Is There a Free OFAC Search? How to Check the SDN List Without Paying (or Signing Up)

Yes, Checking the OFAC List Is Free

The OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List and the other sanctions lists Treasury publishes are public government data. Anyone can search them, for any reason, at no cost. There is no law requiring you to pay for access, no license needed, and no restriction on who can look someone up.

What you pay for, when you do pay, is not access to the data. It is speed, better matching, integration into your workflow, and a documented record that the check happened.

Option 1: Treasury's Official Sanctions List Search

OFAC runs its own free tool at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov. It searches the SDN List and the Non-SDN Consolidated Sanctions List (which folds in the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List and a few smaller lists) using a name field with optional fuzzy logic.

It works, but it has some rough edges worth knowing about before you rely on it:

• The match sensitivity slider defaults to 100, meaning exact match only. If you type a name and leave the default setting, you are only catching entries spelled exactly the way you typed them. Sanctioned names are frequently transliterated from Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and other scripts, so a real match can easily be spelled differently than what you searched. You have to manually drag the slider down to catch spelling variants, and it is not obvious from the interface that you should.
• It only covers two lists. The SDN List and the Non-SDN Consolidated List, both from OFAC. It does not include the BIS Denied Persons List, the UN Consolidated List, or sanctions lists from the EU, UK, Canada, or Switzerland, which is fine for a purely domestic, OFAC-only check but incomplete if your risk exposure is broader.
• It produces no record. The tool shows you results on screen. There is no saved search history, no exportable report, no timestamp you can hand to an examiner. If you close the tab, the only proof the search happened is your own memory of doing it.

For a single, one-off lookup where you just need an answer right now, this is a perfectly legitimate option. For anything you might need to defend later, it falls short.

Option 2: OFACScreen's Free Search

OFACScreen offers a free sanctions search at ofacscreen.com/screen/. No account, no email address, no credit card. You type a name, you get full results.

The free search checks the SDN List and the Non-SDN Consolidated List using fuzzy matching that is tuned by default, rather than defaulting to an exact-match-only setting you have to know to adjust. It is built to behave the way most people assume a name search should behave out of the box: catching reasonable spelling and transliteration variants without you having to configure anything first.

The free version stops short of the full product. The paid tier adds six more lists (BIS Denied Persons, UN Consolidated, EU FSF, UK OFSI, Canada SEMA, and Swiss SECO), batch uploads, an API, and a one-time $9.99 audit-ready PDF report for anyone who needs to prove a specific search happened. See Understanding the OFAC SDN List for more on what the list itself actually contains, and How Fuzzy Matching Works in Sanctions Screening for why match settings matter as much as which list you search.

What Free Searches Don't Give You

Here is the part that trips people up: running a free search is easy, but proving you ran it is not, and proof is usually what actually matters.

If you are a business with any kind of compliance obligation, a regulator, an auditor, an insurer, or a counterparty is not going to take your word for it that you checked a name. They want a record: who was screened, when, against which lists, and what the result was. A browser tab that is no longer open is not a record. Neither is a vague memory of "I checked, it was fine."

This is exactly the gap the one-time $9.99 audit-ready PDF report is built for. Instead of running a free search and having nothing to show for it, you get a dated document listing the name searched, the lists checked, the list version, and the result, something you can drop into a customer file, a closing package, or a vendor onboarding record without setting up an account or a subscription.

When Free Is Enough, and When It Isn't

Free search is genuinely fine for:

• A one-off personal check, like screening a new tenant or a private buyer before a personal transaction.
• Checking a single vendor or contractor before signing a small, low-stakes contract.
• Curiosity or due diligence that does not require documentation for anyone else.

You need something more than a free, no-signup search when:

• You are screening customers, vendors, or counterparties as part of an actual compliance program, where regulators or examiners expect documented screening.
• You are screening more than a handful of names, where batch upload beats typing names one at a time. See Batch Screening Best Practices.
• You need screening built into a signup flow, checkout process, or loan origination system, which calls for an API rather than a manual search box.
• You need ongoing rescreening, since OFAC updates its lists frequently and a name that was clear last month is not guaranteed to be clear today.

If any of those apply, a subscription that includes batch screening, API access, and automatic rescreening is worth the cost. If you're evaluating tools, Choosing OFAC Screening Software walks through what to look for beyond price.

Common Mistakes People Make with Free Tools

• Leaving the match setting on exact-only. On Treasury's tool, this means you only catch names spelled precisely the way you typed them, which misses a large share of real transliteration variants.
• Checking only the SDN List. Someone can be sanctioned without appearing on the SDN List specifically. The Non-SDN Consolidated List, and depending on your industry, lists beyond OFAC entirely (see Beyond OFAC: Additional Sanctions Lists), can matter just as much.
• Not recording the date and list version. Sanctions lists change constantly. "I checked at some point" is not defensible months later. Note the date you searched and, if the tool provides it, the list version or update date.
• Treating a clear result as permanent. A name that is clear today can be added to a list next week. A single search is a snapshot, not a guarantee.

Quick Step-by-Step: How to Run a Free OFAC Search

1. Go to a free search tool. Treasury's official tool at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov, or OFACScreen's free search at ofacscreen.com/screen/ for sensible fuzzy matching by default.
2. Enter the full name. Use the complete legal name if you have it. Partial names produce noisier results.
3. If using Treasury's tool, adjust the match slider. Lower it from 100 to catch spelling and transliteration variants, not just exact matches.
4. Review any potential matches carefully. A name match alone is not a confirmed match. Compare date of birth, address, nationality, and any ID numbers listed against what you know about the person or company. See How to Handle an OFAC Match for the full process.
5. Document the result. Write down (or save) the name searched, the date, the lists checked, the list version, and the outcome. A screenshot is better than nothing, but a dated, exportable report is what an examiner or auditor will actually want to see.

A free search answers the immediate question of whether a name shows up on a sanctions list. Whether that is enough depends entirely on what you need to do with the answer afterward.