DIGIPIN lookup
Find your DIGIPIN from coordinates or decode any DIGIPIN back to its location. India Post's 10-character system provides a unique code for any location in India.
Pin code lookup
Find post offices and areas by 6-digit pin code
What is DIGIPIN?
DIGIPIN (Digital Postal Index Number) is India's new geo-coded digital address system, launched on May 27, 2025 by the Department of Posts in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre. It assigns a unique 10-character alphanumeric code to every 4-metre by 4-metre area across India — including land, islands, and maritime zones.
Unlike the traditional 6-digit pin code, which covers an average area of 170 square kilometres and identifies a neighbourhood or postal region, DIGIPIN identifies your exact doorstep. This level of precision makes it useful for e-commerce deliveries (reducing failed delivery attempts), emergency services (ambulances reaching the exact location without confusion), and location sharing (a short code instead of complex GPS coordinates).
DIGIPIN is open-source, privacy-first (the code contains no personal data — only geographic coordinates), and works offline. Once you know your DIGIPIN, you can share it via text, phone, or written on paper — no app or internet connection is required to use it.
DIGIPIN vs traditional pin code
The traditional pin code system, introduced in 1972, divides India into broad postal regions using a 6-digit number. A single pin code like 560001 covers hundreds of streets and thousands of addresses in Bangalore. DIGIPIN doesn't replace pin codes — it adds a layer of precision on top. Think of it as pin code identifying your neighbourhood, and DIGIPIN identifying your front door.
| Pin code | DIGIPIN | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | 6 digits | 10 alphanumeric |
| Covers | ~170 km² area | 4m × 4m area |
| Accuracy | Neighbourhood level | Door-step level |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Contains personal data | No | No |
How DIGIPIN encoding works
The DIGIPIN system divides India's territory into a bounding box spanning 63.5° to 99.5° East longitude and 2.5° to 38.5° North latitude. This box is split into a 4×4 grid of 16 regions, each labelled with one of 16 symbols: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, C, J, K, L, M, P, F, and T. The digits 0 and 1 are excluded to avoid confusion with the letters O and I — a deliberate design choice to make codes easy to read and communicate, especially in rural areas.
Each of the 16 regions is then subdivided into another 4×4 grid, and so on for 10 levels. The first character identifies a roughly 1,000 km × 1,000 km region. By the tenth character, the grid narrows to approximately 3.8 metres × 3.8 metres — precise enough to identify a specific building entrance. The system uses the EPSG:4326 coordinate reference system (WGS84), the same standard used by GPS devices worldwide, ensuring compatibility with all modern navigation systems.
How to use your DIGIPIN
Once you have your DIGIPIN, you can use it anywhere you'd normally give an address. When ordering deliveries, enter your DIGIPIN alongside your regular address for precise drop-off. In emergencies, share your DIGIPIN with police, ambulance, or fire services — they can locate you within a 4-metre area without needing street names or landmarks. For meeting points, share your DIGIPIN instead of vague directions like "near the temple" or "opposite the park."
Major platforms including Google Maps, Swiggy, Zomato, and Amazon are expected to integrate DIGIPIN fields in their apps. Save your DIGIPIN in your phone's notes for quick access — it's short, easy to remember, and pinpoints you within 4 metres anywhere in India.
Who developed DIGIPIN?
DIGIPIN was developed by the Department of Posts (India Post) in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under ISRO. The system is part of the broader DHRUVA (Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Addresses) framework under the National Geospatial Policy 2022. The entire codebase is open-source and published on GitHub, encouraging developers, logistics companies, and government agencies to integrate DIGIPIN into their systems.
Common Uses
- Last-mile delivery addressing: Logistics companies use DigiPIN to identify precise delivery locations in areas where street addresses are ambiguous or absent.
- Emergency services dispatch: Sharing a DigiPIN with ambulance or fire services communicates an exact 4×4 km location even in rural areas without addresses.
- Property documentation: Attach a DigiPIN to property sale agreements and legal documents as a universally readable geographic reference.
- Field force coordination: Sales, survey, and installation teams can share DigiPINs to coordinate meeting points precisely in new or unmapped areas.
- Government service registration: Several state government portals are integrating DigiPIN as a required location field for subsidy and welfare scheme applications.
- Rural addressing: Villages and hamlets with no formal street addresses can be precisely located using DigiPIN — useful for banking and telecoms coverage mapping.
- Travel and navigation planning: Share a precise DigiPIN with a driver or delivery partner to ensure they arrive at the correct building entrance or gate.
FAQ
What is DIGIPIN and how is it different from a pin code?
DIGIPIN stands for Digital Postal Index Number. It's a 10-character alphanumeric code that identifies a specific 4-metre by 4-metre area anywhere in India. A traditional 6-digit pin code covers an entire postal region (averaging 170 km²), while a DIGIPIN pinpoints your exact location — your door, your shop entrance, or your office desk. Both systems coexist — DIGIPIN adds precision on top of pin codes, it doesn't replace them.
How many characters are in a DIGIPIN code?
A DIGIPIN code is exactly 10 characters long, formatted as XXX-XXX-XXXX with dashes for readability. It uses 16 specific symbols: the digits 2 through 9, and the letters C, J, K, L, M, P, F, and T. The digits 0 and 1 are not used because they look similar to the letters O and I, which helps prevent errors when reading or communicating the code aloud.
Can I use DIGIPIN offline?
Yes. Once you know your DIGIPIN, you can share it without any internet connection — by phone, text message, or written on paper. The code itself is a mathematical encoding of your GPS coordinates, so it doesn't need a server or database to work. You can even calculate a DIGIPIN manually if you know the algorithm and have coordinates. This tool also generates DIGIPINs entirely in your browser without sending data to any server.
Who developed DIGIPIN?
DIGIPIN was developed by India Post (Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications) in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). It was officially launched on May 27, 2025. The system is open-source, with its complete code published on GitHub for public use and contribution.
Will DIGIPIN replace the traditional pin code system?
No. The government has clarified that DIGIPIN will not replace the existing 6-digit pin code system. Both systems will run in parallel. DIGIPIN adds a new layer of precision — think of it as your pin code identifying your neighbourhood, and DIGIPIN identifying your exact doorstep. Traditional pin codes remain essential for postal sorting and regional identification.
Does DIGIPIN contain personal data? Is it safe to share?
DIGIPIN contains no personal information whatsoever. It is purely a mathematical encoding of geographic coordinates — it identifies a location, not a person. Sharing your DIGIPIN is equivalent to sharing your address. However, like any address, share it thoughtfully — you probably wouldn't post your home address publicly, and the same caution applies to your home DIGIPIN.
By the Numbers
- DigiPIN was launched by India's Department of Posts on April 27, 2024 as a universal location-addressing system
- The system divides India's landmass into a grid where each cell is approximately 4 km × 4 km
- DigiPIN covers India's entire 3.29 million km² landmass, providing precise addressing for all 1.4+ billion residents
- Each DigiPIN is 10 characters long, combining letters and numbers for precise geographic encoding