What does each digit in a PIN code mean?

A PIN code is six digits and each position carries meaning. The first digit identifies the postal region — there are nine, eight for civilian zones and one (digit 9) reserved for the Army Postal Service. The second digit identifies the sub-region and the third the sorting district within that region. Together the first three digits route mail to a sorting office. The final three digits identify the specific delivery post office within that sorting district. This is why every PIN in a district shares the same first three digits.

Why does one PIN code show multiple post offices?

Because a PIN code covers a delivery area, not a single building. A typical PIN has one Head Office or Sub Office plus several Branch Offices that serve surrounding localities or villages. All of them share the same PIN because they fall under the same delivery jurisdiction. The office type column tells you the hierarchy: HO is a Head Office, SO a Sub Office, and BO a Branch Office, which is usually the smallest last-mile office in a rural area.

What does the delivery status mean?

Each post office is either a delivery office or a non-delivery (booking-only) office. A delivery office actually distributes mail and parcels to addresses in its area. A non-delivery office handles counter services like booking and savings but passes delivery to another office. When you are checking whether an address will receive a shipment, the delivery-status field tells you whether that specific office delivers or only books.

How current is this data?

This lookup uses the official All India Pincode Directory published by the Department of Posts (through its Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology) on the Government of India Open Data portal, data.gov.in. The copy in use is dated 3 October 2025, the “Updated On” date shown on the official resource page at the time it was obtained. That date is shown beneath every result. India Post revises the directory periodically, so a very recently opened or renamed office may not yet appear; for the absolute latest status, cross-check with India Post directly.

Is my search sent anywhere or stored?

No. The PIN you type is matched entirely inside your browser against a static data file served from this site. Nothing you enter is sent to a third-party API, logged, or associated with your visit. Page-level analytics count only that the page was viewed, never the contents of the search box.

Can I search by post office name or locality instead of by PIN?

Not in this version. Reverse search — name or locality to PIN — needs a fuzzy search index over more than 165,000 post office records, which is a separate build. For now the lookup works in one direction: enter a six-digit PIN and see the offices under it. This is the same one-directional approach the IFSC lookup started with.

Why is a PIN I entered showing no offices?

Either the PIN is not a currently assigned India Post code, or it was assigned after the October 2025 directory release this tool uses. Double-check the six digits for a transposed or mistyped number. If you are certain the PIN is correct and recent, it may be a newly allocated code not yet reflected in the published directory — verify it on India Post’s own site in that case.

Is this tool free, and can I use the data commercially?

The lookup is free for everyone with no rate limit on single searches. The underlying dataset is published by the Department of Posts under the Government Open Data License – India (GODL-India), which permits commercial and non-commercial use and redistribution with attribution. We attribute India Post and data.gov.in as the source; if you reuse the data yourself, the same attribution requirement applies to you.

Lookup

Pincode Lookup

Look up any Indian PIN code and see every post office at that code — office type, delivery status, district, state, and postal circle. Free, no signup, no ads, data from India Post.

By the Samastam teamLast updated 2026-07-08

Enter PIN code

Try:

Enter a six-digit PIN above. Every post office at that code appears here automatically — matched inside your browser.

A PIN code (Postal Index Number) is the six-digit number India Post uses to route mail to a delivery area. Enter one below to see every post office mapped to that PIN — head office, sub-office, or branch office — along with its delivery status, district, state, and postal circle.

Key takeaways

A PIN code is six digits. The first digit identifies one of nine postal regions, the first three digits identify the sorting district, and all six pin down the specific delivery post office.
One PIN code usually maps to several post offices — typically one Head or Sub Office plus multiple Branch Offices serving surrounding villages or localities.
Office type tells you the hierarchy: HO (Head Office), SO (Sub Office), BO (Branch Office). Delivery status shows whether that office delivers mail or only handles booking.
This lookup runs against a pinned copy of the official All India Pincode Directory published by the Department of Posts on data.gov.in, dated 3 October 2025.
The search happens in your browser against a static data file — the PIN you type is never sent to any server or logged.

What this is and why it matters

The Postal Index Number is the six-digit address India Post introduced in 1972 to remove ambiguity from the country’s enormous number of similarly-named places. India has hundreds of villages sharing a name, dozens of “Gandhi Nagar” localities, and multiple towns spelled a dozen ways across languages. The PIN code cuts through all of it: the first digit selects one of nine postal zones (eight regional plus one for the army postal service), the second and third narrow it to a sorting district, and the last three identify the exact delivery office. A correct PIN is what lets a letter or parcel move from a national sorting hub down to the right local post office without a human reading the place name at all.

For everyday users, businesses, and e-commerce sellers, verifying a PIN matters because a wrong one silently misroutes a shipment to a different district before anyone notices. Courier and logistics platforms key their serviceability, cash-on-delivery eligibility, and delivery-time estimates off the PIN, not the written address. Filling the wrong PIN on a GST invoice, a bank KYC form, or an Aadhaar update can also cause the document to fail validation or route correspondence to the wrong postal circle. Confirming the PIN against the official directory before you use it takes seconds and prevents a delivery or paperwork problem that can take weeks to unwind.

