The first two or three digits of a UPC or EAN barcode are a GS1 prefix. They tell you which national GS1 organization issued the company's number block: 001–019 and 060–139 are GS1 US, 300–379 GS1 France, 400–440 GS1 Germany, 450–459 and 490–499 GS1 Japan, 690–699 GS1 China. They do not tell you where the product was made. GS1 says so directly: "Since GS1 user companies can manufacture products anywhere in the world, GS1 Prefixes do not identify the country of origin for a given product" (GS1 Company Prefix).
So a barcode country code is really a registration country. Below are the official list, the special ranges that aren't countries at all, and how to look up who actually owns a number.
How to read the prefix (watch the hidden zero)
GS1 prefixes are defined on the 13-digit form of a barcode. EAN-13 codes are already 13 digits, so you read the first three directly. A 12-digit UPC-A has an implied leading zero, so you add the zero first. GS1's own example: for the 12-digit GTIN 614141234561, "the GS1 Prefix is 061, not 614."
| Barcode | 13-digit form | GS1 prefix | Issued by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 036000291452 (UPC-A) | 0036000291452 | 003 | GS1 US |
| 614141234561 (UPC-A) | 0614141234561 | 061 | GS1 US |
| 4006381333931 (EAN-13) | 4006381333931 | 400 | GS1 Germany |
| 9780306406157 (ISBN-13) | 9780306406157 | 978 | Bookland (ISBN) |
The second row is where many prefix charts trip people up. A UPC starting with 6 is not South African (600–601) or Chinese (690–699). With the hidden zero it's 06x, which is GS1 US. Apart from a few codes that begin with a long run of zeros, every 12-digit UPC starting with 0, 1, 3, 6, 7, 8 or 9 falls in a GS1 US range. Those starting with 2, 4 or 5 are special ranges, covered below.
Barcode country code list (official GS1 prefixes)
This table covers the prefixes you'll see most often, taken from GS1's official list as of October 2026. Prefixes not listed are assigned to smaller member organizations or reserved; the full list is on gs1.org.
| Prefix | GS1 member organization |
|---|---|
| 001–019, 030–039, 060–139 | GS1 US |
| 300–379 | France |
| 400–440 | Germany |
| 450–459, 490–499 | Japan (where EAN-13s are called JAN codes) |
| 460–469 | Russia |
| 471 | Chinese Taipei |
| 489 | Hong Kong, China |
| 500–509 | United Kingdom |
| 520–521 | Greece |
| 539 | Ireland |
| 540–549 | Belgium and Luxembourg |
| 560 | Portugal |
| 570–579 | Denmark |
| 590 | Poland |
| 600–601 | South Africa |
| 628 | Saudi Arabia |
| 629 | United Arab Emirates |
| 640–649 | Finland |
| 680–681, 690–699 | China |
| 700–709 | Norway |
| 729 | Israel |
| 730–739 | Sweden |
| 750 | Mexico |
| 754–755 | Canada |
| 760–769 | Switzerland |
| 770–771 | Colombia |
| 778–779 | Argentina |
| 789–790 | Brazil |
| 800–839 | Italy |
| 840–849 | Spain |
| 868–869 | Türkiye |
| 870–879 | Netherlands |
| 880–881 | South Korea |
| 885 | Thailand |
| 888 | Singapore |
| 890 | India |
| 893 | Vietnam |
| 899 | Indonesia |
| 900–919 | Austria |
| 930–939 | Australia |
| 940–949 | New Zealand |
| 955 | Malaysia |
Older charts often label 00–13 "USA and Canada," reflecting the shared history of the U.P.C. system in North America. The current official table credits those ranges to GS1 US and gives GS1 Canada its own 754–755 range.
To see real products grouped by prefix, browse BarcodeReport's UPC prefix directory and EAN prefix directory.
Prefixes that aren't countries
Several ranges have nothing to do with geography. These are the ones that confuse people most.
| Prefix | What it means | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| 020–029 | Restricted circulation within a region | In the U.S., a UPC starting with 2: random-weight meat, deli, produce and store-printed labels |
| 040–049 | Restricted circulation within a company | A UPC starting with 4: a retailer's internal codes, loyalty cards, in-store items |
| 050–059 | GS1 US, reserved for future use | Old U.S. coupons used UPCs starting with 5 until the industry retired them on June 30, 2015 (JICC announcement) |
| 200–299 | Restricted circulation within a region | EAN codes starting with 2, widely used for in-store and weighed goods outside North America |
| 952 | Demonstrations and examples | Sample barcodes in documentation |
| 960–969 | GTIN-8 allocation | Short 8-digit codes for very small packs |
| 977 | Serial publications (ISSN) | Magazines and periodicals |
| 978–979 | Bookland (ISBN) | Books. 978 codes also have an ISBN-10 form; 979 codes don't |
| 980 | Refund receipts | Return slips, such as bottle-deposit receipts |
| 981–983, 99 | Coupons | Coupon identification |
Restricted-circulation codes are reused by every store and region that uses them, so the same number means different things in different places. That's why Google Merchant Center tells merchants not to submit GTINs with the prefixes 02, 04 or 2, or coupon prefixes 05, 98 or 99 (Google Merchant Center GTIN help). It's also why a lookup database can't resolve them.
