GST · Goods codes
HSN code finder
Every product supplied under GST has a Harmonised System of Nomenclature code. Which invoices have to show it depends on your turnover. Describe the goods in your own words and Invoise matches them against the official GST goods classification — the same dataset it fills invoices from.
Reading one code
Each rung is read against the one above it. “Of cotton” is not a code for cotton — it is heading 6109’s T-shirts, narrowed to the cotton ones.
Definition
What an HSN code is
HSN stands for Harmonised System of Nomenclature. GST classifies every supply — goods by an HSN code, services by a SAC code.
The code sits on the tax invoice beside the line it describes. It decides which GST rate applies. It feeds the HSN summary filed with your GSTR-1 return. And it tells anyone reading the invoice later exactly what was supplied.
A code reads from the outside in, two digits at a time. The first pair is the chapter — the broad family of goods. The next pair narrows it to a heading, the next to a subheading, and the last to a tariff item. The decoder above reads one out.
Provenance
Where the codes come from
The first six digits are not India's. They are an international standard, and the last two are the part India adds.
The international rungs
Six digits, maintained by the WCO
The Harmonised System is the World Customs Organization’s classification of traded goods, and it runs to six digits. Customs administrations around the world classify against the same six, which is why an HSN code on an Indian invoice is recognisable to a buyer abroad.
India’s two
Eight digits in the Indian tariff
India extends the six with two more, and the eight-digit rung is the tariff item — the finest cut, and the majority of the 21,935 goods codes in the dataset Invoise imports from services.gst.gov.in.
Comparison
HSN or SAC?
One invoice can carry both. The question is asked line by line, not business by business.
Goods · HSN
You’re on this oneHarmonised System of Nomenclature
Codes for things: a product you sell, ship or hand over. They span the whole tariff, from live animals to machinery — 21,935 of them in the dataset Invoise imports.
Services · SAC
Services Accounting Code
Codes for work: design, consulting, development, repair, transport, tuition. All of them begin 99, and there are 681 in the same dataset.
If a line bills for an object supplied rather than for work performed, that line takes an HSN code. A studio that sells printed copies of a brand guideline and also designs the brand will carry one of each — the service half is the SAC code finder.
On the invoice
Who needs one, and how many digits
Any GST-registered business raising a tax invoice for goods. How many digits that code carries depends on your aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year.
For a trader, a manufacturer or a studio that also sells something physical, that is every goods line — and the same code carries into the HSN summary when the return is filed.
The rule is Notification 78/2020 – Central Tax, in force from 1 April 2021: up to ₹5 crore, four digits are required on B2B invoices; above ₹5 crore, six digits on every tax invoice.
Digits are depth, not different codes: 61, 6109, 610910 and 61091000 all describe the same cotton T-shirt, each rung cutting finer than the last.
Inside Invoise
You shouldn’t have to look it up twice
This page searches one dataset. The invoice editor uses that dataset and the official rate table beside it, so a line you describe arrives classified, priced and split.
The code, without the search
Type the line the way you would say it aloud and the classification arrives with it — the same reviewed matches and fixed rules this page's lookup returns, so identical words always give an identical code.
On the line
HSN 61091000
The rate, cited to its notification
The GST rate comes matched to the invoice’s own date, with the instrument it is read from named on the document. An old invoice keeps the rate that was in force when it was raised.
Read against
The rate table in force on the invoice’s date
The tax split, worked out
Bill inside your own state and one rate prints as two components; bill another state and it is a single integrated tax line. Read off your registration and your client’s, never typed.
Same state
CGST + SGST, each half the rate
The classification is not guessed. The editor searches the dataset this page searches and applies the same fixed rules, and the rate comes from the official table Invoise imports — never from a model asked to produce one.
The tariff's chapters
Where goods sit
Every HSN code extends one of these chapters. Find the family first, then search above for the exact code.
