Brazil's Receita Federal to issue alphanumeric CNPJ numbers from July 31 2026

The Receita Federal will begin issuing the Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica (CNPJ) in an alphanumeric format on 31 July 2026. The new identifier will still contain 14 characters, but the first 12 positions can include uppercase letters (A‑Z) as well as numbers, while the final two digits remain numeric verification codes. Existing CNPJs remain unchanged and will continue to be valid; both numeric and alphanumeric formats will coexist during the transition.

The change is intended to expand the pool of available identifiers, as roughly 69 million of the 100 million possible numeric combinations have already been used. New business registrations may receive a CNPJ with letters, though purely numeric numbers will still be issued while available. Companies, banks, public agencies and software providers are advised to update their databases, ERP systems, invoicing platforms and the NF‑e electronic‑invoice web service (which received version 1.40 of Technical Note 2014.002) to accept the alphanumeric format. No action is required from entities that already hold a CNPJ, but adaptations may involve implementation costs.