How to find the NACE code of a company

To find the NACE code of a company that already exists, look it up in the business register of the country where it is registered. You will find a national code there, such as a French code APE or an Italian ATECO code, not a “NACE code” as such. The first four digits of that national code are the NACE class.

Why registers show national codes

NACE is the classification used for European statistics. Companies, though, are classified by national statistical offices and registers, in the national version of NACE. Down to the four-digit class, the versions based on NACE Rev. 2.1 match it exactly; where a country still uses an older version, as France does until the end of 2026, the code follows NACE Rev. 2. Below the class, each country adds its own subdivisions: NAF 2025 in France uses a letter (62.20G), ATECO 2025 in Italy uses six digits (62.20.10), ÖNACE 2025 in Austria has 711 subclasses, and NACE-BEL codes in Belgium have five or seven digits.

The code is meant to reflect the company's principal activity, which NACE defines as the one that contributes most to its value added. In practice, the register records it from what the company declared at registration or from the authority's own assessment, and it may not have been updated since.

Where to look, country by country

The table lists only registers where we could confirm from an official source that the activity code is shown. For other countries, check the national business register or statistics office.

France

INSEE assigns a code APE to every company and establishment in the Sirene register. The Annuaire des Entreprises, run by the French government's digital agency (DINUM), shows it for any SIREN (9 digits) or SIRET (14 digits). INSEE's avis de situation Sirene gives the same information as a downloadable document. Both are free.

One detail for 2026: the official code APE is still based on NAF rév. 2, which corresponds to the old NACE Rev. 2. NAF 2025 codes take effect on 1 January 2027. Until then, INSEE lets companies check their future code on sirene.gouv.fr with the SIREN number. More on this in the French NAF 2025 section.

Italy

The free company search on registroimprese.it, the register of the Italian chambers of commerce, shows the ATECO codes declared by a company: the main (prevalent) activity plus primary and secondary codes. You only pay if you order the full visura camerale. ATECO 2025 has been used operationally since 1 April 2025, so current entries show ATECO 2025 codes. See also the Italian ATECO 2025 page.

Belgium

Companies register their activities as NACE-BEL codes in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO in Dutch, BCE in French), and the codes can be consulted in its free Public Search. NACE-BEL 2025 took effect on 1 January 2025, and all active NACE-BEL 2008 codes in the register were converted automatically. The Belgian administration itself advises companies to check the result and correct it in the My Enterprise application if needed.

Austria

Statistik Austria classifies the units in the business register and informed them of their ÖNACE 2025 code electronically, through the company's mailbox in the Unternehmensserviceportal (USP). We found no official public lookup, so the quickest way is to ask the company for its classification notice (Klassifikationsmitteilung). The Austrian ÖNACE page has more detail.

Reading a national code as NACE Rev. 2.1

Drop the national extension and keep the first four digits in the form NN.NN:

• NAF 2025 62.20G (consulting on computer systems and software) → NACE 62.20
• ATECO 2025 62.20.10 (computer consultancy) → NACE 62.20
• ATECO 2025 63.10.21 (accounting data processing) → NACE 63.10

This only works if the national code is already in the new version. A French code APE on NAF rév. 2 today gives you a NACE Rev. 2 class. To get the Rev. 2.1 class, convert it with the correspondence table; see our guide to the NACE Rev. 2 to Rev. 2.1 correspondence table. The section letter follows from the two-digit division; the NACE Rev. 2.1 code list shows which division belongs to which section.

What a register code does not tell you

A code in a register is an official record, not proof of what the company does today. Treat it as a starting point, and check it against the company's actual business before you rely on it.

Codes converted automatically deserve the most suspicion. Belgium converted all active codes in one go, and in Italy the chambers of commerce ran a free correction service from 15 April to the end of 2025 for ATECO 2025 codes that the conversion had got wrong. Such errors typically arise in classes that were split between the old and new versions.

Italian and Belgian entries can list several activities. NACE statistics use only the principal one.

In France, each establishment (SIRET) has its own code APE, which can differ from that of the head office. Decide whether you need the enterprise or the establishment before comparing codes.

When no register helps

For countries not listed here, or when the register entry is clearly out of date, classify the company from what it does. Describe its main activity in one or two sentences and use the NACE Finder, which returns the NACE Rev. 2.1 class. For software and IT companies, the boundaries are explained in NACE code for software and IT companies.