The Form 8-A12G Files Dataset is a complete EDGAR-era corpus of short-form Exchange Act registration statements filed under Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Each record represents one EDGAR submission of Form 8-A12G or Form 8-A12G/A — the original short-form registration of an unlisted equity class or an amendment to a previously filed 8-A12G. Filings are made by the issuer of the class being registered: existing Section 13 or Section 15(d) reporters, or issuers concurrently filing a Securities Act registration statement (S-1, S-3, S-11, F-1, F-3) whose effectiveness will simultaneously make the issuer a reporter. Coverage runs from January 1994, the start of EDGAR electronic filing, through the present, with monthly container updates. Records are distributed as ZIP containers holding metadata.json envelopes and the SGML-wrapped primary registration statement together with any inline non-image exhibits.
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The dataset captures every Form 8-A12G and Form 8-A12G/A filing accepted by EDGAR from January 1994 forward. Form 8-A is the short-form Exchange Act registration statement promulgated for issuers that already have a reporting relationship with the Commission; the 12G suffix denotes registration under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act — registration of a class of equity securities that is not being listed on a national securities exchange. Typical 12(g) populations include issuers crossing the holders of record-and-total-assets thresholds, OTC-traded companies, issuers stepping out of Securities Act registration into ongoing Exchange Act reporting, certain bank and savings-and-loan holding companies, and units, warrants, or preferred classes spun off the main exchange-listed equity. The companion designation 8-A12B covers Section 12(b) exchange-listed registrations and is therefore outside this dataset.
Form 8-A is intentionally abbreviated. Rather than re-state substantive disclosure about the issuer or the class, it relies on Rule 12b-32 under the Exchange Act, which permits incorporation by reference of any document on file with the Commission. In practice the 8-A points to a prior Securities Act registration statement (Form S-1, Form S-3, S-11, F-1, F-3, or Form 10) or to a previously filed Exchange Act report carrying the description of the security. The form's substantive purpose is procedural: to attach a Section 12(g) file number to the class and trigger the Exchange Act reporting regime, not to convey new disclosure. Form 8-A12G/A is an amendment to a previously filed 8-A12G, used to correct, supplement, or update items such as the description of securities, the cited prior registration, or the exhibit list, and shares the identical structural anatomy.
Records are packaged as ZIP containers holding metadata.json envelopes and the textual filing body. File types found in the corpus are TXT, JSON, HTML/HTM, and PDF; image binaries are stripped during ingestion.
A single record is one EDGAR submission of Form 8-A12G or Form 8-A12G/A, identified by an 18-character accession number. On disk, each record is a folder whose name is the accession number with the dashes removed (e.g. accession 0001477932-25-007678 becomes folder 000147793225007678). The folder bundles two layers of content: a metadata.json describing the submission as EDGAR indexed it, and the document files that the registrant actually transmitted in that accession — the Form 8-A registration statement itself and any exhibits attached inline. Image binaries (logos, scanned signature images, graphical exhibits) are removed; everything else that constitutes the textual filing is preserved. One record therefore encapsulates the full filing-level metadata and the full textual body of one Section 12(g) short-form registration event.
Every record contains exactly two layers:
metadata.json — a flat JSON object mirroring the EDGAR filing index for the accession, covering form type, timestamps, accession identifiers, return links, the Exchange Act file number, every document EDGAR exposes for the submission, and a per-filer entity block.1 in documentFormatFiles. Filenames are at the registrant's discretion (form8a.htm, <issuer>_8a12g.htm, 8a.htm, etc.); there is no canonical filename.For most 8-A12G filings the second layer is just the single primary HTM, because the substantive description and the exhibits are pulled in by reference rather than physically attached. Filings that do attach the instrument defining the rights of security holders, articles of incorporation, bylaws, opinions of counsel, or consents include those as additional sequenced documents in the same folder.
