ISBN barcodes for books

The EAN-5 price add-on: what the small barcode on a book means

By Marko Markovic, prepress specialist · Updated 10 October 2026 · 5 min read

How to read an EAN-5 price (US rules)

For prices under US$100, the BISG guidelines use a leading 5 followed by the price without the decimal point. Since 2004, BISG also encodes prices from US$100.00 to US$499.99, using the leading digit for the hundreds.

Two details people miss:

• US$99.99 cannot be encoded. 59998 is the highest price with a leading 5, because 59999 has its own meaning.
• Above US$499.99 there is no price code. Use 90000.

Not every generator supports the 10000 to 49999 range; check the code your file shows before you print.

What 90000 means

90000 is a valid add-on that says "no price is encoded here". BISG describes it as a title with no encoded price, for example a net-priced title or one without a suggested list price, and recommends it for publishers who are not encoding the US$ cover price. More in the 90000 guide.

Prices in other currencies

BISG's rules are for the US market. Outside them, the history is this: when the Bookland EAN was set up, the leading digit was meant as a currency indicator, with 0 and 1 for the British pound, 5 for the US dollar and 6 for the Canadian dollar. BISG's own background paper on the US$100 to US$499.99 change adds what it found in practice:

• in the UK, no instance of price encoding for scanning at the point of sale, and no use of a leading 1;
• in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, no price encoding with the leading digits 2, 3 or 4.

What that means for you:

1. A US system does not read a Canadian price. Under BISG's rules, 60000 to 89999 has no price meaning and is ignored. BookNet Canada also notes that the Canadian 6 is not widely used in Canada.
2. A pound price is a local convention, not a US rule. If you use one, the leading digit is 0. A leading 1 now means US$100 to US$199.99 in the US, and 4 is not the pound at all, even though some websites say so.
3. Euro, Australian and New Zealand dollars: there is no agreed price code in use. Use 90000 and print the price on the cover as text.

Should you put a price in the barcode?

Put the US price in when:

• your book is sold in US bookstores and the price is printed on the cover;
• your distributor or a retailer asks for it.

Use 90000 (or no add-on) when:

• you sell mostly online and may change the price;
• you sell in several countries with one cover;
• you print with KDP and want to adjust the list price later. KDP's help says a price code, if you include one, should match the list price.

Plain ISBN without any add-on is also a valid barcode. BISG notes that some publishers and retailers require a price extension, and asks publishers who want to supply books without one to talk with their trading partners first. So before you choose 90000 or no add-on for books going into US bookstores, ask your distributor what its retailers expect.

Price add-on specs in short

• The EAN-5 sits to the right of the EAN-13, at the same magnification, with its own human-readable digits above it.
• It uses the same bars and spaces logic as EAN-13 and its own checksum, which scanners verify.
• Its digits are printed above its bars, not below, so the add-on bars start a little lower than the main bars.
• It needs its own quiet zone on the right side.

A generator takes care of all of this. You only choose the price.