- 01
- LIVE ANIMALS
- 02
- Meat and edible meat offal
- 03
- Fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates
- 04
- Dairy produce; birds' eggs; natural honey; edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included
- 05
- Products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included
- 06
- LIVE TREES AND OTHER PLANTS , BULBS, ROOTS AND THE LIKE, CUT FLOWERS AND ORNAMENTAL FOLIAGE
- 07
- Edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers
- 08
- Edible fruit and nuts; peel of citrus fruit or melons
- 09
- Coffee, tea, mate and spices
- 10
- Cereals
- 11
- Products of the milling industry; malt; starches; inulin; wheat gluten
- 12
- Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit; industrial or medicinal plants; straw and fodder
- 13
- Lac; gums, resins and other vegetable saps and extracts
- 14
- Vegetable plaiting materials; vegetable products not elsewhere specified or included
- 15
- ANIMAL,VEGETABLE OR MICROBIAL FATS AND OILS AND THEIR CLEAVAGE PRODUCTS, PREPARED EDIBLE FATS, ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE WAXES
- 16
- PREPARATIONS OF MEAT, OF FISH, OF CRUSTACEANS, MOLLUSCS OR OTHER AQUATIC INVERTEBRATES OR OF INSECTS
- 17
- Sugars and sugar confectionery
- 18
- Cocoa and cocoa preparations
- 19
- Preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk; pastrycooks' products
- 20
- Preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants
- 21
- Miscellaneous edible preparations
- 22
- Beverages, spirits and vinegar
- 23
- Residues and waste from the food industries; prepared animal fodder
- 24
- TOBACCO AND MANUFACTURED TOBACCO SUBSTITUTES, PRODUCTS, WHETHER OR NOT CONTAINING NICOTINE, INTENDED FOR INHALATION WITHOUT COMBUSTION, OTHER NICOTINE CONTAINING PRODUCTS INTENDED FOR THE INTAKE OF NICOTINE INTO THE HUMAN BODY
- 25
- SALT, SULPHUR, EARTHS AND STONE, PLASTERING MATERIALS, LIME AND CEMENT
- 26
- Ores, slag and ash
- 27
- Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes
- 28
- INORGANIC CHEMICALS, ORGANIC OR INORGANIC COMPOUNDS OF PRECIOUS METALS, OF RARE-EARTH METALS, OF RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS OR OF ISOTOPES
- 29
- ORGANIC CHEMICALS
- 30
- Pharmaceutical products
- 31
- FERTILISERS
- 32
- Tanning or dyeing extracts; tannins and their derivatives; dyes, pigments and other colouring matter; paints and varnishes; putty and other mastics; inks
- 33
- Essential oils and resinoids, perfumery, cosmetic or toilet preparations
- 34
- SOAP, ORGANIC SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENTS, WASHING PREPARATIONS, LUBRICATING PREPARATIONS, ARTIFICIAL WAXES, PREPARED WAXES, POLISHING OR SCOURING PREPARATIONS, CANDLES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES, MODELLING PASTES, "DENTAL WAXES" AND DENTAL PREPARATIONS WITH A BASIS OF PLASTER
- 35
- Albuminoidal substances; modified starches; glues; enzymes
- 36
- Explosives; pyrotechnic products; matches; pyrophoric alloys; certain combustible preparations
- 37
- Photographic or cinematographic goods
- 38
- Miscellaneous chemical products
- 39
- Plastics and articles thereof
- 40
- Rubber and articles thereof
- 41
- Raw hides and skins (other than furskins) and leather
- 42
- Articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silkworm gut)
- 43
- Furskins and artificial fur; manufactures thereof
- 44
- Wood and articles of wood; wood charcoal
- 45
- Cork and articles of cork
- 46
- Manufactures of straw, of esparto or of other plaiting materials; basketware and wickerwork
- 47
- PULP OF WOOD OR OF OTHER FIBROUS CELLULOSIC MATERIAL, RECOVERED (WASTE AND SCRAP) PAPER OR PAPERBOARD
- 48
- PAPER AND PAPERBOARD, ARTICLES OF PAPER PULP, OF PAPER OR OF PAPERBOARD
- 49
- Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry; manuscripts, typescripts and plans