metadata.json envelopemetadata.json is a flat JSON object describing the submission at the EDGAR-header level. The fields that carry meaningful structured data are:
formType — "8-A12G" for a fresh registration or "8-A12G/A" for an amendment.accessionNo — dashed accession number, e.g. "0001477932-25-007678".filedAt — ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing the EDGAR acceptance time.description — human-readable form description, typically "Form 8-A12G - Registration of securities [Section 12(g)]".linkToFilingDetails, linkToTxt, linkToHtml, linkToXbrl — URLs back to, respectively, the EDGAR filing-index page, the SGML complete-submission text file, the primary HTML document, and the XBRL viewer. linkToXbrl is empty for 8-A12G because Form 8-A submissions do not carry XBRL payloads.documentFormatFiles[] — one entry per document EDGAR exposes for the accession. Each entry carries sequence, size (bytes, as a string), documentUrl, description, and type. Sequence 1 is invariably the registration statement; an entry whose sequence and type are blank represents the wrapping .txt complete-submission file that EDGAR auto-generates around the parts.dataFiles[] — a slot for ancillary structured data files (XBRL/XML), normally empty for 8-A12G.seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — a slot used for investment-company series/class disclosures, empty for operating-company 8-A12G filings.entities[] — array describing each filer associated with the submission. For an 8-A12G this is normally a single registrant entity carrying companyName (typically suffixed with (Filer)), cik, fileNo (the Section 12(g) file number assigned by this very submission, in the 000-XXXXX range), filmNo (EDGAR film number), irsNo, stateOfIncorporation, fiscalYearEnd in MMDD form, act ("34" for the Exchange Act), sic with code and descriptive label, tickers[] when known, and type echoing the form type.id — opaque 32-character hexadecimal identifier assigned by the dataset for cross-referencing.A distinctive feature of this filing type is that fileNo is freshly minted by the submission itself: unlike most Exchange Act filings, an 8-A12G is the event that creates the Section 12(g) file number rather than an event filed against an existing one. That number is the durable identifier that subsequent reports (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, proxy statements) for the registered class will reference.
The primary document is wrapped in EDGAR's standard SGML envelope (<DOCUMENT>, <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>, <TEXT>) around an inline HTML or, in older filings, plain-text body. Within the body, the document follows the canonical Form 8-A layout dictated by the form's General Instructions and the items it borrows from Regulation S-K:
Caption and registrant block. The header identifies the document as a Form 8-A registration statement under Section 12(b) or 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and states the registrant's exact charter name, the state or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization, the IRS Employer Identification Number, the address and ZIP code of the principal executive offices, and (by convention) the registrant's telephone number.
Securities-to-be-registered tables. Two parallel tables specify the securities being registered. The 12(b) table has columns "Title of each class" and "Name of each exchange on which each class is to be registered"; the 12(g) table has a single "Title of each class" column. On a 12(g)-only filing, the 12(b) table is filled with Not Applicable, and the 12(g) table carries the registered class — most commonly common stock with a stated par value, but also preferred shares, warrants, units, depositary shares, debt securities, or class-specific tracking stock depending on the issuer.
General Instruction A effectiveness check-boxes. Form 8-A includes check-boxes selecting the basis on which registration becomes effective: paragraph (c) of General Instruction A (effective on filing, where the requisite Securities Act registration is already effective) or paragraph (e) (effective at a later time set forth in the form, used when the 8-A is filed before the underlying Securities Act registration becomes effective). A separate check-box flags whether the registration is filed in connection with a concurrent Regulation A offering. These boxes determine the timing of effectiveness under the Exchange Act and the interplay with any concurrent Securities Act registration.
Cross-reference to the underlying Securities Act registration. Filers commonly identify the prior registration statement on which the 8-A relies — for example "Form S-1; SEC File Number: 333-281124" — providing the documentary anchor for the items incorporated by reference under Rule 12b-32.
