Barcode Lookup — EAN, UPC, GTIN & ISBN Product Data

Scan any barcode (food, books, beauty, household, pet) and get clean product data in one call.

What does Barcode Lookup do?

Enter a barcode (EAN-8, EAN-13, UPC-A, GTIN, ISBN-10 or ISBN-13) and get the product name, brand, category, image and product page link. The data is aggregated from six free public databases: Open Food Facts, Open Products Facts, Open Beauty Facts, Open Pet Food Facts, Open Library and Google Books. There are no API keys to set up, no subscriptions and no scraping on your side. You pay only when a product is found.

Why use Barcode Lookup?

• Six product databases in one lookup. Food, books, cosmetics, pet food, household goods and general products.
• Every barcode format. EAN-8/13, UPC-A, ISBN-10 (converted to ISBN-13 automatically) and ISBN-13.
• Clean, structured output. Title, brand, category, image URL, data source and product page link, with the same fields on every row.
• Category targeting. Pick a category (food, books, beauty, pet, household) to search only its sources, at a lower price.
• Bulk lookup. Check up to 10 barcodes in one run, each priced and reported separately.
• Safe failures. A malformed code returns a clear invalid_input row; a valid code that nobody has is free and says which sources were checked.

How to use Barcode Lookup

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console and click Try for free (or call it through the API).
2. Enter one barcode in the Barcode field, for example 3017620422003. Optionally pick a Category to search only that category's sources at the lower rate.
3. For several products, add up to 10 barcodes to the Barcodes list, one per line.
4. Click Start, then open the Results tab or download JSON, CSV or Excel. To automate it, use the API, schedules, webhooks, or Zapier, Make and n8n.

Input

Field	Type	Description
barcode	string	One barcode: EAN-8, UPC-A, EAN-13, ISBN-10 or ISBN-13. Spaces and dashes are fine.
barcodes	list of strings	Bulk lookup, one per line, maximum 10. Duplicates are removed.
category	all, food, books, beauty, pet, household	A valid category searches only its sources (cheaper). all, empty or unknown searches everything.

Example input:

{ "barcode": "3017620422003", "category": "food" }

Output

Each barcode produces one dataset item.

Field	Description
barcode, normalized_barcode, format	The code you sent, its canonical form (ISBN-10 becomes ISBN-13) and its detected format.
txn_type	success, not_found, invalid_input or source_error.
title, brand, category_label, package	The product details when found.
image_url, product_url, source	Product image, the page it came from, and which database answered.
sources_checked, source_errors	Which sources were queried and any that failed.
charge_event, charged	What was billed for this row, if anything.

Example output:

{
  "barcode": "3017620422003",
  "title": "Nutella",
  "brand": "Nutella, Ferrero, Yum yum",
  "category_label": "food",
  "image_url": "https://images.openfoodfacts.org/images/products/301/762/042/2003/front_en.879.400.jpg",
  "product_url": "https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/3017620422003",
  "source": "openfoodfacts",
  "txn_type": "success",
  "charged": true
}

A book works the same way: {"barcode": "9780306406157", "category": "books"} returns the title, publisher, cover image and its Open Library page.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing, so you only pay for what you use.

Targeted lookup (you pick food, books, beauty, pet or household)	$0.003 per barcode
All-sources lookup (no category, all, or an unknown category)	$0.005 per barcode
1,000 targeted / all-sources lookups	$3 / $5

• Pay only for results. A valid barcode that is not found in any searched source is free.
• Invalid input is cheaper. A malformed barcode (wrong format or failed checksum) is charged a $0.001 handling fee, never the full rate.
• Bulk is priced per barcode. Ten barcodes cost ten times the per-barcode rate, charged only for the ones that return data.
• No subscription. Pay as you go; Apify free-plan credit applies. Set a maximum cost per run to cap your spend.

Integrations and API

Connect the Actor to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack or webhooks, or call it from code with the Apify API clients for JavaScript and Python.

curl -X POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/mechniverse~barcode-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"barcode":"3017620422003","category":"food"}'

Use with AI agents and MCP

The Actor is available as a tool through Apify's MCP server, so an AI agent or chatbot can answer "what is this product?" from a scanned code. Output is deterministic JSON, pricing is per event (it respects Apify's maximum-charge budget caps), and invalid formats return an error row, never a silent empty result.

Who is it for?

• E-commerce and inventory developers who enrich catalogs from barcodes without maintaining scrapers or paying for commercial barcode APIs.
• Grocery, nutrition and wellness apps with barcode-scan features backed by Open Food Facts and Open Beauty Facts data.
• Libraries, bookstores and reading apps that resolve ISBNs to titles, covers and publisher data.
• AI agents and chatbots and consumer researchers who batch-lookup product origins, categories and brands.

FAQ

Which countries and databases does it cover? Products are resolved through the open Open Food Facts, Open Beauty Facts, Open Pet Food Facts, Open Products Facts, Open Library and Google Books catalogs. These are global, community-maintained databases, so coverage is worldwide.

Do I need an API key? No. All sources are free public databases.

Can I look up several barcodes at once? Yes, up to 10 per run in the Barcodes list. Each is processed and priced independently.

What happens if a barcode is not found? If the barcode is valid but no source has it, you are not charged. The row says it was not found and which sources were checked.

What about an ISBN versus a normal barcode? Both work. ISBN-10 is converted to ISBN-13 and routed to the book catalogs only, so a book ISBN returns quickly. Pricing follows the category you choose.

Can it read a barcode from a photo? No. The Actor takes barcode numbers as text. Use any barcode scanner app to turn a photo into digits, then pass them in.

Is it legal? The Actor reads only publicly listed product information from open databases, with no private or personal data. Product data is provided by the source catalogs as-is.

Questions or feature requests? Open an issue on the Issues tab; we read every one.

Building an India shopping or price tool? Pair this with Price Comparison India — Amazon & Flipkart to add live prices from both marketplaces.