EDGAR full-text search has a JSON endpoint: https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=.... Pass a phrase in q, filter with forms, ciks (10-digit) and startdt/enddt, and page with from in steps of 100. No API key is needed, but you must send a User-Agent naming you. The SEC doesn't document this endpoint as an API; it's the backend of its Full-Text Search page.

This page documents what each parameter actually does. Every response from the endpoint includes a query object, the Elasticsearch query it ran, so the table below comes from those echoes plus live tests on 2026-10-14. It is not from an official spec, because there isn't one.

What full-text search covers

From the SEC's Full-Text Search FAQ: it searches "the full text of all EDGAR filings submitted electronically since 2001", and "the full text of a filing includes all data in the filing itself as well as all attachments (such as exhibits)". Natural-language queries aren't supported.

Each result is one document, not one filing. A 10-K and its exhibits are separate hits that share an accession number. In one page of 100 hits I found 99 distinct filings.

Parameters

Parameter What it does (from the echoed query) Example
q Searches document text. A quoted phrase is a phrase match. Words without quotes are each required. q="supply chain disruption"
forms Filters on root_forms, comma-separated. Upper case only: 8-k matched 0 documents where 8-K matched 831. 10-K also returns 10-K/A. forms=10-K,8-K
ciks Filters on ciks. Must be zero-padded to 10 digits: 320193 matched 0, 0000320193 matched 12. ciks=0000320193
startdt, enddt Range on file_date, format yyyy-mm-dd. Works with or without dateRange=custom. startdt=2025-01-01&enddt=2025-12-31
dateRange Ignored by the endpoint. 30d, 1y, 5y and all produced no date filter; the website turns them into startdt/enddt itself.
from Offset of the first hit. from=9900 worked; from=10000 returned no hits. from=100
sort desc or asc sorts by file_date. Without it, results are ranked by relevance. sort=desc
locationCodes Filters on business-address state (biz_states). locationCodes=CA
locationType=incorporated Makes locationCodes filter on state of incorporation (inc_states) instead. locationType=incorporated&locationCodes=DE
entityName Adds a loose word match on company names. Apple Inc. became separate matches for Apple and Inc., giving 43 results against 12 for Apple's CIK. Prefer ciks.
hits, size, page Ignored. The page size is always 100.

Query syntax in q

These all ran on 2026-10-14. The syntax matches the FAQ.

You type It becomes
"supply chain disruption" Exact phrase
software hardware Both words required (implied AND)
tariff OR tariffs -china Either word, and not "china" (- or NOT excludes)
tariff NEAR(5) china Both words within 5 words of each other, in any order (default 10)
gas* Prefix wildcard (only at the end of a word)

An empty q with no other filter returns nothing. But forms plus dates with no q works: forms=8-K&startdt=2026-10-13&enddt=2026-10-13 returned the day's 252 8-K documents.

The response 

{ "took": 293, "hits": { "total": {"value": 331, "relation": "eq"}, "hits": [{ "_id": "0001640334-25-001300:acro_10k.htm", "_source": { "ciks": ["0001622996"], "display_names": ["ACRO BIOMEDICAL CO., LTD. (CIK 0001622996)"], "form": "10-K", "root_forms": ["10-K"], "file_type": "10-K", "file_date": "2025-07-24", "period_ending": "2024-12-31", "adsh": "0001640334-25-001300", "sequence": 1, "sics": ["7900"], "biz_states": ["IN"], "inc_states": ["NV"], "biz_locations": ["Fishers, IN"], "file_num": ["000-55643"], "items": [] } }] }, "aggregations": {"entity_filter": {}, "sic_filter": {}, "biz_states_filter": {}, "form_filter": {}}, "query": {} }

That's a trimmed real hit from the query below. The fields you'll use most:

  • hits.total.value with relation. When relation is "gte", the value is capped at 10,000 and the true count is higher.
  • _id is accession:filename. Together with the first CIK, it gives the document URL (see doc_url below).
  • adsh is the accession number, the same for every document in a filing.
  • items lists 8-K item numbers when the document belongs to an 8-K.
  • aggregations gives the top 30 companies, SIC codes, states and forms for the whole result set. That's useful for counts without paging.