Item 1 — Description of Registrant's Securities to be Registered. Item 1 calls for the information required by Item 202 of Regulation S-K: dividend rights, voting rights, liquidation rights, preemptive rights, conversion rights, redemption and sinking-fund provisions, liability to further calls or to assessment, classification of the board where relevant, restrictions on alienability, and any provisions whose effect would be to delay, defer, or prevent a change in control. In an 8-A12G, Item 1 is almost always satisfied entirely by incorporation by reference to the corresponding section of the underlying S-1, S-3, S-11, F-1/F-3, or Form 10, or — for filings made after the SEC's 2019 amendments (Release No. 33-10618) — to the Exhibit 4 "Description of Securities" attached to the registrant's most recent Form 10-K. Issuers occasionally re-state the description in full when the prior filing's description has become stale, when an amendment is being filed to update terms, or when no public document yet contains the description.
Item 2 — Exhibits. Item 2 requires a list of all exhibits filed as part of the registration statement, indexed per the form's exhibit table. Typical entries include the instrument defining the rights of the security holders being registered (certificate of designation, indenture, warrant agreement, deposit agreement, or similar), articles of incorporation and bylaws, opinion of counsel as to legality of the registered securities, consents of independent accountants, and any underwriting or stockholder agreements material to the security. Most entries are listed as already on file, identified by accession number and exhibit number, and incorporated by reference under Rule 12b-32; when re-attachment occurs, those exhibits become additional sequenced documents in the same accession folder.
Signature block. The form closes with a signature stating that, pursuant to the requirements of Section 12 of the Exchange Act, the registrant has duly caused the registration statement to be signed on its behalf, followed by the registrant's name, the date of signing, and the printed name and title of the executing officer (commonly the chief executive officer, president, chief financial officer, or general counsel).
Each record includes:
metadata.json with the EDGAR-header description of the submission, including filer entities, the newly issued Section 12(g) file number, and the document inventory.1.The wrapping .txt complete-submission file is referenced in documentFormatFiles[] via its URL but is not duplicated as a separate file in the folder; it can be retrieved from EDGAR through the link. The file types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, HTML/HTM, and PDF, reflecting the format trajectory described below.
<img> references in the primary document may not resolve locally even though the surrounding textual content is complete..txt — present as a URL in the metadata but not stored locally.The Form 8-A short-form registration statement has been structurally stable across the dataset's January 1994 to present range, but several content-level evolutions matter when comparing older to newer records:
EDGAR-filed 8-A12G documents in this dataset reflect EDGAR's general format trajectory:
<DOCUMENT>, <TYPE>, <TEXT>), with tabular content rendered in monospaced ASCII. The primary document filename uses .txt and the body is unstyled prose..htm primary documents while retaining the SGML outer wrapper. The securities-to-be-registered tables begin appearing as proper HTML tables; check-boxes are rendered as bracketed glyphs or small images.linkToXbrl stays empty and no XBRL instance documents appear in the record folder.formType field. Amendments may rewrite the securities-to-be-registered tables, change the cited prior registration, or update the exhibit list, and should be read together with the original to reconstruct the current state of the registration.fileNo on the registrant entity is the new Section 12(g) file number created by this submission, in the 000-XXXXX range. Subsequent Exchange Act filings for the registered class (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, proxy statement) reference this number, so it is the natural join key between an 8-A12G record and the registrant's later periodic and current reports.8-A12G form type indicates the absence of national-exchange listing, and the 12(b) table accordingly carries Not Applicable. Records with both tables populated are uncommon in this dataset; mixed populations live in the 12B variant.<TEXT> directly to an HTML parser. Filename conventions vary by registrant, so documentFormatFiles[].sequence == "1" is the reliable selector for the registration statement, not the filename.The filer is always the issuer of the class being registered. Form 8-A is a short-form Exchange Act registration statement, and General Instruction A limits it to two eligibility paths:
Typical registrants include operating companies, holding companies, banks, REITs, BDCs, SPACs, and trust issuers. Foreign private issuers may use 8-A12G, though most foreign issuers listing on a U.S. exchange use 8-A12B instead. Transfer agents, underwriters, exchanges, selling shareholders, and beneficial owners never file Form 8-A.
The 12G suffix identifies the statutory branch: Section 12(g), which covers equity classes not listed on a national securities exchange. Exchange-listed classes register under Section 12(b) on Form 8-A12B. The /A variant amends a previously filed 8-A12G, before or after effectiveness.
