SSCC & GLN Validator
The two GS1 keys that are not products: the SSCC on a pallet label and the GLN that names a company, a warehouse or a delivery bay. Paste one or a whole column.
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A GLN and a GTIN-13 are the same shape
Both are thirteen digits. Both carry the same Mod-10 check digit. Both are issued from the same pool of GS1 prefixes. Nothing in the digits tells you whether the number identifies a product or a place — only the field it sits in does.
This matters because plenty of online validators will confidently announce "valid GTIN-13" at a warehouse GLN, and someone downstream believes it. So for thirteen digits this page shows you both readings and tells you which question to ask, rather than picking one and sounding sure.
Seventeen digits is not a typo
An SSCC is eighteen digits and very often starts with a zero. Open the column in a spreadsheet, let it be treated as a number, and the zero is gone — leaving seventeen digits and a value no receiving system will accept. When restoring the zero produces a correct check digit, this page says so and gives you the number back.
The first digit is not a packaging level
A GTIN-14 opens with an indicator digit that encodes a packaging level: 1 for an inner pack, 2 for a case, and so on. An SSCC also opens with a single digit, and it looks like it should mean the same thing. It does not — it is an extension digit, chosen freely by the issuing company purely to enlarge its serial number space. Reading logistics meaning into it is a mistake this page calls out every time.
What this tool will not do
It will not split the number into "company prefix" and "serial reference". A GS1 Company Prefix is somewhere between 7 and 12 digits, and where it ends is recorded in GS1's registry — not in the number. A split we cannot know is a split we would be inventing, so we point you at GEPIR instead.
Every check this tool runs (12 rules)
KEY-C01 Check digit is wrong
SSCC and GLN both end in a GS1 Mod-10 check digit computed over the preceding digits. A mismatch means a digit is wrong somewhere in the number — it is not a formatting quibble, and the receiving system will reject it.
Fix: Use the expected check digit shown, or re-key the number from the source label.
KEY-L01 Wrong length for this key
An SSCC is exactly 18 digits and a GLN exactly 13. Unlike a GTIN, neither has shorter variants, so a different length is not a different format — it is a damaged value.
KEY-L02 One digit short — a leading zero was probably eaten
An SSCC very often begins with 0, and a spreadsheet treating the column as a number silently drops it, leaving 17 digits. Seventeen digits is almost never a typo; it is almost always this.
Fix: Restore the leading zero and format the column as Text before re-exporting.
Source: That spreadsheets drop leading zeros from numeric cells is documented by Microsoft; the SSCC length itself comes from the GS1 General Specifications.
KEY-A01 The AI (00) prefix came along with the number
The value starts with the application identifier 00, which introduces an SSCC inside a GS1-128 barcode but is not part of the SSCC itself. Scanners and EDI files often carry it; databases should not.
Fix: Store the 18 digits that follow the AI, not the AI itself.
KEY-E01 The first digit is an extension digit, not a packaging level
An SSCC opens with an extension digit the company assigns freely to enlarge its serial capacity. It carries no meaning. This is worth stating because the visually similar GTIN-14 opens with an indicator digit that DOES encode a packaging level, and the two get confused in exactly this position.
KEY-X01 A GLN and a GTIN-13 are indistinguishable as numbers
Both are 13 digits, both carry the same Mod-10 check digit, and both are issued from the same GS1 prefix pool. Nothing in the digits says whether this identifies a trade item or a location — only the field it sits in does. Any tool that announces "this is a GLN" from the digits alone is guessing.
Fix: Decide from the context: a party or place field means GLN, a product field means GTIN-13.
Source: GS1 — GS1 Company Prefix
KEY-G01 Where the company prefix ends cannot be read off the number
A GS1 Company Prefix is 7 to 12 digits, and the boundary between it and the reference that follows is recorded only in GS1’s registry. So this tool does not split the number into "company prefix" and "serial reference" — a split it cannot know is a split it would be inventing.
Fix: Look the number up in GS1 GEPIR if you need the licensee and the true prefix length.
Source: That a GS1 Company Prefix is 7–12 digits long, and that its length is not derivable from the number itself, is stated in the GS1 General Specifications; the boundary is resolvable only through GS1’s GEPIR registry, not by inspection.
KEY-P01 Prefix range and its GS1 member organisation
The leading digits fall in a range administered by a national GS1 member organisation. As with GTINs this indicates where the number was ISSUED, not where anything is made or located — a company can license a prefix in one country and operate anywhere.
Source: GS1 — GS1 Company Prefix
KEY-P02 Issued from a restricted-circulation range
The number falls in a range GS1 reserves for internal use within one company or store. Such numbers are not globally unique, so they must not travel outside the organisation that made them up — in an EDI message to a trading partner they can collide with someone else’s.
Fix: Use a number issued from your licensed GS1 Company Prefix for anything that leaves your own systems.
Source: GS1 — GS1 Company Prefix
KEY-Z01 Looks like a placeholder rather than a real number
The digits are all zero, all the same, or a simple run. Such a value normally passes the check digit only by accident and signals a field that was filled to satisfy a validator rather than to identify anything.
Source: Own engineering rule, not an external specification: derived from patterns seen in real feeds.
KEY-R01 An SSCC identifies one specific shipping unit, once
Each SSCC labels an individual logistic unit — this pallet, this carton — and GS1 requires that a value not be reused for at least 12 months after it ships. Reusing SSCCs across shipments is a common home-grown mistake that makes ASNs ambiguous.
KEY-V01 Well formed
The length is right and the check digit agrees with the digits before it.
Check digit and structure only. Whether a well-formed number is actually licensed to anyone is a GEPIR question, not a maths question.