EIN lookup & validator
Validate a US EIN, decode its IRS issuing office, and find official verification sources.
Runs 100% in your browserFormat + IRS-prefix decode runs in your browser; the business lookup checks public IRS (nonprofit) and SEC (public-company) records via our server and isn't stored. Private companies aren't in any public directory — verify with a signed W-9.
How to look up and verify an EIN
- Enter an EIN. Type a 9-digit EIN, with or without the dash.
- Validate and decode. See whether the format is valid and which IRS office issued it.
- Verify officially. Use the linked official sources to confirm the business.
What an EIN is — and why there's no directory
An Employer Identification Number is a nine-digit number, written NN-NNNNNNN, that identifies a
business to the IRS for payroll, tax filing and opening a bank account — the business equivalent of a Social
Security Number. The thing that trips people up: unlike the UK's Companies House or many EU registries, the
United States has no single public EIN directory that covers every business. For a private
company you generally can't get the name back from the EIN alone — the IRS doesn't publish that mapping, and any
site claiming a universal "EIN lookup" is guessing or reselling aggregated data of uneven quality. Two slices are
genuinely public, though, and this tool checks them: nonprofits (the IRS releases tax-exempt
data) and public companies (their EIN appears in SEC filings).
What you actually can check
Two things are knowable from the number alone, and this tool decodes both in your browser. First, format validity — a real EIN is nine digits in the right shape, so a typo'd or made-up number can be caught immediately. Second, the campus prefix: the first two digits identify which IRS office or service centre assigned the number, a public mapping. Note that since 2001 most EINs are issued online and the prefix no longer reflects the business's geography, so treat it as provenance of the assignment, not the company's location. Then, where the entity is public, the tool goes one step further and reverse-looks-up the business — checking IRS tax-exempt data (nonprofits) and SEC filings (public companies) for that EIN. Private companies aren't in any public database, so that step resolves only the public slice — but that slice covers every US nonprofit and every SEC filer.
How to verify the business itself
Confirming a number is well-formed is not the same as confirming who's behind it — for that you go to the authoritative source for the entity type. SEC EDGAR lists EINs for public companies; the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search covers registered nonprofits; and for a private vendor the clean path is a signed W-9 backed by IRS TIN matching. Treat this lookup as a first-pass due-diligence aid, never as proof of identity. For a full walkthrough of every public source, see the guide on how to find a company's EIN; to classify what the business actually does, use the NAICS code lookup.
Frequently asked questions
- An Employer Identification Number is a 9-digit federal tax ID the IRS assigns to US businesses, written as NN-NNNNNNN. It is like a Social Security number for a company.
- Partly — for the public parts of the EIN world. There is no directory of every EIN, but this tool reverse-looks-up two large public categories: nonprofits (from IRS tax-exempt data) and public companies (from their SEC filings). Private companies are not in any public database, so for those you still need a signed W-9 or a direct SEC/IRS check.
- The first two digits identify the IRS campus (or the online application) that assigned the EIN. Since 2001 the prefix reflects where it was issued, not the business’s location.
- For public companies, search SEC EDGAR (filings list the EIN). For nonprofits, use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. For vendors, ask for a W-9 and use IRS TIN matching.
- There is no free directory that maps every EIN to a company, because the IRS does not publish one — so any tool promising the business behind any number is guessing or reselling aggregated data. What is genuinely free and reliable: this tool validates the format and issuing prefix, and reverse-looks-up the public subset — nonprofits (IRS data) and public companies (SEC filings) — by EIN. For a private company, confirm through a signed W-9 or SEC EDGAR.
- Format validation and prefix decoding happen entirely in your browser. The business lookup sends the EIN to our server, which queries the public IRS (nonprofit) and SEC (public-company) databases and returns any match — the EIN is not stored.