The certificate is the last step of the full registration procedure, and it exists only once the application in Form GST REG-01 is approved.
How to download your GST registration certificate from the GST Portal
Downloading the certificate takes about a minute on the official GST Portal, and the route runs from the login page to a saved PDF in five steps. The certificate is available only after login, because Form GST REG-06 is a private document tied to one account. Follow these five steps.
- Go to the official GST Portal at www.gst.gov.in and click Login at the top right.
- Login to the GST Portal with valid credentials, typing the characters you see in the image below.
- Navigate to the top menu and select Services > User Services > View/Download Certificates.
- Sort the list by Date of Issue and find the latest Form GST REG-06 row.
- Click the Download (downward arrow) icon in that row, and the certificate saves as a PDF to your device.
The certificates list is not reliably newest-first, so sort it by Date of Issue and take the latest rather than assume the top row is current; GSTN's own manual says the list displays in chronological order (Descending), and a live check of the portal on 25 August 2026 found three Form GST REG-06 rows in no such order. Every approved amendment issues a fresh Form GST REG-06, so the screen is your certificate history rather than a single file, and the certificate in force is the one with the latest Date of Issue. A screenshot of your dashboard is not the certificate: banks and marketplaces reject it, and only the Form GST REG-06 PDF counts.
That screen lists certificates generally rather than the registration certificate alone, and a GSTR7A TDS Certificate row appears in the same table, so read the Form No. column and look for GST REG-06. The four column headers, in order, are Form No., Form Description, Date of Issue and Download.
Can you download the GST certificate without logging in?
No login-free download of the GST registration certificate exists. The certificate is a private document tied to one account, and the GST Portal releases it only to the person who can log in to that account. The portal's public Search Taxpayer tool is where the confusion starts: a GSTIN or PAN search shows whether a registration is active and who holds it, and returns no PDF. A screenshot of the dashboard is not the certificate either. Where the login itself has been lost, the answer is recovery rather than a workaround, and the route is set out below.
| What you want to do | Which portal tool | Login needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Download your certificate PDF, Form GST REG-06 | The logged-in certificates screen reached at step 3 above | Yes. Only the account holder can download it. |
| Check whether a GST number is active, by GSTIN or PAN | Search Taxpayer, on the public side of the portal | No. Search Taxpayer shows status and legal name, never the certificate. |
Search Taxpayer answers a different question again from the pre-login Track Application Status screen, which reports where an application has reached and what each status value means.
What Form GST REG-06 contains
Form GST REG-06 is a multi-page PDF: a main certificate carrying a registration number and nine numbered fields, then Annexure A and Annexure B. The registration number is the GSTIN itself, and the nine fields run from Legal Name to Particulars of Approving, followed by a signature block ending in Date of issue of Certificate. Annexure A lists every additional place of business. Annexure B lists the proprietor, partners, Karta, directors or trustees, with photographs. Send every page when a bank, a marketplace or a client asks for the certificate, because an application bounced for an "incomplete certificate" is usually page 1 sent on its own. No blank Form GST REG-06 exists to fill in: the portal generates it from Form GST REG-01.
