GS1 Digital Link, explained simply

What it actually is

A retail barcode carries one thing: a number. That number, the GTIN, is useful to a till and useless to a phone, which is why so many packs carry a barcode for the shop and a second QR code for marketing. A Digital Link keeps the number and puts it somewhere a browser can read it, in the path of a web address on a domain you control:

https://qr.yourbrand.com/01/09506000134352/10/LOT4471/21/0042

• The hostname is yours · a domain you own, or a shared host if you have not set one up yet. Nothing about the format requires anybody else's short domain to sit in the middle of a scan.
• /01/ is the GTIN · 01 is the code for "trade item number" and 09506000134352 is the number itself. Everything after it is optional, and a code carrying only this much is a complete, legal Digital Link.
• /10/ is the batch or lot · the production run. This is what lets one printed design answer differently for the jars made on a Tuesday.
• /21/ is the serial · one physical unit rather than a product line. It is what an authenticity check or a per-unit warranty hangs off.

A GTIN is the common case, not the only one. The syntax defines 16 primary keys · a GTIN for a trade item, a GLN for a location, an SSCC for a pallet, and so on · and the wider GS1 dictionary addresses 541 application identifiers for attributes like an expiry date or a net weight. You do not need to learn any of that to read one. Paste a Digital Link, or a photo of a code carrying one, into our free decoder and it names every field it finds, tells you which identifier each one is, and says whether the check digit holds.

The part that has to happen first: the licence

The number in that path is not yours to choose. A GTIN is issued under a GS1 Company Prefix, and a prefix is licensed from a GS1 Member Organisation, the national GS1 body for wherever your company is registered. Applying takes days to weeks, and it, rather than any software, is what decides your timeline.

If your product is already on a supermarket shelf, you almost certainly have one: it is the licence behind the barcode already printed on the pack. If you have never had a barcode, this is the first thing to start, and starting it is a conversation with GS1.

• We do not issue prefixes, and no QR platform can. Anyone selling you a "GS1 QR code" without asking which prefix your number sits under is selling you a QR code with somebody else's identifier in it.
• Registering the prefix here is a legal attestation, and a human has to make it. You declare in the dashboard which prefix you licensed, and the declaration is stored with the user, the address it came from and the timestamp. There is deliberately no API and no agent path for it: an API key has no person behind it to be accountable for a declaration.
• Borrowed and invented ranges are refused outright. Store-internal prefixes · the 02x, 04x and 2xx ranges a supermarket prints for its own shelves · along with coupon codes, refund receipts and Bookland ISBNs identify nothing outside one retailer, and they are the most common self-serve mistake in this whole subject.
• Owning the domain is not permission. Every publishing action checks the key against the prefixes registered on the account first, on a shared host and on your own custom domain alike. Being able to put a page at an address does not make the identifier in it yours.
• A licence added later covers what you already built. Work drafted before the prefix arrives is not wasted: declaring the prefix claims the items it covers, with no re-creation and no second charge.

This page is here to explain the standard, not to move you along a funnel. There is nothing to sign up for that shortens the licensing step, and any page that implies otherwise is describing a wall you will meet later instead of now.

Why a retailer is asking you about this now

Sunrise 2027 is the retail industry's plan for point-of-sale systems to be able to read 2D barcodes, QR among them, by the end of 2027. That is the date being quoted at you, and it is a readiness date for checkouts rather than a switch-off date for your barcode.

• Nothing retires the striped barcode. Brands dual-mark through the transition: both symbols on one artwork, the linear code for the till that has not been upgraded and the Digital Link QR for the one that has, and for every phone.
• The pressure lands on artwork, not on software. Pack artwork is locked months before a shelf date, so the practical deadline for a brand is the next print run, not the end of 2027.
• What the retailer gets out of it · a 2D symbol has room for the batch and the expiry date beside the number, which a striped retail barcode does not. That is what makes a recall a lot number instead of a whole product line.
• The two symbols are not interchangeable. The linear barcode carries the GS1 element string, not a web address, so a phone scan of it resolves nowhere. The QR carries the URI. One artwork can hold both; one symbol cannot do both jobs.

One code, several answers

A printed Digital Link is not welded to one page. Each identifier carries a linkset: a list of destinations, each labelled with what it is · the product page, allergen information, instructions, a certificate, a recall notice, a passport · and each scoped to a level. A recall notice can be pinned to one lot; a warranty page to one serial; the product page to the number itself.

• Resolution walks up, never into a dead end. A scan carrying a serial nobody registered anything for falls back to the lot, and then to the number. There is always a destination for the number itself, enforced when the linkset is saved, so a plain camera scan always has somewhere to go.
• A machine can ask for the list instead of being redirected. A retailer's system asking for the linkset in JSON gets the whole labelled set back rather than a guess about which link it wanted.
• Language is negotiated on the way through. Register the same destination in two languages and a French shopper's phone gets the French page, with no app involved.
• Editing the linkset is free, and stays free. Re-pointing a code that is already in the ink is the entire reason to put a web address on a pack instead of a number.

