The raw source
The SDN list is published by the US Treasury at treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.xml. It's a 25MB XML file with a custom schema, updated continuously throughout the week. An entry looks something like this: a primary name, a list of aliases in multiple transliterations, a nationality, a program code (the sanctions program under which they're designated), and a date added.
To use this directly, you'd need to fetch the file on a schedule, parse the XML, build a search index, handle fuzzy matching across thousands of aliases, and re-do all of it every time Treasury updates the schema — which they do without notice.
Most teams that try this end up with a fragile Python script that works fine until a field gets renamed or a new alias format appears. Then it breaks silently, and you don't know until someone asks why a hit wasn't flagged.
What an API call looks like instead
Screen a name against approximately 18,700 SDN entries with a single POST request.
Response in under 200ms. Includes matched entries, match scores, entity type, program codes, and the date the entry was last updated on the SDN list. The fuzzy matching catches transliterations and common spelling variations — not just exact matches.
The underlying SDN data is fetched directly from treasury.gov and refreshed every 6 hours. Schema changes are handled on our end. You get clean, consistent JSON.
Data source
Official source: US Treasury OFAC SDN List — approximately 18,700 entries.
Pricing
Free tier: 100 requests/month, no credit card required. Paid plans from $15/month via RapidAPI.
Need to screen crypto wallet addresses against OFAC? See the Crypto Wallet Sanctions Screener.