What is a CPF
The CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas) is the tax registration number for natural persons in Brazil, an 11-digit number formatted like 123.456.789-00. Every Brazilian citizen and legally resident foreigner has a CPF. The CPF is Brazil's most important identity identifier — you need it to open a bank account, sign contracts, buy or rent property, see a doctor or apply for benefits. In Brazilian e-commerce it is also common for consumers to provide their CPF when ordering so the invoice can be used for tax deductions.
Unlike the CNPJ, the CPF is strictly protected by Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD, Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, effective 2020). LGPD is the Brazilian equivalent of GDPR, with fines of up to 2% of annual revenue (capped at R$ 50 million) for violations. Before calling the Consulta CPF API, you must clearly define your purpose of use (finalidade) and legal basis (base legal).
What is a "Legal Basis"
LGPD lists 10 legal bases for processing personal data. Consulta CPF calls are typically based on the following scenarios:
- Customer consent (consentimento): the user explicitly agrees in the registration terms that you may query their CPF
- Contract performance: business steps that must use the CPF, such as invoicing, delivery and refunds
- Legal obligation: where the law requires identity verification (e.g. finance, telecom and government-related business)
- Legitimate interest (legítimo interesse): anti-fraud, compliance screening, credit assessment and similar
You must declare the purpose of use in the request before calling, and the TF Fiscal platform automatically records this declaration as audit evidence.
Core Capabilities of TF Fiscal's Consulta CPF API
1. Data Connected Directly to Receita Federal
Connected to the Receita Federal data center through the official SERPRO-authorized channel, with 100% authority.
2. Returned Fields
- Nome Completo (full name)
- Data de Nascimento (date of birth)
- Situação Cadastral (registration status: Regular / Suspensa / Cancelada / Pendente / Nula)
- Data Inscrição (CPF issue date)
3. LGPD-Compliant Call Package
Every call must include:
- Purpose of use (finalidade, e.g. "validação para emissão de NF-e")
- Legal basis (base legal, chosen from the 10 LGPD enumerations)
- The caller's business system identifier (for traceability)
The platform automatically writes an audit log, retained permanently for future review by ANPD (Brazil's data protection authority).
4. Field-Level Encryption
The CPF and sensitive returned fields such as the name are encrypted at the field level (AES-256) during both transmission and storage. After the client receives the data, we recommend processing it immediately for business purposes rather than storing the raw CPF long-term.
5. Data Subject Rights Response
Brazilian CPF holders have the right to access, correct and delete their own data. TF Fiscal provides companion APIs so you can receive and respond to these requests. See the LGPD Compliance Data Gateway.
Pricing
- Pay per call: R$ 0.40 per query
- Prepaid packages: 1,000 queries for R$ 360 (R$ 0.36 each); 10,000 queries for R$ 3,000 (R$ 0.30 each)
- LGPD compliance templates: provided free (registration agreement template, privacy policy template, audit log query interface)
- Compliance audit logs: retained permanently, free to export
- Custom enterprise plans: for customers with high call volumes, complex needs or dedicated SLA requirements, we offer one-on-one customization: pricing can be packaged annually, by business line or by industry, including a dedicated account manager, an isolated resource pool, priority technical support and an LGPD compliance-audit package. Contact sales for a quote →
Typical Use Cases
- Cross-border C2C platforms verifying Brazilian seller identities: prevent identity impersonation
- PIX payee verification: confirm the payee's name before transferring funds (to prevent PIX fraud, which is common in Brazil)
- Rental / contract identity signing: home rentals, car rentals, long-term apartment leases and similar
- Finance / insurance account opening: customer KYC verification
- E-commerce order recipient anomalies: secondary confirmation when the address and the recipient's CPF do not match
- NF-e tax-deductible invoicing: verify the name when a consumer asks to "issue the invoice to my CPF"
Important Compliance Notes
- ❌ Do not use for marketing outreach (unless the user explicitly consents)
- ❌ Do not build user profiles or perform group identification
- ❌ Do not cross-merge the CPF with other databases
- ❌ Do not store the raw CPF beyond what the business requires
- ✅ You must inform the user of the purpose of use
- ✅ You must have an accessible privacy policy
- ✅ You must provide a data deletion entry point
- ✅ In the event of a data breach, you must notify ANPD within 72 hours
FAQ
Q: Can we store the CPF directly in our own database?
Yes, but you must have a legal basis and a defined retention period. We recommend encrypted storage plus automatic cleanup. LGPD does not prohibit storage, but it does prohibit "purposeless long-term retention".
Q: If a user requests deletion of their CPF information, must we delete it?
Yes. This is the "data subject right" granted by Article 18 of LGPD. Unless the law mandates retention (e.g. tax records must be kept for 5 years), it must otherwise be deleted.
Q: What are the fines for violating LGPD?
The maximum fine is 2% of annual revenue, capped at R$ 50 million. There are also administrative penalties such as ANPD public notices, corrective orders and business suspension.
Q: Can the China headquarters access Brazilian users' CPFs?
Yes, but this constitutes a cross-border data transfer and must meet the requirements of Article 33 of LGPD (the recipient's country must offer an equivalent level of data protection, or the user must explicitly consent). TF Fiscal's
LGPD Gateway provides cross-border compliance auditing.
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