, but federal law (Title 13 of the US Code) prohibits it from releasing a specific company's NAICS code. It also says no central agency assigns, monitors or approves codes. So every code you find is one a company reported, or a vendor estimated, for a particular purpose. These are the free public sources:

Commercial company databases also list codes for most businesses, usually their own estimate. The Census Bureau notes that it can't verify codes supplied by private firms.

How to find a company's NAICS code

1. Pin down the legal entity. Get the company's legal name and state. A brand can cover several legal entities, and each can carry its own code. In SAM.gov and USAspending, the Unique Entity ID (UEI) identifies the exact entity.
2. Check SAM.gov if it sells to the government. Search entity information by name. SAM.gov's public entity data includes each registrant's primary NAICS code and its full list of codes.
3. Check USAspending for its contracts. Search the recipient's name in Advanced Search and look at spending by NAICS code. This tells you the codes it actually wins work under, which is often more useful to a seller than the primary code.
4. Check the PPP loan data for small and mid-sized employers. The SBA's loan-level PPP files list the borrower's name, address, NAICS code and number of employees for every disbursed loan. Large CSV files; search by name and state.
5. Check OSHA's injury data for larger workplaces. Establishments that meet OSHA's industry and size criteria submit an annual summary, and the public file gives each one's company name, establishment name and NAICS code. OSHA notes that submissions can use 2012, 2017 or 2022 NAICS codes.
6. For a public company, read its SIC code on EDGAR. Search the company on EDGAR; its page shows a line such as "SIC: 8742 - SERVICES-MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES." Convert it with the NAICS to SIC converter, remembering that one SIC code often maps to several NAICS codes.
7. If nothing turns up, classify the company yourself. Read what it sells and to whom, decide which activity most likely earns the most revenue, and find that activity in the NAICS code lookup.

What the records show for one company

Booz Allen Hamilton shows why one source isn't enough. On EDGAR, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp files under SIC 8742, Management Consulting Services. Its federal contracts tell a different story. In fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), USAspending recorded these contract obligations to Booz Allen Hamilton and the recipients it lists under Booz Allen as parent, by NAICS code:

A seller using the SEC code would file Booz Allen with management consultancies. A seller using contract data would see an IT and engineering contractor that does some consulting. Both records are accurate for their purpose. If you're building a list, classify by what the company does for the buyer you care about, and keep the source of each code.

How to find your own business's NAICS code

Start with what you've already filed, so your records agree:

• SAM.gov, if you've registered: your primary code and secondary codes are in your entity registration.
• Your last tax return. The IRS principal business activity code on Schedule C or Form 1120 is a six-digit code based on NAICS. Some IRS codes are groupings, though: management consulting is 541600, which isn't a valid NAICS 2022 code, so look up the full six-digit code before you copy it to another form.
• A PPP loan application, if you had one: the code you gave is in the SBA's public data.

If nothing is on file, or what's on file is wrong, choose the code from your revenue.

What a primary NAICS code is

Your primary NAICS code is the code for the activity that brings in the most revenue. The Census Bureau generally classifies an establishment by the activity that generates the most revenue. For SBA programs, the SBA decides your primary industry from how your receipts, employees and costs split across industries in your latest completed fiscal year, and it may also weigh patents, contract awards and assets. It matters because the 8(a) program measures your size against the size standard for your primary industry. For an individual federal bid, though, your size is measured against the code on the solicitation, so list every code you'd bid under.

Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented to show the method.

Ridgeline Facility Services (ridgeline.example) earned $5.0 million last year: $2.4 million (48%) from office cleaning, $1.6 million (32%) from landscaping and $1.0 million (20%) from snow plowing for the same landscaping clients.

1. Janitorial looks largest at first. Office cleaning is NAICS 561720, Janitorial Services, at 48%.
2. Read the index before you decide. The Census index puts "snow plowing services combined with landscaping services" in 561730, Landscaping Services. Snow plowing on its own would be 561790.
3. Regroup by code. Landscaping plus snow plowing is $1.6 million + $1.0 million = $2.6 million, or 52%. The primary code is 561730; 561720 goes on the list as a secondary code.
4. Check the size standards. The SBA standard is $9.5 million in average annual receipts for 561730 and $22.0 million for 561720, measured over the last five completed fiscal years. With five-year receipts of $3.6, $4.1, $4.4, $4.7 and $5.0 million, the average is $21.8 million divided by 5, or $4.36 million: small under both codes.

Self-check

• Did you search the legal entity, not just the brand?
• Is the code six digits and valid in NAICS 2022?
• If two sources disagree, do you know what each code was recorded for?
• Did you treat a contract's code as the code for that purchase rather than the company's primary code?
• For your own business, does the primary code match the activity, as NAICS groups it, that earns the most?

Pitfalls

• Asking the Census Bureau. It can't release company codes, by law.
• Trusting one vendor code. Vendors estimate codes, and different vendors often disagree. Check against what the company actually does.
• Comparing SIC with NAICS directly. EDGAR's SIC code needs converting, and the SEC uses it mainly to route filing reviews.
• Using old records without checking the edition. PPP and older OSHA data predate NAICS 2022, so a code may have been retired or merged.
• Assuming one company, one code. Each location and each legal entity can have its own code. A company's head office often sits in sector 55 while its operating sites have industry codes.

At volume, checking each company's real activity is the slow part. Bebop finds companies from a plain-language description of what they do and explains why each one fits, so you aren't relying on a code alone.

Next step: if you're setting a code for a federal registration, check its size standard and definition in the NAICS code lookup.