Form 8-A12G is event-driven, not periodic. It is filed when an issuer becomes obligated to register an unlisted class under Section 12(g) or elects to register voluntarily.
Mandatory registration under Rule 12g-1. Section 12(g)(1), as amended by the JOBS Act (2012) and FAST Act (2015), and implemented by Rule 12g-1, requires registration of an equity class if, on the last day of the fiscal year, the issuer has total assets above $10 million and the class is held of record by:
For banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies (the FAST Act variant), the test is 2,000 holders of record with no non-accredited subprong. Once thresholds are crossed, registration must occur within 120 days after the fiscal year-end on which they were met. Eligible issuers register on Form 8-A12G; ineligible issuers must use Form 10.
Concurrent Securities Act effectiveness. When an issuer files an S-1 or other Securities Act statement for an IPO, direct listing, or unlisted public offering (e.g., OTC quotation without exchange listing), it commonly files 8-A12G during the registration process so the class becomes a registered Section 12(g) class at the same moment the Securities Act registration is declared effective. This brings the class within Sections 13(d)/(g), 14, and Section 16 rather than relying on the narrower Section 15(d) regime.
OTC quotation needs. Issuers seeking quotation in OTC tiers that require SEC-reporting status, or that need to support broker-dealer compliance with Rule 15c2-11, file 8-A12G to register a class without an exchange listing.
Voluntary registration. An issuer may register under Section 12(g) before crossing Rule 12g-1 thresholds to subject the class to the proxy rules, beneficial ownership reporting, Section 16 insider reporting, and Williams Act tender offer rules.
Reactivation. An issuer that previously deregistered under Rule 12g-4 and again exceeds the thresholds, or that wants to re-establish a registered class, files a new 8-A12G.
Effectiveness timing. For an existing reporter, an 8-A12G is generally effective automatically upon filing. When tied to a Securities Act statement, effectiveness is keyed to the effectiveness of that companion filing.
Why an 8-A12G/A is filed. Amendments cover (i) pre-effectiveness corrections, exhibit replacements, or staff-comment responses; (ii) post-effective updates to the description of securities under Item 202 of Regulation S-K (e.g., charter amendments, new preferred series, changes to holder rights); and (iii) changes in registered class composition (name change, restructuring, separation of warrants or units into their components). Each /A is tied to a prior 8-A12G accession by the same registrant on the same class.
Form 8-A12G occupies a narrow slot in Exchange Act registration: a short-form Section 12(g) entry filed by issuers already in the reporting system. The forms below are easy to confuse with it because they share filers, exhibits, or lifecycle position — but each differs in trigger, content depth, or filer population.
Identical body and exhibit pattern; different statutory hook.
The full Exchange Act registration statement. EDGAR splits 10-12G (Section 12(g)) and 10-12B (Section 12(b)) the same way the 8-A pair does.
Both are amendments, but they carry very different payloads.
Inverse lifecycle events.
Consequences of an effective 8-A12G, not substitutes.
The disclosure backbone that 8-A12G incorporates by reference.
8-A12G is a population of short-form Section 12(g) registration events filed by already-reporting issuers, accompanied by a small set of class-defining exhibits. It is not exchange-listing data (that is 8-A12B/Form 25), not long-form entry disclosure (Form 10/10-12G), not ongoing reporting (10-K/10-Q/8-K), not deregistration (Form 15), and not offering disclosure (S-1/S-3/S-11/F-1). Its precise value is identifying which unlisted or secondary classes entered Section 12(g) status, on what date, with what governing instruments — for the subset of issuers eligible for the streamlined path. Substituting any neighbor loses the trigger, the population, or the lifecycle position that defines the dataset.
The Form 8-A12G Files Dataset is consulted by professionals who need to confirm registration status, reconstruct security histories, or gate downstream operational and compliance decisions on a class being formally registered.