The country-of-origin myth
You've probably seen the advice that a barcode starting with 690 means "made in China," and that you should look for 00–13 if you want American products. It's wrong in both directions.
A company licenses its prefix from the GS1 organization where it chooses to register, usually where it's based. Where it manufactures doesn't enter into it. So:
- An American brand that manufactures in Vietnam or Mexico prints UPCs from a GS1 US range, because that's where its prefix came from.
- A Chinese manufacturer that sells under its own brand usually prints 69x codes, even on goods made in a plant abroad.
- A European company selling in the U.S. may license a GS1 US prefix for its American line and keep an EAN prefix at home. Its products then carry both kinds of codes.
If you care where something was made, read the country-of-origin marking on the package or the import documentation. The barcode can't tell you.
Company prefix vs item reference
The GS1 prefix is just the first slice of a longer GS1 Company Prefix, the block a single company licenses. After it comes the item reference that company assigns to each product, then a check digit.
Take GS1's example number 614141234561 in its 13-digit form:
| Part | Digits | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| GS1 prefix | 061 | Issued by GS1 US |
| GS1 Company Prefix | 0614141 | The company's licensed block (includes the GS1 prefix) |
| Item reference | 23456 | The product, chosen by the company |
| Check digit | 1 | Calculated from the first 12 digits |
The catch is that company prefix length varies, typically from 6 to 10 digits in a 12-digit UPC, depending on how many numbers the company licensed. A big brand might hold a short prefix with room for 100,000 items, while a startup holds a 10-digit prefix for 10. You can't assume two codes come from the same company just because they share their first six digits. Only the GS1 registry knows where one company's block ends. (Our guide on how to get a UPC barcode shows how capacity maps to prefix length.)
How to find who owns a barcode
Verified by GS1 replaced the old GEPIR service on December 31, 2023. Enter a GTIN and it returns the licensee company and, if the brand has published it, core product data such as brand, description and image. The gs1.org version allows up to 30 single GTIN queries in any 24-hour period. GS1 US runs its own company database, also with 30 free searches a day.
Search the code on BarcodeReport. Product pages show the title, brand, category and image where we have them, plus the GS1 prefix and issuing country. Remember that "issuing country" here means the registration country, not where the product was made.
Browse /UPCPrefix or /EANPrefix to see other products near the same number. It's a quick way to spot a brand's product family, as long as you remember that prefix lengths vary.
Checking thousands of codes? The prefix is the cheapest filter you have. Drop anything starting with 2, 4 or 5 (12-digit) or with 02, 04, 05, 2, 98 or 99 (13-digit) before you pay for lookups, and send codes starting with 978 or 979 to an ISBN lookup instead.
Frequently asked questions
No. A 690–699 prefix means the company licensed its barcode numbers from GS1 China, usually because the company is registered there. GS1 states that prefixes do not identify a product's country of origin, since companies can manufacture anywhere. Many Chinese-made products carry U.S. or European prefixes, and some 69x products are made elsewhere. Check the country-of-origin label instead.
Usually GS1 US. In 13-digit form, GS1's official list assigns 001 to 019, 030 to 039 and 060 to 139 to GS1 US, while 02 and 04 are restricted in-store ranges and 05 is reserved. Because a 12-digit UPC has an implied leading zero, most UPCs map to GS1 US too. That means the company registered with GS1 US, not that the product was made in America.
A 12-digit UPC starting with 2 is a restricted-circulation number. In the U.S., it's typically used for random-weight items such as meat, deli and produce, or for labels printed in the store, often with the price built into the digits. Because every store can use the same numbers differently, these codes aren't in global product databases.
Prefixes 978 and 979 are reserved for Bookland, meaning the barcode is an ISBN-13 for a book. Codes starting with 978 can also be written as a 10-digit ISBN, while 979 codes have no ISBN-10 equivalent. Magazines and other serials use prefix 977 for ISSNs. Use an ISBN lookup to find title, author and publisher.
Search the number in Verified by GS1 on gs1.org, which replaced GEPIR at the end of 2023. It shows the company that licensed the number and any product data the brand has published, with up to 30 free single searches per day. For product details like title, brand and image, a barcode database such as BarcodeReport is usually faster.
Next steps
- Browse UPC prefixes: see real products grouped under North American prefixes.
- Browse EAN prefixes: explore codes from GS1 organizations worldwide.
- ISBN lookup: for 978 and 979 codes, get book data instead of a "not found."
- Complete guide to barcode lookup: how lookups work, from a single scan to bulk files.
- Barcode lookup in JavaScript and Node.js: build prefix filtering into an automated lookup pipeline.
