Ordnance Survey AddressBase · Royal Mail PAF

UPRN Lookup API

Resolve any UK Unique Property Reference Number to its full address, postcode, rooftop coordinates, and administrative data — in a single API call.

40M+
UK UPRNs
12-digit
Identifier
Lifecycle
Persistent
Daily
Data Updates

GET /uprn/100100011945 · 200 OK
1{
2  "status": 200,
3  "message": "Success",
4  "result": {
5    "uprn": "100023336956",
6    "udprn": "54782785",
7    "line_1": "10 Downing Street",
8    "line_2": "",
9    "line_3": "",
10    "premise": "10",
11    "building_number": "10",
12    "building_name": "",
13    "thoroughfare": "Downing Street",
14    "post_town": "LONDON",
15    "postcode": "SW1A 2AA",
16    "postcode_compact": "SW1A2AA",
17    "postcode_outcode": "SW1A",
18    "postcode_incode": "2AA",
19    "address": "10 Downing Street, LONDON, SW1A 2AA",
20    "address_geocode": {
21      "latitude": 51.5035,
22      "longitude": -0.1277,
23      "easting": 530040,
24      "northing": 179951,
25      "positional_accuracy": "General Internal Position",
26      "geometry_allocation_method": "Matched UPRN"
27    },
28    "match_type": "Direct",
29    "match_method": "Automated",
30    "ward": "St James's",
31    "district": "City of Westminster",
32    "county": "Greater London",
33    "country": "England",
34    "geocode": {
35      "latitude": 51.5035,
36      "longitude": -0.1277,
37      "eastings": 530040,
38      "northings": 179951
39    }
40  }
41}

UNDERSTANDING UPRN

What Is a UPRN?

A Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is a 12-digit numeric identifier assigned by Ordnance Survey to every addressable location in Great Britain — from residential homes and commercial units to car parks and telephone boxes.

1 0 0 0 2 3 3 3 6 9 5 6
12-digit numeric UPRN — unique to every addressable location in Great Britain

Persistent Through a Property's Entire Lifecycle

01

Planning Permission

A UPRN is assigned when a planning application is submitted — before construction begins.

02

Construction

The same UPRN is carried through the build phase, linking planning data to the physical property.

03

Occupation

Address records, council tax, utilities, and electoral rolls all reference the same UPRN.

04

Renovation / Change

If a street is renamed or postcode redrawn, the UPRN stays the same — your records stay linked.

05

Demolition

The UPRN is retired on demolition and never reused, maintaining a complete historical record.

UPRN vs Postcode — What's the Difference?

Postcode

Identifies an area of up to 100 properties. Can change when Royal Mail restructures delivery. Returns multiple addresses. Useful for area lookup but cannot pinpoint a single property.

UPRN

Identifies a single addressable location. Never reused. Persists through address, street, and postcode changes. The authoritative key for linking property records across datasets.

Why Does It Matter for Developers?

When you store a UPRN alongside your user's address, you gain a stable foreign key that links your records to every other dataset that references the same property — Land Registry, Council Tax, Energy Performance Certificates, Flood Risk maps, and more.

No more broken joins when streets are renamed or postcodes reassigned. The UPRN is the property data industry's primary key.

WHAT YOU GET

Everything in One API Response

Full Address Resolution

UPRN → complete Royal Mail PAF address including building name, street, locality, post town, and postcode.

Rooftop Geocoordinates

Latitude and longitude (WGS84) pinpointed to the building — plus eastings and northings in British National Grid (OSGB36).

Cross-Dataset Linking

The UPRN returned in every response is the common key for Land Registry, EPC, flood risk, council tax, and any other property dataset.

Administrative Data

Ward, district, parliamentary constituency, and country — returned alongside the address for geospatial filtering and compliance.

British National Grid

Eastings and northings for Ordnance Survey tools, GIS integrations, and UK-centric spatial analysis alongside WGS84 lat/lng.

Daily Updated Dataset

Sourced from OS AddressBase and Royal Mail PAF — new builds, demolitions, and address changes reflected within 24 hours.

Simple REST API

One GET request returns everything. Clean JSON response — no XML, no SOAP. Code examples for Node.js, Python, PHP, and cURL.

