If your business must issue e-invoices, a portal outage can stop billing. GSTN has set up several backups. Here's what's available and how to make sure your systems can switch over.
Six Invoice Registration Portals (IRPs)
IRNs can be generated on any of these:
| IRP | Address |
|---|---|
| NIC-IRP 1 | einvoice1.gst.gov.in |
| NIC-IRP 2 | einvoice2.gst.gov.in |
| Cygnet IRP | einvoice3.gst.gov.in |
| Clear IRP | einvoice4.gst.gov.in |
| EY IRP | einvoice5.gst.gov.in |
| IRIS IRP | einvoice6.gst.gov.in |
If NIC-IRP is down, you can use any of the others.
NIC-1 and NIC-2 work across each other
- NIC-1 services through NIC-2 APIs: send
irp: NIC1in the header to api.einvoice2.gst.gov.in. - NIC-2 services through NIC-1 APIs: send
irp: NIC2to api.einvoice1.gst.gov.in. - Supported across both: get IRN details, cancel IRN, get IRN by document details, generate e-way bill by IRN, get e-way bill by IRN.
One token for all NIC portals
An authentication token generated on any NIC portal (e-Invoice 1 or 2, e-Way Bill 1 or 2) works on all of them, so you don't need separate logins.
E-way bills too
Two e-way bill portals run in sync (see our E-Way Bill 2.0 guide). Fetching e-way bill details and updating Part-B work on both, through the API as well.
Invoice numbers are now case-insensitive
From 1 June 2025, IRPs treat invoice numbers as case-insensitive. "abc", "ABC" and "Abc" are all converted to upper case before the IRN is generated, matching how GSTR-1 already treats them. Make sure your numbering doesn't depend on upper versus lower case.
What to do now
- Ask your ERP, GSP or ASP whether failover to NIC-2 or another IRP is set up and tested.
- Test the switchover in the NIC sandbox.
- Keep a written note for your billing team of what to do when a portal is down.
