# Check EORI Number

Checks an EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) number: its format first, then its registration in the official register. Name and address are returned when the trader agreed to publish them.

Request Method: GET
Request URL: https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/eori?eori_number=[[ eori_number ]]

# Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`apikey`	string	Your API Key
`eori_number`	string	The EORI number to check, including its two-letter country prefix (e.g. `DE4204891`), or without any country code if you pass `country_code`. Spaces, invisible characters (such as zero-width spaces), dots, dashes and slashes are ignored, and lower case is accepted. At most 64 characters
`country_code`	string	One of the supported country codes (e.g. `DE`), put in front of an `eori_number` given without any country code. Ignored when the number starts with a supported code. A number that starts with another country's code (such as `EL` or `US`) is not completed and fails with a `422`

# Sample Request

curl -G https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/eori \
    -d eori_number=DE4204891 \
    -H "apikey: YOUR-APIKEY"

# Sample Response

{
    "country_code": "DE",
    "eori_number": "DE4204891",
    "format_valid": true,
    "registration_info": {
        "is_registered": true,
        "name": "Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg",
        "address": "Freyeslebenstr. 1\n91058 Erlangen\nGermany",
        "address_parts": {
            "street": "Freyeslebenstr. 1",
            "postcode": "91058",
            "city": "Erlangen",
            "country": "Germany"
        },
        "checked_at": "2026-10-04T19:04:07Z"
    },
    "source": "eu_eos"
}

# Response Fields

Field	Description
`country_code`	The country prefix of the number (`GR` for Greece, `XI` for Northern Ireland)
`eori_number`	The number as it was checked: normalised, upper case, with its country prefix
`format_valid`	Whether the number has a valid EORI format. If `false`, no register was asked
`registration_info.is_registered`	Whether the register knows the number as a valid EORI number
`registration_info.name`	The trader's name, or `null` when the register published none
`registration_info.address`	The address, one line each for the street, the postcode and city, and the country; `null` when the register published none
`registration_info.address_parts`	The address as the register publishes it (`street`, `postcode`, `city`, `country`), or `null`. The European Commission writes the country name in English; HMRC sends no country, so `country` is `null` for GB numbers
`registration_info.checked_at`	When the register was asked (UTC). `null` when the format is invalid
`source`	The register that answered: `hmrc` or `eu_eos`. `null` when the format is invalid

# Registers

Each number is checked in the register for its prefix:

Prefix	Register	`source`
`GB`	HMRC's public "Check an EORI number" API	`hmrc`
EU member states and `XI`	The European Commission's EORI validation service	`eu_eos`

Northern Ireland (XI) numbers are checked with the European Commission, not with HMRC.

# Name and address

The registers only publish a trader's name and address when the trader agreed to it. A registered number can therefore come back with is_registered: true and name, address and address_parts all null:

{
    "country_code": "GB",
    "eori_number": "GB220430231000",
    "format_valid": true,
    "registration_info": {
        "is_registered": true,
        "name": null,
        "address": null,
        "address_parts": null,
        "checked_at": "2026-10-04T19:04:25Z"
    },
    "source": "hmrc"
}

# Format Check

The format is checked before any register is asked:

GB and XI numbers: the prefix followed by 12 or 15 digits.
EU numbers: the country prefix followed by 1 to 15 letters or digits.

A number with an invalid format comes back with format_valid: false, checked_at: null and source: null. It counts against your quota like any other check.

{
    "country_code": "GB",
    "eori_number": "GB1234567890001",
    "format_valid": false,
    "registration_info": {
        "is_registered": false,
        "name": null,
        "address": null,
        "address_parts": null,
        "checked_at": null
    },
    "source": null
}

# Caching

Answers are cached: a registered number for up to 1 hour, a number that is not registered for up to 10 minutes. Within that time the same number gets the same answer, with the checked_at of the original lookup. Every answer, cached or not, counts as one request.

# Rate Limit for GB Numbers

HMRC allows only a few requests per second for all our customers together. Uncached lookups of GB numbers are therefore paced: each account gets about one per second.

When your next turn is less than about a second away, the request waits for it.
Further requests in the same burst are answered at once with a 503 and the header Retry-After: 1. They are not counted against your quota.
If you check a list of GB numbers, check them one after the other, or retry after the Retry-After delay.

Cached GB numbers, and numbers of the EU member states and XI, are not paced this way.

# Errors

Status	When	Counted
`422`	`eori_number` is missing, not a string or longer than 64 characters; `country_code` is not a string; or the number does not start with a supported country code: it starts with another country's code (such as `EL` or `US`), or it has none and `country_code` names no supported one. See validation errors (opens new window)	No
`503`	The register did not answer in time or is failing, or the GB rate limit is used up for the moment	No

The 503 body is a bare message:

{
    "message": "The EORI validation service is currently not available. Please check again later."
}

When the register's rate limit is the reason, the response carries Retry-After: 1: retry after one second. Without that header the register is down or slow; retry a little later.

# Sandbox

Requests with a sandbox API key (opens new window) never query a register and cost nothing (X-Cost: 0). A number with a valid format gets a fixed answer, chosen by its last character:

Last character	Answer
`8` or `9`	Not registered
`6` or `7`	Registered, without name and address
anything else	Registered to a fictional trader: `SANDBOX TRADING LTD`, `1 Example Street`, `AA1 1AA London` for GB numbers; `Sandbox Trading GmbH`, `Beispielstraße 1`, `10115 Berlin`, `Germany` for EU and `XI` numbers

checked_at is the time of the request and source follows the prefix. A number with an invalid format gets the same answer as with a live key.

# Supported Countries

The API checks EORI numbers from the following 29 countries: the 27 EU member states, the United Kingdom (GB), and Northern Ireland (XI). Note that Greece is GR in EORI numbers, not EL as in VAT numbers.

Code	Country	Code	Country
`AT`	Austria	`IT`	Italy
`BE`	Belgium	`LT`	Lithuania
`BG`	Bulgaria	`LU`	Luxembourg
`CY`	Cyprus	`LV`	Latvia
`CZ`	Czechia	`MT`	Malta
`DE`	Germany	`NL`	Netherlands
`DK`	Denmark	`PL`	Poland
`EE`	Estonia	`PT`	Portugal
`ES`	Spain	`RO`	Romania
`FI`	Finland	`SE`	Sweden
`FR`	France	`SI`	Slovenia
`GB`	United Kingdom	`SK`	Slovakia
`GR`	Greece	`XI`	Northern Ireland
`HR`	Croatia
`HU`	Hungary
`IE`	Ireland

Numbers that start with any other country code, such as EL or US, fail with a 422 validation error (opens new window), also when you pass country_code. country_code only completes a number given without any country code.

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