GDPR Compliant

All requests processed within UK/EU infrastructure. No personal data retained from API calls. Trusted in regulated industries.

USE CASES

UPRN — The Property Industry's Primary Key

Across property tech, insurance, utilities, legal, and public sector — UPRN is the shared identifier that makes data interoperable.

Property & PropTech

Persistent Property Records

Store a UPRN with every property record. When a street is renamed or postcode redrawn, your data remains linked to the correct building — no remapping required.

Insurance

Property-Level Underwriting

Use the UPRN to join your quote data to flood risk, subsidence, and crime datasets. All reference UPRN — making it the single key for risk enrichment.

Utilities & Broadband

Premises-Based Service Records

Connect meter readings, connection records, and service history to a UPRN rather than a postcode — avoiding duplicate records when tenants change.

Conveyancing & Legal

Unambiguous Property Identification

Reference a property in contracts, searches, and Land Registry data using the UPRN — eliminating address ambiguity in legal documents.

Healthcare & Public Sector

Patient & Resident Address Linking

Link patient records, care plans, and social services data across systems using UPRN — a stable identifier that survives address changes.

Data Engineering

Cross-Dataset Joins

Join EPC ratings, planning history, sales prices, and council tax bands from different sources using UPRN as the common primary key — instantly.

GET STARTED

UPRN Lookup Live in 3 Steps

01

Get a Free API Key

Register with just an email — no credit card needed. Your key is ready in seconds with 20 free UPRN lookups included.

Free Sign Up
02

Make Your First Request

Pass any UPRN or UDPRN to the endpoint — get back full address, rooftop coordinates, UPRN, and administrative data in one call. Code examples in Node.js, Python, PHP, and cURL.

View Docs
03

Scale with Pay As You Go

When ready for production, purchase a credit bundle from £9. Valid for a year — no monthly fees, no auto-renewal, no contracts.

View Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions


ABOUT UPRN

What is a UPRN?

A Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is a 12-digit numeric identifier assigned by Ordnance Survey to every addressable location in Great Britain — around 40 million properties. It is the authoritative, persistent identifier for a property, used across local government, utilities, insurance, and property tech to link datasets.

How many digits is a UPRN?

UPRNs are up to 12 digits long. Some UPRNs may be shorter depending on when they were assigned, but all are numeric with no letters or special characters.

What is the difference between UPRN and UDPRN?

A UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) is assigned by Ordnance Survey to every addressable location — including residential, commercial, and non-postal addresses. A UDPRN (Unique Delivery Point Reference Number) is assigned by Royal Mail to addressable postal delivery points only, making it a subset of UPRNs. Our API returns both identifiers where available.

Does a UPRN ever change?

No. A UPRN is assigned at the planning stage and persists until the property is demolished — at which point it is retired and never reused. It remains the same even if the street name, house number, or postcode changes, making it a reliable foreign key for property records.

API & INTEGRATION

What data does the API return for a UPRN?

The response includes: full address (building name/number, street, locality, post town, postcode), latitude and longitude (WGS84), eastings and northings (OSGB36 British National Grid), administrative data (ward, district, constituency, country), plus both the UPRN and UDPRN identifiers.

How do I find the UPRN for an address?

Use our Postcode Lookup API to retrieve all addresses for a postcode — each address in the response includes its UPRN. You can then store the UPRN and use it directly in future UPRN Lookup calls to retrieve the full property record.

How do I get an API key?

Register for free — no credit card required. You receive an API key instantly with 20 free lookups to test and integrate. Paid plans start from £9 for 9,000 lookups, valid for one year.

Is UPRN data open data?

Ordnance Survey released OS Open UPRNs as open data in 2020, providing a list of all UPRNs with basic geolocation. However, resolving a UPRN to a full address with administrative data and rooftop coordinates requires a licensed AddressBase product — which powers our API.

READY TO BUILD?

Add UPRN Lookup to Your Application

20 free lookups — no credit card required. Full address, rooftop coordinates, and administrative data in your first API response within 2 minutes.

Pay As You Go from £9 · No subscription · Credits valid for 1 year