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As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly apply for your business EORI number.
This still needs a person who signs their name to it.
Can you do it?
15 minutesto a draft.
30 minutesto something you’d act on.
Cost, all in£0
Skill neededchat-fluent
Who has to check ityou
What the alternative costsThe available sources do not provide a price for a customs adviser or filing service.
If this goes wrong: incorrect business or customs information can delay import activity and leave you responsible for correcting the application.
What to actually do
Hand it to a person
The route this page recommends
A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.
Use a tool built for this
Second choiceDo it yourself
The distant thirdA chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.
How to actually do it
- Open the current GOV.UK page for applying for an EORI number and keep it beside a chat with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- Gather your business registration details, legal and trading names, business address, contact details, VAT details if applicable, and a short description of the customs activity you expect to carry out.
- Paste the prompt into the chatbot and answer its questions using your business records, refusing any request for passwords, access codes or unnecessary personal data.
- Ask the chatbot to identify every answer that depends on your legal business status, VAT position or planned customs activity, then confirm those answers against GOV.UK and your records.
- Open the official GOV.UK EORI application, enter the confirmed details yourself, and compare each field with the checklist before continuing.
- Read the declaration and application summary, correct any mismatch, submit the application yourself, and save the confirmation or EORI number with your business records.
Prompt
Help me prepare, but do not submit, an application for a UK business EORI number. Use the current GOV.UK EORI guidance and tell me to check it myself rather than relying on memory. Ask me only for the information needed for the application, including my business type, legal business name, trading names if relevant, registered or business address, contact details, VAT or other registration details if applicable, and the customs activities I expect to carry out. Do not invent, infer or guess any detail. Produce: 1. a clear checklist of information I need to gather, 2. a question-by-question draft showing where each answer belongs, 3. a list of answers that need confirmation against GOV.UK or my business records, and 4. step-by-step instructions for opening the official GOV.UK EORI application, entering the answers, checking the declaration and submitting it myself. Flag anything that may need a customs adviser. Do not ask me to paste passwords, access codes or unnecessary personal data.
Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.
What it gets wrong
- AI cannot access your government account or securely submit the application on your behalf.
- AI cannot know whether your business details, VAT position or customs activity have changed since the information it was trained on.
- AI cannot take responsibility for an incorrect declaration or any resulting customs delay.
- AI cannot resolve an unusual ownership, registration or import arrangement without a customs adviser interpreting the facts.
What caps this at PARTLY: legal accountability, private data access and judgement under ambiguity.
How we scored this
Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.
| Axis | Score (0–2) |
|---|---|
| Output | 1 |
| Inputs | 1 |
| Verification | 1 |
| Liability | 0 |
| Effort delta | 1 |
| Total | 4 / 10 |
The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.
FAQ
- Can ChatGPT apply for an EORI number for me?
- No, it cannot complete the government service or take responsibility for the information submitted. It can prepare the answers and guide you through the GOV.UK application, but you must enter and submit the details yourself.
- What information do I need to apply for a business EORI number?
- You generally need current business identity, address and contact details, together with relevant VAT or registration information and details of your customs activity. Use the current GOV.UK application as the source of the required fields, then use AI to organise your answers without guessing.
- Is it safe to use AI for an EORI application?
- It is suitable for organising information and explaining the application, provided you check every answer against GOV.UK and your business records. Do not paste passwords, access codes or unnecessary personal data, and remember that this is not professional advice. A serious or unusual case should go to a customs adviser or solicitor.
- How long does it take to apply for a business EORI number with AI?
- AI can produce a preparation checklist in about fifteen minutes, with roughly thirty minutes to check it against GOV.UK and complete the application. The time depends on whether your business details and customs circumstances are already clear.
Nearby answers
- Can AI change my Companies House registered office?PARTLY
- Can AI complete my UK corporation tax return?NO
- Can AI file my company annual accounts?NO
- Can AI file my PAYE Full Payment Submission?PARTLY
- Can AI prepare my company annual accounts for Companies House?NO
- Can AI register my business with the ICO?PARTLY
Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.
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