A VAT search sounds like a directory and is not one. There is no public register you can browse by trade, by town or by company name, and the reason is that a VAT registration is a tax record rather than a public listing. What exists is a lookup: you supply a number and get back whether it is registered. This page explains what that lookup returns, where the number itself is usually found, and what people are normally trying to do when they search for one.
A lookup, not a directory
HMRC's service is a one-way check. It takes a nine-digit VAT registration number and returns whether that number is registered, plus the registered name and address if the trader has consented. It will not take a company name, a postcode or a trading style and hand you a number back. Nothing official does. Sites that appear to offer a VAT search by name are matching against Companies House filings and their own scraped data, and neither is HMRC's record: a name match there is a starting point for a verification, not a substitute for one.
Where the number is, when you do not have it
A VAT-registered business must put its registration number on every invoice it raises, so the first place to look is the invoice, quote or receipt already in front of you. After that: the footer of their website, their terms of business, and any purchase order acknowledgement. If none of those carry it, ask. A supplier charging VAT has no reason to withhold the number, and a supplier who will not give it is the exact case a search is being run to catch.
The three reasons people run this search
Verifying a supplier before reclaiming the VAT on their invoice, which is the case this site is written for. Confirming a customer's number before applying the reverse charge or zero-rating a supply, where getting it wrong makes the VAT yours rather than theirs. And finding your own number again, usually because the registration certificate has gone missing. The first two are answered by the official lookup; the third is not, because you cannot look yourself up without the number you are trying to find.
Questions people ask about vat search
Is there a UK VAT number search by company name?
Not an official one. HMRC's service takes the number and returns the name; it does not work in the other direction. Third-party sites that offer a name search are matching their own data, not HMRC's register.
Is a VAT number search free?
Yes. GOV.UK's check a UK VAT number service is free and needs no account. Paid lookup services resell the same answer.
What does a UK VAT number look like?
Nine digits. Suppliers often print it with a GB prefix and spaces for readability, but the number itself is the nine digits, and that is what the lookup wants.