# Peppol participant lookup

Source: https://veriport.io/tools/peppol-participant-lookup (published 2026-11-08)

Before you send a Peppol invoice, check that the customer can receive it. Give a Belgian enterprise or VAT number (or any Peppol ID) and this page asks the Peppol network the way an access point does: the SML says whether the company is registered and which provider serves it, the provider’s SMP lists the documents it receives, the Peppol Directory adds its registered name. No account, 20 lookups a day.

- A Belgian number is looked up under both identifiers Belgian providers register: 0208 (the enterprise number) and 9925 (the VAT number). Its mod-97 check digits are checked first.
- « Receives » answers the sender’s question: Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 invoices and credit notes, under any of the company’s identifiers. Other documents (orders, invoice responses, national formats) are listed as the provider publishes them.
- Live discovery, dated: the SML zone participant.sml.prod.tech.peppol.org (U-NAPTR, the lookup Peppol has required since 1 November 2025), cached 6 hours. A new registration takes up to a day to reach every DNS resolver.
- Belgium: structured e-invoicing between businesses through Peppol since 1 January 2026. Not tax advice; the lookup sends nothing.

## What each answer means

| Answer | What to do |
|---|---|
| On Peppol: you can send it invoices | Send through your access point to the identifier shown. Check the file first: an access point refuses a file that breaks the Peppol rules. |
| On Peppol, but not for every document | Usually: invoices yes, credit notes not listed. Ask the customer how they want corrections, or whether their provider can add credit notes. |
| Not found on Peppol | Ask the customer for the identifier their provider registered (some register only the VAT number, or another scheme). Registered today? Wait up to a day for DNS. |
| On Peppol; its provider did not say which documents | The provider’s server did not answer. Try again later. |

## For developers

This page calls `GET https://veriport.io/api/v1/peppol/participant?id=…` without a key. With a free key, 100 calls a month, a lookup is 1 call; the answer has `registered`, `receives.invoice`, `receives.creditNote`, each identifier with its SMP and document types, and the Directory’s business card. The SDKs (`peppolParticipant`, `peppol_participant`) and the MCP server (`peppol_participant`) call it too.

## Questions

### Where does the answer come from?

From the Peppol network itself: the SML (a DNS zone OpenPeppol operates), the participant’s SMP (its provider’s metadata server) and the Peppol Directory. Veriport is not affiliated with OpenPeppol; « Peppol » is used descriptively.

### The company is not found, but it says it is on Peppol.

It may be registered under another identifier (another scheme, or a VAT number in another format), or the registration may be less than a day old. Ask for their Peppol ID exactly as their provider registered it and look that up.

### Is this a directory of all Belgian businesses?

No. It answers for one identifier at a time, live; the name appears only when the company’s provider published a business card in the Peppol Directory.

## Read next

- [Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 validator](https://veriport.io/tools/peppol-validator)
- [Peppol-ID opzoeken (NL)](https://veriport.io/nl/peppol-id-opzoeken)
- [Recherche de participant Peppol (FR)](https://veriport.io/fr/recherche-participant-peppol)
- [The e-invoice API](https://veriport.io/einvoice-api)
- [Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 validator, explained](https://veriport.io/guides/peppol-bis-billing-3-validator)
- [Belgium’s e-invoicing mandate: what a Peppol file must pass](https://veriport.io/guides/belgium-peppol-e-invoicing-mandate)

## Sources

- Peppol SML: participant discovery by U-NAPTR (SHA-256, base32) in the zone participant.sml.prod.tech.peppol.org; CNAME/MD5 names retired 1 February 2026 — https://docs.peppol.eu/edelivery/ (2026-11-08)
- Peppol SMP 1.x: the ServiceGroup of a participant, one ServiceMetadataReference per document type it receives — https://docs.peppol.eu/edelivery/ (2026-11-08)
- Peppol Directory: the business cards that providers publish (name, country, registration date); REST search /search/1.0/json — https://directory.peppol.eu/ (2026-11-08)
- SPF BOSA — e-invoicing between Belgian businesses, structured (Peppol BIS) since 1 January 2026 — https://efacture.belgium.be/fr (2026-10-28)