How to Get a GS1 Company Prefix for Your EAN/UPC Barcodes
Written by Tomasz Lichosik
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If you want your product in Amazon, Walmart, or Tesco, you cannot just slap any barcode on the box. Those retailers expect officially registered numbers from GS1 — and the way they check has teeth.
A retail barcode is less a pattern of lines than a global passport for your product: it ties the number on the package to your company in a database the whole supply chain trusts. Getting that passport means getting a GS1 Company Prefix. Here is how the system works and how to do it without the expensive mistakes.
What GS1 is, and why it's the only game in town
GS1 (Global Standards 1) is a neutral non-profit that maintains the standards businesses use to talk to each other — the barcode, introduced in 1974, being the famous one.
It is the single official authority for issuing barcode numbers (GTINs). Every EAN-13, UPC-A, and ITF-14 scanned in retail traces back to a GS1 record. When you get a number from GS1, your company is linked to it in GEPIR (the Global Electronic Party Information Registry), the database retailers, customs, and marketplaces use to confirm who really owns the brand behind a code. That link is the whole point — and it is why resold numbers cause trouble later.
What a company prefix actually is
A GS1 Company Prefix is a number — usually 6 to 10 digits — assigned only to your business. It forms the opening sequence of every barcode you create. Because it is globally unique to you, any code starting with those digits is guaranteed yours, which is what prevents catalogue clashes, inventory mix-ups, and listing hijacks on marketplaces.
Prefix length vs. how many products you can number
When you apply, you choose a capacity. The longer your prefix, the fewer products it leaves room for:
| Prefix length | Product capacity (GTINs) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 6 digits | Up to 100,000 products | Large enterprises, big apparel catalogues |
| 7 digits | Up to 10,000 products | Mid-sized manufacturers with growing lines |
| 8 digits | Up to 1,000 products | Small businesses with several variations |
| 9 digits | Up to 100 products | Micro-brands and craft producers |
| 10 digits | Up to 10 products | Startups with a single specialised product |
Plan for growth here. Buy a 10-product prefix, then launch an 11th variation — a new colour or size — and you are back buying a second prefix with a different number sequence and its own annual fee.
The trap of "cheap" third-party barcodes
Search "buy barcodes" and you will find sites selling one-off codes for $5 or $10 with "no annual fees." These are resold or generic numbers, and using them can sink a product launch.
The backstory: before 2002, GS1 (then the Uniform Code Council) let companies buy numbers outright with no renewal. Some bought millions and now resell them one at a time.
The problem shows up at the retailer. Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Costco no longer accept third-party codes. Amazon in particular checks every new product's barcode against GEPIR in real time. If the brand on your listing does not match the company registered under that prefix in the GS1 database, Amazon can suppress the listing, suspend the product, or close the account. With a resold code, GEPIR still names the pre-2002 buyer as the owner — not you. Buying directly from GS1 is the only way to avoid repackaging your whole inventory later.
Getting your prefix, step by step
The official route is a fairly straightforward online process:
- Find your local GS1 office. Apply through the branch in the country where your business is registered — GS1 US, GS1 UK, GS1 Poland, and so on.
- Count your SKUs. Tally every variation. A t-shirt in 3 colours and 4 sizes is 12 SKUs, needing 12 GTINs.
- Submit the application. You will need your legal business name, a tax ID (EIN, VAT, or local registry number), and contact details.
- Pay the fees. GS1 charges a setup fee plus an annual renewal, scaled to your capacity and company revenue.
- Log into the portal. Once payment clears you get access to the GS1 member portal (often GS1 Data Hub or MyGS1), where your prefix is ready to use.
What to do once you have it
With a prefix in hand, you build your numbers and turn them into print-ready images.
Construct the GTINs. With a 9-digit prefix like 123456789, you have three digits to assign products (reaching 12 digits for UPC-A or 13 for EAN-13, before the check digit): 123456789001, 123456789002, and so on.
Add the check digit. The final digit is calculated from the rest; GS1's portal has a free calculator. If the check digit for your first product is 5, the full EAN-13 is 1234567890015.
Generate clean artwork. Hand your packaging designer lossless vector files, not low-res screenshots. Enter your official EAN-13 or UPC-A numbers on BarcodeReady and export SVG or print-ready PDF so the code scans at every checkout in the world.
The bottom line
A GS1 prefix is an investment in the brand: it earns trust with retailers, protects your marketplace listings from hijackers, and keeps you compatible with global logistics. License the numbers properly through GS1, render them as crisp vectors, and you are set up the way professional product distribution expects.