Why a redirect throws the batch and the serial away

This is the mechanical detail most explanations skip, and it decides how much a Digital Link is worth to you. The lot and the serial are path segments. A 302 redirect sends the scanner on to a destination address and carries only the query string with it, so a code scanned as /01/…/10/LOT4471/21/0042 arrives at a page that knows the product and has no idea which batch or which unit was in someone's hand.

That is fine when every unit should see the same thing. It is not fine when a recall covers one lot, when a warranty is per unit, or when a shopper wants the expiry date of the jar they are holding. The way out is not a page per unit. It is a page the resolver renders itself, on the host the code was printed against, so the lot and the serial are still in the request when the page is built. Two side effects worth knowing: the scan is one scan (1 credit) rather than a redirect billed and then an arrival billed, and the shopper stays on your domain instead of being bounced onto someone else's.

Nobody is GS1 certified

If you are comparing suppliers, one box on the shortlist cannot be ticked truthfully by anyone. GS1 issues no certification for resolvers and keeps no register of them; its own position is that operators run resolvers according to their own business practices, and the test suite is public, self-service, and confers no badge. So "GS1 certified" describes nothing, and ours would be exactly as decorative as anyone else's. Two vendors in this market advertise one anyway.

What can be checked instead is conformance. The taproute resolver is conformant to the GS1-Conformant Resolver Standard and verified with GS1's official test suite, self-asserted, with the dated run published on the GS1 page and the full compliance document, gaps included, at conformance.md. The suite is GS1's own and public, which is the point: you can run it against us, and you can ask everyone else on your list for the same thing.

A passport is a different thing

Digital Product Passport comes up in the same conversation and is not the same object. A Digital Link is the address; a passport is a document that address can point at, and gs1:dpp is the link type for it. The document lives wherever you host it, and we do not host it for you.

The dates are worth getting right, because a lot of vendor copy does not. As of July 2026 no ESPR delegated act has been adopted, so no product group carries an ESPR passport obligation yet. The first dated obligation is 18 February 2027 under the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Detergents follow on 23 September 2029 and toys on 1 August 2030. Nobody is "DPP certified" either · no such certification exists.

What it costs here, once the licence exists

A catalogue item · the product master a whole line hangs off · costs 200 credits, once, and your first one is granted, once per workspace. A serialised unit costs 1 credit, the same as any other dynamic code, so a large run stays arithmetic rather than a negotiation. A scan costs 1 credit. Editing the linkset, re-pointing a printed code, exporting, verifying a serial and re-deriving a batch you already paid for are all free. Prepaid credits, no subscription.

None of that helps until the prefix exists, which is why it is at the bottom of this page rather than the top. The order is licence, then identifier, then artwork, then software.

Questions

What is a GS1 Digital Link, in one sentence?

A web address with your product's identification number written into its path, so one printed code can answer a checkout scanner and a shopper's phone. The number is the same GTIN that is already inside the striped barcode on your pack.

Do I need a GS1 Company Prefix, or can I make a number up?

You need one. A GTIN is issued under a GS1 Company Prefix licensed from a GS1 Member Organisation, applying takes days to weeks, and no QR platform can issue you one. We cannot. Registering the prefix here afterwards is a legal attestation a person makes in the dashboard, and it is deliberately not something an API key or an agent can do.

What does Sunrise 2027 actually require me to do?

By itself, nothing. It is the retail industry plan for point-of-sale systems to be able to read 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. It is not a date your existing barcode stops working. What it changes for a brand is artwork: packs are increasingly drawn to carry both symbols, and artwork locks long before a shelf date.

Is any QR vendor GS1 certified?

No, and neither are we. GS1 issues no certification for resolvers and keeps no register of them, so the phrase describes nothing. The claim that can be checked is conformance: ours is conformant to the GS1-Conformant Resolver Standard and verified with GS1's official test suite, self-asserted, with the dated run and the full compliance document published. The suite is GS1's own and public, so you can run it against any vendor yourself.

Why does a redirect lose my batch and serial number?

Because they are path segments. A 302 sends the scanner on to a destination address and carries only the query string, so /10/LOT4471/21/0042 does not travel with it: the page that opens knows the product and not the unit. Keeping them means the page is rendered by the resolver on the host the code was printed against, instead of the scan being bounced somewhere else.

Is a Digital Link the same as a Digital Product Passport?

No. A Digital Link is the address; a passport is a document that address can point at, and gs1:dpp is the link type for it. As of July 2026 no ESPR delegated act has been adopted, so no product group carries an ESPR passport obligation yet, and the first dated obligation is 18 February 2027 under the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Nobody is "DPP certified" · no such certification exists.

Where to start, without a licence

Nothing on this page needs an account and nothing here shortens a licence application. If you want to see the format rather than read about it, paste a Digital Link URI or a photo of a code into the free decoder · it names every field, says which identifier each one is, and tells you whether the check digit holds. When you are ready to compare that against a running resolver, the GS1 page publishes a dated conformance run rather than asserting a score.