EAN-13 Scanner
Read the 13-digit barcode found on almost every retail product, and see what each part of the number means.
Scan a code with your camera, drop in an image, or paste one with Ctrl + V.
How to use the EAN-13 Scanner
- Point your camera at the barcode, or drop in a photo, or paste one with Ctrl + V.
- The 13 digits are read and split into prefix, manufacturer, product and check digit.
- If the code turns out to be a different symbology, the scanner says so rather than guessing.
About the EAN-13 Scanner
EAN-13 is the barcode on nearly everything sold in a shop outside North America, and increasingly inside it too. Thirteen digits: a GS1 prefix that says which national organisation issued the number, a manufacturer code, a product code, and a final check digit calculated from the other twelve. This scanner reads it and shows you those parts separately, because the number on its own tells you very little.
The GS1 prefix is the part people misread most often. It identifies the organisation that issued the number, not where the product was made — a prefix of 50 means the number was issued by GS1 UK, not that the item came from Britain. Two ranges are worth knowing: 978 and 979 mean the code is an ISBN, so the product is a book, and 977 means an ISSN, so it is a magazine or journal.
The check digit is the last one. It is worked out from the preceding twelve using an alternating 1-3 weighting, and its only job is to make a misread obvious: change any single digit and the check no longer matches. That is why a scanner either reads the whole thing or reads nothing, rather than quietly giving you a number that is one digit wrong.
Read it with your camera, from a photo, or by pasting an image with Ctrl + V. Everything decodes on your device. For the shorter version used on small packaging see the EAN-8 scanner, for the North American variant see UPC-A, and to read anything at all use the universal barcode scanner.
Frequently asked questions
What do the 13 digits mean?
The first three are the GS1 prefix identifying the issuing organisation, the next block is the manufacturer, then the product, and the final digit is a check digit calculated from the other twelve.
Does the prefix tell me the country of origin?
No — a common misunderstanding. It identifies the GS1 member organisation that issued the number. A company registered in one country routinely sells goods manufactured in another under the same prefix.
What is the check digit for?
It makes a misread detectable. It is derived from the preceding twelve digits with an alternating 1-3 weighting, so altering any single digit breaks the arithmetic and the scan fails rather than returning a wrong number.
Why does my photo not scan?
An EAN-13 needs the full width of the bars in frame, square-on and in focus. A photo taken at an angle, too close to one end, or with glare across the bars will not decode. Fill the frame with the barcode and shoot straight on.
Can I look up what product it is?
Not from the number alone. There is no free, complete, public database mapping every EAN to a product — the mapping lives in each retailer's own system.