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GS1 Application Identifier (AI)

Barcodes in the GS1 system (like GS1-128) use Application Identifiers (AIs) to provide information about the structure of the encoded data. An Application Identifier (AI) is a prefix consisting of 2 to 4 characters that identifies the meaning and format of the following data. Below you will find a list of the most commonly used application identifiers.

AI	Description	Format	Short Name
00	Serial Shipping Container Code	n2+n18	SSCC
01	Global Trade Item Number	n2+n14	GTIN
02	GTIN of trade items contained in a logistic unit	n2+n14	CONTENT
10	Batch or lot number	n2+an..20	BATCH/LOT
11	Production date (YYMMDD)	n2+n6	PROD DATE
12	Due date for amount on payment slip (YYMMDD)	n2+n6	DUE DATE
13	Packaging date (YYMMDD)	n2+n6	PACK DATE
15	Best before date (YYMMDD)	n2+n6	BEST BEFORE or BEST BY
17	Expiration date (YYMMDD)	n2+n6	USE BY or EXPIRY
20	Internal product variant	n2+n2	VARIANT
21	Serial number	n2+an..20	SERIAL
22	Consumer product variant	n2+an..20	CPV
240	Additional product identification assigned by the manufacturer	n3+an..30	ADDITIONAL ID
241	Customer part number	n3+an..30	CUST. PART NO.
242	Made-to-Order variation number	n2+n…6	MTO VARIANT
250	Secondary serial number	n3+an..30	SECONDARYSERIAL
251	Reference to source entity	n3+an..30	REF. TO SOURCE
253	Global Document Type Identifier	n3+n13+n..17	GDTI
254	GLN extension component	n3+an..20	GLN EXTENSION COMPONENT
255	Global Coupon Number	n3+n13+n..12	GCN
30	Variable count of items	n2+n..8	VAR. COUNT
31nn, 32nn, 35nn, 36nn	Trade measures	n4+n6
33nn, 34nn, 35nn, 36nn	Logistic measures	n4+n6
337n	Kilograms per square metre	n4+n6	KG PER m²
37	Count of trade items contained in a logistic unit	n2+n..8	COUNT
390(n)	Amount payable or coupon value – Single monetary area	n4+n..15	AMOUNT
391(n)	Amount payable and ISO currency code	n4+n3+n..15	AMOUNT
392(n)	Amount payable for a variable measure trade item – Single monetary area	n4+n..15	PRICE
393(n)	Amount payable for a variable measure trade item and ISO currency code	n4+n3+n..15	PRICE
394(n)	Percentage discount of a coupon	n4+n4	PRCNT OFF
400	Customer’s purchase order number	n3+an..30	ORDER NUMBER
401	Global Identifier Number for Consignment	n3+an..30	GINC
402	Global Shipment Identification Number	n3+n17	GSIN
403	Routing code	n3+an..30	ROUTE
410	Ship to – Deliver to Global Location Number	n3+n13	SHIP TO LOC
411	Bill to – Invoice to Global Location Number	n3+n13	BILL TO
412	Purchased from Global Location Number	n3+n13	PURCHASE FROM
413	Ship for – Deliver for – Forward to Global Location Number	n3+n13	SHIP FOR LOC
414	Identification of a physical location - Global Location Number	n3+n13	LOC NO.
415	Global Location Number of the invoicing party	n3+n13	PAY TO
420	Ship to – Deliver to postal code within a single postal authority	n3+an..20	SHIP TO POST
421	Ship to – Deliver to postal code with three-digit ISO country code	n3+n3+an..9	SHIP TO POST
422	Country of origin of a trade item	n3+n3	ORIGIN
423	Country of initial processing	n3+n3+n..12	COUNTRY – INITIAL PROCESS
424	Country of processing	n3+n3	COUNTRY – PROCESS
425	Country of disassembly	n3+n3+n..12	COUNTRY – DISASSEMBLY
426	Country covering full process chain	n3+n3	COUNTRY – FULL PROCESS
7001	NATO Stock Number	n4+n13	NSN
7002	UN/ECE meat carcasses and cuts classification	n4+an..30	MEAT CUT
703(s)	Approval number of processor with ISO country code	n4+n3+an..27	PROCESSOR # s4
7003	Expiration date and time (YYMMDDHHMM)	n4+n10	EXPIRY TIME
710-714	National Healthcare Reimbursement Number (NHRN)	n3+n..20
8001	Roll products - width, length, core diameter, direction, splices	n4+n14	DIMENSIONS
8002	Cellular mobile telephone identifier	n4+an..20	CMT NO.
8003	Global Returnable Asset Identifier	n4+n14+an..16	GRAI
8004	Global Individual Asset Identifier	n4+an..30	GIAI
8005	Price per unit of measure	n4+n6	PRICE PER UNIT
8006	Identification of an individual trade item piece	n4+n14+n2+n2	ITIP
8007	International Bank Account Number	n4+an..34	IBAN
8008	Date and time of production (YYMMDDHHMMSS)	n4+n8+n..4	PROD TIME
8010	Component/Part Identifier (CPID)	n4+an..30	CPID
8011	Component/Part Identifier Serial Number	n4+n..12	CPID SERIAL
8012	Software Version	n4+an..20	VERSION
8013	Global Model Number (GMN)	n4+an..30	GMN
8017	Global Service Relation Number	n4+n18	GSRN - PROVIDER
8018	Global Service Relation Number	n4+n18	GSRN - RECIPIENT
8020	Payment slip reference number	n4+an..25	REF NO.
8110	Coupon code identification for use in North America	n4+an..70
90	Information mutually agreed between trading partners	n2+an..30	INTERNAL
91-99	Company internal information	n2+an..90	INTERNAL

How to Use an Application Identifier

An element string is the combination of a GS1 Application Identifier and a GS1 AI data field. The data following an AI can be alphanumeric or numeric and with fixed or variable data lengths. The symbology character FNC1 is used as field separator.

If an AI is of variable length type, you have to terminate the field with FNC1.
FNC1 is specified in the barcode data with the escape sequence “\F”. For encoding the FNC1, you have to activate Translate Escape Sequences in the bar code generator - see also our FAQ How to Encode an FNC1.
There are AIs that have additional syntax restrictions, e.g., numerical only - see table above.
Use FNC1 only with variable length data fields and omit the FNC1 after the last data field.
Note that some applications, which utilize GS1 DataMatrix, need an ASCII Code 1D^Hex instead of FNC1 (follow your specification).

Do not encode the brackets, which are usually used to denote an Application Identifier. TEC-IT software generates the brackets automatically for the human readable text. The brackets are not encoded in the barcode itself!

For more information (e.g. a list of all available AIs), please follow the links below:

GS1 Application Identifier browser
GS1 General Specifications

Example Data String with Application Identifier

Data string of a barcode containing four different data fields

019901234567001931020012251519052110Ab1234

AI(01)	Article number of a variable article (GTIN)
AI(3102)	Net weight 12,25 kg
AI(15)	Best before date 2019-05-21
AI(10)	Batch number Ab1234

GS1 Application Identifier (AI)

How to Use an Application Identifier

Example Data String with Application Identifier

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