> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.cashfree.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Verify PAN (Standard and OCR)
> Use Cashfree PAN verification to validate individual or business PANs in real time using standard checks or OCR extraction from uploaded PAN card images.
PAN Verification feature enables you to instantly verify PAN details of individuals or businesses before you onboard them or make any transactions with them. The feature helps you to validate if a particular PAN is valid, also check if it belongs to an individual or a business. You can verify the PAN information using the dashboard or via APIs.
The name returned by the API may differ from the name printed on the physical PAN card. The API returns the registered name from the Income Tax Department's records, which is the authoritative source and may not match the name displayed on the card.
> đź‘Ť Verify PAN for Free!
>
> You can verify your beneficiary PAN details for free using Free Credits. With this limited-time offer, experience and test the feature without paying any verification charges.
>
> A banner displays the offer for you on the **Secure ID - PAN** page (Secure ID Dashboard > Secure ID - PAN). Click **Claim Free Credits** and instantly redeem the credits to your account.
You can use the PAN verification feature for various purposes, such as:
* Onboarding vendors
* Onboarding employees
* Transferring funds or processing payments
* Required for KYC verification
You can do a single verification or a bulk verification of up to 10,000 PANs at a time via API. View details like PAN type, name of the PAN holder, verification status, and more, of all PAN numbers shared in the file. Currently, we support verification of PAN via APIs only.
***
## Use cases
**Loan Providers**
Loan providers can verify their customers PAN instantly as part of KYC verification before disbursing the amount. This will help them to check the authenticity of the customers.
**Insurance and Investment Portals**
Insurance and investment portals can verify customers PAN instantly as part of KYC verification during onboarding. This will ensure successful payouts later.
**Wallets**
Wallets like Paytm, Amazon Pay, etc., can verify customers PAN during onboarding or for KYC requirements. This will help to process successful refunds to their wallets or accept wallet payments.
**Payments or Fintech Industry**
Payments or fintech industries can use the PAN verification feature to instantly verify PAN that belongs to a business or an individual before transferring funds or processing any payments.
***
## Supported PAN types
| Initials | Type | Category |
| :------- | :------------- | :--------------------- |
| P | Individual PAN | Individual |
| C | Business PAN | Company |
| F | Business PAN | Firm |
| T | Business PAN | Trust |
| L | Business PAN | Local Authority |
| H | Business PAN | Hindu Unified Family |
| A | Business PAN | Association of Persons |
| B | Business PAN | Body of Individuals |
***
## Verify PAN
To verify PAN,
1. Go to **Secure ID Dashboard** > **PAN** > click **Verify PAN**.
2. Enter the **PAN** and **Name** you want to verify.
3. Click **Verify**. You will see a success message if the PAN exists.
All PAN's that you verify will be visible and available for your reference in the Secure ID - PAN screen. You can search and filter for the details based on the status (Valid, Invalid, Rejected, Verification Failed), specific time duration, and PAN type.
You can also use our API to [verify PAN](/api-reference/vrs/v2/pan/verify-pan-sync) details.
***
## Verify PAN in batch
When you have a large number of PAN to be verified, you can upload a single file with all the details to verify them in one go.
To verify all the PAN, you must upload a .csv, .xls, or a .xlsx file that contains the PAN and name of an individual or business you want to verify. Download the sample file to know how the details must be formatted.
To upload a batch file with PAN details,
1. Go to **Secure ID Dashboard** > **Batch** > click **Upload File**.
2. Click **Choose a File** to select the file you want to upload and click **Upload**. The uploaded file will be visible in the **Batch** section.
3. Click the uploaded file to view the status of the PAN details uploaded in the file.
All PAN's you verify will be visible and available for your reference in the Secure ID - PAN screen. You can search by file name and filter for the details based on the status (Processed, Rejected, Processing, Cancelled) or a specific time duration.
You can also use our API to [verify PAN](/api-reference/vrs/v2/pan/verify-pan-sync) details in batch.
## Verify PAN via OCR
You can verify the PAN information of your customers using optical character recognition(OCR) with Cashfree Payments and save your time. This technology recognises the text in an image or a scanned document and converts the text in the image to machine readable text format.
Improve the customer onboarding experience by eliminating the tedious manual process of document verification.
Without human intervention, the accuracy of identifying and verifying the documents is higher.
You can use our [PAN Verification via Smart OCR API](/api-reference/vrs/v2/smart-ocr/smart-ocr)
## Name match score
To manually check if the provided customer name and the name registered at the bank are the same, consumes a lot of time and effort. Cashfree Payments has introduced a new feature that will assist you to verify if the names are the same and provide the result accordingly.
Two new parameters, **nameMatchResult** and **nameMatchScore** will be available in the response, which will help you make faster validations and process payments successfully.
Contact your Account Manager or Fill out the [Support Form](https://merchant.cashfree.com/merchants/landing?env=prod\&raise_issue=1) to activate the name match score feature for your account.
**Examples**:
**Direct Match**
| Name 1 | Name 2 | nameMatchResult | nameMatchScore |
| :------------------ | :------------------ | :-------------- | :------------- |
| Rohan Mathew Thomas | Rohan Mathew Thomas | Direct match | 100.00 |
These names are exactly the same, so we get a perfect score.
