Looking for sdn.csv or sdn.xml? Both are published by the U.S. Treasury on OFAC's Sanctions List Service, together with fixed-width, advanced and enhanced variants of the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. This page shows exactly where the files live, which URL is safe to use in scripts, and what an honest third-party page can and cannot offer. It is a guide, not a mirror.
Last reviewed 2026-09-18Official sources onlyNo mirrored data
If you need to look up a person, company, vessel, or aircraft right now, use OFAC's own tools. They are free, authoritative, and always current:
For a convenient check inside your workflow, SanctionsAI also offers a free name checker. It is a screening aid, not a substitute for the official list or a legal determination.
Bulk data lives on OFAC's Sanctions List Service, which publishes the SDN List and other OFAC lists as downloadable data files. Always download from that official page; copies hosted elsewhere (including anything cached here or anywhere else on this site) can be stale the moment OFAC publishes an update.
The SLS page lists every current file. Two practical notes from checking the endpoints directly (last checked 2026-09-18):
sanctionslist.ofac.treas.gov (for example the classic sdn.csv and sdn.xml download paths) and are fetched by your browser, not by every command-line tool. If wget or curl gets turned away with a Forbidden response, it is the endpoint refusing the client, not the file being gone. Downloading the files from the SLS page in a normal browser works.https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sanctions/1.0/sdn_advanced.xml. It is a permanent link that always resolves to the current SDN Advanced XML publication (the file behind it is refreshed whenever OFAC republishes the list; the publication checked while writing this page was dated 2026-09-18). It redirects to a time-limited signed copy, so request it fresh each run and follow redirects rather than storing the redirected URL. If you need the plain CSV instead of Advanced XML, take sdn.csv from the SLS page.| Format | What it is |
|---|---|
| SDN.XML | Structured XML of SDN entries, programs, and remarks. The usual choice for programmatic ingestion. |
| SDN.CSV | Comma-separated values covering the same entries for spreadsheet and simple pipeline use. |
| Fixed-width | The classic plain-text, fixed-width layout of the list (the historical sdn.txt style). |
| Advanced | Advanced variants of the files that provide additional, more granular data fields. |
| Enhanced | Enhanced variants that include extra detail such as additional name information on entries. |
The exact file menu can change; treat the Sanctions List Service page as the source of truth for which formats are currently offered.
This page does not mirror the SDN List. There is no copy of the list's records hosted here, and there is no on-site search of SDN entries. Any page other than OFAC's own that claims to be "the SDN List" is a copy that can lag the real thing.
Not legal advice. This page is technical documentation. Nothing here is legal advice or a legal determination about any person or entity.
Screening is not a compliance program. Checking names against the SDN List is a single internal control, not a compliance program. OFAC's own framework, A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments, describes five essential components of a risk-based sanctions compliance program: management commitment, risk assessment, internal controls, testing and auditing, and training.