What is an EAN code (European Article Number)?

When someone says a product's "barcode", they almost always mean an EAN: the vertical bars and the numbers beneath them that get scanned at any supermarket checkout. GS1, the organization that maintains the standard, says EAN/UPC codes are printed on practically every consumer product in the world and are the oldest and most widely used of all its barcodes.⁠^{[1]GS1. EAN/UPC barcodes} In an online store nothing gets scanned, but the number matters all the same: Google Merchant Center accepts it as the product identifier, and marketplaces such as Amazon or AliExpress require official EAN codes to sell on them.⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]}⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial}

What it is, exactly

First, separate the number from the bars. GS1 Spain explains it this way: the GTIN is the number that identifies the product, and the EAN is its graphic representation, the bars and spaces that let a scanner read it.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial} When a store talks about "its EAN", it almost always means the number, which is a 13-digit GTIN. Schema.org, the vocabulary of structured data, gives the gtin13 property as equivalent to the EAN UCC-13 and the 13-digit ISBN.⁠^{[4]Schema.org (version 30.1, September 16, 2026). gtin13}

The standard has several versions, each for a size or a market:⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial}

• EAN-13: the one on any retail product. It has 13 digits and is the one you see every day.
• EAN-8: for products so small that a 13-digit code would not fit without losing legibility.
• UPC-A: the equivalent of the EAN-13 in the United States and Canada, and UPC-E, its compact version.
• ITF-14: sometimes called EAN-14, it identifies groupings of products in the warehouse, not on the box.

An EAN-13 has four parts, from left to right: the GS1 prefix, the company code, the product code (the reference that tells models, sizes, colors or flavors apart) and the check digit.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial}

What the prefix says

The first digits say which GS1 organization assigned the company prefix. GS1 Spain sums it up as the country where the code was registered (84, for example, for Spain).⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial} GS1 is more precise: because companies can manufacture anywhere in the world, prefixes do not identify a product's country of origin.⁠^{[5]GS1. GS1 Company Prefix} Some ranges from its list:⁠^{[5]GS1. GS1 Company Prefix}

How the check digit is calculated

The last digit does not identify anything: it checks that the others were read correctly.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial} GS1 publishes the method in three steps. Multiply each digit by 3 or by 1, alternating, so that the digit right before the check digit is multiplied by 3; add up the results; and the check digit is whatever the sum lacks to reach the next multiple of ten.⁠^{[6]GS1. How to calculate a check digit manually} This is GS1's own example for a GTIN-13:⁠^{[6]GS1. How to calculate a check digit manually}

Digits:        6  2  9  1  0  4  1  5  0  0  2  1
Multiply by:   1  3  1  3  1  3  1  3  1  3  1  3
Result:        6  6  9  3  0 12  1 15  0  0  2  3    Sum: 57

Next multiple of ten: 60.  60 - 57 = 3
Full code: 6291041500213

Try copying one of the digits wrong: if the 5 in the eighth position becomes a 6, that column's result goes from 15 to 18, the sum reaches 60 and the check digit would have to be 0, not 3. That is why the check digit gives away a miscopied number before it reaches your catalog.

How you get one

An official EAN comes through the GS1 member organization of your country. In Spain, for example, that is GS1 Spain (AECOC), which describes the process in three steps: sign up, receive an exclusive GS1 company prefix to generate each product's code, and register those products' data on its platform, AECOC ACTIVATE.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial} To sell in large retail chains or on marketplaces it is a commercial requirement, and each variant (another color, another size) has to carry its own code.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial}

In a store

Fictitious example. A store sells a stoneware mug in two colors. Each color is a different product and carries its own code; both numbers use prefix 952, which GS1 reserves for examples, and have a valid check digit.⁠^{[5]GS1. GS1 Company Prefix} The same number has to appear identically everywhere the product lives:⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]}⁠^{[4]Schema.org (version 30.1, September 16, 2026). gtin13}

The same EAN on both mugs would be a mistake: Google reminds you that each product and each color or size variant has its own GTIN.⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]} Product variants share a model, but not a code.

How to check it

1. Count the digits. An EAN-13 has 13. If it has 12, it is a North American UPC: Schema.org says it is converted into a 13-digit code by adding a zero in front.⁠^{[4]Schema.org (version 30.1, September 16, 2026). gtin13}
2. Calculate the check digit with the method above. Google asks you to check that it is present and correct with GS1's calculator.⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]}
3. Look the number up in Verified by GS1, GS1's service for looking up and verifying the information of any barcode (GTIN, UPC or EAN).⁠^{[7]GS1. Verified by GS1}
4. Look at the prefix. Google does not accept those that start with 02, 04 or 2, restricted-circulation ranges, or with 05, 98 or 99, reserved for coupons.⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]}
5. Compare the number in the feed with the one on the product page and the one on the label, variant by variant. If you are not sure about a code, Google asks you not to submit it rather than guess it.⁠^{[2]Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin]}

Related concept: GTIN

EAN and GTIN get used as synonyms, and GS1 Spain acknowledges they get confused because they look so much alike. The difference is the one from before: the GTIN is the number and the EAN is the bars that represent it.⁠^{[3]GS1 Spain (AECOC), in Spanish. Guía del código EAN: qué es, tipos y cómo obtenerlo de forma oficial} The GTIN is also a broader family than the EAN, with formats for North America and for logistics, and it has its own entry. And the other reference the manufacturer sets, the one from its own catalog, is not an EAN either: it is the MPN.

To keep going, the structured data reading path orders the rest of the terms a product page uses to say what product it sells.