| Field on Form GST REG-06 | What it holds | The common misreading |
|---|---|---|
| Registration Number `<GSTIN/UIN>` | The 15-character GSTIN assigned on approval, printed against the label Registration Number : with a space before the colon: 2 characters for the State code, 10 for the PAN or TAN, 2 for the entity code and 1 checksum character, under Rule 10(1). | That a GSTIN belongs to a business: a GSTIN belongs to one PAN in one State, so the same PAN registered in three States holds three certificates. |
| 1. Legal Name | The name of the person or entity exactly as held against the PAN, which Rule 8(2)(a) has the portal validate against the CBDT database. | That the legal name is the brand: a proprietor's legal name is the individual's own name, never the firm's. |
| 2. Trade Name, if any | The name the business trades under where it differs from the legal name. | That a blank Trade Name is a defect: the form's own words are "if any". |
| 3. Additional trade names, if any | A separate numbered field for further trade names beyond the one at field 2, carried on the certificate's face and repeated on Annexure A. | That a business gets one trade name: the form provides a numbered field for the rest, and almost no published guide reproduces it. |
| 4. Constitution of Business | The legal form of the entity: proprietorship, partnership, LLP, company, HUF, trust, society and so on. | That constitution can always be fixed by amendment: Rule 19(1)(d) requires a fresh registration where the change alters the PAN. |
| 5. Address of Principal Place of Business | The single address from which the business is principally carried on in that State, broken into the form's own sub-labels Building No./Flat No.:, Name Of Premises/Building:, Road/Street:, Locality/Sub Locality:, City/Town/Village:, District:, State: and PIN Code:. | That additional places appear here: they appear on Annexure A, and each carries its own Rule 18 duty. |
| 6. Date of Liability | The date on which the person became liable to be registered. | Reading this as the date from which GST may be charged; Rule 10(2) makes registration effective from this date only where the application was submitted within 30 days of it, and Rule 10(3) moves the effective date to the grant date where it was later. |
| 7. Date of Validity: `From` / `To` | A From date always; for a regular registration the To box prints the literal words `Not Applicable`, and a real end date appears only for a casual taxable person or a non-resident taxable person. | That a certificate showing nothing useful under To is incomplete: the form prints Not Applicable, not a blank or a dash, because a regular registration does not expire. |
| 8. Type of Registration | The taxpayer category under which registration was granted, matching the category applied for in Form GST REG-01, and the field beside which the certificate's QR code is printed. | That every registered supplier can charge GST on an invoice: a composition taxpayer cannot, and this field is where a customer's accounts team finds out, as the page on types of GST registration explains. |
| QR code (beside field 8) | A machine-readable code printed on the certificate's face next to Type of Registration. | That the certificate carries no QR code: it does, and almost no published guide documents it. |
| 9. Particulars of Approving | Centre or State, plus the particulars of the approving officer; the form's label stops at "Approving", with no "Authority" after it, and which of the two administers you is the subject of Centre and State jurisdiction. | That an unsigned-looking certificate is invalid: Rule 10(4) allows signature *or* verification through electronic verification code. |
| Signature block | Below field 9: Signature, then Name, Designation, Jurisdictional Office and Date of issue of Certificate. | Treating the date of issue as the date registration took effect: Rule 10(2) and Rule 10(3) fix that, and neither refers to the date of issue. |
| Annexure A | Details of Additional Place of Business(s), repeating Legal Name, Trade Name, if any and Additional trade names, if any, then Total Number of Additional Places of Business(s) in the State and each address. | That page 1 is the whole certificate, or that Annexure A is omitted when there are no additional places: it is printed even when the count is zero. |
| Annexure B | For each proprietor, partner, Karta, director, member or trustee: name, photograph, designation or status, and resident State, for up to 10 persons. | That Annexure B names the authorised signatory: the primary authorised signatory is a separate portal role, often but not always the same person. |
(Amended) prints at the top right when the certificate is one issued following an approved amendment, so a practitioner reading a client's certificate can tell at a glance whether it is the original grant or a post-amendment reissue. The Signature block renders Signature Not Verified in most PDF viewers until the digital signature certificate chain is trusted on the reader's machine, which is not a defect and is not a reason to download the file again. The form's masthead runs Government of India, Form GST REG-06, [See Rule 10(1)], Registration Certificate and Registration Number :, and that citation, Rule 10(1), is printed on the certificate's own face.
The certificate closes with two strings of its own:
Note: The registration certificate is required to be prominently displayed at all places of Business/Office(s) in the State.This is a system generated digitally signed Registration Certificate issued based on the approval of application granted on <date> by the jurisdictional authority.Where you must display the GST registration certificate
Rule 18(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017 (the Rules, not the Act) requires the registration certificate to be displayed in a prominent location at the principal place of business and at every additional place of business. Rule 18(2) requires the GSTIN to be displayed on the name board exhibited at the entry of each of those places. Form GST REG-06 carries the duty on its own face: "Note: The registration certificate is required to be prominently displayed at all places of Business/Office(s) in the State." Rule 18 prescribes no penalty of its own. Section 125 of the CGST Act, 2017 supplies a general penalty of up to ₹25,000 for a contravention for which no penalty is separately provided.
The ₹25,000 is an inference from the statutory scheme rather than a documented enforcement practice: Rule 18 prescribes no penalty, and no CBIC instruction, circular or reported decision quantifying a Rule 18 contravention was traced as at 24 August 2026, so the provisions in full should be read before relying on the figure either way. Rule 18(2) is the requirement a visiting officer verifies from the street before entering, and it applies at every address listed on Annexure A.
Does a GST registration certificate expire?
