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.

AIDescriptionFormatShort Name
00Serial Shipping Container Coden2+n18SSCC
01Global Trade Item Numbern2+n14GTIN
02GTIN of trade items contained in a logistic unitn2+n14CONTENT
10Batch or lot number n2+an..20BATCH/LOT
11Production date (YYMMDD)n2+n6PROD DATE
12Due date for amount on payment slip (YYMMDD)n2+n6DUE DATE
13Packaging date (YYMMDD)n2+n6PACK DATE
15Best before date (YYMMDD)n2+n6BEST BEFORE or BEST BY
17Expiration date (YYMMDD)n2+n6USE BY or EXPIRY
20Internal product variantn2+n2VARIANT
21Serial numbern2+an..20SERIAL
22Consumer product variantn2+an..20CPV
240Additional product identification assigned by the manufacturern3+an..30ADDITIONAL ID
241Customer part numbern3+an..30CUST. PART NO.
242Made-to-Order variation numbern2+n…6MTO VARIANT
250Secondary serial numbern3+an..30SECONDARYSERIAL
251Reference to source entityn3+an..30REF. TO SOURCE
253Global Document Type Identifiern3+n13+n..17GDTI
254GLN extension componentn3+an..20GLN EXTENSION COMPONENT
255Global Coupon Numbern3+n13+n..12GCN
30Variable count of itemsn2+n..8VAR. COUNT
31nn, 32nn, 35nn, 36nnTrade measuresn4+n6
33nn, 34nn, 35nn, 36nnLogistic measuresn4+n6
337nKilograms per square metren4+n6KG PER m²
37Count of trade items contained in a logistic unitn2+n..8COUNT
390(n)Amount payable or coupon value – Single monetary arean4+n..15AMOUNT
391(n)Amount payable and ISO currency coden4+n3+n..15AMOUNT
392(n)Amount payable for a variable measure trade item – Single monetary arean4+n..15PRICE
393(n)Amount payable for a variable measure trade item and ISO currency coden4+n3+n..15PRICE
394(n)Percentage discount of a couponn4+n4PRCNT OFF
400Customer’s purchase order numbern3+an..30ORDER NUMBER
401Global Identifier Number for Consignmentn3+an..30GINC
402Global Shipment Identification Numbern3+n17GSIN
403Routing coden3+an..30ROUTE
410Ship to – Deliver to Global Location Numbern3+n13SHIP TO LOC
411Bill to – Invoice to Global Location Numbern3+n13BILL TO
412Purchased from Global Location Numbern3+n13PURCHASE FROM
413Ship for – Deliver for – Forward to Global Location Numbern3+n13SHIP FOR LOC
414Identification of a physical location - Global Location Numbern3+n13LOC NO.
415Global Location Number of the invoicing partyn3+n13PAY TO
420Ship to – Deliver to postal code within a single postal authorityn3+an..20SHIP TO POST
421Ship to – Deliver to postal code with three-digit ISO country coden3+n3+an..9SHIP TO POST
422Country of origin of a trade itemn3+n3ORIGIN
423Country of initial processingn3+n3+n..12COUNTRY – INITIAL PROCESS
424Country of processingn3+n3COUNTRY – PROCESS
425Country of disassemblyn3+n3+n..12COUNTRY – DISASSEMBLY
426Country covering full process chainn3+n3COUNTRY – FULL PROCESS
7001NATO Stock Numbern4+n13NSN
7002UN/ECE meat carcasses and cuts classificationn4+an..30MEAT CUT
703(s)Approval number of processor with ISO country coden4+n3+an..27PROCESSOR # s4
7003Expiration date and time (YYMMDDHHMM)n4+n10EXPIRY TIME
710-714National Healthcare Reimbursement Number (NHRN)n3+n..20
8001Roll products - width, length, core diameter, direction, splicesn4+n14DIMENSIONS
8002Cellular mobile telephone identifiern4+an..20CMT NO.
8003Global Returnable Asset Identifiern4+n14+an..16GRAI
8004Global Individual Asset Identifiern4+an..30GIAI
8005Price per unit of measuren4+n6PRICE PER UNIT
8006Identification of an individual trade item piecen4+n14+n2+n2ITIP
8007International Bank Account Numbern4+an..34IBAN
8008Date and time of production (YYMMDDHHMMSS)n4+n8+n..4PROD TIME
8010Component/Part Identifier (CPID)n4+an..30CPID
8011Component/Part Identifier Serial Numbern4+n..12CPID SERIAL
8012Software Versionn4+an..20VERSION
8013Global Model Number (GMN)n4+an..30GMN
8017Global Service Relation Numbern4+n18GSRN - PROVIDER
8018Global Service Relation Numbern4+n18GSRN - RECIPIENT
8020Payment slip reference numbern4+an..25REF NO.
8110Coupon code identification for use in North American4+an..70
90Information mutually agreed between trading partnersn2+an..30INTERNAL
91-99Company internal informationn2+an..90INTERNAL

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 1DHex 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:

arrowGS1 Application Identifier browser
arrowGS1 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