Reference guide
Global Organic Textile Standard

What it certifies, and how to check anyone’s

GOTS certifies organic fibre content plus environmental and social criteria across the entire supply chain. This guide explains what it does and does not cover, and gives you a tool for checking any certificate against the issuing body — including the check that caught an error in one of ours.

  • 95%+ “Organic” certified organic fibre
  • 70–94% “Made with Organic” identical process criteria
Check a certificate Start with the basics
The tool

Check a certificate yourself

Paste any certification number you have been shown — GOTS, OEKO-TEX, GRS or OCS — and this walks you through the four checks that decide whether it supports the claim it is attached to: is it current, does its scope cover the product, who holds it, and is it in date. Every answer comes from the issuing body, not from us.

Certificate checker Routes you to the issuing body — it does not validate anything itself

Nothing is sent anywhere. The number stays in your browser — this tool reads its format to work out which register to send you to.

The standard

What GOTS actually certifies

GOTS is the Global Organic Textile Standard. It certifies that a textile contains a minimum percentage of organic fibre and that every processing stage — ginning, spinning, knitting, dyeing, cutting and sewing — met environmental and social criteria, verified by annual on-site inspection. It is a processing standard, not a label you can buy.

It covers the whole chain

Most textile labels certify one thing at one point. GOTS follows the material from raw fibre to finished garment, and every facility that handles it has to be certified independently. A break anywhere in that chain breaks the claim.

It restricts chemical inputs

Dyes and processing auxiliaries have to meet requirements on toxicity and biodegradability, and certain substance classes are prohibited outright. Wastewater treatment is mandatory at wet processing sites.

It includes social criteria

Based on ILO conventions: no child labour, no forced labour, safe conditions, freedom of association, and wages meeting at least the legal or industry minimum. This is unusual — most fibre standards are silent on labour.

It is audited annually

Certification is not permanent. Facilities are inspected on site at least once a year by an accredited certification body, and certificates carry an expiry date. That date is why checking a number matters more than recognising a logo.

The two grades, and why the difference matters

A garment can be GOTS certified at either of two levels. Both meet identical environmental and social criteria — the only difference is how much of the fibre is organic. Brands routinely collapse the two, and it is the most common way an accurate certification is used to imply something stronger than it says.

95%+

“Organic”

At least 95% certified organic fibre. The remaining share may be non-organic natural or synthetic fibre under strict conditions.

This is the grade most people picture when they see the word organic.

70–94%

“Made with Organic”

At least 70% certified organic fibre. Common for blends where a technical fibre — recycled polyester, elastane — is doing a job cotton cannot.

Equally genuine, equally audited, and a different claim. Below 70%, GOTS does not apply at all.

What to watch for. A brand selling both 100% organic cotton tees and an 80% cotton blend may describe the whole range as “GOTS certified”, which is true, while implying the higher grade throughout, which is not. If a range spans both, an honest page says which product sits where.

The boundary

What GOTS does not cover

GOTS does not test the finished textile for harmful substances, does not measure water or carbon, does not certify the brand selling the garment, and a scope certificate does not prove that a specific item you received was made under it. Each of those gaps is routinely filled with an assumption.

Harmful-substance testing of the finished product
GOTS controls which chemical inputs may be used during processing. Testing the finished textile for residues is a different standard — OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 — and holding one says nothing about the other.
Water and carbon figures
GOTS certification produces no lifecycle data. Any “uses 91% less water” figure attached to a GOTS product comes from a separate study, usually of a different supply chain, and is not something the certificate establishes.
The brand
Certificates belong to named legal entities, usually mills, processors and garment suppliers. A brand can be a certified entity, but many that say “we are GOTS certified” mean their supplier is. Both are legitimate; only one of them is what was said.
Your specific garment
A scope certificate shows a company is certified to handle these materials for these product types. Most state on their face that they are not proof that delivered goods are certified. That requires a transaction certificate for the specific shipment, which most brands never see and almost none publish.
Absence of all pesticides
Organic agriculture prohibits synthetic pesticides. It permits certain naturally-derived ones. “Zero pesticides” therefore claims more than the certification supports; “grown without synthetic pesticides” is the accurate form.

Standard documentation and the searchable register of certified companies are published by GOTS at global-standard.org and the public database. GOTS notes that a database entry is not itself definitive proof — the scope certificate is.

Worked example

We ran this check on ourselves and failed it

In September 2026 we checked every certificate on our own site against the issuing bodies. One had been published for a long time, was completely genuine, was current, and did not cover our product. It failed on step two — the scope check — which is exactly the step this page tells you almost nobody runs.

  1. 1

    What we were publishing, and no longer do

    Our organic cotton tee carried OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certificate No. 1112055, issued by Centexbel. We have since removed that number — it was the wrong certificate for this product, for the reason set out in step three. It came from our fulfilment partner’s catalogue, where it still appears today.

  2. 2

    Step one passed

    The register returned valid. Real certificate, real issuing body, in date, belonging to our actual blank supplier. On a status check alone, it looked clean — and a status check is where most verification stops.

  3. 3

    Step two failed

    The scope text was gated on articles with total recycled content above 20%. Our tee is 100% organic cotton with none. The certificate was genuine and covered a fabric we do not use, so it was never evidence about this product.

  4. 4

    What we did

    Replaced it with certificate No. 2012163, from the same holder and issuer, whose scope expressly covers knitted T-shirts made of 100% cotton. Removed a second certificate from our tote entirely, because that one had expired and no supplier published a replacement. Then published both removals with dates and reasons.

A certificate can be real, current, and about something else.

The full account — including what our suppliers still publish that we could not verify, and the three errors that were ours rather than theirs — is on the product transparency page. What each standard covers across our range is on the certifications page. Design Delight Studio holds no certifications of its own; all of them belong to our suppliers, which is itself the third check in the tool above.

