How do I buy a real GTIN?
A GTIN is your product's barcode number. It comes from GS1, the nonprofit standards body, not from a marketplace or a reseller site. It belongs to you once you buy it.
Last checked Aug 2026.
Where GTINs actually come from
GTINs are licensed by GS1, the same global nonprofit that maintains the barcode standard itself. In the US, that's GS1 US, with its own online store. Every other country has its own GS1 member organization (GS1 publishes a finder to locate the right one for your country). You're not buying a barcode image. You're buying a number, registered to your business in GS1's global registry, that you then use to generate your own barcode.
What it costs
Through the GS1 US store, a single GTIN costs $30, and a 10-pack company prefix (enough numbers for up to 10 products, with room to grow into more under the same prefix) costs $250. Other GS1 member organizations set their own pricing for their country, so check your local GS1 store rather than assuming US pricing applies. The US figures are the ones we can confirm. Check your own country's price before you buy.
The problem with cheap numbers from resale sites
You'll find sites reselling barcode numbers for a few dollars each, often numbers originally licensed to someone else's now-defunct prefix. Major marketplaces (Amazon among them) verify submitted GTINs against GS1's own registry before accepting a listing. A reseller-sourced number that isn't registered to you fails that check and the listing is rejected. A GTIN you buy directly from GS1 is registered to your business by name. That registration is what a marketplace or retail buyer is checking for.
If you already have a UPC
If you bought a GTIN or UPC prefix from GS1 before, you already have what you need. A GS1 Digital Link doesn't require a new or different number, only your existing GTIN written out in its full 14-digit form (padded with leading zeros if you started from a 12-digit UPC). See our GS1 Digital Link explainer for exactly how that padding works.
What we couldn't verify
GS1's pricing, renewal terms, and prefix-capacity rules vary by country and change over time. We've only confirmed the GS1 US figures above directly. We're not stating renewal fees, prefix sizes larger than the 10-pack, or non-US pricing here, because we don't have a verified source for them. Check your GS1 member organization's own store for current numbers before you buy.
How Codestamp handles this
Where Codestamp fits on your label
You already own a barcode number and a UPC that scans. Keep both. Codestamp gives that same number a QR code that can do more, and nothing you paid for has to change.
Your GTIN
Your product's barcode number, bought once from GS1 ($30 for one number) and yours for good. We never sell numbers: yours is all you need.
Your UPC
The stripes every checkout reads today. It stays on your label and keeps working in 2027 and after. No rush, and no wasted labels.
Add Codestamp
Your number in a GS1-standard QR code, free on our domain or yours from $9/mo. Checked and scan-tested, so it works the first time.
Every scan
A phone opens your product page, or one we host. Newer checkouts read your GTIN. Change where it points anytime. The label stays put.
You could do it yourself. Here is what you get with us.
GS1 runs a free shared link service, and any QR generator can hold a web address. Codestamp builds the address to the GS1 format and scan-tests the code, so it is right every time. You get one place to change where every code points after printing, a hosted product page if you have none, and your own name on the code from $9/mo. Your first 3 products are free on our shared domain.
Free for your first 3 products. No credit card, no time limit.