Counsel advising registrants verify exactly when a class was registered, what it consisted of, and which instruments defined holder rights at registration. Their workflow centers on the Item 202 description, the exhibit list (charters, bylaws, indentures, warrant and rights agreements), and the assigned file number. When drafting later registration statements or proxy materials, they cross-reference earlier 8-A12G language to keep voting, dividend, conversion, and anti-takeover characterizations consistent, and use 8-A12G/A amendments to trace how the description evolved.
Attorneys preparing follow-on offerings, shelf takedowns, and resales use the dataset to confirm prior Section 12(g) registration, which drives form availability and short-form eligibility. They pull CIK, filing date, accession number, and file number from the metadata envelope to populate cover and signature pages, and reuse the Item 202 description as a baseline for "Description of Capital Stock" sections in new offering documents.
Teams running listings, de-SPAC transactions, direct listings, and uplistings use historical 8-A12G filings as precedent for sequencing their own registration. They model the gap between the 8-A12G filing date, effectiveness of the related Securities Act registration, and trading commencement, and use the exhibit list to assemble checklists of governing documents that must accompany the short-form registration.
Fundamental analysts covering newly public or uplisted issuers use the effective date, registrant name, CIK, and file number to anchor the start of full Exchange Act reporting, which determines when periodic, beneficial-ownership, and insider filings begin. The Item 202 description informs share-class models, especially for multi-class voting stock and convertible instruments.
Transfer agents and corporate-actions teams verify registration status before processing transfers, reorganizations, distributions, and conversions that require a registered class. They key off CIK, the new file number, and the exhibits defining holder rights, and feed those values into reference systems that validate ticker-to-CIK-to-file-number mappings and book-entry or DTC eligibility.
Market makers use 8-A12G records to confirm a class is Exchange Act registered when evaluating covered-security and published-information eligibility. Trading-desk staff link the file number and CIK to the issuer's broader EDGAR history to confirm that current public information supports the quoted class.
Staff handling Form 211 submissions and ongoing 15c2-11 review use the dataset to document Section 12(g) registration as a recognized basis for the current-public-information requirement. They rely on the filing date, effectiveness, file number, and CIK linkage, and use the Item 202 description and exhibits to confirm exactly which class is being quoted when an issuer has multiple share classes.
Supervisory analysts maintain security-master flags for Exchange Act registration, which feeds margin eligibility, restricted-list treatment, research-distribution rules, and suitability frameworks. They ingest the metadata envelope programmatically, reconcile against internal symbol tables, and watch 8-A12G/A amendments for changes in the registered class.
Data engineering teams ingest 8-A12G filings to enrich security-master and corporate-actions feeds. The metadata.json envelope (form type, accession number, CIK, filing date, file number) drives programmatic ingestion, while parsers extract structured share-class attributes, par value, voting rights, and governing instruments from the Item 202 description and exhibit index, supporting registration timelines and share-class taxonomies.
Researchers in finance, accounting, and law use the full historical span, CIK linkage, and filing dates to build panel datasets on issuers entering the Section 12(g) regime. They study timing between Securities Act and Exchange Act registration and analyze cohort patterns in share-class design, anti-takeover provisions, and holder-rights language at the moment of registration.
Paralegals maintain registration-class histories for each entity, tracking classes registered under Section 12(g), their file numbers, and amendment chains. They use registrant name, CIK, file number, accession number, and the chronological 8-A12G / 8-A12G/A sequence to assemble closing binders, respond to diligence, and populate officers' certificates, with exhibits cross-referenced to the firm's document-management system.
Each group reads a different slice of the same record: lawyers and paralegals work the Item 202 description and exhibit list, capital-markets and operations professionals key off the metadata envelope and file number, market-structure compliance staff treat registration as a gating input for quotation and supervision, and data and research teams use the corpus as a structured source of share-class metadata anchored to deterministic CIK and accession identifiers.
Beyond the per-profession reading patterns, the Form 8-A12G corpus supports the following concrete workflows.
