Patient Safety · GPhC Verification
How to check if an online pharmacy is GPhC registered
Four checks you can do in under five minutes — before you pay, or share any medical information.
Any website can claim to be a registered pharmacy. The GPhC (General Pharmaceutical Council) is the regulator that licences online pharmacies in Great Britain — but the licence number on a site’s footer means nothing unless you check it yourself on the official register.
This guide walks you through four independent checks. You do not need an account, a login, or any specialist knowledge. Each step takes about a minute.
01
Look for the EU/UK common logo
Every legitimate online pharmacy operating in Great Britain must display the EU/UK common logo — a green cross with a flag — on every page. The logo must be a clickable link, not a static image. If you can’t click it, or it leads anywhere other than a regulator’s register, treat that as a failure.
Where to look: the footer of the pharmacy’s website, usually bottom-left or near the address and registration number.
✓ Pass — Logo is present, clickable, and opens an official regulator register (gphc.org, regulatedrx.org.uk, or psni.org.uk).
✗ Fail — Logo missing, not clickable, links to a non-regulator page, or produces a 404 error.
02
Follow the logo link to the GPhC register
Click the logo. It should take you directly to a page on gphc.org (or, for Northern Ireland, psni.org.uk) showing that specific pharmacy’s registration entry. You are looking for three things on that page:
- Status: must say Registered — not suspended, not lapsed, not removed.
- Name: the registered pharmacy name must match (or clearly relate to) the website you are looking at.
- Address: a real UK address should be listed. A PO box alone is a yellow flag.
✓ Pass — GPhC entry loads, status is Registered, name matches the site, UK address is shown.
✗ Fail — Link goes to GPhC homepage (not the specific entry), status is anything other than Registered, or no address is listed.
03
Cross-check the registration number directly
Don’t rely only on the logo link — that link could theoretically point to any entry. Take the registration number shown on the pharmacy’s website and search for it independently at gphc.org/registers. You should arrive at the same entry the logo pointed you to.
If the registration number on the site does not return any result on GPhC’s own search — or returns a different pharmacy entirely — that is a serious warning sign and should stop you from proceeding.
✓ Pass — Independent search on gphc.org returns the same pharmacy, same status, same address as the logo link.
✗ Fail — Registration number not found, returns a different pharmacy, or the number format is not a valid GPhC reference.
04
Confirm the domain matches
Clone sites copy the appearance of legitimate pharmacies and sometimes even copy their GPhC registration number. The final check is simple: the domain name in the GPhC register entry must match the domain you are actually browsing on.
Look at the address bar in your browser. Look at the website address listed in the GPhC register entry. They must be the same domain — not a near-lookalike with a different TLD (e.g. .org instead of .co.uk), an added word, or a slightly different spelling.
✓ Pass — Domain in your browser bar is an exact match for the domain listed in the GPhC register entry.
✗ Fail — Any difference in spelling, TLD, subdomain, or added word. Even a single character difference should stop you.
Six red flags even before you check the register
These do not replace the four steps above, but any one of them is reason to pause before going further.
No clinical questionnaire
You can add a prescription-only medicine to a basket without completing any medical assessment.
Unusually low price
Pricing significantly below every verified pharmacy on the market is a common sign of counterfeit product.
No UK address or phone number
Legitimate registered pharmacies must have a verifiable physical premises in Great Britain on the GPhC register.
Discovered via social media
A high proportion of counterfeit GLP-1 medication is sold through Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram rather than a registered website.
Payment by bank transfer only
Regulated pharmacies accept card payments through standard payment processors. Requests for bank transfer or cryptocurrency remove your ability to dispute the transaction.
No prescriber named or evidenced
You should be able to find out who is signing your prescription. If the provider refuses to name or evidence its prescribing clinicians, that is a hard stop.
Check any pharmacy on the GPhC register
The official register is free, public, and requires no account. Search by name or registration number.
PenCompare runs the same four checks above on every provider before it appears in our directory. Our methodology is explained in full on the How We Verify Providers page.