Paste a VAT number, pick the country, and we ask the official source: the European Commission's VIES service for the 27 EU member states, HMRC for the United Kingdom and the Brønnøysund register for Norway. Where no free live check exists (Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, the UAE and Saudi Arabia) we validate the number's format and check digit and say clearly that this is not a registration check. No account needed.
A few free checks a day, no account needed. Need more, or this inside your own app? The API is US$1.00 per check, with free test keys.
Yes. You get five free checks a day without an account. If you need more, or want the check inside your own system, the API costs US$1.00 per live check.
That the official register lists the number as active for VAT at the moment of the check. It does not say anything about the business's reputation. For sales between EU businesses, valid in VIES is the usual evidence that a buyer is VAT-registered.
VIES relays your question to each member state's own system, and those go offline for maintenance, sometimes for hours. We tell you plainly instead of guessing, and a failed attempt does not use up one of your free checks. Try again later.
Some member states, Germany for example, do not release the registered name or address through VIES. You still get the valid or not-valid answer.
For countries with no free live service, we check that the number has the right length and shape and, where the country publishes one, a correct check digit. It is labelled format-only because a well-formed number is not necessarily registered.