Free VIN Check: Decode Any VIN, See Recalls & Complaints

Where to find your VIN

At the bottom of the windshield on the driver's side - look from outside the car.
On the sticker on the driver's door frame.
On your registration, title or insurance card.

Decoding vs. checking recalls: this tool tells you what the vehicle is and shows the recalls for its model year. To see the open recalls for that exact VIN - and whether they were repaired - use NHTSA's lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls. How to read a VIN

Questions and answers

Is this VIN check free?

Yes. Decoding uses NHTSA's free vPIC service and the recall and complaint data is NHTSA's public data. There is no charge and no sign-up.

Can a VIN tell me if my car has an open recall?

A VIN tells you the exact vehicle. This page shows every recall for its year, make and model; NHTSA's VIN lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls shows which of those apply to your vehicle and whether the repair was done.

Why won't my VIN decode?

A VIN has 17 characters and never uses the letters I, O or Q - they are easy to confuse with 1 and 0. Vehicles built before 1981 have shorter VINs that the decoder may not recognise; choose the year, make and model instead.

Do you keep the VINs people enter?

No. The VIN is sent to NHTSA's decoder, the answer is kept in memory briefly so repeat lookups are fast, and it is never written to a database or log.