This tool answers the common direction: given a PIN, which post offices does it cover, and where are they? Because a single PIN frequently spans one Sub Office and several Branch Offices, seeing the full list — with each office’s type and delivery status — tells you whether your address falls under a delivering office and which circle administers it.

Examples and use cases

Checking courier serviceability before promising delivery

A Bengaluru seller on a marketplace gets an order to PIN 560001. Pasting it in shows Bangalore GPO and several city sub-offices, all delivery-enabled, confirming the address sits in a well-served urban delivery zone. The seller safely offers same-week dispatch, knowing the destination is not a non-delivery or booking-only office that would need special handling.

Confirming a rural address that spans multiple branch offices

A buyer in a village gives PIN 454335 in Madhya Pradesh. The lookup returns several Branch Offices — Kadmal B.O, Limbol B.O and others — all under the same division in Dhar district. Seeing the branch-office structure tells the sender this is a rural delivery area where the last-mile office is a small B.O, so a phone number on the parcel will help the postman locate the exact hamlet.

Filling the correct PIN and circle on a GST invoice

A supplier raising a GST invoice to a customer in New Delhi verifies PIN 110001 before entering it in the address block. The tool confirms the office, district, and that it falls under the Delhi postal circle, matching the customer’s stated city. Getting the PIN right on the invoice keeps the place-of-supply and address details consistent with the customer’s GST registration.

Verifying a PIN during bank or Aadhaar KYC

Someone updating their address on a bank form for PIN 400001 checks it here first. The result shows Mumbai GPO and the Fort locality offices, confirming the PIN matches the intended area of Mumbai rather than a similarly-numbered code elsewhere. The KYC form goes in with a PIN that will pass the bank’s address validation.

Distinguishing two localities with the same name

A sender knows the recipient is in “Shivaji Nagar” but there are many across India. By getting the correct six-digit PIN from the recipient and checking it here, the sender sees exactly which district and circle it belongs to — resolving which Shivaji Nagar is meant before the parcel is booked, instead of after it is misrouted.

Frequently asked questions

What does each digit in a PIN code mean?: A PIN code is six digits and each position carries meaning. The first digit identifies the postal region — there are nine, eight for civilian zones and one (digit 9) reserved for the Army Postal Service. The second digit identifies the sub-region and the third the sorting district within that region. Together the first three digits route mail to a sorting office. The final three digits identify the specific delivery post office within that sorting district. This is why every PIN in a district shares the same first three digits.
Why does one PIN code show multiple post offices?: Because a PIN code covers a delivery area, not a single building. A typical PIN has one Head Office or Sub Office plus several Branch Offices that serve surrounding localities or villages. All of them share the same PIN because they fall under the same delivery jurisdiction. The office type column tells you the hierarchy: HO is a Head Office, SO a Sub Office, and BO a Branch Office, which is usually the smallest last-mile office in a rural area.
What does the delivery status mean?: Each post office is either a delivery office or a non-delivery (booking-only) office. A delivery office actually distributes mail and parcels to addresses in its area. A non-delivery office handles counter services like booking and savings but passes delivery to another office. When you are checking whether an address will receive a shipment, the delivery-status field tells you whether that specific office delivers or only books.
How current is this data?: This lookup uses the official All India Pincode Directory published by the Department of Posts (through its Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology) on the Government of India Open Data portal, data.gov.in. The copy in use is dated 3 October 2025, the “Updated On” date shown on the official resource page at the time it was obtained. That date is shown beneath every result. India Post revises the directory periodically, so a very recently opened or renamed office may not yet appear; for the absolute latest status, cross-check with India Post directly.
Is my search sent anywhere or stored?: No. The PIN you type is matched entirely inside your browser against a static data file served from this site. Nothing you enter is sent to a third-party API, logged, or associated with your visit. Page-level analytics count only that the page was viewed, never the contents of the search box.
Can I search by post office name or locality instead of by PIN?: Not in this version. Reverse search — name or locality to PIN — needs a fuzzy search index over more than 165,000 post office records, which is a separate build. For now the lookup works in one direction: enter a six-digit PIN and see the offices under it. This is the same one-directional approach the IFSC lookup started with.
Why is a PIN I entered showing no offices?: Either the PIN is not a currently assigned India Post code, or it was assigned after the October 2025 directory release this tool uses. Double-check the six digits for a transposed or mistyped number. If you are certain the PIN is correct and recent, it may be a newly allocated code not yet reflected in the published directory — verify it on India Post’s own site in that case.
Is this tool free, and can I use the data commercially?: The lookup is free for everyone with no rate limit on single searches. The underlying dataset is published by the Department of Posts under the Government Open Data License – India (GODL-India), which permits commercial and non-commercial use and redistribution with attribution. We attribute India Post and data.gov.in as the source; if you reuse the data yourself, the same attribution requirement applies to you.