- 50
- SILK
- 51
- Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric
- 52
- Cotton
- 53
- Other vegetable textile fibres; paper yarn and woven fabrics of paper yarn
- 54
- Man-made filaments; strip and the like of man-made textile materials
- 55
- Man-made staple fibres
- 56
- Wadding, felt and nonwovens; special yarns; twine, cordage, ropes and cables and articles thereof
- 57
- Carpets and other textile floor coverings
- 58
- Special woven fabrics; tufted textile fabrics; lace; tapestries; trimmings; embroidery
- 59
- Impregnated, coated, covered or laminated textile fabrics; textile articles of a kind suitable for industrial use
- 60
- Knitted or crocheted fabrics
- 61
- Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted
- 62
- Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted
- 63
- Other made up textile articles; sets; worn clothing and worn textile articles; rags
- 64
- Footwear, gaiters and the like; parts of such articles
- 65
- Headgear and parts thereof
- 66
- Umbrellas, sun umbrellas, walking-sticks, seat-sticks, whips, riding-crops and parts thereof
- 67
- Prepared feathers and down and articles made of feathers or of down; artificial flowers; articles of human hair
- 68
- Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos, mica or similar materials
- 69
- Ceramic products
- 70
- Glass and glassware
- 71
- Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad with precious metal, and articles thereof; imitation jewellery; coin
- 72
- Iron and steel
- 73
- Articles of iron or steel
- 74
- Copper and articles thereof
- 75
- Nickel and articles thereof
- 76
- Aluminium and articles thereof
- 77
- (Reserved for possible future use)
- 78
- Lead and articles thereof
- 79
- Zinc and articles thereof
- 80
- Tin and articles thereof
- 81
- Other base metals; cermets; articles thereof
- 82
- Tools, implements, cutlery, spoons and forks, of base metal; parts thereof of base metal
- 83
- Miscellaneous articles of base metal
- 84
- Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof
- 85
- Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles
- 86
- RAILWAY OR TRAMWAY LOCOMOTIVES, ROLLING-STOCK AND PARTS THEREOF, RAILWAY OR TRAMWAY TRACK FIXTURES AND FITTINGS AND PARTS THEREOF, MECHANICAL (INCLUDING ELECTRO-MECHANICAL) TRAFFIC SIGNALLING EQUIPMENT OF ALL KIND
- 87
- Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock, and parts and accessories thereof
- 88
- Aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof
- 89
- Ships, boats and floating structures
- 90
- Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments and apparatus; parts and accessories thereof
- 91
- Clocks and watches and parts thereof
- 92
- Musical instruments; parts and accessories of such articles
- 93
- Arms and ammunition; parts and accessories thereof
- 94
- FURNITURE, BEDDING, MATTRESSES, MATTRESS SUPPORTS, CUSHIONS AND SIMILAR STUFFED FURNISHING, LUMINAIRES AND LIGHTING FITTINGS, NOT ELSEWHERE SPECIFIED OR INCLUDED, ILLUMINATED SIGNS, ILLUMINATED NAME-PLATES AND THE LIKE, PREFABRICATED BUILDING
- 95
- Toys, games and sports requisites; parts and accessories thereof
- 96
- Miscellaneous manufactured articles
- 97
- Works of art, collectors' pieces and antiques
- 98
- PROJECT IMPORTS, LABORATORY CHEMICALS, PASSENGERS BAGGAGE, PERSONAL IMPORTATIONS BY AIR OR POST, SHIP STORES
Chapters only — 98 of them, quoted exactly as the official classification spells them, shouting and reserved chapter and all. The four-, six- and eight-digit codes beneath them are what the search returns, drawn from the official GST classification Invoise imports from services.gst.gov.in. Chapter 99 is missing on purpose: that is where services sit, and it has its own page.
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