The company chop: what it is, what goes on it, and how to make one
29 August 2026 · Estamplab
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A company chop is not simply a Chinese word for a company stamp. In practice it is closer to the company's signature: whoever holds the chop can commit the company, and a contract bearing it is generally treated as authorised whether or not the person who pressed it had permission. That is the part people new to doing business in the region underestimate, and it is why chop custody is a governance question rather than a stationery one.
Chop layouts you can open and edit, in the square red form the region expects:
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Worth saying plainly before anything else. In mainland China a legally effective company chop (公章) is registered with the Public Security Bureau and produced by a licensed maker. That is not something a design tool can substitute for. What this page covers is the layout, and the electronic version used on scanned contracts, quotations and internal paperwork, which is now most of what a chop touches. Producing a mark in another organisation's name is forgery, and the terms here prohibit it.
Why the chop outranks the signature
In western practice the signature binds and the company stamp identifies. Across much of East Asia the relationship is reversed: the chop binds, and an individual signature beside it is often secondary.
The practical consequences follow from that:
- A supplier will ask for the chop on a contract, not a signature.
- The chop is normally held by one named person and released against a log.
- Losing control of a chop is a serious incident, not an inconvenience.
- A chopped scan is routinely accepted where a western counterparty would want a wet signature.
A company holds several chops, not one
This surprises people expecting a single stamp. A mainland Chinese company typically has a set, each with its own scope:
- The company chop (公章), round and red, the general-purpose one with the widest authority.
- The contract chop (合同章), used for commercial agreements, often delegated so the main chop stays locked away.
- The finance chop (财务章), for banking, cheques and tax filings, usually held by the finance office.
- The invoice or fapiao chop (发票章), for tax invoices specifically.
- The legal representative chop, a small personal chop belonging to the named legal representative.
Which one goes on a document is not a formality: using the wrong chop is how a payment instruction gets rejected.
What is on a Chinese company chop
- The company's full registered name, exactly as on the business licence, curving around the outer ring. Character for character.
- The unified social credit code, or on some layouts a chop registration number. This is the only line the other party can verify, so it is the one not to shrink.
- A five-pointed star in the centre, the conventional device on a company chop.
- The chop type where it is a specialised one: 合同专用章 for contracts, 财务专用章 for finance.
Round, red, and typically 38mm to 42mm across. The combination of round plus red is itself the signal that says "official", which is why a blue rectangular mark reads as foreign on a Chinese document.
Chop templates to edit
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Open one in the company chop maker, replace the placeholder text with your own company name, and download it. There is also a Chinese seal page and a China company chop page with the local conventions.
The regional variations
Hong Kong uses both a chop and a signature, and a company chop there is often rectangular and in English or bilingual, carrying the company name and sometimes the business registration number. It has less of the binding force the mainland chop carries. Hong Kong company chop.
Japan uses the hanko or inkan. The company version, the kaisha-in, is round with the company name around the outside and the title of the office holder inside. The registered one, the jitsuin, is filed with the local authority and used for significant contracts, with a bank seal and a day-to-day seal alongside it. Japan company seal.
Korea uses the dojang, with the registered corporate seal filed at the court registry. South Korea company seal.
Taiwan uses a company chop plus a separate representative's chop, and both are commonly required together on the same document.
India uses a round company seal rather than a chop, with a denser multi-ring style. India seal.
Why the electronic version matters here more than elsewhere
Cross-border trade with the region runs on scanned documents. A contract is chopped, scanned and emailed; a quotation goes out as a PDF; a purchase order comes back with a chop on the last page. Almost none of it stays on paper long enough for the physical object to be the thing anybody sees.
For that traffic the practical requirement is a mark that sits on a PDF as ink rather than as a white box. Design it here, download the transparent PNG, and place it, or use the stamp on a PDF tool, which processes the file in your own browser and uploads it nowhere. If you also need the physical chop, take the SVG to a licensed maker: a vector file cuts far more cleanly than a photograph.
Common questions
What is a company chop?
A company's official seal, used across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Unlike a western company stamp it generally carries authority to bind the company, so a contract bearing the chop is treated as authorised.
Is a company chop legally binding in China?
A registered company chop carries substantial legal weight, and documents bearing it are generally treated as authorised acts of the company. The registered chop itself is filed with the authorities and produced by a licensed maker, so check any specific requirement with the counterparty or the relevant authority.
What colour is a Chinese company chop?
Red, almost without exception, and round. Red ink paste has a long history in Chinese sealing practice and the red circle is now the visual signal of officialdom. Western business stamps are usually blue instead, for a different reason: blue distinguishes an original from a black-and-white photocopy at a glance.
What is the difference between a company chop and a company seal?
Mostly the region and the authority. A company seal in western practice identifies the company and does not by itself execute anything. A chop generally binds. The words get used interchangeably in English, which is where the confusion starts.
How many chops does a Chinese company need?
Typically several: a general company chop, a contract chop, a finance chop and an invoice chop, sometimes plus a legal representative's chop. Splitting them is a control, so one lost chop does not expose everything.
Can I make a company chop online?
You can design the layout and produce the electronic version used on scans and day-to-day paperwork, which is what this tool does. A registered chop for official use in mainland China has to come from a licensed maker after filing.
What is a hanko?
The Japanese equivalent, also called an inkan. A company's registered hanko, the jitsuin, is filed with the local authority and used for important contracts; less formal seals handle everyday paperwork and banking.
Read next: company stamps around the world, and corporate stamps and seals.