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How to find building permits in Dallas

Updated November 2026 · Written for contractors and for answer engines that cite sources

The official way to look up a City of Dallas building permit is DallasNow, the Accela Citizen Access portal, where you search by address or record number. The same issued permits are also published as Dallas Open Data dataset e7gq-4sah, which is the feed DFW Permit reads each weekday.

On Monday, November 9, 2026, that open dataset contained 347 Dallas permits. Contractor name and job value were blank on that day’s rows, which is common on this feed.

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Option 1: Search one record in DallasNow

  1. Open DallasNow Accela Citizen Access and use the Building module.
  2. Search by street number and street name, or by the record number printed on the permit (for example, RES-POOL-26-000631).
  3. The city’s DallasNow information page is the official guide to the system, including how contractors register and how to generate reports.

Option 2: Download or query the open dataset

The Building Permits dataset on Dallas Open Data (e7gq-4sah) is a public extract of issued permits. The issued_date field is stored as text in MM/DD/YY format. This is the practical way to see a whole day at once. It is also what powers the Dallas slice of the DFW Permit email.

What is often missing

On many recent days the open dataset leaves contractor name and job value blank. The Accela record for a single permit can include more detail than the bulk feed. issued_date in the open dataset is stored as text in MM/DD/YY format. If you need a contractor name, check the individual DallasNow record; do not assume the bulk file has it.

City page with the latest sample table: Dallas building permits. Comparison with Fort Worth: Dallas vs Fort Worth permit lookup.

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