Quick AnswerDET (formerly DED) licence check 2026: how to verify a Dubai trade licence online via DET / Invest in Dubai, check validity, status and activities, and vet a partner.
These figures are indicative โ confirm current fees with the authority. Official charges, the exact names of services and the channels through which they are delivered are reviewed and updated by the Department of Economy and Tourism from time to time, and third-party report prices vary widely by provider and depth. Treat the table as a planning aid rather than a quotation. The single most important number to internalise is the first one: the core verification you need before signing or paying is free and immediate, so there is never a good reason to skip it on cost or time grounds.
It is also worth distinguishing the free verification from the deeper, paid due diligence you might commission for a high-value relationship. Verifying the licence answers "is this a real, valid, authorised business," while a commercial credit report answers "is this business financially sound and does it pay on time." For a routine supplier you may need only the former; for a major partnership, a large credit exposure or a long-term distribution agreement, layering the latter on top is prudent. Matching the depth of your checking to the size of the risk is simply good commercial sense, and the free licence check is the foundation on which any further diligence is built.
Building licence checking into your business as a habit
The operators who avoid the most trouble are the ones who turn licence verification from an occasional reaction into a standing habit. The simplest way to do this is to make a current trade licence a precondition for onboarding any new supplier, contractor or partner, exactly as you would request a quotation or a bank account for payment. When a verified licence copy and number are simply part of the standard onboarding pack, the check happens automatically and consistently rather than depending on someone remembering to do it under time pressure. Procurement teams formalise this through a vendor-approval checklist; smaller businesses can achieve the same effect with a one-line rule that no first payment is released until the licence is verified.
A second habit is periodic re-checking for ongoing relationships. Licences expire annually, so a supplier that was perfectly valid when you onboarded them last year may be mid-renewal or lapsed now, and a relationship you rely on heavily deserves an occasional re-verification, especially around its renewal window. This is not about distrust; it is about keeping your records current and catching a lapse before it becomes a problem in the middle of a project. The same logic applies to your own licence: knowing when your renewal falls and keeping it current is part of being a counterparty others can verify with confidence, and our guide to trade licence renewal across the UAE covers how that renewal cycle works so your own business always passes the check cleanly.
Finally, treat verification as part of a broader trust posture rather than an isolated task. The activities you confirm on a licence should align with the contract you are signing; the legal name you verify should be the name on the agreement and the invoice; the people you deal with should be authorised to represent the entity on the licence. When these threads line up, you have not just checked a box, you have genuinely confirmed that the deal in front of you is what it appears to be. When they do not line up, the gap is your early warning. Used this way, the humble licence check becomes one of the highest-leverage, lowest-cost risk controls available to any business operating in Dubai, which is precisely why careful founders and finance teams treat it as non-negotiable.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most frequent mistake is stopping at validity and never reading the activities. People see "active" and a future expiry date, feel reassured, and proceed, without ever confirming that the specific work they are paying for actually appears on the licence. A valid licence that does not authorise the activity in question is a real gap, and missing it is one of the easiest ways to end up in a contractual or regulatory tangle later. Always finish the check by matching the activity to the engagement, not just the status to the calendar.
A close second is checking the wrong authority. Treating every Dubai company as a DET mainland entity and looking it up in the DET system will return a misleading blank for a free zone company that is entirely genuine, because free zone licences live in their own free zone registries. Before you verify, read the licence document to see which authority issued it, and check with that authority. Declaring a legitimate free zone licence "fake" because it was searched in the mainland system is a common and avoidable error.
Another mistake is panicking at an expired status or, conversely, ignoring a blank result. An expired licence frequently just means the business is mid-renewal, so the right move is to ask for evidence of renewal rather than assuming fraud. A number that returns no record at all is far more serious, yet some people shrug it off as a glitch. Reverse those instincts: be calm but specific about expiries, and be genuinely cautious about non-existent records, ruling out typos and wrong-authority errors before drawing a conclusion.
Relying on a name search when a number is available is also a recurring error. Because a company's public brand name often differs from its registered legal name, a name-only search can surface the wrong entity or miss the right one entirely. When the stakes are meaningful, go back to the counterparty and ask for the trade licence number, then verify against the precise record. A legitimate business will provide it without hesitation, and reluctance to share a basic, publicly verifiable number is itself worth noting.
Paying a third-party site for information that is free is a smaller but persistent mistake. The basic confirmation that a licence is real and valid is published openly by the authority, so there is no need to route the core check through a paid intermediary that may also serve stale or inaccurate data. Reserve paid services for genuine extras such as official certificates or full credit reports, and always begin from an official government source so that what you read is current and authoritative.
Finally, many businesses verify once at onboarding and never again, then are caught out when a long-standing supplier's licence has quietly lapsed. Build periodic re-checking into ongoing relationships, especially around renewal windows, and make a verified licence a standing precondition for onboarding and for releasing first payments. Verification is cheap, fast and free; the cost of skipping it, or doing it carelessly, only ever shows up later, when it is far harder and more expensive to fix.
If you would rather not navigate licence verification, activity matching and counterparty due diligence alone, Noble Core Ventures works with founders and finance teams every week to confirm Dubai trade licences correctly, interpret what the record actually means, and make sure the entity you are about to sign with is real, valid and authorised for the work. The check is free and quick when you know exactly what to look at, and getting it right before money moves is one of the smartest, lowest-cost decisions any business in the UAE can make.
Talk to Our Experts
verifying a Dubai trade licence correctly before you sign a contract, pay a deposit or onboard a new supplier
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I do a DET licence check in Dubai?
