"GS1" refers to a global standards organisation — not a company you buy barcodes from, but the body that defines how product identification works so that a scanner in Mumbai and a scanner in Munich read the same code the same way.
What GS1 actually is
GS1 is a not-for-profit standards organisation with member bodies in over 100 countries — GS1 India is the local affiliate responsible for issuing barcodes to Indian businesses. GS1 doesn't print or sell physical barcodes; it issues the numbering rights and the standards for how those numbers are structured, encoded, and scanned.
Company prefix vs. GTIN
These two terms get used interchangeably, but they're different layers:
- Company prefix — a unique number block assigned to your business. Think of it as your business's "area code."
- GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) — a full product-level number built from your prefix plus a product reference digit. Every distinct product (including every size and variant) gets its own GTIN.
The barcode is just a picture of the number
The black-and-white bars you see on packaging (or the QR-style 2D pattern on newer packs) are simply a machine-readable rendering of the GTIN. A scanner reads the bars, decodes them back into the number, and looks that number up against product data — the barcode itself carries no information beyond the number.
Why this matters before you register
Understanding the prefix/GTIN relationship before you register saves confusion later — the fee you pay is largely a function of how many GTINs (i.e. distinct products/variants) you expect to need, not just "a barcode."
Ready to register your own prefix and GTINs?
The registration guide walks through eligibility, documents, fees, and the exact steps to get your GTINs issued.
Read the registration guide →