CIN vs GSTIN vs PAN: what they mean and how to verify each

Indian businesses carry several official identifiers, and it's easy to mix them up. Here's what CIN, GSTIN and PAN each mean, how they relate, and how to verify them.

PAN — the tax identity

The Permanent Account Number is a 10-character income-tax ID (e.g. AAQCM3036R) issued to every taxpayer — individual or business. The 4th character tells you the holder type: C = company, F = firm/LLP, P = individual, H/A/T= HUF/association/trust. PAN is the common key that links a company's corporate and tax records.

CIN — the corporate-registry identity

The Corporate Identification Number is the 21-character MCA number assigned at incorporation (e.g. U62091TN2022PTC156234). Only companies registered with the MCA have one — proprietorships and ordinary partnerships don't. LLPs get an LLPIN instead. The CIN encodes listing status, industry, state, year and type. See how to check a company's MCA registration.

GSTIN — the GST identity

The Goods and Services Tax Identification Number is 15 characters (e.g. 33AAQCM3036R1ZW). It is built from:

• State code — first 2 digits (33 = Tamil Nadu).
• PAN — the next 10 characters (the business's PAN).
• Entity / check digits — the last 3.

Because the GSTIN embeds the PAN, a single GSTIN reveals the business's PAN — and a business can hold multiple GSTINs, one per state it operates in.

How they connect

A registered company has one CIN, one PAN, and one or more GSTINs(all sharing that PAN). Given any one of them, you can usually resolve the others: GSTIN → PAN (embedded) → CIN (via MCA), or CIN → PAN → all GSTINs. That's exactly what SupplierProof does — start from a CIN or a GSTIN and it stitches the full identity and compliance picture together.

Verifying each

Validating the formatonly proves the number is well-formed — not that it's real or active. To confirm it's genuine, you have to check it against the live registry: MCA for the CIN, the GST Network for the GSTIN, and the income-tax portal for PAN status. SupplierProof runs all three at once.

See all supplier-verification guides.