Free NPI Number Lookup
Enter any 10-digit NPI to see the registered provider record: name, individual or organization, specialty, taxonomy code, practice address and phone, and the date the provider last updated the record. Straight from the CMS NPPES registry, no signup required.
An NPI lookup checks a 10-digit National Provider Identifier against the CMS NPPES registry. This free tool returns the registered provider record: name, provider type, primary specialty, taxonomy code, practice address and phone, and the date the record was last updated. Only active NPIs are searchable, and the data is self-reported by the provider.
Source: NPPES NPI Registry, published by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
This tool reads the public CMS NPPES NPI Registry, a FOIA-disclosable US federal dataset, and is provided for informational purposes only. 1Lookup is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by CMS or HHS. The record is reported to CMS by the provider or their authorized official and is not checked by CMS. As CMS states, "Issuance of an NPI does not ensure or validate that the Health Care Provider is Licensed or Credentialed." This is not a license check, credential check or background check, and no exclusion, sanction or disciplinary data is included: exclusions are published separately by the HHS Office of Inspector General. Only active NPIs are searchable, so a blank result does not prove a number was never issued. Records can be years out of date. Providers who find an error in their own record must correct it directly with CMS at nppes.cms.hhs.gov.
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Look Up Any Provider by NPI Number
An NPI is the 10-digit number every US healthcare provider uses on claims, referrals and credentialing paperwork. This free lookup takes that number and returns the registered provider record from the CMS NPPES registry: whether the NPI belongs to an individual or an organization, the name and credentials on file, the primary specialty and its taxonomy code, any additional specialties, the primary practice address and phone number, any other practice locations, any doing-business-as names, the date the NPI was assigned, and the date the record was last updated by the provider.
The data comes from NPPES, the CMS system that issues NPIs, and it is refreshed daily. Roughly 9 million active NPIs are searchable, about three quarters of them individual providers and the rest organizations. Everything in the record is reported to CMS by the provider or their authorized official. CMS publishes it under the Freedom of Information Act but does not check it, so read the record as a registration, not as proof. The most useful field on the page is the last updated date, because it tells you how old the rest of it is.
Two limits matter before you read a result. Only active NPIs are searchable, so a number that returns nothing may have been deactivated rather than never issued: CMS lists about 352,000 deactivated NPIs in a separate monthly file that this registry does not include. And the registry holds no exclusion or sanction data at all. A provider excluded from federal healthcare programs by the HHS Office of Inspector General still shows an active NPI here. Exclusions are published separately by the OIG, and an NPI lookup is not a substitute for reading that list.
How the NPI Number Lookup Works
Enter the 10-digit NPI
Type or paste the NPI exactly as it appears on the claim, referral or roster. It is always 10 digits and always starts with a 1. Spaces and dashes are stripped for you.
We query the CMS NPPES registry
The number is matched against NPPES, the CMS system that issues NPIs and publishes the FOIA-disclosable record. It is refreshed daily and holds roughly 9 million active NPIs.
Read the registered provider record
You get the name, individual or organization type, primary and additional specialties, taxonomy code, practice location and phone, other practice locations, DBA names, the date the NPI was assigned, and the date the provider last updated the record.
Individual or organization, named correctly
Type 1 records show the provider's name, suffix and self-reported credentials such as MD or RN. Type 2 records show the organization's legal business name. About 77% of active NPIs are individuals and 23% are organizations.
Primary specialty and taxonomy code
The provider's self-declared main specialty in plain words plus its 10-character NUCC taxonomy code. A record can carry up to 15 specialties, and the tool marks which one the provider flagged as primary rather than guessing from the order.
Practice location, not the mailing address
Every record holds one practice location and one mailing address, and the order they arrive in is not fixed. The tool reads the practice location by label, so you get the address where care is delivered. Any additional practice locations are listed too, which about 14% of records have.
Last updated date, shown up front
NPPES is refreshed daily but the record inside it is only as current as the last time the provider touched it. The tool shows the assignment date and the last updated date so you can see how stale a record is before you act on it.
Who uses this tool
Billing and claims staff
Check that the NPI on a claim or superbill matches the name, specialty and practice address on file with CMS before the claim goes out and comes back denied.
Credentialing teams re-checking a roster
Healthcare employers have to re-check staff records on a schedule, not once at hire. Pull the current registered provider record for each NPI on the roster and flag the ones whose details have drifted.
Practices checking an incoming referral
See who is on the other end of a referral: their registered specialty, taxonomy code and practice location, so you know the patient is going somewhere that matches the referral.
Patients looking up a provider
Look up the name, specialty and practice address a provider has registered with CMS. It tells you what they are registered as, not whether they are licensed or accepting patients.
Frequently asked questions
What is an NPI number?
An NPI is a National Provider Identifier, the 10-digit number CMS assigns to healthcare providers for use on claims and other HIPAA standard transactions. There are two kinds: Type 1 for individual providers such as a doctor or nurse practitioner, and Type 2 for organizations such as a clinic, pharmacy or hospital. Roughly 9 million active NPIs exist, and about 77% of them are individuals.
What does it mean if no record is found?
It means there is no active record for that number today. The registry only holds active NPIs, so a blank result can mean the number was never issued, or that it was deactivated: CMS counted 351,912 deactivated NPIs as of August 2026, and they return exactly the same empty response. A retired doctor's former NPI looks identical to a number that never existed. Treat a blank result as no active record found, not as an invalid number.
Does an NPI mean the provider is licensed?
No. CMS states it plainly: "Issuance of an NPI does not ensure or validate that the Health Care Provider is Licensed or Credentialed." The registry shows what a provider reported when they applied and whenever they updated their record. Some records include a state license number typed in by the provider, but it is a self-reported string, not a match against a state board. Go to your state licensing board for license status.
Does this check exclusion or sanction lists?
No. There is no exclusion, sanction or disciplinary field anywhere in the NPPES data, and an active NPI here says nothing about whether a provider can bill federal healthcare programs. Exclusions are published separately by the HHS Office of Inspector General in the LEIE list, which holds 83,842 exclusion records, 8,841 of which carry an NPI. We tested 40 excluded NPIs against this registry and 38 still returned an active record.
How current is this data?
NPPES is updated daily and this tool reads it live. What it cannot fix is how old the underlying record is. Providers update their own entry, and many have not touched it in years: in a sample of 8,400 live records, a third of individuals and half of organizations had no certification date at all, and last updated dates from 2020 or earlier were common. The tool shows that date so you can judge the record yourself.
Can I look up a list of NPIs in bulk?
Not through this free tool, which is limited to a handful of lookups per visitor per day. CMS also asks that bulk work go through its own monthly download file rather than the live registry. Create a free 1Lookup account to run a CSV through bulk processing, and to reach phone, email, IP and business lookups through the 1Lookup API on the same account.
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