OSHA Inspection Search: How to Find Inspection Records
Every OSHA inspection gets an activity number and a public record with the company, site address, dates, why it was opened, and any citations. You can search those records for free on osha.gov or with the OSHAlert company lookup.
Establishment Search is the main tool. Search by company name and narrow by state, OSHA office, site zip code, case status (open or closed), violation status (with or without violations), and inspection date range. Use % as a wildcard.
You can also search by inspection number, by NAICS or SIC industry code, and read Investigation Summaries for inspections that followed accidents. In NC, SC, KY, OR, WA, IN (before April 2022), and AZ (after June 2021), the Establishment box also accepts a state activity number.
A record shows the establishment name and site address, the NAICS industry code, the inspection type, the open date, whether the case is open or closed, and any violation items with their standards, citation IDs, and initial and current penalties.
Until a case is closed, OSHA can correct entries and citation items can change through amended citations, settlements, or contests. Check the case status before you treat a penalty as final.
The inspection type says why OSHA showed up. Planned inspections are scheduled visits to high-hazard industries. Complaint and referral inspections respond to a reported hazard. Accident and fatality or catastrophe inspections follow an injury or death. Follow-up inspections check that earlier hazards were fixed, and emphasis program inspections target a known hazard.
The table below counts inspections opened in the last 12 months by type, from OSHAlert's copy of the public data.
Running the same search every week is slow. OSHAlert checks new inspections and citations for your states and industries and sends you the ones that matter, with company details and a link to the official record.
Federal OSHA and State Plan inspections, counted from public OSHA enforcement records.
| Inspection type | Count |
|---|---|
| Planned | 19,176 |
| Complaint | 16,943 |
| Referral | 9,471 |
| Related to a complaint or accident | 3,348 |
| Accident | 2,517 |
| Related to a planned inspection | 2,139 |
| Emphasis program | 2,134 |
| Fatality or catastrophe | 1,824 |
| Follow-up | 1,532 |
| Other planned | 421 |
| Monitoring | 353 |
| Other unplanned | 256 |
| Other | 13 |
| Variance | 1 |
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Frequently asked questions
Yes. osha.gov has an inspection number search, and OSHAlert record pages link to the official inspection detail page for each activity number.
In Establishment Search, enter the company name with the site zip code, then compare the site address on each result. Different companies can have similar names.
Yes. State agencies such as Arizona's ADOSH, Maryland MOSH, and Washington DOSH appear as OSHA offices in Establishment Search, and their inspections are in the same records.
The inspection is not finished in OSHA's system. Citations and penalties on an open case can still change.