Compare
Honest comparison
When this API is a good fit, when calling VIES yourself is enough, and when you should pay for a commercial provider instead.
Comparison table
| Feature | Calling VIES directly | VAT API | Paid VAT APIs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Paid plans, usually per request or per month |
| Sources per lookup | VIES only | Up to 5, raced in parallel | Varies by provider |
| When a member state is busy or offline | You get an error and handle retries yourself | Other sources can still answer; stored results are served instantly | Varies; ask the provider how they handle VIES outages |
| Interface | SOAP (XML) or REST | REST, JSON, OpenAPI 3.1 spec | Usually REST and JSON |
| Messy input (spaces, dots, GR/EL) | You normalise it | Normalised for you, local format check first | Varies |
| Shows which source answered | n/a | Yes, every source and its outcome in sources[] | Varies |
| VIES consultation number (proof) | Yes, with a requester | Yes, pass requester | Usually yes |
| Other countries (UK, CH, NO…) | No | No, EU + Northern Ireland only | Often yes |
| Uptime guarantee (SLA) | None | None, provided as is | Often, on paid plans |
| Support | None | Best effort by email | Usually included |
"Paid VAT APIs" describes the category in general, not a specific product. Features differ per provider; check their documentation.
Call VIES yourself if
You check a handful of numbers, can live with occasional "member state unavailable" errors, and are happy to build normalisation, retries and caching yourself.
Use this API if
You want a fast, transparent JSON answer that keeps working through VIES hiccups, without paying, and you are fine with best-effort support and no SLA.
Pay for a provider if
You need an uptime guarantee, a support contract, non-EU countries such as the UK, Switzerland or Norway, or tax calculation on top of validation.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free? What is the catch?
Yes. Every account gets 60 requests per minute and 5,000 per day at no cost, with no credit card. The trade-off is that there is no SLA or guaranteed support. If you need contractual guarantees, a paid provider is the better fit.
How accurate is it compared to VIES?
For live answers, VIES (REST or SOAP) is usually the source that decides, and every response says which source answered. Fallback providers query VIES themselves. Sources that can only confirm validity are never allowed to call a number invalid.
Can I use a result as legal proof?
The official proof is the VIES consultation number. Pass your own VAT number as requester (and fresh=1 to force a live check) and store the consultation_number we return. Nothing on this site is tax or legal advice.
How fresh are the answers?
Results younger than 24 hours are served from storage. Older stored results are also returned instantly, flagged stale: true with their check date, while a background race refreshes them. Use fresh=1 when you need a live answer.
What happens when VIES is down?
If we have the number stored you get it immediately. If not, the race still asks the other sources. If none can decide, you get valid: null with a Retry-After header, never a guess.
What are the limits?
60 requests per minute and 5,000 per day per account, no matter how many keys you create. The public check on the homepage allows 10 checks per day per IP address.
What data do you keep?
Your email address, your checks and the latest known result per VAT number. No advertising or analytics cookies. How long each kind of data is kept is listed in the retention table on the privacy page. See the retention table.
Which countries are covered?
All EU member states and Northern Ireland (XI). Countries outside VIES, such as the UK, are not covered; GB numbers return a clear 422 error.
Can I look up companies by name?
No. Lookups are by VAT number only. There is deliberately no search or listing endpoint.
Something else? Read the docs or the privacy page.
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