UEN search: look up a Singapore company by name or UEN

What is a UEN?

A UEN (Unique Entity Number) is the identification number of an entity registered in Singapore, from companies and sole proprietorships to LLPs, societies, charities and strata management corporations, used in all its dealings with government agencies. The Ministry of Finance introduced it on 1 January 2009, calling it for registered entities what the NRIC is for citizens.

ACRA issues UENs to the companies and businesses it registers. Other issuance agencies, such as the Registry of Societies, the Ministry of Health and the Singapore Land Authority, issue them for the entities they oversee (ACRA's list).

What do the UEN formats look like?

Every UEN has 9 or 10 characters and ends in a check letter. The format depends on the entity type, as set out in the Ministry of Finance's format annex and Singapore's tax identification number sheet for the OECD.

The two letters after the year give the entity type, such as LL (limited liability partnership), FC (foreign company), SS (society), CC (charity) or MC (management corporation). The format check knows 43 codes: the 39 on ACRA's list plus four found in the open data, such as VC (variable capital company). A few entities from the 1800s have R numbers.

How does the check letter work?

The last character is calculated from the others. ACRA does not publish the method; we use the weights documented by the open-source python-stdnum library, and on 17 October 2026 they matched all 49,074 real UENs we tested from both registers. Any single wrong digit changes the expected letter, so the format check can tell you a UEN cannot exist without asking anyone.

How do you look up a company's UEN?

Search the name here, on ACRA's Bizfile or on IRAS's GST search; each answers a different question.

Your own UEN is on the certificate of registration or incorporation ACRA issued. IRAS's search takes one business name (at least five characters) or up to four UENs or GST numbers.

Worked example: checking our own UEN

Type 202442387K. Before any request, the format check reads it as a 2024 local company number with a matching check letter. The lookup returns OLANO AI PTE. LTD., Registered, Local Company, issued 15 October 2024, Robinson Road, Singapore 068914, matching the registered office in our terms. Now swap two digits: 202442378K. The letter for those digits would be H, so no entity holds that number, and nothing is sent.

Is a UEN the same as an ACRA number or company registration number?

For a business or local company registered with ACRA, yes: in 2009 they kept their ACRA registration number as their UEN, while LLPs, foreign companies, societies and others got new numbers (Ministry of Finance).

It is not always the GST registration number. IRAS notes that some entities use their UEN as their GST number, while others, such as sole proprietorships and GST group registrations, have one starting with M. Neither is a personal NRIC.

How do you verify a Singapore company before you pay it?

Check that the invoice's name, UEN and address match a registered entity:

1. Look up the UEN from the invoice or contract. The name should match.
2. Confirm it is Registered here and Live on Bizfile.
3. Compare the street and postal code. The open data has no unit number; Bizfile has the full address.
4. Check the issue date: a firm "established in 2005" with a UEN from last month deserves a question.
5. If the invoice adds GST, check IRAS: only GST-registered businesses may charge GST.
6. Pay only into an account in the entity's own name, and confirm changed bank details on a number you already had.
7. For a large first payment, buy the Business Profile.

Our article on why Olano is based in Singapore applies a seven-point checklist to AI vendors, starting with us.

What do Registered and Deregistered mean?

The open data gives each entity one of two values. On 17 October 2026 the ACRA register held 638,463 Registered and 1,488,626 Deregistered entities. Bizfile shows the detailed status, which includes:

• Live: on the register. A company stays Live while a strike-off application is processed (ACRA).
• Gazetted to be Struck Off: ACRA has published a First Gazette notice; interested parties have 60 days to object.
• Struck Off: removed from the register; the company no longer legally exists.
• Cancelled, ceased or dissolved: other ways off the register. ACRA can restore such an entity to Live.

Common mistakes

• Typing part of a word. Names match whole words, so olan will not find Olano.
• Treating the open data as live. It is refreshed monthly; a change in the last few weeks may not show yet. Bizfile is authoritative.
• Mixing up a UEN, a GST number and an NRIC. The tool recognises the other two and never sends an NRIC.
• Reading the issue date as the founding date. Societies and schools older than the UEN often show 2008, when their numbers were issued.
• Taking a real UEN as proof of identity. Anyone can quote a genuine company's number; confirm contacts through a channel you found yourself.

How Olano helps

AI agents can read the same registers. Our open-source Singapore MCP server (291 read-only tools, MIT licence) gives an AI client ACRA company records alongside other public datasets, keeps the source and retrieval time on each result, and reports an ambiguous company-name match as ambiguous. Olano Studio builds agents that do this research as standing work: a tender-monitoring agent that sweeps the government tender platform twice a day and scores each match by fit, or research briefs on competitors and suppliers. An agent can check a supplier's UEN in seconds, but it does not replace Bizfile or your judgement. See our services or discuss a project.