Free VAT Number Checker — Look Up Any EU Company Instantly
Paste any EU VAT number and see instantly whether it is registered in VIES and which company it belongs to. Free, no account needed.
Enter a VAT number to check it against the live VIES database.
Free checker — 5 lookups per minute. For automation, use the VatBase API.
Why we built this
It started with a support ticket. A customer of a company using our API flagged an invoice from a supplier they had never heard of. The VAT number on the invoice looked legitimate — correct country prefix, right length — but something felt off. They wanted to verify it before paying.
Their options at that point were either the official EU VIES portal (slow, clunky, gives no company name if the number is invalid) or to call their accountant. Neither was satisfying for a two-minute gut-check.
We see this pattern constantly. Someone receives a quote, a contract, or an invoice. The other party claims to be a registered EU business to avoid VAT. It takes thirty seconds to generate a plausible-looking VAT number — pick a country prefix, add some digits, done. Without a live lookup against the VIES database, there is no way to know whether you are dealing with a real company or a string someone typed into a text field.
What the checker actually does
The tool above sends your input to the EU VIES database in real time. VIES is the authoritative source — it connects directly to the VAT registries of all 27 member states. If a number comes back invalid, it is not registered anywhere in the EU. Full stop.
When the number is valid, VIES returns the official registered company name and address. Compare those against what the other party told you. A mismatch — different name, different country, different city — is a serious red flag and worth investigating before any money changes hands.
For developers: automate it
The checker above is rate-limited to 5 lookups per minute. If you need this check inside your own product — at signup, at checkout, or during onboarding — the VatBase API gives you the same result as a clean JSON response with no rate-limit friction.
GET /api/v1/validate?vat_number=NL123456789B01
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key{
"valid": true,
"country_code": "NL",
"vat_number": "123456789B01",
"company_name": "Acme B.V.",
"company_address": "Keizersgracht 1, 1015 CW Amsterdam"
}One API key, all 27 EU countries, under 50 ms. The free plan covers 50 lookups a month — enough to validate every new signup without paying anything.
Automate your VAT checks with VatBase
One API call. Clean JSON. 27 EU countries. Try it free.