Regular-issue license plates for passenger vehicles typically have 5-7 characters, with specialty or vanity plates having up to 8 characters in some states. This article describes the designs and serial formats for regular-issue plates.

There’s the basic plate for cars, which now starts with the number 6 followed by three letters and three numbers. There are plates for pickups, panel vans and other “commercial” vehicles that start with a number, then a letter and five numbers.

Free California License Plate Lookup. You can either lookup by license plate or by VIN. For vehicles registered in the state of California, you can run a free California license plate lookup to get everything you need to know about the vehicle.

Character Requirements. You can choose any combination of letters and numbers with a limit of six digits or seven digits, depending on the character length you need.

15 digits
The MV File Number for each vehicle has 15 digits, which are based on where the initial registration of the vehicle was carried out. (e.g. MV File # 1301-00000012345 registered in NCR).

The number zero (0) cannot be used; only the letter “O” is acceptable. The number one must be shown as “1.” The letter “I” must be shown “I.”

California license plates are numbered sequentially, so by the license plate number you can get a general idea of when the car was registered. For example, a license plate starting with 4 is older than one starting with 8. There are also different numbering systems for different types of vehicles.

Certain types of plates (personalized environmental, special recognition, or special interest) can be reassigned to another vehicle upon request by the owner and payment of appropriate fees. Automobile, commercial, and trailer license plates are 12″ x 6″. Motorcycle license plates 7″ x 4″ (plates issued prior to July 1, 1970, are 8″ x 5″).

CALIFORNIA embossed at top, graphic of the Liberty Bell (in red) separating the numbers and “US” with blue screened 1791 BILL OF RIGHTS 1991 at the bottom. This is one of the rarest plates in California.

1982 – standard plate changed to a white background with blue characters with a sun graphic and “California” in red block letters. Last year any blue/yellow plates were issued. 1987 – reflectorized plates with “California” in red block letters were issued.