GTIN & EAN Check — an add-on for Google Sheets
Select the column with your product codes, and the add-on tells you which codes a product feed would reject and why. Three functions do the same in formulas. The codes never leave your spreadsheet.
Where do I get it?
GTIN & EAN Check is free in the Google Workspace Marketplace: install it from the Marketplace. Google asks which account to install it for and lists the permissions described below. You need no account with us. After installing, open a spreadsheet: the add-on is under Extensions → GTIN & EAN Check.
How do I check a column of codes?
- Select the column with the codes, or click any cell in it. A whole table works too: the add-on finds the code column by its header, such as “GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN” in a WooCommerce product export.
- Choose Extensions → GTIN & EAN Check → Check selected codes.
- A window shows how many codes are valid, how many need fixing and what is wrong with them. The codes to fix go to a report in a new sheet of the same file: a link to each cell, the value, the result and what is wrong, plus the product name and SKU if the table has them.
The add-on never changes your cells. A WooCommerce export is read the way the store reads it: a variable product without its own code is not counted as empty, because its variations carry the codes.
What does it check?
The same rules as the GTIN validator on this site:
- check digit — the last digit does not follow from the others, usually one mistyped digit;
- length — a GTIN has 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits: EAN-8, UPC-A, EAN-13, GTIN-14;
- leading zeros dropped — 12345678905 instead of 012345678905, after the sheet took the code for a number;
- scientific notation — 5.90123E+12, where the last digits are already gone, and a code stored as a number that the sheet shows in that short form: a file saved from the sheet as CSV gets what you see;
- invisible characters — a trailing space, a non-breaking space, a zero-width character;
- not a code — letters, placeholders such as “n/a”, formula errors, a trailing “.0”;
- the same code in several rows — also when written differently, with or without a leading zero;
- ranges Google Merchant Center does not accept — internal codes (starting with 2, 02 or 04) and coupon codes (05, 98, 99);
- to review — an ISBN-10 instead of an ISBN-13, spaces or hyphens inside an otherwise valid code.
Which formulas does it add?
| Formula | Result |
|---|---|
=GTIN_CHECK(A2:A) | OK, or what is wrong with each code, e.g. “To fix: Check digit does not match (is 0, the other digits give 7)” |
=GTIN_VALID(A2) | TRUE or FALSE: digits only, 8, 12, 13 or 14 of them, and a matching check digit |
=GTIN_ADD_CHECK_DIGIT(A2) | the full code with its check digit, for 7, 11, 12 or 13 digits — as text, so leading zeros stay |
Give GTIN_CHECK the whole range at once: only then does it see the same code in two rows, and one
formula is much faster than a thousand. Results come in English or Polish, following the spreadsheet’s
locale; a second argument, "en" or "pl", overrides it.
Without the add-on, the check digit formula does the basic check with built-in functions, in Excel and in Google Sheets.
What happens to my data?
The add-on itself needs one permission: to see and manage the spreadsheet in which you use it. When you install it from the Google Workspace Marketplace, Google also asks to let it see your email address and basic profile — the Marketplace includes these two for every app, and the add-on does not read them. It reads the cells you select or pass to its functions, and writes only the report sheet. It makes no network requests, stores nothing outside your spreadsheet and has no analytics; error reports are switched off. Details are in the privacy policy, and the terms in section 14 of the terms.
What doesn’t it check?
A correct check digit catches typos. It cannot tell you whether the number belongs to your product or is registered with GS1 at all — for that, look the code up in Verified by GS1.
Who makes it?
Merchlint, a catalog audit for online stores. In a WooCommerce store, the free Merchlint plugin finds products without a code and two products sharing one, together with the rest of the catalog. For a CSV or XLSX export there is the GTIN validator, which also runs in your browser and sends nothing.
Questions and problems: contact.