# EU VAT validation APIs compared (2026): price per 1,000, free tier, consultation numbers, outages, residency

Source: https://veriport.io/alternatives/eu-vat-validation-apis-compared (published 2026-10-28)

Eight ways to validate an EU VAT number on VIES by API, read from each vendor’s public pages on 2026-10-28 and compared on the five things that decide the choice: the price per 1,000 validations at full use, the free tier, whether the answer carries the VIES consultation number an audit asks for, what the API returns when VIES or a member state is down, and where the data is processed. VIES itself is free and needs no key; every product below is a layer on it, including ours, and the table says what each layer adds. A cell that reads « not stated » means the vendor’s page does not say; we did not guess.

- Price per 1,000 ranges from about $2.40 (vatcheckapi Large, 40,000 a month) and $2.60 (VATSense Premium, 50,000) to $30 (Vatstack Small Business); prepaid packs sit at $2.90–4.50 and never renew. Below 500 checks a month, every vendor’s free tier covers it.
- Consultation numbers: Vatstack, VATSense, vatcheckapi and Veriport return one when you identify yourself with your own VAT number; vatlayer, Abstract and viesapi.eu do not say; Stripe shows the registered name in its Dashboard but no number.
- When VIES is down: Vatstack queues and re-validates asynchronously (202, webhooks); VATSense routes to two fallback services and does not count a 412; Stripe retries behind the scenes; Veriport serves the dated answer of the last 30 days marked stale, or a 503 that is not counted, and publishes the per-member-state record; the others do not say.
- Data residency: Vatstack states an EU data centre on every plan, vatcheckapi servers in Germany, Veriport functions and database in Paris; the others do not state a region on the pages read.

## The comparison, vendor by vendor

Prices are what each vendor’s public page said on 2026-10-28 (linked in the sources); they exclude VAT where the vendor says so, and Veriport’s include it. Per-1,000 figures assume full use of the included volume. Nothing here is benchmarked: uptime, latency and support are not measured by us.

| Vendor | Entry paid plan | Per 1,000 at full use | Free tier | Consultation number | When VIES is down | Data residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Vatstack](https://vatstack.com/pricing) | Small Business $15/mo, 500 validations | $30.00 (Small Business) → $10.00 (Enterprise $150/mo, 15,000); overage $0.09 / $0.03 / $0.01 | Launch: 100 validations at $0, then $0.09 each; a Developer plan with dummy validations | Yes: `consultation_number` once your own VAT ID is saved in the dashboard | HTTP 202 `SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE` with `valid: null`, automatic re-validation later, webhooks | EU data centre on every plan (pricing page) |
| [vatlayer (apilayer)](https://vatlayer.com/product) | Basic $9.99/mo, 1,000 requests | $9.99 (Basic) → $7.50 (Professional $29.99, 4,000) → $5.00 (Enterprise $99.99, 20,000) | 100 requests a month, non-commercial use only | Not mentioned on the product page | Not stated; the response carries `valid`, `format_valid`, `company_name`, `company_address` | Not stated |
| [Abstract API](https://www.abstractapi.com/vat-validation-rates-api) | Standard $99/mo | $19.80 if the 60,000 requests are per year as one block says, $1.65 if per month as the other says | 100 requests at 1 request a second | Not mentioned | Not stated; VIES named as the primary source, « supplemented with additional data » | Not stated (« global architecture », SOC 2 Type II) |
| [VATSense](https://vatsense.com/pricing) | Starter $6.99/mo, 500 requests | $13.98 (Starter) → $7.00 (Basic $13.99, 2,000) → $4.00 (Standard $39.99, 10,000) → $2.60 (Premium $129.99, 50,000) | 100 requests a month, no card | Yes: `requester_vat_number` → `consultation_number` (OpenAPI) | « Two fallback services »; a 412 when VIES is unavailable, not counted | Not stated |
| [vatcheckapi](https://vatcheckapi.com/pricing/) | Small $9.99/mo, 2,000 validations | $5.00 (Small) → $3.60 (Medium $35.99, 10,000) → $2.40 (Large $95.99, 40,000) | 150 validations a month, 10 requests a minute, no card | Yes: `requester_vat_number` → consultation number (docs; sandbox returns a fixed one) | A 503 when a register is down; 5xx not counted; no cache stated | Servers in Germany (Everapi GmbH, Austria) |
| [VIES API (viesapi.eu)](https://viesapi.eu/offer/) | Startup €8/mo billed annually (€10 monthly), 1,000 requests | €8–10 (Startup) → €4.80–6.00 (Business €24–30, 5,000) → €4.00–5.00 (Professional €40–50, 10,000); overage €0.03 / €0.02 / €0.01; requests valid for the calendar month | No free plan listed; a test environment | Not stated on the offer page | Not stated; a 99.9 % SLA is advertised | Not stated (NETCAT, Warsaw) |
| [Stripe Tax](https://stripe.com/tax/pricing) | Tax Basic: 0.5 % per transaction, or $0.50 per transaction via the API (10 calculation calls included) | Not a per-validation price: validation comes with the customer’s tax ID in Billing or Tax | None for Tax; a tax ID can be saved on any customer | Not mentioned; the Dashboard shows the registered name and address | « Stripe automatically handles VIES downtime and attempts retries »: status pending → verified / unverified / unavailable | Stripe’s infrastructure (not stated per region on these pages) |
| **Veriport** | $9 once for 2,000 calls (12 months) | $4.50 (2,000 pack) → $3.00 (plan) → $2.90 (10,000 pack); tax included | 100 calls a month with a key, 20 a day without, no card, no expiry | Yes: `requester` → `consultationNumber` on the paid tiers, live answers only | The answer of the last 30 days, dated and marked `stale`; else a 503 that is not counted; a public per-member-state record | Functions and database in Paris, France (EU); publisher in the US |

