CAS originated in 1907 when the American Chemical Society launched Chemical Abstracts to keep scientists in touch with new chemical information worldwide. To continue fulfilling this mission as publicly disclosed chemical information grew exponentially, CAS adapted computerisation to speed editorial processing in the 1960s. This led to the creation of the CAS Chemical Registry System, CAS databases, and a range of electronic information services, which now account for 96 per cent of CAS??? business.

CAS offers a large and comprehensive database of disclosed chemical substances, the CAS Registry, with 33 million records for organic and inorganic chemicals.