EU VAT Number Validator (VIES): Bulk Check, Proof & Alerts

Validate any number of EU VAT numbers against VIES, the European Commission's official registry — with the legal proof tax auditors ask for. Paste your customer list, get back valid/invalid, the registered company name and address, and an official consultation number for every check.

• ✅ Official source: every answer comes from VIES, the EU's own VAT Information Exchange System. No third-party database, no stale copies.
• 🧾 Audit-proof: add your own VAT number and each check is registered by the Commission and returns a consultation number — your dated evidence that you verified the customer (required to safely zero-rate intra-EU B2B invoices).
• 🔁 Monitoring: schedule it monthly with a monitor name and get a Telegram, Slack, Discord or webhook alert the day a customer's VAT number becomes invalid — before you issue the next invoice without VAT.
• 🆓 Fair billing: syntax errors are caught locally for free, and when a member state's registry is down (it happens), you are not charged — the number is flagged memberStateUnavailable so you can re-run later.

✨ Why this Actor

🌍 28 registries	All 27 EU formats plus XI (Northern Ireland). Greece accepted as GR or EL. Clear message for GB numbers (the UK left VIES).
🧹 Forgiving input	FR 40-303.265 045, lowercase, dots, dashes: everything is normalized before checking. Duplicates are checked once.
🏢 Company identity	The registered name and address, straight from the national registry (a few countries, like Germany, keep them private).
🛃 EORI numbers too	Customs registration numbers checked against the European Commission's EORI database, in the same run (eoriNumbers): valid or not, with the name and address when the operator agreed to publish them.
🔂 Built for VIES's moods	VIES throttles and member states go offline: automatic retries with backoff, and honest null + free re-run instead of a false "invalid".
📊 Free summary	Valid / invalid counts, syntax errors, per-country breakdown, and the exact list of invalid numbers.

🎯 Use cases

• Finance & invoicing: validate every customer's VAT ID before zero-rating an intra-EU invoice, and keep the consultation number as proof.
• Accountants: check a whole client portfolio in one run, monthly, with alerts on deregistrations.
• E-commerce & SaaS: validate VAT IDs at scale behind your checkout or CRM (call the Actor through the Apify API).
• Data teams: enrich a company list with registered names and addresses from official registries.

🚀 Examples

Validate a whole file of customers (CSV/TXT/JSON by URL) with official proof:

{
  "vatNumbersUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/whPh2zNCcrRkrWi0g/records/vat-list-example.txt?signature=1MiPXocmTzmClgtiOTKq4",
  "requesterVatNumber": "FR40303265045"
}

Validate a pasted list:

{
  "vatNumbers": ["FR40303265045", "IE 6388047V", "PL 526-025-09-95", "IT00743110157"],
  "requesterVatNumber": "FR40303265045"
}

Monthly monitoring of your customer base, alert on deregistrations:

{
  "vatNumbers": ["FR40303265045", "IE6388047V", "DE811569869"],
  "monitorName": "customers-vat",
  "slackWebhookUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/…"
}

📦 Output

Real results:

{
  "type": "vat",
  "input": "IE 6388047V",
  "countryCode": "IE",
  "vatNumber": "6388047V",
  "vatNumberFormatted": "IE6388047V",
  "syntaxValid": true,
  "valid": true,
  "companyName": "GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED",
  "companyAddress": "3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4",
  "consultationNumber": "WAPIAAAAaD5Jk8-i",
  "memberStateUnavailable": false,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-01T20:27:12.735Z"
}

An invalid number comes back with valid: false; a malformed one is explained ("wrong format for DE", "missing country prefix…"); a GB number gets a clear message instead of a wrong answer. The free summary lists totals, the per-country breakdown and every invalid number.

💰 Pricing

Event	Price
Run start	$0.003
VAT number answered by VIES	$0.002
EORI number answered by the Commission's customs database	$0.002
Syntax errors, member-state outages, summary	free

1,000 customer checks ≈ $2 — with official consultation proof included. Apify subscribers pay less: −10% (Starter), −20% (Scale), −30% (Business). Set a maximum cost per run in the run options and the Actor stops cleanly when it's reached.

❓ FAQ

Why do I need the consultation number? When a tax authority questions a zero-rated intra-EU invoice, the consultation number proves you checked the customer's VAT number in VIES on that date. Without it, you may be held liable for the VAT. You get one for each check as soon as you fill in requesterVatNumber.

Why is the company name sometimes "null" for a valid number? A few member states (notably Germany) confirm validity but do not publish the name and address through VIES.

