ATverify

country_unsupported

The VAT number's country prefix maps to a country that vatverify does not support.

HTTP 400 · Bad Request

Example response

{
  "error": {
    "code": "country_unsupported",
    "message": "Country AU is not supported."
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "latency_ms": 0
  }
}

What happened

The two-letter country prefix on the VAT number (e.g. AU123456789) maps to a country outside our 32 supported. vatverify covers EU-27, UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Other countries return this error.

How to fix

  1. Check the Supported Countries page for the full list of valid country codes.
  2. If you are validating a Greek VAT number, use EL not GR. Greece is the one EU member state that uses a non-ISO code in VIES.
  3. For unsupported countries, apply offline format validation using @vatverify/vat-rates which covers 44 countries with checksum algorithms.

Common mistakes

  • Using GR for Greece: the correct VIES code is EL. This is the most common cause of unexpected country_unsupported errors from EU developers.
  • Sending Australian ABN numbers: AU is not yet supported for live validation.
  • Passing a raw number without a country prefix: the API requires the full VAT number including the country code prefix (e.g. DE811569869, not 811569869).

invalid_format

The request body is malformed, a required field is missing, or a field has the wrong type.

country_unknown

The country code passed to the rates endpoint does not exist in the dataset.

On this page

Example responseWhat happenedHow to fixCommon mistakesRelated errors