How to Get a Barcode for Your Product: GS1, Fees, Resellers, Amazon’s Rules and What the Numbers Mean

How do you get a barcode for your product? The short answer

The barcode itself is free to make; what you need is the number inside it. For products sold in shops or on large marketplaces, that number is a GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), licensed from GS1, the not-for-profit body that runs the system, through the GS1 office in your country. You license a block of numbers (a Company Prefix) or, in some countries, single numbers, give one to each product variant, and print each number as an EAN-13 or UPC-A barcode. Books use an ISBN from the national ISBN agency instead.

The rest of this guide explains how the numbers work, what they cost from several GS1 offices (each price was read on that office’s own site on 1 October 2026), why the cheap “UPC codes” sold online cause trouble with Amazon and other marketplaces, how many numbers a small brand actually needs, and how to print the barcode at a size that scans.

How the numbering system works

A barcode on a product is just a way of printing a number so that a scanner can read it. The number is what the shop’s till, the marketplace’s catalogue and the distributor’s warehouse system look up. For that to work across thousands of companies, every product in the world needs a different number, and every number needs a known owner. GS1 provides both.

• GS1 is a global standards organisation with an office (a “Member Organisation”) in more than a hundred countries: GS1 US, GS1 UK, GS1 India, GS1 Pakistan and so on. According to GS1’s own selling-online page, only a GS1 Member Organisation can issue GS1 GTINs and guarantee they are unique (https://www.gs1.org/industries/selling-online).
• A GS1 Company Prefix is a block of digits licensed to your company. The rest of each number is yours to assign: a short prefix leaves more digits free and so gives more numbers. A 10-number prefix is long; a 100,000-number prefix is short.
• A GTIN is the full product number: your Company Prefix, an item reference you choose for each product, and a final check digit calculated from the other digits.
• The check digit is computed with a fixed formula (weights of 3 and 1, the GS1 “mod 10”), so a scanner can tell when it has misread a digit. It does not identify you; it only makes the number well formed.

EAN and UPC are the same system. A GTIN-12 is printed as a UPC-A barcode and is used mainly in the United States and Canada; a GTIN-13 is printed as an EAN-13 and is used almost everywhere else. A UPC-A read by a scanner is treated as a 13-digit number with a leading zero. GS1 US says that both UPCs and EANs can be used internationally without registering a product twice (https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/ean-vs-upc). In practice, take the format your GS1 office issues: GS1 US issues 12-digit numbers for UPC-A, most other offices 13-digit numbers for EAN-13.

The routes to a number, and what they cost

Every GS1 office sets its own prices. The table shows the smallest options from offices we could read directly on 1 October 2026. Prices change, often once a year, and most offices add tax; check the page linked in the source column before you pay.

Two points from those pages matter when choosing. First, a single GTIN is cheapest for one or two products but gives you no Company Prefix, so you cannot build case numbers or pallet codes (SSCCs) from it, and each extra product costs the same again. Second, prefixes are renewed every year: GS1 US’s 10-number prefix costs $250 and then $50 a year for as long as you sell the products, and letting a prefix lapse means the numbers are no longer licensed to you.

Choosing between single GTINs and a Company Prefix

• One to three products, sold through one or two channels, no wholesale cartons: single GTINs, where your GS1 office sells them, are the cheapest honest route.
• A range that will grow, or any sales to retailers or distributors who order by the case: a Company Prefix, sized for one or two years of new products as GS1 US advises. Cartons and pallets then get their own numbers from the same prefix.
• Ask your GS1 office about small-business plans and grants. GS1 India, for example, points micro-manufacturing enterprises to an MSME scheme that reimburses 80% of the fee up to Rs 50,650 for the 100- and 1,000-barcode plans (https://www.gs1india.org/msme).

Cheap “UPC codes” from resellers: what they are and where they fail

Search for UPC codes and you will find sites selling single barcodes for a few dollars, with no annual fee. What they sell is a number that GS1 originally licensed to some other company, usually one that joined the old Uniform Code Council before its rules changed, divided up and resold. The barcode scans perfectly. The question is what a buyer sees when they check the number.

GS1’s position is plain: it “does not allow the transfer or (re)sale of GS1 GTINs”, and a number bought from another party will either not be in its database or will show the data of the company that originally licensed it, not yours. GS1 adds that it “cannot be held responsible if marketplaces do not accept these numbers” (https://www.gs1.org/industries/selling-online). Anyone can look a number up in GS1’s public Verified by GS1 search (https://www.gs1.org/services/verified-by-gs1), and GS1 US offers 30 free lookups a day in its own database (https://www.gs1us.org/tools/gs1-company-database-gepir).

