VIES Status

Shows whether VIES and the VAT register of each member state can be checked right now. Use it to see why VAT checks answer 503, or to hold back checks while a member state is down.

Quota

Requests to this endpoint cost nothing (X-Cost: 0). They still need your API key.

Request Method: GET
Request URL: https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/vies-status

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
apikey	string	️	Your API Key

Sample Request

curl "https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/vies-status" \
    -H "apikey: YOUR-APIKEY"

Sample Response

{
    "checked_at": "2026-10-17T09:30:00Z",
    "vies": "available",
    "countries": {
        "AT": "available",
        "BE": "available",
        "BG": "available",
        "CY": "available",
        "CZ": "available",
        "DE": "unavailable",
        "DK": "available",
        "EE": "available",
        "EL": "available",
        "ES": "available",
        "FI": "available",
        "FR": "available",
        "HR": "available",
        "HU": "available",
        "IE": "available",
        "IT": "available",
        "LT": "available",
        "LU": "available",
        "LV": "available",
        "MT": "available",
        "NL": "available",
        "PL": "available",
        "PT": "available",
        "RO": "available",
        "SE": "available",
        "SI": "available",
        "SK": "available",
        "XI": "available"
    }
}

Response Fields

Field	Description
checked_at	When we last read the status from VIES (ISO 8601, UTC). null when we have no status from the last 5 minutes
vies	VIES as a whole: available, unavailable or unknown
countries	One entry for each of the 28 countries VIES checks: the 27 member states (Greece as EL) and XI (Northern Ireland). Each is available, unavailable or unknown. GB is not included: UK numbers are not checked through VIES

The values mean:

• available: VIES reports the register as working.
• unavailable: VIES reports the register as down. VAT checks (opens new window) for that country answer 503 at once, without asking VIES. A 503 is not billed. If vies is unavailable, this applies to every EU and XI check.
• unknown: VIES reports no status for it, or we have no status from the last 5 minutes.

Where the data comes from

The data is VIES's own status report. We read it every minute. A reading is used for 5 minutes at most. After that, everything is unknown, and checks ask VIES again instead of answering 503 at once.

The status can change between two readings. A country shown as available can still answer 503 when VIES does not answer in time.