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This content is designed for subscribers to the Pagos BIN Database only. If you’ve subscribed to multiple Pagos services, head over to our Getting Started with Pagos guide.
With the Pagos BIN Database, you can request detailed bank and market data for the payment cards your customers transact with. Submit a 6-10 digit bank identification number (BIN)—also known as an Issuer Identification number (IIN)—for a customer’s card and receive information about the card type and brand, the bank that issued it, and details of the market it was issued in, such as currency, country, and time zone. BIN data can help you better understand both your customers and their preferred payment cards. With this added context, you can design and implement a payments strategy that benefits your bottom line and improves the checkout experience for your customers!

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Request BIN Data From the Pagos APIs

Pagos provides multiple APIs for accessing our BIN data tools:

BIN Data API

Submit a BIN to our simple REST API and receive a JSON object back containing known details for that BIN! All Pagos BIN Database subscribers can access the BIN Data API.

BIN Data Batch API

Use this file-based product to bulk retrieve BIN bank and market details via a file you add to your local database. To access the BIN Data Batch API, you must subscribe to the Batch BIN File add-on.

BIN Continuity API

Research the full history of a specific BIN, including when they were first seen in the network source files, last seen, and their current status.

BIN Benchmark API

Retrieve benchmark metrics for individual BINs (e.g. approval rate), calculated from the billions of transaction data points Pagos has ingested from merchants in our networks.
BIN Data API users can also query BIN data through AI agents using the Pagos MCP Server.

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Perform BIN Lookups Via the UI

A BIN search in Pagos.
Enter a 6-10 digit BIN, then click Lookup to query the BIN Data API directly from the Pagos Service Panel. The page will populate all available standard and enhanced data fields for that BIN in plain text. For a full list of the available data fields and their descriptions, see our BIN Data API Dictionary. Click a sample BIN to test out the lookup functionality quickly. If you have questions about the data returned for any given BIN, check out our BIN Data FAQ pages.

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Lookup with Benchmark

If your business opted in for data sharing with Pagos, you’ll have a second option available: Lookup with Benchmark. Click this button to perform a lookup that includes benchmark metrics for the given BIN, pulled from the billions of transaction data points we’ve ingested from our merchants. Use this data to see how your performance on a given BIN compares to that of the Pagos network. At this time, the available benchmark metrics include:
  • Approval rate for customer-initiated transactions (CITs)
  • Approval rate for merchant-initiated transactions (MITs)
Important Notes:
  • You’ll be charged for each BIN lookup that successfully returns benchmark data.
  • We may not have enough data for a given BIN to provide benchmark metrics. If we can’t provide benchmark data for the submitted BIN, you’ll receive lookup data only and will not face the additional benchmark charge.

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Review Your BIN API Metrics

To monitor and manage your usage of the BIN Data API, navigate to the BIN section of the Pagos Service Panel, then click the BIN API tab. This tab contains the following visuals:
  • Requests - The number of API requests you’ve made for Standard vs. Enhanced BIN data over the selected date range
  • Response Time - The response times for API requests made to for Standard vs. Enhanced BIN data over the selected date range
By default, these graphs contain data from the last seven days; to view historical data, use the Date Range filter.

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Download the BIN Data Batch File

To download a batch file of the most up-to-date BIN data pulled directly from the card networks, navigate to the BIN section of the Pagos Service Panel, then click the Batch tab.
Only subscribers to Batch BIN File add-on can download files from the Batch tab.
If you prefer to use the BIN Data Batch API to request these files, see the BIN Data Batch API Overview guide.