Real-time API access to solar installations issued across 50+ U.S. metros. Filter by city, ZIP, or system size. Webhook alerts when new permits drop. Built for solar contractors, market analysts, and lead-gen platforms tired of stale aggregator data.
Start with free API keyCities with the highest solar permit volume in the last 12 months. These are the markets where contractors are actively winning bids and homeowners are converting to solar.
| City | Permits (last yr) | Total tracked | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City, NY | 7,163 | 19,251 | Active | View → |
| Washington DC | 3,077 | 3,941 | Active | View → |
| Montgomery County, MD | 1,952 | 21,369 | Active | — |
| Boston, MA | 1,889 | 15,594 | Active | View → |
| Chicago, IL | 1,808 | 12,347 | Active | View → |
| San Jose, CA | 1,342 | 1,530 | Active | View → |
| Minneapolis, MN | 1,131 | 4,633 | Active | View → |
| Sacramento Archive, CA | 1,126 | 16,496 | Active | — |
| San Antonio, TX | 1,022 | 1,480 | Active | View → |
| Austin, TX | 976 | 26,056 | Active | View → |
| Corona, CA | 804 | 9,047 | Active | — |
| Baltimore, MD | 751 | 2,526 | Active | View → |
| Mesa, AZ | 719 | 2,233 | Active | — |
| Miami-Dade County, FL | 632 | 2,842 | Active | — |
| Collin County, TX | 613 | 2,541 | Active | — |
| Marin County, CA | 433 | 4,489 | Active | — |
| Norfolk, VA | 400 | 3,844 | Active | — |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 387 | 1,712 | Active | — |
| Hartford, CT | 322 | 1,448 | Active | View → |
| Orlando, FL | 266 | 6,066 | Active | View → |
| Pierce County, WA | 145 | 1,626 | Active | — |
| Cleveland, OH | 136 | 1,052 | Active | View → |
| San Diego County, CA | 0 | 77,356 | Historical | — |
| New Orleans, LA | 0 | 14,033 | Historical | — |
Active = source updates daily and has issued solar permits in the last 365 days. Historical = source has stopped publishing or hasn't issued solar permits recently. Browse our full coverage page for all 57 jurisdictions.
Identify homeowners who just pulled solar permits in your service area. Reach them while they're actively researching installers.
Track competitor installation volume, average system sizes, and emerging neighborhoods. Build territory plans backed by real data.
Webhooks fire within 60 seconds of new permits matching your filters. First contractor to call wins.
Append permit history to your existing leads. Spot homeowners who installed solar elsewhere or have pulled adjacent permits like roofing.
Search solar permits across all 52 active metros, filter by city or ZIP, and stream results back as JSON. Free tier: 100 requests/day.
# Get the latest solar permits in Los Angeles curl "https://api.permit-stack.com/v1/permits/search?category=solar&city=Los+Angeles&per_page=10" \ -H "X-API-Key: pk_yourkey..." # Filter by ZIP for hyperlocal lead lists curl "https://api.permit-stack.com/v1/permits/search?category=solar&zip=90026&issued_after=2026-04-01" \ -H "X-API-Key: pk_yourkey..."
Or register a webhook and receive new solar permits in real time as they're filed:
Read webhooks documentation →For active jurisdictions, we ingest from official city open-data portals daily at 03:00 UTC. New permits typically appear in our API within 24 hours of being issued. The "Active" tag in the table above means the city has issued at least one solar permit in the last 365 days; "Historical" means the source has stopped publishing or hasn't issued solar permits recently.
Address (street, city, state, ZIP), permit number, issue date, status, estimated value, raw description from the city's portal, and our AI-classified category and tags. Some cities also include contractor name, system size, or job site coordinates depending on what's published in the source data.
Yes — the search endpoint accepts zip, min_value, issued_after, and issued_before parameters in addition to city and state. System size in kW isn't a separate filter, but it's frequently mentioned in the description for cities that include it.
Shovels.ai targets enterprise customers at $599+/month with broader nationwide coverage. PermitStack covers the highest-volume metros at a fraction of the price — Free tier (100 req/day), Hobbyist $29/mo (2,500 req/day), Developer $49/mo (10,000 req/day with webhooks). For solar contractors who want fresh leads in specific service areas without enterprise procurement, PermitStack is the cheaper, faster path. See full comparison →
Yes — Developer tier ($49/mo) includes webhooks. Register an endpoint URL with filter (category=solar, city=Los Angeles), and we POST permit JSON to your URL within 60 seconds of ingestion. Read the webhooks docs →