What is a GTIN, and how do you look one up?

A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the number encoded in a product's barcode. The 12-digit UPC used in North America and the 13-digit EAN used in most other countries are both GTIN formats — different lengths, same purpose.

What does a GTIN actually identify?

A GTIN identifies a specific product and its manufacturer or brand owner — not an individual physical unit, and not the retailer. Two cans of the same soda off the same shelf share the same GTIN; a serial number, when a product has one, is a separate, additional identifier.

GTINs are issued through GS1, the nonprofit standards organization that also runs the barcode system retailers scan at checkout. A company applies for a GS1 prefix and then assigns GTINs to its own products using that prefix.

How do you look up what a barcode number corresponds to?

GS1 member organizations run GEPIR, a free lookup that tells you which company a GTIN prefix was issued to — useful for verifying who makes a product, not for pulling up its name and price. For that, open, crowd-sourced databases (built the same way as the barcode scanner apps on most phones) map many GTINs to product names and images, though coverage is incomplete for smaller or regional brands.

If you just need to know what one specific product is, a phone's camera-based barcode scanner app is usually faster than typing the number into a lookup site by hand.

Before you rely on this guide

Como ler este número

UPC and EAN are not two different systems

A 12-digit UPC can be written as a 13-digit EAN by adding a leading zero — it is the same underlying GTIN, just formatted for a different region's scanners.

De onde vem o dado

GS1, the global barcode standards body

GTIN is a GS1 standard, used by essentially every retailer's point-of-sale system worldwide.

Cuidado

A barcode lookup does not confirm authenticity

A GTIN being registered to a real brand does not guarantee the specific item you are holding is genuine — counterfeits can carry a copied, valid-looking barcode.

O que fazer com isso

To check who a GTIN prefix belongs to

Use GS1's own GEPIR lookup (gepir.gs1.org) with the first digits of the barcode.

Glossário: os termos desta página

GTIN

A Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is the number encoded in a product's barcode. A 12-digit UPC and a 13-digit EAN are both GTIN formats; the number identifies the product and its manufacturer, not an individual unit.

Fonte: GTIN standard — GS1.

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Sources: GTIN standard (GS1).