Interactive tool
Decode a VIN
Seventeen characters describe how a car was built. This reads them against the official NHTSA database and shows you exactly what the manufacturer reported — and what it did not.
How a VIN is put together
Characters 1–3
The World Manufacturer Identifier: who built the vehicle and where. This is why a decode can name the assembly plant.
Characters 4–9
The descriptor section — model line, body style, engine, restraint system — ending in the check digit that validates the whole number.
Characters 10–17
Model year, plant code and the serial number unique to that car. Letters I, O and Q never appear anywhere in a VIN, to keep them apart from 1 and 0.
The decode runs in your browser and sends the VIN directly to NHTSA's public vPIC API. Cars & Plates does not receive, log or store the VIN you type, and no account is needed. We hold no vehicle database of our own: everything shown in the result is NHTSA's record, displayed as returned.
Common questions
- Where does this data come from?
- The NHTSA vPIC database, queried live when you press Decode. vPIC is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s record of what each manufacturer reported for a given VIN pattern. Cars & Plates adds nothing to it and fills in nothing it leaves blank.
- Why are some fields empty?
- Because the manufacturer did not report them. Coverage varies by make, model year and country of assembly, and older vehicles carry less detail. An empty field is missing data, not a finding about the car.
- Is a VIN decode the same as a vehicle history report?
- No. Decoding a VIN tells you how the vehicle was built. It says nothing about accidents, title brands, odometer history, theft records or open recalls. For recalls, enter the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. For history, you need a paid report from a provider that aggregates title and insurance records.
- What is the check digit?
- The ninth character of a North American VIN is a checksum over the other sixteen, defined in 49 CFR 565.15. This page verifies it in your browser before sending anything, which catches most typos. A VIN that fails the check is usually mistyped rather than fake, and you can still decode it.
- Where do I find the VIN?
- On the driver’s-side dashboard, visible through the windshield; on the sticker inside the driver’s door jamb; and on your registration document, title and insurance card. All three should match.
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