***
**Good Partial Match**
| Name 1 | Name 2 | nameMatchResult | nameMatchScore |
| :------------------ | :----------- | :----------------- | :------------- |
| Rohan Mathew Thomas | Rohan Thomas | Good partial match | 85.00 |
The name Mathew is missing in the above example, but the rest of the names match perfectly. So we are mostly sure it is the same person.
***
**Moderate Partial Match**
| Name 1 | Name 2 | nameMatchResult | nameMatchScore |
| :------------------ | :------------ | :--------------------- | :------------- |
| Rohan Mathew Thomas | Roshan Thomas | Moderate partial match | 61.00 |
In the above example, name **Thomas** matches both names and **han** matches both names, which increases the score, but overall a moderate partial match.
***
**Poor Partial Match**
| Name 1 | Name 2 | nameMatchResult | nameMatchScore |
| :------------------ | :------------- | :----------------- | :------------- |
| Rohan Mathew Thomas | Rohan Mathew K | Poor partial match | 55.00 |
In the above example, although the two names are the same, the initial K is completely different which means that it could be a different person. The namematchscore is low.
***
**No Match**
| Name 1 | Name 2 | nameMatchResult | nameMatchScore |
| :------------------ | :----- | :-------------- | :------------- |
| Rohan Mathew Thomas | Rajeev | No match | 14.00 |
***
**Score categorisation**
| Match result | Match score range |
| :--------------------- | :---------------- |
| Direct Match | 100.00 |
| Good Partial Match | 85.00 - 99.00 |
| Moderate Partial Match | 60.00 - 84.00 |
| Poor Partial Match | 34.00 - 59.00 |
| No Match | 0 - 33.00 |
## FAQs
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "How much time does PAN verification take?" })}>
On Cashfree Payments you can verify up to 10,000 PANs instantly. As you submit the request, our API gives an instant response.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "Which businesses can benefit from PAN Verification?" })}>
The PAN verification feature can be used to identify the person/businesses during onboarding as well as before initiating the transaction.
Following business categories can use PAN verification to speed up their onboarding, KYC and payment process:
* Lending platforms
* Insurance providers and platforms
* Investment portals
* Wallets
* EMI/instalments providers
* Any form of credit providers
* Offline and online marketplaces to onboard vendors, sellers
* Large corporations for onboarding employees
* Payments and fintech companies
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "How to verify PAN using Cashfree Payments for multiple PAN cards?" })}>
With Cashfree Payments, you can do verification for any number of PAN via two modes:
1. Via Dashboard
You can use the dashboard to not only do single PAN verification, but you can also download the sample template, add PAN of users and upload the file and get instant response for up to 10,000+ PANs at a time.
2. Using API
This is an integrated automated way to do bulk verification. The API can be integrated with existing company internal systems or ERP and then requests can be pushed directly using API.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "I want to use EasySplit - Cashfree marketplace settlement product for paying vendors. Do I need to take the PAN verification feature separately for vendor KYC?" })}>
Yes, if you are using EasySplit and want to use the PAN verification API as well, you need to opt for the feature separately. Our experts will help you with integration and you will be able to use EasySplit and PAN verification features together.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "I am planning to opt for Cashfree Payouts for bulk disbursals. Do I need to go for PAN verification API separately?" })}>
If you are a Payouts user, you can visit the dashboard to activate PAN verification for your account. PAN verification will be charged separately.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "Is there any limit on the total number of PAN verification requests per day?" })}>
No, there is no such limit. You can use the feature to verify any number of PANs in a day 24\*7.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "Why is PAN verification important?" })}>
PAN is a means of identifying various taxpayers in the country. The PAN system of identification is a computer-based system that assigns a unique identification number to every Indian tax-paying entity.
Through this method, all tax-related information for a person is recorded against a single PAN number which acts as the primary key for the storage of information. This is shared across the country and hence no two people on tax paying entities can have the same PAN.
Our Plug and Play integrated PAN verification API helps you confirm if PAN is valid or not, and match the name provided with the name registered with NSDL, the PAN issuing institution.
By accessing updated data, the risk of identity fraud and incorrect/incomplete data is reduced.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "What is online PAN verification?" })}>
Online PAN verification enables merchants to verify their users’ PAN card details, get the status of the PAN card, and check whether it belongs to a business or an individual.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "What are the details that I will be able to see on verifying a PAN?" })}>
You will be able to see whether the PAN is valid or not along with the following details (if valid):
* PAN number
* Name provided
* Verification ID
* PAN type
* Name registered
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "Can I verify the PAN card by just knowing the name of the person?" })}>
No, to verify a PAN, it is mandatory to enter the PAN number.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "What are the other use cases of PAN Verification feature?" })}>
The capability to verify PAN can be used in multiple business scenarios such as
1. Employee background check: a recruitment agency can use the feature for a candidate's background check
2. Vendor onboarding: a marketplace splitting commission with different vendors can use the feature to verify the a/c details at the time of onboarding the vendor, this also helps in correct payments later on. The ability to integrate the API with existing ERP helps in reducing operational effort and saves cost.
posthog.capture('Accordion Clicked', { title: "How can I use the PAN verification API for KYC?" })}>
KYC or “Know Your Customer” is a process undertaken by businesses, especially financial institutions to obtain information about the identity of customers. One of the key documents required is PAN as the same is regarded as valid proof for the financial identity of a person/entity.
While onboarding vendors, delivery partners, or even employees, an organisation needs to do a PAN verification. Using Cashfree Payments API, this process can be automated and integrated with existing company internal systems so that the verification process happens smoothly, without exposing the data to any third party.