How to Get UPC Barcodes for Your Products, Step by Step

First, decide whether you need a GS1 number at all

A UPC barcode carries a GTIN, or Global Trade Item Number. The 12-digit number printed under a UPC-A barcode is a GTIN-12. GS1 US draws the line simply: the GTIN identifies the product, and the UPC is the barcode that lets a scanner read it (GS1 US FAQ). For the different GTIN lengths and how they relate, see what a GTIN is.

Whether you need a licensed GTIN depends on where the product will be scanned or listed:

• Inside your own business only. Barcodes for bins, kits, raw materials, work in progress or equipment never leave your building. You don't need a GS1 license for these; your own SKU encoded in Code 128 works well. The GS1 General Specifications even reserve 12-digit numbers that start with 4 for restricted circulation inside a single company, so they only mean something inside that company's own systems and can't serve as a product's GTIN in open trade (GS1 General Specifications).
• Other people's stores. If the product will cross someone else's checkout, the retailer expects a GTIN licensed to the brand owner, encoded in a UPC-A barcode.
• Online marketplaces. Amazon and Walmart Marketplace check product IDs against GS1 data, as covered below. GS1 US's own answer to "do I need a UPC if I only sell online?" is a cautious "maybe," with advice to read each channel's vendor requirements.
• Your own website and in-person sales. Nobody requires a GTIN here. It can still make sense to license one early if you expect to wholesale later, because changing numbers after launch means new labels and new listings.

One more check before you buy anything: does the product already have a GTIN? If you resell another company's product, you use the number the manufacturer assigned. The brand owner assigns GTINs, so you only create numbers for products sold under your own brand.

The two GS1 US options

GS1 US is the GS1 member organization for the United States, and it licenses numbers in two forms (How to Get UPC Barcodes for Products).

A GS1 US GTIN is a single number that GS1 US assigns for one product. A GS1 Company Prefix is the front part of a number: GS1 assigns you the first 6 to 10 digits, and you assign the remaining digits to each product yourself, followed by a check digit (What is a UPC Code?). The shorter your prefix, the more digits are left for products, so the more numbers it can produce.

The fees in this table are the ones GS1 US listed when this guide was written, and GS1 US states that it may change its pricing. [VERIFY] The two prefix tiers small sellers usually compare are 10 numbers ($250 up front, $50 a year) and 100 numbers ($750 up front, $150 a year). [VERIFY]

A few license terms matter more than the price:

• Renewal is not optional. GS1 US says that if a prefix license expires, the prefix is terminated, you are no longer authorized to use UPCs built from it, and your company drops out of the GS1 company database. [VERIFY]
• No refunds or swaps. GS1 US describes payments as non-refundable and says a licensed prefix or GTIN can't be exchanged afterward, so pick the tier with some room to grow. [VERIFY]
• Running out is fixable. If you fill a prefix, you can license another prefix or add individual GTINs.

This is general information about how the licenses work, not legal or financial advice. Read the GS1 US license agreement before you buy.

Count how many numbers you need

GS1 US says each product variation needs its own GTIN, and it names size, color, style and package count as examples (GS1 US FAQ). A practical test: if a customer can choose it as a separate option, or a store would stock it as a separate item, it needs a separate number.

To count, multiply your sizes by colors by styles by pack counts. Then add multipacks and gift sets you sell as one unit, and cases if a retailer will order by the case and asks for a case number.

Leave room for next year's products as well. The GS1 rules for when a change to an existing product requires a new number are covered in when you need a new GTIN. Since 2019 the General Specifications have said that a GTIN assigned to one trade item must not be reassigned to another, with narrow exceptions, so numbers you use are effectively used up for good.

The procedure, step by step

Follow these steps in order. In particular, don't send packaging to print until every number has passed step 6.

1. List every sellable item. Make one row per variation, with a column for your internal SKU, a description, and an empty column for the GTIN.
2. Mark items that already have a GTIN. Anything you buy finished from another brand keeps that brand's number. Remove those rows from your count.
3. Choose the license. For a few items that won't grow, single GS1 US GTINs are simplest. For more items, or if you will need case numbers, compare prefix tiers over the next three years rather than on the first invoice.
4. License from GS1 US. Buy directly from GS1 US. Checkout is three steps: choose the GTIN or prefix, enter contact details, and pay.
5. Assign the numbers. With a single GS1 US GTIN, GS1 US assigns the full number. With a prefix, you assign item reference numbers in order and calculate the final check digit for each one. Record every assignment in your list.
6. Check every number. Paste each full 12-digit GTIN into the check digit calculator. A typo in any digit will usually make the check digit fail, and a mistyped number on printed packaging is expensive to fix.
7. Enter the product data. Add each product to GS1 US Data Hub with the brand name exactly as you will use it on marketplaces and packaging.
8. Make the barcode image. Encode each GTIN-12 as a UPC-A barcode, either in Data Hub or with a generator, and place it in your label or packaging artwork.
9. Print and test. Print at a proper size with clear margins, then scan real printed samples, not the image on your screen.
10. Use the same number everywhere. The GTIN on the package, in your marketplace listings and on retailer item-setup forms must be identical.

Worked example: six candles under one brand

Say you make soy candles in two scents, Cedar and Lemon, and three sizes: 4 oz, 8 oz and 16 oz. That is six sellable items. You plan a third scent next year, which would bring the total to nine.

