Is there a recommended maximum number of Application Identifiers (AIs) that should be encoded in a GS1 Digital Link URI string?

Modified on Wed, 5 Mar at 4:43 AM

The number of AIs should be limited to just what’s needed for offline operations and for product identification at the required level of granularity. Everything else can and should be looked up online.


  • Offline operations – POS scanning example: all information required by a scan at point-of-sale should be included in the GS1 Digital Link URI and not require further online lookup.
  • Product identification – Only data that is necessary to sufficiently distinguish the product should be included. For example, is it necessary to distinguish between 3 different colours of a product when scanned by the consumer or is it sufficient to just know which product it is and display all 3 colours as variables on the webpage?
  • Further information – if more information is needed by an online service related to the product, it can be added dynamically in the redirect without having to be included in the 2D barcode.


Useful references: 

https://ref.gs1.org/docs/2023/QR-Code_powered-by-GS1-best-practices

https://ref.gs1.org/docs/2024/redirection-from-scan-to-content


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