What is a PSB filing, and does your website need one in China?

You got your ICP number, or you’re planning for one, and someone mentions a second filing. This one goes to the police, not to the telecom regulator.

It’s a short job on paper, but the guides disagree on who owes it and when. This page is part of the legal basics of a website in China.

What is a PSB filing?

A PSB filing is a separate registration of your website with China’s public security authorities.²¹¹

Alibaba Cloud calls it public security network filing, 公安联网备案, and says it isn’t the same thing as the ICP filing.²

It comes from a different text. The ICP rests on China’s internet information rules.¹⁹ The PSB filing rests on 1997 security Measures, revised in 2011.¹²

You tell the police what the site is. A 2024 Q&A credited to the public security ministry’s cyber bureau lists its content, interface, purpose, domain, responsible person, contact details and office location.²³

	ICP filing	PSB filing
Authority	MIIT 12	Public security 3
Where you file	Through your host 11	On the national platform, beian.mps.gov.cn 2
Who reviews	See our ICP filing guide	Public security for your registered address, not the host 323
Shown on your site	ICP number at the bottom of pages 6	PSB number and icon in the footer 27
Comes	First	After the ICP, for a mainland site 2

So your host can’t approve it for you. Alibaba Cloud states that public security reviews these filings, not Alibaba Cloud.³

You can spot a finished one in a site’s footer. Alibaba Cloud’s Chinese help pages show 浙公网安备 33010602009975号, which its English pages render as “Zhejiang Public Security Bureau Record No. 33010602009975”.⁷¹⁷

Who needs a PSB filing?

Every site on mainland servers does, and on that the sources agree. Alibaba Cloud says a site or app with an ICP filing must also complete this one.² The cyber bureau Q&A says operators need both filings.²³

AppInChina and Chinafy describe the same duty for sites hosted in China.⁸⁹

That covers plain company sites as well as stores. Chinafy lists e-commerce, informational and corporate landing sites alike.⁹

The legal text is wider and vaguer. Article 12 names legal persons and other organizations using the international network connection, and doesn’t use the word website.¹

Hosts apply it to websites, and cite these Measures when they do.²⁶

What about a site hosted outside mainland China?

Nobody we read settles this one, so don’t treat it as settled. Most guides pick one answer and move on, and the same provider can give different answers on different pages.

Source	What it says
Alibaba Cloud FAQ, English and Chinese, undated	Outside the mainland, no ICP is needed, but a PSB filing is. No other condition 520
Alibaba Cloud PSB page, Chinese, undated	Outside the mainland but serving the mainland: file within 30 days 2
Alibaba Cloud process overview, Chinese, undated	Outside the mainland, if the site can be reached from the mainland: file within 30 days of launch 21
Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong page, Chinese, undated	No ICP needed, the site can go live directly, with no PSB step mentioned there 7
Chinafy, September 2024	Not necessary if hosted outside the mainland 9
AppInChina, June 2026	Requirements assume China hosting, and only Chinese-registered businesses can apply 8

So one host uses three tests: none at all, serving the mainland, and being reachable from it. Those tests catch different sites, and we can’t tell which one the platform applies.

There’s a practical knot too. weber.cloud says the site must show its ICP number before you submit.¹⁰ A site hosted abroad has no ICP number to show.

Alibaba Cloud calls the ICP a prerequisite when you use mainland servers, and the form it describes asks for the number.⁷²¹ We found no explanation of what a site without one enters.

The text doesn’t clear it up. Article 12 sends organizations to the office designated by public security where they’re located.¹

The cyber bureau Q&A says the police unit for an entity’s registered address does the review.²³ Our reading is that neither text describes a foreign company with no presence in China. That’s a reading, not legal advice.

Article 24 says networks linked with Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan follow the Measures by reference.¹ It doesn’t say what a site hosted in Hong Kong owes.

We also found no public security notice aimed at foreign sites.

For your hosting choice, see hosting in China and Hong Kong hosting. If you have no entity, read can you do this without a Chinese company?

When do the 30 days start?

Assume the earliest date. Every source that gives a deadline says 30 days, but they count from different events.

Source	The 30 days run from
Measures, Article 12	The formal connection of the network 124
Alibaba Cloud, June 2026	The launch of your website 6
Alibaba Cloud PSB page	The day the site goes live, once it has its ICP number 23
Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong page	Completing the ICP filing 7
China Briefing, April 2026	Receiving your ICP filing number 11
AppInChina, June 2026	Receiving the ICP filing, in its introduction 8
Tencent Cloud, 2022	Obtaining the ICP filing from MIIT 12
weber.cloud, undated	Receiving the ICP 10

Alibaba Cloud alone counts from two different events. A mainland site needs its ICP first, so the ICP date comes first.¹¹²¹ If your launch comes much later, no source tells you that it’s safe to wait.

Two more clocks run next to this one, and few guides mention them.

1. PSB filing30 days after going live or after the ICP, depending on the source
2. Alibaba Cloud data codeValid for 30 calendar days, cannot be regenerated
3. Footer number30 days after PSB approval

• The application: 30 days, as above.
• The footer: Another 30 days after approval to add the number, according to Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud.³¹²
• The data code: If you use Alibaba Cloud’s shortcut, the code is valid for 30 calendar days and can’t be regenerated.⁴

Free check

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Enter your website. We check Baidu, access from China and how your site is set up, then email you the report.

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How do you file?

You file online, on the platform, as the site’s operator. Alibaba Cloud’s guides and weber.cloud’s guide give a similar outline.