Pattern recognition

Nine things worth a second look

None of these proves a brand is lying. Each is a sign that a claim is doing more work than its evidence supports, and each is checkable in a couple of minutes using the tool above. The most common by far is the first one.

A logo with no number

Certificates have numbers. A logo on its own is a picture of a certificate, and it is the single most common substitute for one.

“We are certified”

Ask who holds it. If the answer is a mill or a garment supplier, the brand is describing an audit that is not theirs. Legitimate — if they say so.

Unnamed standards

“Eco-friendly”, “sustainable” and “conscious” have no auditable definition. GOTS, GRS, OCS and OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 do.

One grade claimed across a mixed range

If some products are 100% organic cotton and others are blends, the higher grade cannot apply to all of them. An honest page says which is which.

Borrowed statistics

Litres of water saved, percentage better than conventional. Ask which study, on whose supply chain. Certification produces no such numbers.

A certificate that does not match the product

The scope check. A valid certificate for a different fabric, fibre or article type is not evidence about the thing you are buying.

Standards used interchangeably

Organic content and harmful-substance testing are different questions with different certificates. So are factory-labour audit memberships and consumer trade certifications.

No expiry date anywhere

Certification is annual. A brand that never mentions dates may not be tracking them, and an expired certificate supports nothing.

A page with no corrections

Any brand publishing detailed claims over years has got something wrong. A page that has never been corrected is either very new or not being checked.

Questions

GOTS, answered plainly

These cover what GOTS certification means, the two grades and the fibre thresholds, how to verify a licence, what GOTS does not test for, how it differs from OEKO-TEX and OCS, what a scope certificate proves, and how often certification is renewed.

What does GOTS certified actually mean?
That a textile contains at least 70% certified organic fibre and that every processing stage — from ginning through to cutting and sewing — met GOTS environmental and social criteria, verified by annual on-site inspection. Every facility handling the material has to be independently certified; a break anywhere in the chain breaks the claim.
What is the difference between “Organic” and “Made with Organic”?
Organic fibre content, and nothing else. “Organic” requires 95% or more. “Made with Organic” requires 70 to 94%, which is common where a technical fibre such as recycled polyester or elastane is doing a job cotton cannot. Both meet identical environmental and social criteria. Below 70%, GOTS does not apply at all.
How do I verify a GOTS licence number?
Search it in the GOTS public database, which lists certified entities with their certification body, scope and validity dates. Then do the part most people skip: read the scope and confirm it covers the product category and fibre composition you are looking at. GOTS itself notes that a database entry is not definitive proof — the scope certificate is.
Does GOTS test the finished garment for harmful chemicals?
No. GOTS controls which chemical inputs may be used during processing, which is a real and auditable constraint, but testing the finished textile for residues is a different standard — OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100. Holding one tells you nothing about the other, and the two are frequently presented as though they were interchangeable.
What is the difference between GOTS and OCS?
GOTS certifies the whole production process — organic content plus environmental and social criteria — and requires a minimum 70% organic fibre. OCS, the Organic Content Standard, does one narrower job: it verifies and tracks the percentage of organic material through the supply chain, with no processing or labour criteria attached. Many products carry both: GOTS for process integrity, OCS for content proof.
Can a brand be GOTS certified?
A brand can be a certified entity, and many are not. Certificates belong to named legal entities — usually mills, processors and garment suppliers. When a brand says “we are GOTS certified”, it is worth asking whose name is on the certificate. If it is a supplier's, that is perfectly legitimate, and the honest form is to say which supplier holds it.
Does a certificate prove my specific garment is certified?
Usually not. A scope certificate shows a company is certified to handle those materials for those product categories, and most state on their face that they are not proof that delivered goods are certified. That requires a transaction certificate covering the specific shipment. Most brands never see one and almost none publish them, which is worth knowing before you ask.
Can a valid certificate still not cover the product?
Yes, and it is the failure almost nobody checks for. Every certificate carries a scope describing which articles, fibres and constructions it applies to. A certificate can be entirely genuine, current, and issued to the right company, while covering a fabric the product is not made from. We found exactly that in one of our own — the worked example on this page.
How often is GOTS certification renewed?
Annually. Certification bodies inspect on site at least once a year and certificates carry an expiry date, so a claim that was true two years ago may not be true now. This is why a number you can check beats a logo you can only look at.
Does GOTS mean no pesticides at all?
No. Organic agriculture prohibits synthetic pesticides and permits certain naturally-derived ones. “Zero pesticides” therefore claims more than the certification supports. The accurate phrasing is “grown without synthetic pesticides”, and a brand using the stronger version is either not reading its own certification or hoping you will not.
Does GOTS certification mean lower water or carbon use?
GOTS produces no lifecycle data, so it establishes no such figure. Where you see “uses 91% less water” attached to a GOTS product, that number comes from a separate study — usually of a different supply chain — and the certificate is not its source. Ask which study, and of what.
Where can I see Design Delight Studio’s certifications?
On the certifications page, which lists what each standard covers and which product holds what, and the product transparency page, which documents every blank with its certificate numbers and the questions still open with our suppliers. Design Delight Studio holds no certifications of its own — all of them are held by our suppliers, and we name which. The commitment behind that is on the organic promise page.

GOTS certifies organic fibre content plus environmental and social criteria across the whole supply chain, at two grades: 95% or more organic fibre for “Organic”, 70 to 94% for “Made with Organic”. It does not test the finished textile for harmful substances, and a scope certificate is not proof that a specific garment is certified. Any claim worth trusting comes with a number you can check in the issuing body’s own database — and checking the scope, not just the status, is the step that catches the most.