## How to read the price column

A subscription price per 1,000 is only reached at full use of the tier; a team that validates 300 numbers a month on a 2,000-request plan pays the plan, not the per-1,000 figure. Prepaid packs invert that: the per-1,000 price is fixed and the calls wait twelve months. Overage prices (Vatstack $0.09 → $0.01, viesapi.eu €0.03 → €0.01) matter more than tier prices for a seasonal business. Abstract’s page shows its Standard quota both per year and per month, which moves the per-1,000 figure from $19.80 to $1.65; ask them before buying.

## What « when VIES is down » means for your code

VIES is a relay in front of 27 national registers, and one of them is unavailable far more often than the relay itself (the [measured record](/vies-status) shows which, for how long). The vendors answer that moment in four different ways: an asynchronous queue with a webhook (Vatstack), private fallback sources (VATSense), silent retries inside a billing flow (Stripe), or a dated answer from a cache that says it is cached (Veriport). None of them can make a member state answer; the question to ask is what your invoice run or checkout does with each of those four answers, and whether the evidence you keep says which one you got.

## When to pick which

- **Vatstack** when you want a hosted dashboard your finance team logs into, webhooks that tell you when a pending validation resolved, or your volume is above 5,000 a month with budget for $150.
- **vatlayer (apilayer)** when you already hold an apilayer account for other APIs and want one invoice, or you need their price-calculation endpoint next to the validation.
- **Abstract API** when you want several utility APIs from one vendor with an enterprise contract, or your legal team needs the SOC 2 report more than the provenance of each answer.
- **VATSense** when you need UK and EORI numbers validated by the same call today, or you run more than 25,000 checks a month on a subscription.
- **vatcheckapi** when you want the cheapest subscription at 10,000 to 40,000 checks a month, a sandbox for your test suite, or a European operator with servers in Germany on the invoice.
- **VIES API (viesapi.eu)** when your users check VAT numbers from a spreadsheet or a desktop tool rather than from code, or you want Zapier and make.com integrations ready-made.
- **Stripe Tax** when you bill through Stripe already: saving the customer’s VAT number on the Customer object validates it on VIES for nothing more, and Stripe Tax applies the reverse charge from it.
- **Veriport** when you want to pay for what you use (a few hundred validations a quarter is the common case for a small SaaS), need the IBAN and French-company checks on the same key, want the degraded path explicit and documented in the response, or want the consultation number over REST without a dashboard.

## Questions

### Why not call VIES directly and skip all of them?

You can, and the VIES API guide shows how. What you build yourself then: the structural pre-check, the cache for the hours a member state is down, bounded retries that respect the concurrency codes, and the storage of the consultation number. Every vendor above sells some subset of those four; the roundup says which.

### Are these prices current?

They were read on 2026-10-28 from the pages linked below; vendors change tiers without notice. Each alternative page carries the same date; a price that looks wrong is worth a minute on the vendor’s page before deciding.

### Which one is the cheapest?

Below 100 checks a month: any free tier. Below 2,000 a month: a prepaid pack or vatcheckapi Small. Above 40,000 a month on a subscription: vatcheckapi Large or VATSense Premium. Above that, Vatstack Enterprise with its SLA or a negotiated contract.