1. Get the site ready. It should be reachable in China and show its ICP number, according to weber.cloud.¹⁰
2. Open an account. Register on the National Internet Security Management Service Platform, beian.mps.gov.cn.² Huawei Cloud says companies use a legal-person account, and identity is checked by scanning a code in the 公安一网通办 app.²²
3. Submit your entity. Enter the company and the person responsible, then wait for approval.³⁷
4. Start a new website application. Enter the ICP number, domain and server IP.⁷ The site name must match the one in your ICP filing.³
5. Answer the interactive services question. See the next section.
6. Keep the site online. Reviewers must be able to open it at any time, or the review fails.³
7. Watch for the result. It usually arrives by SMS.⁷ weber.cloud says it comes in Chinese, to the registered Chinese mobile number.¹⁰
8. Publish the number. Copy the number and HTML code from the platform into your footer.²

Published review times are short. Chinafy says 3 to 5 working days, and so does weber.cloud.⁹¹⁰ AppInChina says 1 to 3 if your documents are complete.⁸ Huawei Cloud gives 2 to 3 for adding a new entity.²² Those are estimates, not commitments.

The documents

The lists differ, so prepare the widest one.

Item	AppInChina 8	Chinafy 9	weber.cloud 10
Chinese business license	Yes	Yes	Not listed
ICP number	Yes	Yes	Shown on the site
Domain proof or details	Yes	Yes	Registrar details
Hosting details	Not listed	Yes	Yes
Website screenshots	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
ID of the person responsible	Yes, and the network security officer	Yes	Chinese ID card, its validity dates, and a photo holding it
Date the site went online	Not listed	Not listed	Yes

Huawei Cloud also mentions a domain certificate from your registrar and the server’s public IP.²² weber.cloud says all data must be in Chinese.¹⁰

We couldn’t read the platform’s own filing guide. Its page opened without usable content, so treat every list above as a provider’s account.

The shortcut at Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud can carry your ICP data over. You tick “Authorize” on your ICP order, then attach the data code on the platform after MIIT approves.⁴

Some fields still need filling in by hand.⁴ It’s specific to that host, and it covers websites only.

Read the choice closely. Alibaba Cloud’s Chinese page says refusing can’t be undone, while “not for now” can be revisited.²⁵

Filing through a provider

AppInChina offers to apply through its own Chinese entity if you have none.⁸ It doesn’t explain how that works, and we found no independent source that backs it.

Have an adviser look at any such setup before you agree.

The interactive services question

The form asks whether your site offers interactive services. The label is wider than it sounds.

Alibaba Cloud defines an interactive site as one where users interact with each other or with the platform. Its list includes site search, message boards, live chat and user comments.³ A non-interactive site only shows static information.³

So on that wording, site search alone counts. It’s one host’s definition, but it’s the only one we could read.

Alibaba Cloud says to answer from the site’s real features, and to pick “No” if you’re unsure.³ If the order is rejected, you can change the answer and resubmit.³

A separate rule may also come into play. Security assessment provisions in force since November 30, 2018 cover forums, blogs, chat rooms, group chats and short video, among others.¹³

Launching one of those features calls for a self-run assessment, and the report goes in through the same platform before launch.¹³

Alibaba Cloud’s guide points to the platform’s assessment guide, without saying when you need it.³ We found no source that ties the form’s answer to the assessment.

We also found no source that says where a contact form falls. Interaction “with the platform” could reach it, but that’s our reading of one host’s wording.

What happens if you skip it?

The written penalty is a warning or a stop, not a fine. Article 23 says failing to file brings a warning, or a shutdown for rectification of up to 6 months.¹ The 2024 cyber bureau Q&A repeats that.²³

AppInChina and Chinafy mention fines.⁸⁹ Those exist in the same Measures, but under a different article, for different failures.

Failure	Article	What the text provides
No filing	23	Warning, or stop of up to 6 months 1
No security rules, no technical measures, no user training, among others	21	Correction order and warning. If not corrected, up to RMB 5,000 for responsible staff and RMB 15,000 for the entity. Serious cases: stop of up to 6 months 1

Police case reports show how this has played out. All four involve Chinese organizations, in reports published in 2019 and 2020. We read none about a foreign company, so they’re examples rather than a measure of risk.

Case	Problem found	Outcome
An organization’s portal in Zunyi, 2019 report	No filing, no security rules	Order to correct and a warning, under Articles 23 and 21 14
A Sichuan company in Luzhou, January 2019	Checked over suspected illegal content. No filing, no security rules or technical measures	Warning and order to correct. The company closed the site itself 15
A public institution in Pan’an, March 2019	No filing since the site opened in November 2011	Warning and order to file by a deadline, under Articles 11, 12 and 23 16
A clothing company in Liling, May 2020	No filing since the site was built in 2013	Warning, under Articles 11, 12 and 23 18

The filing also isn’t the whole duty. Article 10 expects organizations to keep security rules, take technical measures, train users and report listed incidents within 24 hours.¹

Article 5 lists 9 kinds of banned information.¹ Our guide on sensitive content on a Chinese website covers that side.

The bottom line

If your site sits on mainland servers, the PSB filing is your next task after the ICP, and it isn’t optional. Treat 30 days as starting the moment you get your number.

If your site sits abroad, the sources conflict, so ask a local adviser instead of copying a vendor’s answer. For the steps before this one, see how long an ICP takes.

How Index in China can help

We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer and work on getting it indexed on Chinese search engines. ICP and PSB filings aren’t part of the offer we list, and our work doesn’t settle the PSB question for a site hosted abroad. We’ll tell you when your case needs a local adviser.

See how it works or book a 30-minute call.

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