Pair every 8-A12G metadata.json with the matching Form 15 to assemble a longitudinal census of classes currently registered under Section 12(g). The 8-A12G entities[].fileNo, cik, and filedAt mark entry; Form 15 file-number matches mark exit. The output is a date-bounded panel of registered unlisted classes that can be sliced by sic, stateOfIncorporation, or formType (original vs /A) to drive cohort studies, regulator dashboards, or "currently registered" gates in security-master systems.
Capital-markets ops can resolve "is this issuer Section 12(g) registered, since when, for which class?" by joining a ticker or CIK to the dataset's entities[].cik, tickers[], and fileNo. The filedAt timestamp combined with the General Instruction A check-box (paragraph (c) vs (e)) parsed from the primary document yields the effective registration date used to evaluate S-3 and Form 144 holding-period eligibility. Output: an automated eligibility flag on a deal sheet, with the supporting accession URL surfaced for legal review.
Disclosure counsel and document-automation tools can mine the Item 1 / Item 202 prose and the cross-reference targets (Form S-1 / S-3 / F-1 / Form 10 file numbers, Exhibit 4 of 10-K) to build a clause library of voting, dividend, conversion, redemption, and anti-takeover language by sic or jurisdiction. Pairing each 8-A12G with its 8-A12G/A reveals the diffs that get applied between original and amended descriptions — a direct training corpus for redlining tools and a reference set for drafting new "Description of Capital Stock" sections.
Item 2 exhibit lists routinely cite previously filed exhibits by accession number and exhibit number under Rule 12b-32. Parsing those citations across the corpus produces a directed graph from each 8-A12G accession to the underlying charters, bylaws, certificates of designation, indentures, warrant agreements, and rights agreements stored elsewhere on EDGAR. Downstream consumers — diligence platforms, governance-data vendors, M&A advisors — use the graph to fetch the actual governing instruments without re-discovering them per issuer.
For each accession, combine filedAt, the General Instruction A paragraph (c)/(e) selection, and the cited Securities Act file number to reconstruct the gap between 8-A12G filing, Securities Act effectiveness, and trading commencement. Aggregated over time and by sic, this produces benchmarks (median days, distribution tails) used by IPO and de-SPAC working groups to plan their own sequencing, and by exchanges and OTC venues to model onboarding throughput.
Data engineering pipelines ingest the metadata.json envelope for deterministic record keys (accessionNo, id, cik, fileNo) and parse the securities-to-be-registered table from sequence-1 documents to extract class title, par value, and instrument type (common, preferred, warrant, unit, depositary share, debt). The result is a structured share-class table joined to ticker and CIK, used to enrich vendor security masters, classify multi-class issuers, and reconcile DTC-eligibility flags.
Market makers preparing or refreshing Form 211 submissions can auto-assemble a "current public information" packet keyed to a CIK: the 8-A12G accession proves Section 12(g) registration, the fileNo becomes the join key into subsequent 10-K / 10-Q / 8-K filings, and the Item 2 exhibits confirm the registered class. Storing the packet as (accessionNo, fileNo, primary document URL, exhibit list) gives compliance a defensible, reproducible audit trail.
Programmatically diff 8-A12G/A amendments against the original 8-A12G in the same fileNo chain to surface changes in the registered class — added series, revised conversion mechanics, supplemental rights-agreement exhibits, or replaced indentures. Broker-dealer supervision, transfer agents, and corporate-actions teams consume the diff stream as event triggers to update reference data, recheck DTC eligibility, and refresh restricted-list flags without manually re-reading every amendment.
The Form 8-A12G Files dataset is available through three access patterns: a JSON index API for discovery, a full-archive ZIP download, and per-container ZIP downloads. The two download endpoints require an sec-api.io API key passed as a token query parameter. The index endpoint is public and does not require authentication.
Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files.json
This endpoint returns the dataset metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, supported form types, container format, and file types) along with the list of all individual container files. Each container entry includes its key, size, records, updatedAt, and downloadUrl. Use this endpoint to discover available containers, monitor which containers were updated in the most recent refresh run, and selectively pull only the containers that changed instead of re-downloading the full archive. No API key is required.