### Is Stripe Tax really a VAT validation API?

No, which is why it is in the table: many teams already validate through it without knowing. Saving an EU VAT number on a Stripe Customer validates it on VIES and the Dashboard shows the registered name; what you do not get is a per-call API with a consultation number, and the reverse charge is applied on the format regardless of the verification result.

## Read next

- [Vatstack alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/vatstack)
- [vatlayer (apilayer) alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/vatlayer)
- [Abstract API alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/abstract)
- [VATSense alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/vatsense)
- [vatcheckapi alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/vatcheckapi)
- [VIES API (viesapi.eu) alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/viesapi)
- [Stripe Tax alternative](https://veriport.io/alternatives/stripe-tax)
- [EU VAT number validation API (VIES)](https://veriport.io/vat-validation-api)
- [VIES API: REST vs SOAP, errors and limits](https://veriport.io/guides/vies-api-check-eu-vat-number)
- [Is VIES down? Availability by member state](https://veriport.io/vies-status)

## Sources

- Vatstack pricing: Launch $0 (100 validations, then $0.09), Small Business $15/mo (500, $0.03 over), Enterprise $150/mo (15,000, $0.01 over, 99.95 % SLA); EU data centre on every plan; prices exclude VAT — https://vatstack.com/pricing (2026-10-28)
- Vatstack docs — Validations: consultation_number when your own VAT ID is saved in the dashboard; VIES unavailable → HTTP 202 SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE with valid: null, automated re-validation and webhooks (validation.succeeded / validation.failed) — https://vatstack.com/docs/validations (2026-10-28)
- vatlayer (apilayer) — product and pricing: Free $0 (100 requests/month, non-commercial), Basic $9.99 (1,000), Professional $29.99 (4,000), Enterprise $99.99 (20,000); response: valid, format_valid, company_name, company_address; « EU Commission » databases as source; no consultation number, hosting and VIES fallback not stated — https://vatlayer.com/product (2026-10-28)
- Abstract API — VAT Validation & Rates API: Free 100 requests (1 request/s), Standard $99/month (3 requests/s; the quota is shown as 60,000 per year in one block and 60,000 per month in another), Enterprise custom (99.99 % SLA); VIES as primary source; no consultation number, hosting region not stated — https://www.abstractapi.com/vat-validation-rates-api (2026-10-28)
- VATSense pricing: Free 100 requests/month, Starter $6.99 (500), Basic $13.99 (2,000), Standard $39.99 (10,000), Plus $79.99 (25,000), Premium $129.99 (50,000); « VIES fallbacks: two fallback services »; validations that fail because VIES is unavailable are not counted — https://vatsense.com/pricing (2026-10-28)
- VATSense OpenAPI — /validate: requester_vat_number → consultation_number; company_name and company_address; 412 when VIES is temporarily unavailable, not counted against the quota — https://vatsense.com/openapi.yaml (2026-10-28)
- vatcheckapi pricing (Everapi GmbH): Free 150 validations/month (10 requests/min), Small $9.99 (2,000), Medium $35.99 (10,000), Large $95.99 (40,000), annual = two months free; prices exclude VAT; servers in Germany; sandbox keys on Medium and above; requester_vat_number → consultation number (docs); 5xx not counted — https://vatcheckapi.com/pricing/ (2026-10-28)
- VIES API (viesapi.eu, NETCAT, Warsaw) — offer: Startup €8/month billed annually (€10 monthly) for 1,000 requests (€0.03 over), Business €24 (€30) for 5,000 (€0.02), Professional €40 (€50) for 10,000 (€0.01); requests valid during the calendar month; net prices; no free plan (a test environment); 99.9 % SLA advertised; consultation number and VIES fallback not stated — https://viesapi.eu/offer/ (2026-10-28)
- Stripe Tax pricing: Tax Basic 0.5 % per transaction (no-code) or $0.50 per transaction with 10 calculation calls included ($0.05 each above) for the API; Tax Complete from $90/month; VAT ID formatting validated, no separate price — https://stripe.com/tax/pricing (2026-10-28)
- Stripe docs — Customer tax IDs: EU VAT numbers validated with VIES, « Stripe automatically handles VIES downtime and attempts retries »; verification status pending / verified / unverified / unavailable; registered name and address shown in the Dashboard; validation not repeated over time; the reverse charge applied on the format regardless of the verification result — https://docs.stripe.com/billing/customer/tax-ids (2026-10-28)
- VIES REST API — check-vat-number, check-status (technical information) — https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/#/technical-information (2026-10-24)
- VIES — help page: what the consultation number proves, member-state availability — https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/#/help (2026-10-24)