What is a VIN?

A vehicle identification number (VIN) is the 17 character code a car, truck or motorcycle gets at the factory. You'll find it at the bottom of the windshield on the driver's side, on the door frame and in the registration papers. It never uses the letters I, O and Q, so they can't be mistaken for 1 and 0.

Every VIN has three parts:

  • WMI, positions 1 to 3: the world manufacturer identifier, which also tells the country
  • VDS, positions 4 to 9: the model, body and engine, as the manufacturer codes them
  • VIS, positions 10 to 17: the serial number, which on North American vehicles starts with the model year (position 10) and the assembly plant (position 11)

Position 9 is a check digit on vehicles built for North America. It's computed from the other 16 characters, so a single typo almost always makes it wrong. Vehicles built for other markets often use that position for something else.

Tool description

Enter the VIN and press Decode VIN. While you type, the tool splits the VIN into its WMI, VDS and VIS and checks the check digit, so a typo shows up before you decode anything. A VIN starting with 1 to 5 was assigned in North America and must pass the check digit, so one that fails isn't decoded: it has a typo.

Decoding asks NHTSA's vPIC database, the vehicle catalog of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and shows:

  • Make, model, model year, series and trim
  • Body class, vehicle type, doors and drive type
  • Manufacturer and assembly plant
  • Engine cylinders, displacement, fuel type, horsepower and transmission

When vPIC finds problems, they show above the result: a wrong check digit on a VIN from outside North America, a model year code that doesn't exist, characters that don't fit the manufacturer's VIN pattern, or a manufacturer that isn't registered with NHTSA.

The decode runs on our server, which asks vPIC's public API. Only the VIN is sent.

AI assistants connected to the Rapid Tool Set MCP server can decode VINs the same way as vin_decoder.

Features

  • Splits any VIN into WMI, VDS and VIS and checks its check digit as you type
  • Decodes make, model, year, body, engine and plant from NHTSA's official database
  • Explains vPIC's warnings in plain words

Limitations

  • vPIC knows vehicles sold in the United States best. For others it may only know the manufacturer, or nothing at all.
  • Not listed means vPIC has no value for that field. It doesn't mean the vehicle lacks the feature.
  • Vehicles built before 1981 have shorter VINs in formats that differ by manufacturer, and they can't be decoded here.