Python: search, page and link to documents 

import time import requests EFTS = "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index" HEADERS = {"User-Agent": "Data Tooly research contact@example.com"} # use your own name + email  def search(q, forms=None, ciks=None, start=None, end=None, max_hits=300): """Yield full-text search hits, 100 per page, following `from`.""" params = {"q": q} if forms: params["forms"] = ",".join(forms) # upper case: "8-K", not "8-k"  if ciks: params["ciks"] = ",".join(f"{int(c):010d}" for c in ciks) # must be 10 digits  if start or end: params.update(dateRange="custom", startdt=start, enddt=end) # yyyy-mm-dd  offset = 0 while offset < max_hits: r = requests.get(EFTS, params={**params, "from": offset}, headers=HEADERS, timeout=60) r.raise_for_status() hits = r.json()["hits"]["hits"] if not hits: return yield from hits offset += len(hits) # the page size is fixed at 100  time.sleep(0.2) # stay well under 10 requests/second  def doc_url(hit): """Build the sec.gov URL of the matching document.""" adsh, filename = hit["_id"].split(":", 1) cik = int(hit["_source"]["ciks"][0]) return f"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/{cik}/{adsh.replace('-', '')}/{filename}" first = requests.get(EFTS, headers=HEADERS, timeout=60, params={ "q": '"supply chain disruption"', "forms": "10-K", "dateRange": "custom", "startdt": "2025-01-01", "enddt": "2025-12-31"}).json() print("total:", first["hits"]["total"]) print("forms:", [(b["key"], b["doc_count"]) for b in first["aggregations"]["form_filter"]["buckets"]]) print("top states:", [(b["key"], b["doc_count"]) for b in first["aggregations"]["biz_states_filter"]["buckets"][:3]]) hits = list(search('"supply chain disruption"', forms=["10-K"], start="2025-01-01", end="2025-12-31")) print(len(hits), "hits,", len({h["_source"]["adsh"] for h in hits}), "distinct filings") h = hits[0]["_source"] print(h["display_names"][0], "|", h["form"], h["file_date"], "| period", h["period_ending"]) print(doc_url(hits[0])) apple = list(search("tariff", ciks=[320193])) print("Apple filings mentioning tariff:", len(apple), sorted({x["_source"]["form"] for x in apple}))

Output on 2026-10-14:

total: {'value': 331, 'relation': 'eq'} forms: [('10-K', 331)] top states: [('CA', 68), ('NY', 28), ('TX', 26)] 300 hits, 299 distinct filings ACRO BIOMEDICAL CO., LTD. (CIK 0001622996) | 10-K 2025-07-24 | period 2024-12-31 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1622996/000164033425001300/acro_10k.htm Apple filings mentioning tariff: 12 ['10-K', '10-K405', '10-Q', '8-K', 'DEF 14A', 'PX14A6G', 'SC TO-I']

The document URL returned HTTP 200. The filing's index is at the same folder plus {accession}-index.htm, or index.json for a machine-readable listing.

The same first query with curl:

curl -s -A "Data Tooly research contact@example.com" \ "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22supply+chain+disruption%22&forms=10-K&dateRange=custom&startdt=2025-01-01&enddt=2025-12-31"

Traps that return wrong data without an error

None of these return an error. You just get wrong or empty results:

  1. Unpadded CIK → 0 results. ciks=320193 returns an empty result with HTTP 200. Always pad: f"{cik:010d}".
  2. Lowercase form → 0 results. forms=8-k matched nothing.
  3. dateRange=30d does nothing. Send startdt and enddt yourself.
  4. A badly formatted date is ignored. startdt=2026/01/01 returned unfiltered results. Use yyyy-mm-dd.
  5. The 10,000-hit ceiling. from can't go past 9,900. To collect more, split the date range into smaller windows, for example month by month, so each window stays under 10,000.
  6. Hits are documents. Count filings with distinct adsh, not with len(hits).

Rate limit and User-Agent

The endpoint follows SEC.gov's fair-access rules: at most 10 requests per second, and a declared User-Agent. With no User-Agent, or with curl's or python-requests' default, efts.sec.gov answered HTTP 403. The SEC rate limit and User-Agent guide covers the exact format and the block behavior.

Related guides for this API

Do it without code

The free SEC EDGAR query builder assembles a full-text search configuration, with tickers, forms and dates, and shows the output shape. It's a query builder, not a live search: browsers can't send the User-Agent the SEC requires, so the query runs server-side.

At scale

The SEC EDGAR Scraper actor on Apify has a full_text_search mode (searchQuery, searchCiks, forms, dateFrom, dateTo) that handles the User-Agent, pacing and paging, and returns clean rows as JSON, CSV or Excel. It also has a latest_feed mode for new filings. It's free to start, then pay-as-you-go.

Disclosure: I build the datatooly query builder and the Apify actor. The endpoint works the same without them.

Sources: SEC Full-Text Search FAQ, SEC: Accessing EDGAR Data, and live responses from efts.sec.gov on 2026-10-14, including each response's echoed query object.