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Business data in Brazil. Where the records live.
With more than 20 million active CNPJs, including roughly 15 million MEI microentrepreneurs: Brazil is Latin America's largest business base, and the Receita Federal publishes the full CNPJ register as open data.
What Atlas holds for Brazil
Source: the Atlas database, updated automatically.
The official records
The legal source of truth for Brazil is CNPJ (Receita Federal).
The national identifier is the CNPJ (Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica), a 14-digit number administered by the Receita Federal. Incorporation itself is handled by state commercial boards, the Juntas Comerciais, while micro-entrepreneurs register as MEI through the Portal do Empreendedor. Crucially, the Receita publishes the entire CNPJ base as open data (Dados Abertos), refreshed monthly, with each record carrying status, address, the primary CNAE activity code and partner details. It is one of the most complete open company datasets anywhere.
The roughly 15 million MEI and small firms typically trade through Instagram, WhatsApp and marketplaces instead of a website, publish only in Portuguese, and are spread far beyond São Paulo into states such as Bahia, Pará and Goiás. Atlas works from the CNPJ open data and the Brazilian-language web directly, which is how it reaches companies that never appear in a stored list.
How to use the register
- Start from the register, not from a bought list. It is the legal record of every company.
- Read the status field. Registers keep closed companies too. See how many have closed in other registers.
- Check the website belongs to the company, with the registration number or a distinguishing name on the page.
Sources
Descriptions are based on the national sources above. Figures in the text are rounded and change over time. Found an error? Write to atlasforgex@proton.me. More countries: business data by country and registers by country.