CIDB Contractor Search

Look up any contractor on the CIDB Register of Contractors by company name or CRS number. Status, grading and expiry date, without logging in to the portal.

The register covers more than 120,000 actively registered contractors, and registration is mandatory for public-sector construction work in South Africa.

Why the expiry date matters now

Since 1 January 2026 the CIDB suspends a contractor the day after their registration expires. There is no grace period anymore: an expired registration means no new public-sector awards until it is renewed. On the register right now, more than 11,000 contractors have registrations expiring within the next three months. If yours is one of them, renew before the date, not after. A renewal processed in time keeps your CRS number and grading history intact.

Checking a subcontractor before you award work is the same lookup in the other direction. CIDB procurement guidance requires clients to verify a contractor’s registration against the official register before awarding, so treat this search as your first pass and confirm on cidb.org.za before anything is signed.

Reading the grading column

A grading like “PE 3CE, 1GB” packs three things together: the grade number (1 to 9, which caps the tender value the contractor can bid on), the class of works letters (CE for civil engineering, GB for general building, EP for electrical, and so on), and sometimes a PE prefix for Potentially Emerging status, which lets a contractor bid one grade up on certain contracts. If you want to know what grade your own company would qualify for, our CIDB grade calculator works it out from two numbers.

Common questions

What is a CRS number?
The Contractor Registration System number the CIDB assigns when a contractor first registers. It stays the same through renewals and upgrades, which makes it the most reliable way to look a company up. You will find it on the CIDB certificate and on most tender submissions.
A contractor renewed recently but still shows as expired. Why?
Our copy of the register syncs monthly, so a renewal completed in the last few weeks may not have reached us yet. The official register at cidb.org.za updates immediately and is the binding source. If the official page also shows expired, the renewal has not been processed.
Is this the official CIDB register?
No. The official register lives at cidb.org.za, and for awarding a tender you must verify there. Think of this as the quick check you run first.

Results come from Govchain’s copy of the public CIDB Register of Contractors, refreshed monthly, with expiry statuses updated daily. This is a convenience check, not the official record. For formal verification, use the register at cidb.org.za. To correct register data, contact the CIDB; to report a problem with this tool, contact us.