How to Find HSN Code for a Product and Its GST Rate

To find the HSN code for a product, describe the product by what it is and what it is made of, look it up in the Search HSN Code tool on the GST portal, and confirm the heading in the customs tariff. Then read the GST rate notification for that code. The code comes first, the rate second.

Where do you look?

Why the customs tariff? Because the GST rate notification says so. Its explanation states that tariff item, sub-heading, heading and chapter mean those in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and that the rules for interpreting that Schedule, including the section and chapter notes, apply to the notification as far as possible.

How to find the code, step by step

1. Write one plain line about the product: what it is, the main material, and its use. "Tote bag, cotton canvas, for shopping" is better than "bag".
2. Open the GST portal. Go to Services, then User Services, then Search HSN Code. No login is needed.
3. Search by a word from your description, or by the chapter number if you know it. Note every code that looks close.
4. Below the search box, download the HSN directory in Excel. Filter on the first four digits of your shortlist and read all the lines under that heading.
5. Read the chapter notes in the customs tariff for the headings you are choosing between. The notes tell you what the chapter covers and what it leaves out.
6. Pick the heading that describes the product most specifically. A heading that names your product beats one that only says "other articles".
7. Go down to the six-digit and eight-digit lines and choose the one that matches the material or type.
8. Open the rate notification and search for your chapter, heading and tariff item. Read the entry in full, including any value limit or exclusion.
9. Save the code and rate in your product master, with the date you checked.

Where is the rate notification now?

The goods and services rates page on cbic-gst.gov.in no longer shows the rate table. As on 12 Nov 2026 it sends you to the CBIC Tax Information Portal at taxinformation.cbic.gov.in, where the notifications are kept. The current goods notification replaced the old Notification 1/2017 and took effect on 22 September 2025. In the version we read, its main schedules are 5%, 18% and 40%, with smaller special schedules at 3%, 0.25%, 1.5% and 28%.

A worked example: a cotton tote bag

You sell a printed cotton tote bag for Rs 400 before GST. What is the code?

A search for "bag" gives several candidates. Heading 6305 is sacks and bags of a kind used for the packing of goods. That is for packing sacks, not a bag a customer carries on the shoulder. Heading 4202 covers trunks, suitcases, handbags, shopping bags and similar containers. That fits.

Under 4202, the directory has sub-heading 420222, bags with an outer surface of sheeting of plastics or of textile materials. Under it are separate lines.

• 42022210: hand bags and shopping bags, of artificial plastic material.
• 42022220: hand bags and shopping bags, of cotton.
• 42022230: hand bags and shopping bags, of jute.

The tote is 42022220. Now the rate. In the rate notification as we read it, the 5% schedule has a specific entry for 4202 22 20, hand bags and shopping bags of cotton, and one for 4202 22 30, of jute. Heading 4202 in general sits in the 18% schedule.

So on 100 cotton totes at Rs 400, taxable value Rs 40,000, the GST is Rs 2,000. If the same bag were made of artificial plastic material, tariff item 42022210, it would stay under the general 4202 entry and the GST would be Rs 7,200. The gap of Rs 5,200 on one small order comes from the last four digits.

A seller with turnover up to Rs 5 crore would still report only 4202 in GSTR-1. The eight-digit code is needed to get the rate right, not for the return. The digit rule is explained in HSN code digits required in GSTR-1.

The mistake sellers usually make

Most sellers start from the rate. They search "GST rate on bags", find a number on a blog, and then hunt for a code that goes with it. That is backwards. If the code is wrong, the rate is wrong, and every invoice carries the error.

The second mistake is to copy the HSN from the supplier's bill or from a competitor's listing. Your supplier may have sold you fabric, while you sell a stitched bag. The code changes when the product changes.

The third is to stop at the four-digit heading and assume one rate for all of it. Clothing is the best known case, where the rate also turns on the price per piece. See HSN code and GST rate for clothes.

What if two headings still seem right after all this? Do not guess on a product that sells in volume. Ask a tax expert, or consider an advance ruling in your State, and keep a note of why you chose the code.

Frequently asked questions

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