To do a DET licence check you verify a Dubai mainland trade licence through the Department of Economy and Tourism, which is the authority that issues and regulates these licences and which most people still call the DET. The practical route is the official Invest in Dubai platform, the government services portal, where you can look up a business by its licence number, company name or registration details and see the licence status, expiry date and the licensed activities. You can also confirm details directly with the issuing authority. The check tells you whether the licence is genuine, currently valid and authorised for the activity in question, which is exactly what you need before you sign a contract, pay a deposit or onboard a new supplier in Dubai.
What is the difference between the DET and DET?
There is no practical difference for licence purposes; they are the same authority under two names. The Department of Economic Development, universally abbreviated to DET, was renamed and broadened into the Department of Economy and Tourism, abbreviated DET, but in everyday conversation, on documents and in search the older DET name remains extremely common. When you perform a DET licence check you are checking a licence issued and regulated by the Department of Economy and Tourism. The licence itself, the licence number format and the verification routes are the same regardless of which name you use, so do not be confused if a portal, a document or a colleague refers to one rather than the other; they point to the same Dubai mainland economic authority.
Can I check a Dubai trade licence for free online?
Yes. Verifying that a Dubai mainland trade licence exists and is valid is a free public check through the official Department of Economy and Tourism channels, primarily the Invest in Dubai government services platform. You do not pay a fee simply to confirm whether a licence number is genuine, whether it is currently active or expired, and what activities it is authorised for. There are paid services in the wider system, such as ordering certain official certificates or detailed commercial registration extracts, but the basic act of looking up and confirming a licence is part of the transparency the authority provides so that customers, suppliers and partners can trust who they are dealing with. Always use the official portal rather than third-party sites that may charge for information that is freely available.
What information do I need to verify a DET licence?
The most useful single piece of information is the trade licence number itself, because it is the unique identifier that pulls up the exact business record. If you do not have the number, the registered trade name or company name will usually let you search, although common names can return several results, so a number is always cleaner. Some lookups also accept the commercial registration number. Having the business name spelled exactly as it appears on the licence helps, since the official record uses the registered legal name, which can differ from a trading or brand name a company uses publicly. With the licence number in hand you can confirm the status, expiry, legal form and activities, and cross-check that the name on the record matches the entity you are about to deal with.
How can I tell if a Dubai trade licence is valid or expired?
When you look up a licence through the Department of Economy and Tourism channels, the record shows a status and an expiry date. A valid licence is marked active and has an expiry date in the future, while an expired or non-renewed licence shows a past expiry date or a status that is no longer active. An expired licence does not automatically mean fraud, because many businesses are simply mid-renewal, but it does mean the company is not currently licensed to trade and you should ask for proof of renewal before proceeding. If the licence number returns no record at all, that is a far stronger warning sign, because a genuine Dubai mainland business will have a verifiable record with the authority that issued its licence.
Why should I verify a supplier or partner’s trade licence?
Verifying a trade licence protects you from dealing with a business that does not legally exist, has lapsed, or is not authorised for the work you are paying it to do. Before you transfer a deposit, sign a supply agreement, appoint a contractor or enter a partnership, a licence check confirms three things: that the company is real and registered, that its licence is currently valid, and that the activity you are engaging it for actually appears on its licence. It also lets you confirm you are dealing with the correct legal entity and the people authorised to represent it. This single, free step removes a large share of commercial risk in the UAE market and is standard practice for finance teams, procurement departments and careful founders alike.
What do the activities on a Dubai trade licence mean?
The activities listed on a Dubai trade licence define exactly what the business is legally permitted to do, and they are drawn from the Department of Economy and Tourism’s standardised activity list, each with a precise name and code. A company may only legally carry out and invoice for activities that appear on its licence, so the activity list is not decoration; it is the scope of what the business is authorised to provide. When you verify a licence, checking the activities matters as much as checking validity, because a company can hold a perfectly valid licence yet not be authorised for the specific service you need. If the activity you are contracting for is not on the licence, that is a genuine issue to raise before you proceed, regardless of how active the licence is.
Is a free zone licence checked the same way as a DET licence?
Not exactly. A DET licence check applies to Dubai mainland companies licensed by the Department of Economy and Tourism, and those are verified through DET channels such as the Invest in Dubai platform. Free zone companies are licensed by their individual free zone authority rather than by the DET, so a pure free zone licence is verified through that specific free zone’s registry or by contacting the free zone directly. The licence number format and the issuing body differ. When you receive a licence to verify, first establish whether it is a mainland licence or a free zone licence, because that determines which authority you check with. If you are unsure, the licence document itself names the issuing authority, which tells you immediately where the verification should happen.
Can I check a Dubai trade licence by name instead of number?
Often, yes, but it is less reliable than checking by number. The official lookup tools generally allow a search by trade name or company name, which is useful when a counterparty has given you only their business name. The drawback is that common or similar names can return multiple records, and a brand or trading name a company uses in its marketing may differ from the exact legal name on the licence, so a name search can miss the right entity or surface the wrong one. Whenever possible, ask the business directly for its trade licence number, because the number is unique and pulls the precise record, eliminating the ambiguity that name-only searches can introduce. Treat a name search as a starting point and confirm with the number.
What should I do if a trade licence does not verify?
If a licence number returns no record, shows details that do not match the company you are dealing with, or appears expired, pause before committing money or signing anything. First, double-check that you entered the number correctly and that you are using the right authority, since a mainland licence will not appear in a free zone registry and vice versa. Then ask the business for a clear copy of the current licence and, if it is mid-renewal, evidence of that renewal. A legitimate company will be comfortable providing verifiable details. If the discrepancies persist or the business is evasive, treat that as a serious warning sign and consider walking away, because the inability to confirm a basic, freely verifiable licence is one of the clearest red flags in UAE commercial dealings.
