What is the difference between NAICS and CPV codes?

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) classifies businesses by industry and drives US and Canadian procurement, including SBA size standards and set-asides. CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) classifies the subject of a contract and drives EU procurement on TED. NAICS describes the supplier's industry; CPV describes what's being bought.

Is there a mapping between NAICS and CPV?

There's no official, clean one-to-one mapping. They're built on different logic — NAICS on the producer's industry, CPV on the procurement subject — so a supplier bidding both markets has to maintain both classifications for their offering.

What are PSC codes and how do they relate to NAICS?

PSC (Product Service Codes) describe what the US government is buying on a specific contract, while NAICS describes the industry of the supplier. Federal solicitations usually carry both: a NAICS code (which sets the small-business size standard) and a PSC code.

NAICS vs CPV Codes: Classifying Your Business Across Borders

Classification codes are how public buyers describe what they need and how you describe what you sell — and the two big systems don’t speak to each other. In North America it’s NAICS; in the EU it’s CPV. If you bid across the Atlantic, understanding both isn’t optional.

01 · What NAICS is

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) classifies businesses by their primary industry across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Codes are hierarchical — 2 digits for the sector down to 6 for the national industry — so 54 is Professional/Scientific/Technical Services and 541512 is Computer Systems Design Services.

In US federal procurement NAICS does real work beyond description: a solicitation’s NAICS code sets the SBA size standard that decides whether you count as a small business, which in turn governs set-asides. Federal notices usually also carry a PSC (Product Service Code)describing the specific thing being bought. See the US platforms guide for how these show up on SAM.gov.

02 · What CPV is

CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) classifies the subject of the contract— what’s being bought — with an 8-digit code plus a check digit, used across the EU and published on TED. It’s language-independent by design, so buyers in 27 member states tag the same thing the same way. The full breakdown is in the CPV codes explained guide.

03 · Why there's no clean mapping

The two systems are built on different logic. NAICS classifies the supplier’s industry; CPV classifies the procurement’s subject. One firm can map to a single NAICS code but many CPV codes (it sells several things), or vice versa. There is no official, reliable one-to-one crosswalk — which is why a supplier expanding from SAM.gov to TED can’t just “translate” its codes and expects to find the same opportunities.

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04 · Bidding on both sides of the Atlantic

The practical answer isn’t to memorise two code trees. It’s to define what you actually sell once, and let a matcher translate that into the codes each market uses. Adaptive tender matchingmaps your catalog to both NAICS and CPV and scores live notices by fit, so the same “what I do” surfaces opportunities in every connected market — from US federal contracts to German tenders — without you managing a code list at all.

NAICS vs CPV: classifying your business across borders

Stop maintaining two code lists.

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