# EU VAT Number Validator (VIES) – Bulk Check + Company Name (`fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator`) Actor

Validate EU VAT numbers in bulk against the official European Commission VIES service. Format pre-check for all 27 EU countries plus XI (Northern Ireland), company name and address, consultation number, automatic retries. Pay only per number answered by VIES.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator.md
- **Developed by:** [Fast Data](https://apify.com/fast_data_asap) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 vat number checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## EU VAT Number Validator (VIES) – Bulk Check + Company Name

Validate hundreds of EU VAT numbers in one run against **VIES**, the official VAT Information Exchange System of the European Commission. You get one flat row per number with valid or invalid, the registered company name and address (where the member state shares them), the check timestamp and, if you add your own VAT number, a VIES consultation number you can keep as proof.

### What is VIES?

VIES is the European Commission's public service that checks whether a VAT number is registered for intra-community trade in an EU member state, or in Northern Ireland (prefix `XI`). The Commission forwards each check to the tax authority of that country. All results from this actor come **straight from the official EU service**. The actor does not guess or cache anything.

### Who it's for

- Finance and accounting teams that need to verify supplier and customer VAT IDs before zero-rated B2B invoices
- E-commerce and SaaS checkouts that apply the reverse charge
- KYB and onboarding workflows, CRM cleanup, and AI agents that need a reliable VAT lookup tool

### Why this actor

- **Format pre-check for all 27 EU countries plus XI.** Malformed numbers are caught right away, without a VIES call, and they are **free**.
- **Forgiving input.** `DE 143 454 214`, `fr40.303.265.045`, `GR...` (mapped to `EL`) and numbers without a prefix (if you set a default country) all work.
- **Resilient.** Member-state outages (`MS_UNAVAILABLE`, `TIMEOUT`, `SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE`, concurrency limits) are retried with exponential backoff. The official SOAP service is used as a fallback for the REST API.
- **Fair pricing.** You pay only for numbers that VIES actually answered (valid or invalid).
- **Low concurrency by default**, which stays within the VIES rate limits.

### Input

```json
{
  "vatNumbers": ["DE143454214", "IE6388047V", "DE12345"],
  "requesterVatNumber": "DE123456789",
  "defaultCountryCode": "DE",
  "maxRetries": 3,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `vatNumbers` | VAT numbers with or without a country prefix. Spaces, dots and dashes are allowed. |
| `defaultCountryCode` | Optional. Used for numbers without a prefix. |
| `requesterVatNumber` | Optional. Your own VAT number. VIES then returns a consultation number (`requestIdentifier`). |
| `maxRetries` | Retries when a member state is unavailable (default 3). |
| `maxConcurrency` | Parallel requests, 1–5 (default 2). |

### Output

These are real rows from a test run:

```json
[
  {"input": "IE6388047V", "countryCode": "IE", "vatNumber": "6388047V", "fullVatNumber": "IE6388047V",
   "formatValid": true, "valid": true, "name": "GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED",
   "address": "3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4",
   "requestDate": "2026-11-06T18:27:20.454Z", "requestIdentifier": null, "status": "valid", "error": null},
  {"input": "DE143454214", "countryCode": "DE", "vatNumber": "143454214", "fullVatNumber": "DE143454214",
   "formatValid": true, "valid": true, "name": null, "address": null,
   "requestDate": "2026-11-06T18:27:20.581Z", "requestIdentifier": null, "status": "valid", "error": null},
  {"input": "DE12345", "countryCode": "DE", "vatNumber": "12345", "fullVatNumber": "DE12345",
   "formatValid": false, "valid": null, "name": null, "address": null, "requestDate": null,
   "requestIdentifier": null, "status": "format_error", "error": "Does not match the DE VAT number format"}
]
```

`status` is one of `valid`, `invalid`, `format_error` or `service_unavailable`. Some member states, Germany among them, don't share the name and address through VIES. VIES returns `---` for these, and the actor outputs that as `null`.

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$0.001 per VAT number answered by VIES** ($1 per 1,000). Format errors and numbers whose member state was unavailable are free.

### Usage via API, n8n and MCP

- **API:** `POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fast_data_asap~eu-vat-number-validator/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN` with the input JSON above.
- **n8n / Make / Zapier:** use the Apify integration and select this actor.
- **MCP (Claude, Cursor and other AI agents):** `https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator`

### Disclaimer

Results reflect the official VIES response at the time of the check. This actor is not legal or tax advice. VIES availability depends on the national tax administrations. For binding confirmation, keep the consultation number or contact the competent tax authority.

# Actor input Schema

## `vatNumbers` (type: `array`):

EU VAT numbers to check, e.g. DE143454214, IE 6388047V or FR40.303.265.045. Spaces, dots and dashes are ignored. Greece is EL (GR is accepted), Northern Ireland is XI.

## `defaultCountryCode` (type: `string`):

Optional two-letter code (e.g. DE) used for numbers that are given without a country prefix.

## `requesterVatNumber` (type: `string`):

Optional. Your own EU VAT number incl. prefix. If given, VIES returns a consultation number (requestIdentifier) for each valid check, which you can keep as proof of verification.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries with exponential backoff on MS_UNAVAILABLE, TIMEOUT, SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE and concurrency limits.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel VIES requests. Keep low, VIES rate-limits aggressively.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "vatNumbers": [
    "DE143454214",
    "IE6388047V",
    "DE12345"
  ],
  "maxRetries": 3,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "vatNumbers": [
        "DE143454214",
        "IE6388047V",
        "DE12345"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "vatNumbers": [
        "DE143454214",
        "IE6388047V",
        "DE12345",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "vatNumbers": [
    "DE143454214",
    "IE6388047V",
    "DE12345"
  ]
}' |
apify call fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,fast_data_asap/eu-vat-number-validator"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/m4r0UIj7AXZ1h5ZwM/builds/VVniT7QaL7uLcsfOo/openapi.json