How To Validate EU VAT IDs in Google Sheets [API Tutorial]

Today, I’ll teach you how to use the free vatcheckapi.com API and the Apipheny API integrator to validate a list of VAT ids.

vatcheckapi.com is a service that validates European Union VAT numbers, ensuring compliance with tax regulations, preventing fraud, and simplifying cross-border transactions by providing accurate, real-time VAT data for businesses.

To validate data in Google Sheets using vatcheckapi.com, follow these steps:

Install Apipheny
Generate an API key
Use Apipheny to validate VAT ids in your Google Sheet

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny add-on for Google Sheets

Apipheny is an API connector for Google Sheets. You can use Apipheny to connect your Google Sheets to unlimited API data sources, make unlimited API requests, and more. There is a 30 day free trial included.

1.) Install Apipheny by opening the following link on desktop and then clicking the Install button in the Google Marketplace: https://apipheny.io/install

2.) After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Extensions dropdown in the menu at the top.

In the dropdown list you should see Apipheny. Click Apipheny then click Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheet.

Tip: you can open a new Google Sheet by entering this URL in your browser: sheet.new

Step 2.) Generate an API key

After logging in to your vatcheckapi.com account, go to API Keys and copy your API key from there:

Copy and paste your API key in a safe location because you’ll need it in the next steps.

Step 3.) Use Apipheny to validate a list of VAT ids

Imagine you have the following table, and you want to check if the VAT id is registered or not.

To achieve this, we create and save a new Apipheny function:

The API URL Path (1) is not that important as we will overwrite it when using it. You can use https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/check?vat_number=ATU88888883 as a placeholder for now
Important here is adding the apikey parameter as a header (2) so it can be re-used when you overwrite the URL later
Continue by saving (3) and giving the request a name

After that, you go into your saved request and copy the request ID:

=APIPHENY("req-xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx")

The second parameter of the APIPHENY function lets you overwrite the request URL. We will use this functionality to inject the email address of the corresponding row.

Now let’s use the saved function with an URL overwrite and some other Google Sheets functions to build the following:

=INDEX(ARRAY_CONSTRAIN(TRANSPOSE(APIPHENY("req-xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";"https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/check?vat_number="&A1));100;2);MATCH("registration_info.is_registered";ARRAY_CONSTRAIN(TRANSPOSE(APIPHENY("req-xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"; "https://api.vatcheckapi.com/v2/check?vat_number="&A1));100;1);0);2)

This will fetch the data from vatcheckapi.com and filter down to only the value of the field with the key registration_info.is_registered. You can use any other field specified in the documentation.

If we insert this function into B1 and pull it down, it will fill column B with the validity of the VAT id like so: