What a VIN tells you

A VIN tells you who built a vehicle, what kind of vehicle it is, its model year, the plant that built it and its own serial number. VIN stands for vehicle identification number. Each VIN is assigned to one vehicle.

A VIN does not tell you a car’s history, condition or value by itself. Those come from records that are linked to the VIN, such as titles, listings and auction sales.

The 17-character format

Vehicles from the 1981 model year on use a 17-character VIN. Older vehicles have shorter numbers that follow each manufacturer’s own rules.

A VIN uses the digits 0 to 9 and the letters of the alphabet except I, O and Q. Those three letters are left out because they look too much like 1 and 0.

You find the VIN on the dashboard at the bottom of the windshield, on the driver’s door jamb, and on the title and registration.

Characters 1–3: who built it

The first three characters are the world manufacturer identifier, or WMI. They name the company that built the vehicle and, through the first character, the region.

For example, a first character of 1, 4 or 5 means the vehicle was built in the United States. A 2 means Canada and a 3 means Mexico. A J means Japan, a K means South Korea and a W means Germany.

Characters 4–8: what it is

Characters 4 to 8 describe the vehicle. They usually encode the model, body style, engine type and restraint system.

Each manufacturer decides what these codes mean. That is why a VIN decoder needs the manufacturer’s own tables to read them.

Character 9: the check digit

In North America, the 9th character is a check digit. It is calculated from the other 16 characters with a fixed formula.

If a single character is mistyped, the check digit usually no longer fits. Our free VIN check tests the check digit first, so a typo is caught right away.

Character 10: the model year

The 10th character is the model year code. The codes use letters and digits in a cycle that repeats every 30 years.

Recent codes are: L = 2020, M = 2021, N = 2022, P = 2023, R = 2024, S = 2025, T = 2026, V = 2027. The letters I, O, Q, U and Z and the digit 0 are never used for the year.

Because the cycle repeats, the same letter can mean two years 30 years apart. For cars and light trucks built for North America, a letter in the 7th position usually means the 2010 model year or later.

The model year is not always the calendar year the car was built. A 2026 model can roll off the line in 2025.

Characters 11–17: plant and serial number

The 11th character names the assembly plant. Each manufacturer keeps its own list of plant codes.

Characters 12 to 17 are the production serial number. They make the VIN unique among vehicles of the same make, model and year.

What a VIN cannot tell you

A VIN describes the vehicle as it was built, at the level of model, engine and body. Several important things are not in it.

• Most factory options. Packages, colors and many features are not encoded. The original window sticker lists them.
• History. Title brands, accidents, auction sales and odometer readings are separate records linked to the VIN.
• Condition and value. What the car is worth depends on its mileage, condition and local market today.

This is why a VIN check is really a search. The VIN is the key; the answer comes from the records found under it.

How to use a VIN

Use the VIN to look up the original window sticker, a history report or the car’s market price.

• Look up a short summary of our records for free with the VIN lookup.
• Get title brands, auction records and photos, and odometer readings with Vehicle History Reports.
• Get the original sticker or build one with Window Sticker.
• Developers can call the free AI data API at /api/ai/vin/{vin}, limited to 30 VIN lookups an hour per IP.
• Browse VINs by manufacturer code in the VIN index.

For short definitions of VIN, check digit, trim and related terms, see the glossary.