• Amazon checks. Amazon’s policy, quoted by GS1 US and by Amazon staff on the Seller Central forums, says: “We verify the authenticity of product UPCs by checking the GS1 database. UPCs that do not match the information provided by GS1 will be considered invalid.” It recommends getting UPCs directly from GS1 (https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/amazon/barcodes-for-amazon). Amazon staff have also said that listings created with invalid UPCs generally cannot have the UPC swapped later; new listings are needed.
• Walmart checks. Walmart Marketplace says it cross-references product IDs with the GS1 database, recommends getting them directly from GS1, and warns that listings with invalid IDs will be removed and may lead to suspension (https://marketplacelearn.walmart.com/guides/Item%20setup/Item%20setup/Choose-a-product-identifier).
• Google checks the structure. Google Merchant Center asks for the manufacturer’s GTIN, verifies the check digit, rejects restricted and coupon prefixes, and says “Don’t guess or make up a value” (https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324461).
• Where a resold number may still work: a small independent shop that scans the number into its own till system without checking ownership, your own website, and markets where nobody checks. That is a narrow and shrinking set, and moving to a real GTIN later means relabelling and, on marketplaces, relisting.

What each marketplace and platform asks for

Sources: Amazon’s rules as quoted by Amazon staff on the Seller Central forums and by GS1 US (Seller Central help pages require a login); Walmart Marketplace Learn; eBay Seller Center (https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/listings/product-identifiers); Google Merchant Center help (https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112); Shopify Help Center (https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/details/product-details-page); Etsy Help Center.

Amazon’s GTIN exemption and Brand Registry

If your products have no GTIN, Amazon lets brands apply for a GTIN exemption. In answers on the Seller Central forums, Amazon staff list the eligible cases: the brand or manufacturer does not provide GTINs (private label and handmade goods), you are the manufacturer and your products do not carry barcodes, parts that have no GTIN, and bundles of more than one product. Products that already have GTINs are not eligible. Applications need real photos showing the brand name permanently on the product or packaging. Staff also note that being in Brand Registry does not replace the exemption: a registered brand still applies for an exemption if its products have no product ID. If you plan to sell anywhere besides Amazon, GS1 US points out that an exemption covers Amazon only.

Before paying for GTINs for an Amazon range, run the numbers per product with the Amazon FBA profit calculator: the barcode is a small fixed cost next to referral and fulfilment fees, but it is still a cost per variant.

How many numbers you need

Count variants, not products. GS1’s GTIN Management Standard (Release 1.1, 2023) and GS1 US both say every distinct thing a customer can buy needs its own GTIN, because tills, stock systems and marketplaces have to tell them apart.

• Each size, colour, flavour or style: a T-shirt in four colours and four sizes is 16 GTINs. GS1’s own example is jeans, where each style, colour and size is a unique product.
• Each pack count: a single bar and a four-pack of the same bar are different products. Changing the declared net content on the pack (a 4-pack becoming a 6-pack, 14 nappies becoming 12) needs a new GTIN.
• Big changes to the pack: a change of more than 20% in any dimension or in gross weight needs a new GTIN under the GTIN Management Standard; changing the artwork or a price usually does not.
• Language versions that are sold as different items, such as a Spanish-only pack, can need their own GTIN; check the standard’s rules for your case.
• Cartons and outer cases: every level of packaging above the consumer unit needs its own GTIN. A case of identical items can use a GTIN-14 built from the item’s GTIN with an indicator digit from 1 to 8 in front, so it uses no extra numbers from your prefix (GS1 General Specifications, section 2.1.7.2). Cases are usually printed with ITF-14 or GS1-128 barcodes.
• Pallets and shipments: each one gets an SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code), also built from your Company Prefix, printed as GS1-128 with Application Identifier (00). A single-GTIN licence does not let you create SSCCs.

Keep a register of every number you assign, what it is and when, and never reuse a number for a different product. Since 1 January 2019 GS1’s rule has been that a GTIN, once allocated, is never reallocated to a different item, even after the product is discontinued (GS1 General Specifications, section 4, “GTIN non-reuse”); the only exceptions are numbers that were never shared outside the company. If you also track stock levels, the same item list feeds the reorder point and safety stock figures explained in EOQ vs reorder point vs safety stock.

Books: ISBNs instead of GTINs

A book’s barcode carries its ISBN, which is itself a 13-digit GTIN starting 978 or 979. ISBNs come from the ISBN agency of the country where the publisher is based, not from GS1, and each format of a book (paperback, hardback, ebook, audiobook) needs its own.

Self-publishing platforms offer free ISBNs, with strings attached. Amazon KDP’s free ISBN shows the imprint as “Independently published”, can only be used on KDP, and is offered for paperbacks and hardcovers, not ebooks or low-content books (https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834170). IngramSpark’s free ISBN for US self-publishers lists “Indy Pub” as the imprint and cannot be transferred. If you want your own imprint name and freedom to publish the same edition elsewhere, buy your own ISBN from the national agency.

