Bradyrhizobium sp. strain WSM1743 is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that can exist as a soil saprophyte or as a legume microsymbiont of an Indigofera sp. WSM1743 was isolated from a nodule recovered from the roots of an Indigofera sp. growing 20 km north of Carnarvon in Australia. It is slow growing, tolerates up to 1 % NaCl and is capable of growth at 37 °C. Here we describe the features of Bradyrhizobium sp. strain WSM1743, together with genome sequence information and its annotation. The 8,341,956 bp high-quality permanent draft genome is arranged into 163 scaffolds and 167 contigs, contains 7908 protein-coding genes and 75 RNA-only encoding genes and was sequenced as part of the Root Nodule Bacteria chapter of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40793-015-0073-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.