India CIN validator
How the CIN format works
- Format
- 21 characters: listing status (L or U) + 5-digit industry code + 2-letter state code + 4-digit year + 3-letter company type + 6-digit registration number
- Example
- L17110MH1973PLC019786
Things to watch for
- L means the company is listed on a stock exchange and U unlisted; the 3-letter type code shows the company class, such as PLC (public limited) or PTC (private limited)
- There is no check digit — a CIN can only be checked for structure, and it changes if the company's listing status, state or type changes
- Format-only check — a pass doesn't confirm the company exists on the MCA register; limited liability partnerships have an LLPIN instead
^[LU][0-9]{5}[A-Z]{2}[0-9]{4}[A-Z]{3}[0-9]{6}$A CIN (Corporate Identity Number, also called Corporate Identification Number) is the 21-character code the Registrar of Companies, under India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), allots to each company registered in India — for example L17110MH1973PLC019786. It isn’t a random serial: read in segments, a CIN tells you whether the company is listed, its industry, its state, the year it was incorporated, and what kind of company it is. This page is for anyone onboarding Indian suppliers, running company KYC, or cleaning up a vendor master.
Reading a CIN segment by segment
| Segment | In the example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Listing status | L |
Listed on a stock exchange (U means unlisted) |
| Industry | 17110 |
5-digit code based on India’s National Industrial Classification |
| State | MH |
State of the registered office — here Maharashtra |
| Year | 1973 |
Year of incorporation |
| Company type | PLC |
PLC public limited, PTC private limited, OPC One Person Company |
| Registration number | 019786 |
Serial allotted by the Registrar |
Why a well-formed CIN can still be stale
Because several segments describe the company’s current status, a CIN is replaced when that status changes — a conversion from private to public, a listing or delisting, or a shift of the registered office to another state. Supplier masters and old contracts can therefore hold a superseded CIN that passes every structural check — when onboarding a vendor, confirm the current CIN against the MCA record.
What this validator checks
The tool strips spaces and hyphens, uppercases the input, and confirms the 21-character pattern, entirely in your browser. It doesn’t check that the state code is a real state, that the type code is a recognised class, or that the year is plausible. Limited liability partnerships aren’t issued a CIN at all — they get a shorter LLPIN (such as AAA-1234), which fails this check by design. A company’s PAN and GSTIN are separate identifiers with their own validators.
Scope: this page and tool cover CIN format validation only — not MCA company status, director details, or filing history.
Content last reviewed 2026-10-11.
CIN FAQ
What does each part of an Indian CIN mean?
Read left to right: L or U for listed or unlisted, a 5-digit industry code, a 2-letter code for the state of the registered office, the 4-digit year of incorporation, a 3-letter company-type code such as PLC or PTC, and a 6-digit registration number. L17110MH1973PLC019786 therefore describes a listed public limited company incorporated in Maharashtra (MH) in 1973.
Can a company's CIN change?
Yes. Because a CIN encodes the company's listing status, state and type, a new CIN is issued when any of those changes — for example when a private company converts to a public one, a company lists or delists, or the registered office moves to another state. An older CIN on a past invoice can be perfectly well-formed and still out of date.
Does a CIN have a check digit?
No. Unlike a GSTIN, which ends in a calculated check character, a CIN has no published check digit, so this tool can only confirm the 21 characters follow the right pattern. Whether the company exists and is active is a question for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' own records.