Glossary

ICP Filing Lookup (备案查询)

Q: What is the official portal for the ICP filing lookup?

The official public query portal is beian.miit.gov.cn, operated by MIIT. After the ICP filing is approved, the portal lets you look up information such as the ICP filing number and associated domain names.

The ICP filing lookup (备案查询) is the public query of filing records held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The official portal is beian.miit.gov.cn. Once a filing is approved, the lookup lets you look up information such as the ICP filing number and the domain names associated with it.

This page defines what the lookup verifies, what a filing number proves and does not prove, and how foreign companies use the query for vendor and partner due diligence. It does not retrace the filing pipeline — that belongs to the MIIT glossary page and the ICP filing timeline.

What the ICP filing lookup verifies

The MIIT platform lets you look up the ICP filing number and the domain names tied to that number once the filing is approved. The lookup confirms that a record exists in MIIT's system for a given domain or filing number.

What the lookup checks against is the record the filing pipeline produces — the registration that ties a mainland-hosted domain to a hosting provider and a legal operator.

It is a query for approved records, not a status tracker for applications in review: Alibaba Cloud's guidance places the lookup after approval, and during the pipeline the application stage is tracked in the hosting provider's portal.

What a filing number proves — and does not

What it proves. A valid ICP filing number means the domain and its operator are registered with MIIT, the site is tied to a hosting provider and a legal operator, and the number must display in the page footer for the life of the site. For native mobile apps, the filing serial carries a −A suffix (for example, 鲁ICP备09090609号-2A). For WeChat Mini Programs, the filing number auto-displays on the profile page after publish — no manual paste required.

What it does not prove. A filing number is not an ICP license — the separate permit for commercial online platforms and paid services. It is not evidence of PIPL compliance, data-security compliance, or CAC filing. It is not a quality or reliability certification of the operator. And it is not a substitute for the PSB filing that public security requires after the ICP number issues.

The screenshot-as-proof practice. Alibaba Cloud's filing documentation states that on the order details page you can view the entity leader, website administrator, emergency contact phone number, server IP address, and other information, and that you can take a screenshot of this page as proof of ICP filing. This is a vendor-context phrasing — it describes what one provider lets you capture from its portal, not a statement of legal evidentiary weight.

How foreign companies use the ICP filing lookup

Vendor and partner due diligence. Before signing with a mainland-hosted vendor or partner, check whether the vendor's website displays an ICP filing number in its footer. Then verify that number against the MIIT lookup. A mainland-hosted site with no verifiable filing number is a red flag: it may be operating unfiled, which risks domain blocking and enforcement.

"Not found" on a third-party platform does not mean unfiled. Alibaba Cloud's documentation warns that if you submit a domain name to a third-party platform such as Baidu or Tencent and receive a message that the filing information cannot be found, the cause may be a delay in the platform syncing data from MIIT. The recommendation is to check the filing status on the MIIT ICP Filing Management System first. If the information is available there, the issue is a data synchronization delay by the third-party platform. Do not invert this: a third-party tool returning no result is not evidence that no filing exists.

Pre-signing checklist. A practical due-diligence sequence: (1) read the filing number from the vendor's site footer, (2) query it on beian.miit.gov.cn, (3) confirm the domain names associated with the filing match the vendor's claimed service domain, (4) if the vendor offers a screenshot of its filing record, retain it for your files — a convenience artifact, not legal proof (see the caveat above).

What this page does not cover

The filing pipeline (provider review → MIIT SMS from 12381 → 24-hour verification window → provincial Communications Administration review → filing number issuance). Owned by the MIIT glossary page and the ICP filing timeline.
PSB filing and its portal at beian.mps.gov.cn. Owned by the PSB filing glossary page.
Filing transfer and cancellation. Owned by the transfer/cancel article track.
APP filing mechanics beyond the −A suffix mention. Owned by the APP filing glossary page.
Third-party lookup tools. No reviews, comparisons, or endorsements of third-party query services.

Frequently asked questions

What is the official portal for the ICP filing lookup?

The official public query portal is beian.miit.gov.cn, operated by MIIT. After the ICP filing is approved, the portal lets you look up information such as the ICP filing number and associated domain names.

A third-party tool says my filing number is not found. Does that mean the filing does not exist?

Not necessarily. Alibaba Cloud documents that third-party platforms such as Baidu or Tencent may lag in syncing data from MIIT. If a third-party tool returns no result, check the MIIT ICP Filing Management System directly. If the record appears there, the third-party platform has a data synchronization delay — contact that platform for support.

What does an ICP filing number confirm about a website?

An ICP filing number confirms that the domain and its operator are registered with MIIT, the site is tied to a hosting provider and a legal operator, and the number must display in the site footer for the life of the site. It does not confirm ICP license status, PIPL compliance, data-security compliance, or service quality.

Can I use the filing lookup to check an in-progress application?

The lookup returns the record of an approved filing. It is not a status tracker for applications in review. During the pipeline, the hosting provider's portal shows the application stage — for example, Alibaba Cloud tracks five stages from submission through Communications Administration review. Once the review completes and the filing is approved, the record becomes queryable on the MIIT platform.

Does the ICP filing number also cover mobile apps?

Website filings and app filings are separate records under the same MIIT system. Native mobile applications whose backend domains resolve to mainland servers require their own APP filing, and the filing serial carries a −A suffix (for example, 鲁ICP备09090609号-2A). For WeChat Mini Programs, the filing number auto-displays on the profile page after publish.

Sources

Sources: The vendor guidance on this page comes from Alibaba Cloud's ICP filing documentation — help.aliyun.com/en/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/user-guide/icp-progress-and-result-inquires, accessed 2026-10-03 (a fuller Chinese-language mirror of the same doc serves the zh guidance). The beian.miit.gov.cn portal facts mirror the site's banked source registry entry (sources.html, Cluster 1 entry 1). On-site figures — footer display for the life of the site, the −A APP serial suffix, Mini Program auto-display, the unfiled-vendor red flag — trace to the already-banked pages named inline. The portal's query-form fields, any query output beyond the filing number and associated domain names (including whether the filing subject name is shown), and any third-party lookup tool are deliberately not printed: no banked primary supports them.

Related terms

Bei'an (备案) — ICP Filing — the mandatory registration for most websites hosted on mainland servers. It registers the domain and its operator with the authorities, ties the site to a hosting provider and a legal operator, and must be completed before the site can stay online.
MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) — the national ministry and regulator whose systems run mainland China ICP filing verification, provincial review, and CDN operator licensing.
PSB Filing (公安备案) — the public-security (police) registration that happens after the ICP filing number issues.
ICP License (ICP证) — a separate permit for commercial online platforms and paid services — marketplaces hosting third-party sellers, platforms charging for access, and certain regulated categories. The trigger is what the product does, not where it is hosted.
APP Filing (APP备案) — the ICP registration for native mobile applications whose backend domains resolve to servers in the Chinese mainland.