The small 5-digit barcode to the right of a book’s main barcode is the price add-on. According to the Book Industry Study Group’s US barcoding guidelines, a leading 5 means US dollars, so 52495 is $24.95, and 90000 is used when there is no cover price (https://www.bisg.org/barcoding-guidelines-for-the-us-book-industry); BookNet Canada confirms that a leading 6 means Canadian dollars. Many markets ignore the add-on, but US booksellers expect it.

Making and printing the barcode

Once a number is yours, the barcode is just the number drawn to a standard. You do not need to buy “barcode images”: GS1 US, for example, sells numbers, and any good generator can draw them. What matters is that the symbol is printed correctly, in the right type for where it is scanned: EAN or UPC on the pack, ITF-14 on the carton, GS1-128 on the pallet, as set out in barcode types explained.

• Size: the GS1 target for EAN-13 and UPC-A is a module (the narrowest bar) of 0.330 mm, making an EAN-13 37.29 mm wide including its quiet zones and its bars 22.85 mm tall. You may scale between 0.264 and 0.660 mm (80% to 200%), keeping the height in proportion; GS1 does not allow shortening the bars of codes scanned at a till (GS1 General Specifications, Release 26.0, Symbol Specification Table 1).
• Quiet zones: leave clear space beside the bars, 11 modules on the left and 7 on the right of an EAN-13, 9 on each side of a UPC-A. No text, border or fold in that space.
• Colour: dark bars on a light background. Scanners use red light, so red, orange and yellow bars disappear; black on white is safest. No inverted (light-on-dark) codes.
• Placement: on the back or base of the pack, flat, away from seams, edges and curves tighter than the code. GS1 publishes placement guidance per pack type; follow your GS1 office’s version.
• Files: give a packaging printer a vector file (SVG or PDF) at the true size, not a screenshot. For labels from a thermal or office printer, use the printer’s resolution so each bar is a whole number of dots.

Then test. Scan a printed sample with a real scanner and a phone, at the size and on the material you will use. Retailers with strict intake processes, and many logistics customers, may ask for a verification report: a printed barcode measured with a barcode verifier under ISO/IEC 15416 and given a grade. GS1 asks for grade 1.5 (C) or better for EAN and UPC at a till. GS1 offices and specialist labs offer verification; a phone or a free scan app does not grade a barcode.

A worked example: a small tea brand

Imagine a small brand selling three loose-leaf teas, green, chamomile and mint, each in a 50 g and a 100 g pouch, through its own website, Amazon and a few independent shops that order by the case of 12. To keep the example clear, the numbers below use the demonstration prefix 950 6000 that GS1 uses in its own examples; they are not any real company’s numbers.

• Retail units: 3 teas × 2 sizes = 6 GTINs. With a Company Prefix of 9506000 and item references 10001 to 10006, the barcode generator’s sequence option produces 9506000100012, 9506000100029, 9506000100036, 9506000100043, 9506000100050 and 9506000100067, each with its check digit computed.
• Cases of 12: one GTIN-14 per retail item, made by putting indicator digit 1 in front and recalculating the check digit: 19506000100019 for the first, 19506000100026 for the second, and so on. These use no extra numbers from the prefix and are printed as ITF-14 on the cartons.
• Pallets: only if a distributor asks. The first SSCC would be 095060000000000015 (extension digit 0, the prefix, a serial reference, a check digit), printed as GS1-128 with AI (00).

For this brand, the 10-number US prefix is the sensible choice: it costs $70 more than six single GTINs in the first year, but it covers the cases the shops order and leaves room for a seventh and eighth tea. After registering the six products in GS1’s database, the brand made the six EAN-13 files at 100% as SVG for its pouch designer, the six ITF-14 case codes with 4.83 mm bearer bars as PDF for the carton printer, and a sheet of Avery L7160 labels for the first hand-packed batch, all with the barcode generator, checking each with the scan check before sending it.

When you do not need GS1 at all

Barcodes that never leave your business do not need GS1 numbers. Stock-room bins, shelf locations, tools, equipment, files, work orders and your own SKU labels can use Code 128 or Data Matrix with whatever numbering your inventory system uses. The same goes for products sold only in your own shop with your own point-of-sale system. Many shops use this for counting and reordering, and the numbers then drive the carrying-cost and slow-mover checks in how to reduce excess and obsolete inventory. Just do not print a 13-digit internal number as an EAN-13: an EAN tells everyone who scans it that it is a GS1 number.

Frequently asked questions

For more on stock, pricing and running a small product business, see the other business guides. This guide is general information; GS1 offices, marketplaces and ISBN agencies change their prices and rules, so confirm the current terms with them before you buy.