A regular GST registration certificate does not expire. Form GST REG-06 proves it on its own face: field 7 is Date of Validity, and on a regular registration the To box prints the literal words "Not Applicable", not a blank and not a dash. A real end date appears there only for a casual taxable person or a non-resident taxable person. Section 27(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 makes that certificate valid for the period specified in the application for registration, or 90 days from the effective date of registration, whichever is earlier. The proper officer may extend the 90 days by a further period not exceeding 90 days, applied for in Form GST REG-11 under Rule 15 before the current validity ends. A regular registration has no renewal and no renewal fee; a regular registration stands until it is cancelled under section 29 or surrendered.
No rule prescribes a fresh registration certificate on a Rule 15 extension: Rule 10(1) issues Form GST REG-06 only on approval under rule 9, rule 9A or rule 14A, and Rule 15 is not among them. Whether the portal regenerates a certificate anyway is portal behaviour and is untested. Section 27(2) requires a casual taxable person to make an advance deposit of tax equal to the estimated liability for the period sought, which is why that registration is time-boxed at all.
How to recover lost GST login credentials
Recover a lost GST login from the Forgot Username and Forgot Password links on the portal's login page. The portal sends a one-time password to the mobile number and the email address registered against the account, and the password resets from there. Where a registration was approved but the first-time credentials never arrived, the pre-login Services > Registration > Track Application Status screen carries a click here hyperlink that resends those credentials by email and SMS. The hard case is a consultant's email or mobile still recorded on the account: the one-time password goes somewhere unreachable, and the fix runs through the jurisdictional office to change the authorised signatory.
Recovery restores access to the same GSTIN and the same certificate history, so nothing is re-issued and nothing is lost.
How an address change produces a fresh certificate
An approved address change produces a fresh Form GST REG-06, not an edit to the old one. A change of address, legal name, trade name, an added place of business, or a change of partners or directors is a core amendment, applied for in Form GST REG-14 within 15 days of the change under Rule 19(1). The proper officer approves a core amendment within 15 working days of receiving Form GST REG-14, and the approval order issues in Form GST REG-15. The new certificate then joins the certificates list alongside every earlier one, and it is identified by the latest Date of Issue rather than by its position in the list. Download the new certificate and replace every copy in circulation, including the copy on display at your premises.
The certificates screen is an amendment history that cannot be deleted, because a registered person holds one Form GST REG-06 row per approved amendment, which is exactly what the (Amended) header on the certificate face records and why a superseded certificate handed to a bank is caught immediately. Where the change relates to particulars other than legal name, principal or additional place of business, or partners and directors, Rule 19(1) proviso (c) has the certificate stand amended on submission of Form GST REG-14, with no officer approval at all.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download my GST certificate without logging in?
No login-free download of the GST registration certificate exists. The certificate is a private document tied to one account, and the GST Portal releases it only to the account holder. The public Search Taxpayer tool shows whether a GST number is active and who holds it, and returns no PDF. If the login itself is lost, recover it with Forgot Username or Forgot Password.
Can I download the GST certificate by GST number or PAN?
No. A GSTIN or PAN search on the portal returns the registrations held against that number and their status, and never the certificate file. Search Taxpayer is a public status tool, not a document tool. Form GST REG-06 is released only to the logged-in account holder, which is why a client or a bank must ask you for the PDF rather than look it up.
Is a physical GST registration certificate issued?
No physical GST registration certificate is ever issued. Rule 10(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017 requires the certificate in Form GST REG-06 to be made available to the applicant on the common portal, and nothing is printed, stamped or posted. Rule 10(4) has the proper officer sign it or verify it through electronic verification code, so the signature on the PDF is an electronic one.
Does a GST registration certificate expire?
A regular GST registration certificate does not expire, and there is no renewal and no renewal fee. Field 7 of Form GST REG-06 is Date of Validity, and on a regular registration the To box prints the words Not Applicable. Only a casual taxable person or a non-resident taxable person receives a real end date there. Section 27(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 makes that certificate valid for the period specified in the application, or 90 days from the effective date of registration, whichever is earlier.
Is there a blank Form GST REG-06 I can fill in?
No blank Form GST REG-06 exists to download and fill in. Form GST REG-06 is issued to you by the tax authorities once registration is approved, and the portal generates it from the details in your Form GST REG-01 application. The form you file is Form GST REG-01. Any site offering a fillable GST certificate template is not offering an official document.