Option A: single GTINs. Six GS1 US GTINs at $30 each cost $180 once, and three more next year cost $90, with no renewals. [VERIFY] GS1 US assigns each number for you.

Option B: a 10-number prefix. This costs $250 up front plus $50 for each year you renew, and covers all nine items with one number to spare. [VERIFY] It costs more over three years, but it can also number case packs if a retailer asks for them.

If you choose the prefix, the numbering works like this. In UPC form, a 10-number prefix is 10 digits long, which leaves one digit for the item reference (0 through 9) and one for the check digit. For illustration, suppose your prefix were 6141410000. It is built on 614141, a prefix GS1 uses in its own documentation examples, so never print it on real products.

Here is how the check digit for Cedar 8 oz is found, using the GS1 method from the General Specifications. Start from the first 11 digits, 6 1 4 1 4 1 0 0 0 0 1. Multiply them alternately by 3 and 1, starting with 3 on the left: 18, 1, 12, 1, 12, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3. Those add up to 48. The next multiple of ten is 50, and 50 minus 48 is 2, so the full GTIN is 614141000012.

Next year the new scent takes item references 6, 7 and 8, and item reference 9 is your last spare. Once you need an eleventh number, you would license another prefix or add single GTINs.

Making the barcode image

The standard barcode for a GTIN-12 on U.S. retail packaging is UPC-A. Once you have a licensed number, you have three common ways to produce the symbol:

• GS1 US Data Hub, which GS1 US describes as the tool for creating your barcodes and managing your product data.
• Your packaging designer or printer, who may generate the barcode inside the artwork.
• A barcode generator, such as the one on Plain Barcode. Type the 12 digits, choose UPC-A, and export SVG for packaging artwork or PNG for simple labels.

Whatever you use, a few rules protect scannability. Don't stretch, squash or crop the barcode, and keep the blank margins on both sides clear. Print dark bars on a light background. GS1 US also warns never to alter a barcode or add or delete any of the digits printed under it. Size, printer resolution and testing are covered in how to print barcodes that scan.

Registering your product data

Licensing ties a prefix or GTIN to your company. Marketplaces and retailers also compare product-level details, so record each product in GS1 US Data Hub after you assign its number.

GS1 US lists seven core attributes brand owners provide for Verified by GS1: the GTIN, brand name, product description, a product image URL, the GS1 Global Product Classification code, net content with its unit of measure, and the country of sale (Verified by GS1 for Brand Owners). Fill in all seven for every product.

Pay close attention to the brand name. GS1 US names a mismatch between the brand entered on Amazon and the brand registered with GS1 as a common reason listings get rejected. [VERIFY] Pick one spelling and use it everywhere. Keep your membership renewed as well, since the data link to your company depends on it.

Why resold UPC numbers cause problems

Search for "buy UPC codes" and you will find sites selling numbers for a few dollars each. The barcode made from one of those numbers will scan. The problem is whose number it is.

GS1 US answers "can I sell just the identifier?" with a no: a prefix, GS1 US GTIN or location number is for the sole use of the member it is licensed to. Its rules allow transfers only in limited cases, generally a business transaction such as a merger, an acquisition or the sale of a business line (GS1 US identifier transfer FAQ). [VERIFY] So a resold number generally still traces back to whichever company licensed the prefix, not to your brand.

That matters because the large marketplaces look the number up:

• Amazon. GS1 US quotes Seller Central as saying Amazon verifies UPCs against the GS1 database and treats UPCs that don't match GS1's information as invalid (Get GS1 UPC Barcodes to Sell on Amazon). [VERIFY]
• Walmart Marketplace. Walmart says it cross-references product IDs with the GS1 database, treats an ID registered to one brand but listed under another as invalid, removes listings with invalid IDs, and may suspend or terminate the seller's account. It recommends getting product IDs directly from GS1 (Walmart Marketplace product identifier policy). [VERIFY]
• Store buyers. Brick-and-mortar retailers set their own vendor requirements, so ask each buyer for theirs before you print packaging.

A resold number might go unchallenged on a channel that never checks. The risk shows up later, when you expand to a marketplace or a retailer that does check, and the fix is new numbers, new labels and new listings for everything already in circulation.

What a free generator can and cannot do

A barcode is a picture of a number. Drawing the picture is free; the right to use the number under your brand is what GS1 licenses. Keeping those two apart makes it clear what a generator is for.

What the Plain Barcode generator can do:

• Draw UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, ITF-14 and GS1-128 barcodes from numbers you already have.
• Export SVG and PNG files, entirely in your browser, without sending what you type to a server.
• Make barcodes for internal use, such as Code 128 or Code 39 SKU labels, and QR codes.
• Work alongside the check digit calculator, which computes and validates GS1 check digits for GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13, GTIN-14 and SSCC.

What it cannot do:

• Issue, license or register a GTIN, or put your brand in the GS1 database.
• Make a number someone else licensed acceptable to Amazon, Walmart or a store.
• Grade print quality. A verification report needs a barcode verifier, not a generator or a phone camera.
• Create Data Matrix, PDF417, Aztec or GS1 DataBar symbols.

Next step

Make your variation list today, with one row for every size, color, style and pack count you sell. That number tells you whether single GS1 US GTINs or a Company Prefix fits, and it is the first thing you will need on the GS1 US site.