Example response:
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{
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"datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6927-83a6-01ec8d6d557c",
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"datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files.zip",
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"name": "Form 8-A12G Files Dataset",
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"updatedAt": "2026-04-25T02:51:19.000Z",
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"earliestSampleDate": "1996-01-01",
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"totalRecords": 18227,
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"totalSize": 157692245,
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"formTypes": ["8-A12G", "8-A12G/A"],
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"containerFormat": "ZIP",
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"fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF"],
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"containers": [
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{
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"downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
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"key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
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"size": 1842133,
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"records": 47,
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"updatedAt": "2026-04-25T02:51:19.000Z"
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}
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]
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}
Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every container file across all years. Use this endpoint for an initial bulk load or when building a local mirror of the full historical record. Requires an API key.
Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads one individual container ZIP, identified by the key returned from the index API. Use this for incremental updates — fetch the index daily, compare updatedAt timestamps against your local copy, and pull only the changed containers. Requires an API key.
Example using curl:
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curl -o 2026-04.zip \
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"https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY"
Example using Node.js:
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import fs from "node:fs";
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import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises";
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const API_KEY = process.env.SEC_API_KEY;
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const indexUrl = "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-8a12g-files.json";
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const index = await fetch(indexUrl).then((r) => r.json());
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for (const container of index.containers) {
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const url = `${container.downloadUrl}?token=${API_KEY}`;
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const res = await fetch(url);
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const out = fs.createWriteStream(container.key.replace("/", "-"));
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await pipeline(res.body, out);
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console.log(`Downloaded ${container.key} (${container.records} records)`);
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}
The dataset covers Form 8-A12G and Form 8-A12G/A — the original short-form registration statement under Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and its amendments. It does not include Form 8-A12B (Section 12(b) exchange-listed registrations) or the long-form Form 10 / 10-12G alternative.
One record represents a single EDGAR submission of Form 8-A12G or Form 8-A12G/A, identified by an 18-character accession number. Each record is a folder containing a metadata.json envelope plus the SGML-wrapped primary registration statement at sequence 1 and any non-image exhibits the registrant attached inline.
The issuer of the class being registered files Form 8-A12G, and only two filer paths are eligible under General Instruction A: existing Section 13 or 15(d) reporters, and issuers concurrently filing a Securities Act registration statement (S-1, S-3, S-4, S-11, or F-1). Mandatory registration is triggered under Rule 12g-1 when an issuer has more than $10 million in total assets and the class is held of record by 2,000 or more persons or 500 or more non-accredited persons (with bank-specific variants under the FAST Act), and registration must occur within 120 days after the fiscal year-end on which the thresholds are met.
The dataset covers Form 8-A12G and 8-A12G/A filings submitted to EDGAR from January 1994 forward. Containers are organized by year and month and refreshed on an ongoing basis; the index API exposes a per-container updatedAt timestamp so consumers can pull only containers that changed since their last sync.
The dataset is distributed as ZIP containers. Inside each container, records appear as folders named by accession number, holding metadata.json plus document files. File types found in the corpus are TXT, JSON, HTML/HTM, and PDF; image binaries are stripped, and Form 8-A submissions do not carry XBRL.
8-A12G registers a class under Section 12(g) — typically unlisted equity, OTC-quoted classes, ADRs without listings, or separately registered warrants, units, and preferred stock — while 8-A12B registers a class for listing on a national securities exchange (NYSE, Nasdaq, NYSE American, Cboe). The body and exhibit pattern of the two forms are nearly identical, but they pull different filer cohorts and signal different exchange-listing status. This dataset covers only the 12G branch.
Form 8-A relies on Rule 12b-32, which permits incorporation by reference of any document already on file with the Commission. In practice, Item 1 in an 8-A12G is satisfied by a one- or two-sentence cross-reference to the underlying Securities Act registration (Form S-1, S-3, S-11, F-1, F-3, or Form 10) or — for filings after the SEC's 2019 Release No. 33-10618 — to the Exhibit 4 "Description of Securities" attached to the registrant's most recent Form 10-K. Tooling that needs the full description must follow the cited cross-reference into the underlying filing.