VIN checker
A VIN is 17 characters and never uses the letters I, O and Q, so none can be mistaken for 1 or 0. Here we check its structure, split its three blocks, and recompute the 9th-position check digit — mandatory in North America only.
17 characters, no I, O or Q. Dashes and spaces are ignored.
How the check works
- 1
The alphabet is checked
Seventeen characters, digits and letters, strictly excluding I, O and Q. An entry containing them is a misreading, not a VIN.
- 2
The three blocks are split
The first 3 characters are the WMI (manufacturer and region), the next 6 the VDS (vehicle descriptor), the last 8 the VIS, which carries the model year, the plant and the serial number.
- 3
The check digit is recomputed
Each character is converted to a number, weighted by position, and the total reduced modulo 11. The result, 0-9 or X, must match the 9th character.
A European VIN that fails the check digit is still valid
The 9th-position check digit is mandatory only for vehicles destined for the North American market. European and Japanese manufacturers often put an arbitrary character there.
That is why this tool returns two separate verdicts: structure on one side, check digit on the other. A German VIN whose check digit does not add up gets a caveat, not a rejection — the opposite would declare tens of thousands of perfectly compliant vehicles invalid.
The model year is cyclical
The 10th character encodes the year on a 30-year cycle: an 'A' means 1980 or 2010, a 'K' means 1989 or 2019. Only context — the vehicle's condition, its registration document — settles it. The tool offers the plausible values of the cycle rather than inventing one.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find a vehicle's VIN?
On the registration document. On the vehicle, it is stamped on the chassis and repeated on a plate visible through the windscreen on the driver's side, as well as on the door-pillar label.
Does the VIN say whether a vehicle is stolen or has finance owing?
No. This is a format check with no access to any register. A vehicle's administrative history comes from the national registration authority or a paid history service, never from a check-digit calculation.
Why are the letters I, O and Q forbidden?
Because a VIN is often read by hand, off a poorly lit chassis or a damaged plate. An I looks like a 1, an O and a Q like a 0. ISO 3779 simply removed them from the alphabet.
What can the first three characters tell me?
The WMI identifies the manufacturer and its region: 1-5 for North America, 6-7 for Oceania, 8-9 for South America, A-H for Africa, J-R for Asia, S-Z for Europe. The manufacturer detail itself lives in a table maintained by SAE, which this tool does not embed.
The same check over API
This tool runs in your browser. To run the same check from your code, in bulk or server-side, the API answers in JSON.
Read the documentation