What does a barcode prefix tell you?

The first digits of a product barcode are its GS1 prefix. GS1 is the organization behind retail barcodes, and it gives each of its national offices a range of prefixes: 400 to 440 for GS1 Germany, 500 to 509 for GS1 UK, 690 to 699 for GS1 China. A company signs up with its local GS1 office and gets barcode numbers that start with that office's prefix.

So the prefix shows where the company registered its barcodes, not where the product was made. A German brand can make its products in Vietnam and still print barcodes that start with 400, and GS1 says the prefixes don't identify the country of origin.

Some ranges have nothing to do with countries. Barcodes starting with 978 or 979 are books (ISBN), 977 is magazines and newspapers (ISSN), 200 to 299 are numbers stores make up themselves, for example for fruit or cheese sold by weight, and 99 is coupons.

Tool description

Type or paste the digits under a barcode: 13 for an EAN-13, 12 for a UPC-A or 8 for an EAN-8. Spaces and dashes don't matter. The tool shows the GS1 prefix and the country of the GS1 office that owns it, with its flag, or what a special range is used for. It also checks the last digit, the check digit, and tells you the right one when it doesn't match, which usually means a typo.

UPC-A barcodes, common in the US and Canada, have 12 digits, and GS1 reads them with a zero in front. That's why a UPC-A that starts with 03 has the prefix 003, which belongs to GS1 US. EAN-8 barcodes on small packages have their own GS1-8 prefixes: those starting with 0 or 2 are a store's or company's own numbers.

The prefix table comes from GS1's list of GS1 prefixes, and the EAN-8 rules from the GS1 General Specifications.

Features

  • Shows the country of the GS1 office behind the prefix, with its flag
  • Explains special ranges like books, magazines, coupons and store numbers
  • Checks the check digit of EAN-13, UPC-A and EAN-8 barcodes