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Answer · US Employee Benefits & Form 5500 API

Is there an API for Form 5500 filings?

Not from the Department of Labor: its public routes are the EFAST2 Form 5500 search, a web search by plan name, sponsor name, EIN, plan number or acknowledgement ID that shows at most 5,000 results, and yearly bulk dataset files. The Olympus US Employee Benefits & Form 5500 API serves that DOL data as JSON: GET /v1/form-5500/sponsors/{ein} returns an employer's plans and their latest Form 5500 or 5500-SF filing by plan year, with participants, plan assets, contributions, benefits paid and expenses.

By New Odyssey · Published · Markdown

The official route, and what it lacks

Employee benefit plans file Form 5500 (or the short Form 5500-SF) every year with the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration through EFAST2. The DOL publishes them in two ways:

  • EFAST2 Form 5500 search. A web search, without sign-in, by plan name, plan sponsor name, Employer Identification Number (EIN), plan number or acknowledgement ID, with filters by plan type, assets, participants, state and form year. The DOL's help page says "A maximum of 5000 results will be displayed for any search", and since 28 March 2023 only the latest filing for a plan year is shown.
  • Form 5500 datasets. Zip files per plan year for the Form 5500, the 5500-SF and each schedule (A, C, H, I, R and others), each with a file layout. The DOL says the 2009 and later datasets "are typically updated around the first of each month".

What that leaves to you: the search is a web form, not an API, and the datasets are files to download, load and join yourself (the main form, the short form and the financial schedules are separate files). The datasets listed by the DOL's open data API (apiprod.dol.gov, checked October 2026) do not include Form 5500. Form 5500-EZ filings by one-participant plans are not published online at all.

What the US Employee Benefits & Form 5500 API serves

DOL Form 5500 and 5500-SF filings by plan sponsor EIN and plan number: participants, assets, contributions, benefits paid and expenses by plan year, with sponsor name-prefix search.

Limits

  • Financials come from Schedule H (large plans), Schedule I (small plans) or the 5500-SF itself; a Form 5500 with neither schedule has none (financials.source is null).
  • Superseded filings are not loaded.
  • Sponsor name search returns sponsors whose latest filing's name starts with the query: candidates, not matches; confirm with the EIN.
  • Sponsor name, city and state are those of the sponsor's latest filing.

Not included: plan years not listed by coverage; Schedules A, C and other schedules; plan documents; participant-level data.

Example request and response

An employer's plans by sponsor EIN (the example EIN, 942404110, is Apple Inc.'s):

Request
curl -s "https://api.olympus.new-odyssey.com/v1/form-5500/sponsors/942404110" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $OLYMPUS_API_KEY"
200 OK (abridged)
{
  "data": {
    "ein": "942404110",
    "name": "…",
    "city": "…",
    "state": "…",
    "plan_count": …,
    "latest_plan_year": …,
    "plans": [
      {
        "plan_number": "001",
        "path": "/v1/form-5500/sponsors/942404110/plans/001",
        "latest_filing": {
          "ack_id": "…",
          "form_type": "5500",
          "plan_year": …,
          "plan_name": "…",
          "pension_benefit_codes": ["…"],
          "participants": { "total_boy": …, "active_eoy": …, "total_eoy": … },
          "financials": {
            "source": "schedule_h",
            "total_assets_eoy": …,
            "net_assets_eoy": …,
            "employer_contributions": …,
            "participant_contributions": …,
            "benefits_paid": …,
            "total_expenses": …
          },
          "provenance": { "source_id": "dol_ebsa.form5500_datasets", "source_url": "…" }
        }
      }
    ],
    "identifiers": [{ "scheme": "US-EIN", "value": "942404110" }],
    "related": [{ "product": "sec", "resource": "company", "path": "…" }]
  },
  "meta": {
    "datasets": [{ "dataset_id": "…", "freshness": "fresh" }],
    "notices": [
      { "code": "figures_as_filed", "message": "…" },
      { "code": "plan_years_in_scope", "message": "…" }
    ]
  }
}

The EIN is the plan sponsor's, with or without the hyphen. plan_number is the three-digit plan number from the filing (001 and up for pension plans, 501 and up for welfare-only plans); GET /v1/form-5500/sponsors/{ein}/plans/{plan_number} returns one plan's filings by plan year. GET /v1/form-5500/sponsors?name= finds sponsors whose name starts with your query: candidates to confirm with the EIN, not matches.

Coverage and refresh

Coverage: Employee benefit plans that file Form 5500 or 5500-SF with the U.S. Department of Labor (EBSA).

  • The plan years loaded (currently 2024), from the DOL "Latest" files: the most recent filing per plan for the plan year. GET /v1/form-5500/coverage lists them.
  • The current plan year is loaded only once its filings have mostly arrived (two calendar years back).

Refresh: Monthly (the 5th, after DOL refreshes its files); unchanged files are not downloaded again. GET /v1/form-5500/coverage lists exactly what is loaded right now.

Price

Every Olympus plan includes the US Employee Benefits & Form 5500 API and every other live API. The Free plan (no card) gives 1,000 requests a month to each live API at 10 requests a minute. Paid plans: Developer $79 a month (50,000 requests per API), Growth $299 a month (250,000 requests per API), Business $999 a month (1,000,000 requests per API); Enterprise from $2,500 a month on request. Prices in USD; see pricing for rate limits and what counts as a request.

Docs

Questions

Can I search Form 5500 filings by EIN?

Yes. The DOL's EFAST2 Form 5500 search takes a plan sponsor EIN in its web form. To do it from code, GET /v1/form-5500/sponsors/{ein} on the Olympus API returns the sponsor's plans and their filings as JSON.

Does the Department of Labor have a Form 5500 API?

The DOL publishes Form 5500 data through the EFAST2 web search and downloadable dataset files. The datasets listed by its open data API (checked October 2026) do not include Form 5500.

Which plan years does the Olympus Form 5500 API cover?

The plan years listed by GET /v1/form-5500/coverage (currently 2024), from the DOL's "Latest" files: the most recent filing for each plan and plan year.

Does it include Schedule A, Schedule C or plan documents?

No. It serves the Form 5500 and 5500-SF with the financial summary from Schedule H, Schedule I or the 5500-SF. Schedules A and C, other schedules, plan documents and participant-level data are not included.

Is Form 5500 data free?

The DOL's search and datasets are free. The Olympus Free plan includes 1,000 requests a month to this API, with no card.

Sources