Costopedia / Automotive / How Much Does a Vanity License Plate Cost?

How Much Does a Vanity License Plate Cost?

$ Annual Reneweal: $0 to $80+ $ $ Initial Fees:$5 to $100+ $ $ $ Texas: $30 to $700+

A great and fun way car owners have to customize their vehicles is by having a personalized vanity license plate.

Every passenger vehicle must display a license plate, a private number created to register a vehicle, and vehicle owners can personalize it.

Like passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, and trailers also need a license plate displayed, which can also be personalized.

What Types Of Vanity License Plates There Are?

If you want to customize your own vanity plate, you must know that each state has its own rules for it.

The principal rule for all the states is that the new license plate has to be unique, and there cannot exist two license plates with the same combination of letters and numbers.

People often like to create vanity license plates with their names, initials, team affiliation, business, hobby, all in six-seven letters.

But, these cannot show any type of inappropriate language, although funny vanity license plates have been seen throughout the United States.

Here’s an article where you can see some of the funniest vanity license plates that exist, and a video about some vanity license plates that were canceled due to their inappropriate message.

Each state has its own different styles of vanity license plates, and even many of them support various organizations and the causes they represent

How To Register A Vanity License Plate?

The process will vary depending on the state where the car or vehicle was registered.

All 50 states already have standard license plates for newly registered vehicles, but they can get additional revenue for vanity license plates.

Vehicle owners have to pay extra money to get the option of choosing their un numbers and letters combination.

All 50 states offer vanity plate options; applications for personalized vanity license plates are processed at Secretary of State offices, and the approved vanity license plates are mailed.

What’s The Price Difference Between States?

As said before, prices will vary depending on the state, the design of the vanity license plate, the number of characters it has, and the type of vehicle registered.

But usually, there is an initial fee that can cost $5 to $100 or more for a personalized vanity license plate.

And, for the annual renewal, there can be a charge from $0 to $80 or more.

New Hampshire issues the highest percentage of vanity license plates initial fee, while Texas has the lowest percentage of initial fees, but some personalized models can reach process up to $700 and more.

The table below shows a comparison between some states and the prices they charge for a vanity license plate on a passenger vehicle:

State Vanity License Plate Price Range
California $40 to $100
New Hampshire $85
Texas $30 to $700+
Tennessee $70
New York $60

DMV.org is a non-governmental privately-owned website that provides license plate options by state and provides information and link to each State’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Things to Consider

Before Buying:

  1. First, you should check your state’s laws regarding vanity license plates by visiting its DMV website and checking the prices.
  2. Registration is necessary to check you didn’t choose the same license plate number as another person.
  3. Vanity license plates are not covered by insurance, and some insurance also can have problems with vanity license plates, so check with yours before ordering one.

When Buying: 

  1. After deciding on the preferred style of the license plate, the color, and the numbers/letter you will put in it, it’s time to make the order.
  2. Once ordered, and if it’s approved, you will receive your new vanity license plate through the mail, which takes an average of eight weeks.

After Buying:

  1. Remember that it’s required to have a license plate displayed on your vehicle. Only 19 states require it to be displayed on the rear, while the rest require it’s displayed in the front and back of the vehicle.
Giovanna Soto