MPN
Manufacturer part number
An MPN is the code a manufacturer gives a product within its own range, and it identifies the product only when paired with the brand.
- Part number
What it means
MPN stands for manufacturer part number. Google describes it as “The number that uniquely identifies the product with its manufacturer”.1 It can mix letters, digits and punctuation, and it has no fixed length and no check digit.
On its own it is not enough, because nothing stops two manufacturers using the same code. Paired with the brand, it identifies a product even where no barcode exists. That is why Google asks for brand and MPN on products that have no GTIN.2
Write it exactly as the manufacturer does. eBay asks you to “Use the value specified by the manufacturer”.3 OpenAI’s product feed for ChatGPT wants it “preserving its punctuation and casing”, always with the brand.4
Think of it like this
An MPN is like a house number. Number 12 means nothing on its own, but number 12 on a named street is one front door.
For example
One supplier file gives a Brackmore fridge freezer the part number NX-4821-W, and another gives nx4821w. A person sees one code, but a computer comparing text sees two. Keep NX-4821-W exactly as the manufacturer writes it, with Brackmore in the brand column beside it.
Why it matters
Brand and MPN are the fallback when a GTIN is missing or wrong, and the only identifiers a product without a GTIN has. Google says products that have a brand and MPN but are sent without them “may have limited visibility”.1
Not to be confused with
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. About unique product identifiers.
- Google Merchant Center Help. GTIN [gtin].
- eBay Developers Program. AddItem (Trading API reference).
- OpenAI Developers. Agentic Commerce product feed specification: Products.