---
title: "UPC-A"
url: https://getstell.com/glossary/upc-a
description: "The twelve-digit North American retail barcode, a subset of EAN-13, and one of the formats a wallet pass can render."
---

# UPC-A

UPC-A is the twelve-digit linear barcode used on retail products in the United States and Canada. It predates [EAN-13](/glossary/ean-13) and is formally a subset of it: prefix a UPC-A number with a zero and you have the equivalent EAN-13, which is why scanners and product databases treat the two together.

For loyalty it shows up the same way EAN-13 does, as an inherited member number from a plastic card program or a point of sale that was configured around retail symbologies. Keeping that number means the till lookup, the receipt and the reporting all continue to work unchanged when the card becomes a wallet pass.

It is numeric-only and fixed length, with a check digit in the final position. There is no room for letters, prefixes or a value that rotates per visit, so it suits a static identifier and nothing more.

Google Wallet renders UPC-A on passes. Apple Wallet supports QR, PDF417, Aztec and Code 128, so an Apple pass carries the same twelve digits as [Code 128](/glossary/code-128) or a QR code. [QR and barcode identification](/glossary/barcode-identification) covers running both wallets against one scanner estate.