What does memberStateUnavailable mean? VIES queries each country's national registry live; registries go down for minutes or hours. The Actor retries 4 times with pauses, then reports the number as unanswered — free of charge — so you can re-run it later. It never guesses.

What is an EORI number and why check it? Every business that imports or exports goods in the EU needs an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification), issued by its member state. Carriers, forwarders and marketplaces check it before shipping. Add the numbers in eoriNumbers: each one is validated against the Commission's live database, and the registered name and address come back when the operator has consented to publication (many have not). GB numbers are issued by HMRC and are not in the EU database; Northern Ireland (XI) numbers are.

Can it check UK VAT numbers? Great Britain left VIES (Brexit); GB numbers get an explicit message. Northern Ireland numbers (XI prefix) are still in VIES and fully supported.

Can I call it from my own system? Yes — the Apify API runs the Actor and returns the dataset as JSON or CSV; works with Make, Zapier, n8n or plain HTTP.

🔌 API, AI agents and integrations

• API: one call runs the Actor and returns the results, POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/euroscrape~vat-validator/run-sync-get-dataset-items (see the API tab for Python, JavaScript and cURL).
• AI agents (MCP): add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=euroscrape/vat-validator to Claude, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client, and the Actor becomes a tool your agent can call.
• No-code automation: start runs and pass the results on with Apify's integrations for n8n, Make and Zapier, or with a webhook when a run ends.
• Exports: every result set downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML, and can be sent to Google Sheets.

⭐ Your feedback

If this Actor saves you time, a short review on Apify Store helps other users find it. Missing a field or an integration? Say it in your review: the most requested features are added first.

🔗 More from EuroScrape

• Google Maps No-Website Leads: Verified + Company Match: local businesses on Google Maps that have no website of their own, double-checked and matched to their registered company (France, UK), paid per lead.
• EU Electricity Prices (Day-Ahead): All Zones & Cheap Hours: tomorrow's spot prices for 40+ European bidding zones, the cheapest 3-hour window of each day, negative-price alerts and years of history.
• France Real Estate Sold Prices (DVF): €/m², Sales & Trends: every property sale registered by the French State — real prices, €/m², addresses, GPS, market trends per city and alerts on new sales.
• France Energy Ratings (DPE): Homes, Energy Sieves & Alerts: official energy certificates of French homes — class, address, consumption, yearly bill — with the F/G energy sieves of any city and alerts on new certificates.
• France Building Permits (Sitadel): Projects, Builders & Alerts: official register of French building permits — housing programmes and commercial buildings with the developer (name, SIREN), address, size and status, and alerts when works start.
• Impressum & Legal Notice Scraper (EU): legal identity, registry numbers and VAT IDs from any website, registry-verified.
• French Companies Scraper (SIRENE): every French company by activity, area and size, with verified websites and emails.
• UK Companies House Scraper: UK companies by SIC code and location, with directors, websites and emails.
• EU Public Tenders Scraper: TED, BOAMP & Awards: open tenders and contract awards from all of Europe (TED) and France (BOAMP, DECP), with winners per lot, values in € and daily alerts.
• Website Tech Stack Detector: 280+ Technologies, Leads & Signals: technologies, company identity, contacts and sales signals for any website.
• Google Flights Scraper: Cheapest Dates, Prices & Price History: flight prices for any route and dates, cheapest day to fly, typical price range and price-drop alerts.
• Google Hotels Scraper: Prices from Every Booking Site: hotel prices for any destination and dates, with the price on every booking site, rate parity, price calendars and alerts.
• App Store Reviews Scraper + Google Play Reviews: reviews from both stores in 58 countries, rating by version and country, alerts on new negative reviews.
• Vinted Scraper: 26 Countries, Deals, Alerts & Seller Data: search Vinted across 26 countries, prices with buyer fees, seller ratings and instant alerts on new listings.
• EU Second-Hand Marketplaces Scraper: Vinted, OLX & More: one search on the top second-hand marketplaces of 18 European countries, prices in €, cheapest country and resale margin.
• Kleinanzeigen Scraper: Deal Finder & Price-Drop Alerts: German classifieds with view counts, full seller details and instant alerts.
• Ryanair Low Fare Finder: Cheapest Days, Anywhere & Alerts: Ryanair fare calendars months ahead, every destination under your price cap from any airport, and alerts on drops and new deals.
• France Fuel Prices: Cheapest Stations Near You & Alerts: live official prices of all ~10,000 French stations — cheapest Diesel, E10, E85 or LPG around any point, with distances and price-drop alerts.