A VIN, read plainly.

What we do

vindecode.pro decodes Vehicle Identification Numbers. Type or scan a 17-character VIN and we read what the characters encode: the manufacturer and country from the first three, the model year from the 10th, and the factory specifications a maker publishes for that pattern.

For vehicles built in India we also read the manufacturing month and model family that Tata, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Honda and Toyota encode in their chassis numbers. For US-market vehicles we use the NHTSA vPIC database and can show open recalls.

How a decode works

The how it works page lists every data source and what runs where. In short:

Your browser sends the VIN straight to vPIC, the free database the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) builds from manufacturer filings. For recalls, our server asks NHTSA using only the make, model and year. We never store a full VIN. The privacy policy has the details.

Position 9 is a check digit on North American vehicles. We recompute it, so a mistyped VIN shows up before you rely on the result. Your last few VINs stay in your browser, and only there.

What we don't do

A VIN describes how a vehicle left the factory. It doesn't say who owns it, where it's registered, or what has happened to it since. We don't look up registration, ownership, challans, insurance or accident records.

When you need those, our guides point you to the official sources: VAHAN and Parivahan for registration in India, and the vehicle history guide for what to check before you buy.

Why we built it

Buyers are often asked to trust a seller's word on a car's age and specification. The VIN already answers many of those questions for free, but the answers are scattered across maker documents and government databases. We put the decoding in one fast, honest place, with no sign-up needed.

Contact

Questions, corrections or a VIN we decoded wrong? Write to contact@vindecode.pro. Meet the people behind the site on the team page.