Free License Plate Lookup and Report Bad Drivers

Our search engine for license plate numbers is in beta development. If you notice any issues, please let us know using our Contact form.

FindbyPlate.com is a free resource for looking up license plates and reporting bad drivers. In most cases the website will identify the car and its basic information. If other users have submitted any reports about the license plate number, images, videos, comments, or even related websites, you'll be able to see that information. Please use this license plate lookup service at your own risk; we do not guarantee the validity of this information or the accuracy of the details. We also do not display VIN details or provide a VIN lookup service.

License plates (aka vehicle tags, vehicle registration number, number plates, etc.) have been around since 1893. New York was the first state to require a registration plate on vehicles, in 1903. But back then, license plates were not government-issued. Massachusetts was the first US state to provide government-issued license plates.

What does a license plate search result provide?

When you do a reverse license plate number search on FindByPlate, you will access a report about the motor vehicle, government recalls, vehicle sketch, and image. In many cases, if the license plate was previously reported, you will see images and videos submitted by our community, read comments and feedback, view related resources, and more.

If you'd like to receive additional information, you may try contacting your state or local law enforcement, DMV, motor vehicles agency, or local police department. They can provide additional information upon request and sometimes for a fee. All the information displayed on our website is in the public record.

Specialty and Vanity Plates

In most countries and states, people can register vanity and personalized license plates, with custom characters or numbers. For example, a personalized or vanity license plate may read "MY RIDE." Most countries and states prohibit profanities and obscene or offensive words or meanings in license plates. Registration is usually available on the state DMV office's official website. A driver's license is required for vanity plate registration. These specialized and vanity numbers may incur additional fees; it depends on the plate type. Contact your state Department of Motor Vehicles for more details on registration fee and procedure, or check our state pages for fees, official websites, and additional details.

Temporary Registration Plates

Some state DMVs now require temporary license plates on newly purchased or leased vehicles. Temporary tags have an expiration date, usually after 90 days (this may differ from one country or state to another). This is usually attached to the driver's license information until the actual vanity plates or regular license plates are issued and shipped.

Why Should I Report Bad Drivers?

According to US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are more than 35,000 fatal crashes in the United States each year (average based on data from 1960–2017), and more than 3 million people are injured each year. There are more than 270 million vehicles registered in the US. Bad drivers continue to break the laws until they are caught and arrested. The local police looks up license plate records to identify offenders, and sometimes they may refer to arrest records, license plate check, VIN check details, and other sources to pull historical information on lawbreakers. Reporting a bad driver will put them on a lookout and will result in safer driving. If they are arrested, public records on our website may help investigators to create a compelling case against the offenders.

Report Your Uber or Lyft Driver

Did you know that when you check your Uber or Lyft driver license plate number through the app, you don't always see the actual reviews? People refrain from posting bad reviews online, because the drivers would know who posted the bad review. But by using FindByPlate.com, you can stay 100% anonymous when posting online reviews. The driver and Uber or Lyft staff will never have access to our user records.

Searching for Vehicle License Plate Owner Information?

We constantly get emails from our users, asking us to publicly show information about a license plate owner, but it's not that easy. We have prepared a quick introduction to laws and regulations governing license plate owner information.

How's My Driving?

Sometimes you'll see a vehicle with a "How's My Driving?" decal on it. Make sure you don't submit fake reports, and if you're planning to report, post it on FindByPlate.com as well! Search for license plate information, and report a good or bad driver.

Don't know the state?

If you are unsure of the state where the license plate was issued, you can check our License Plate Designs in the USA page. Our license plate records are updated daily, so if you don't find the information today, try coming back later for detailed license plate records.

How to look up a license plate

Do you need to look up information based on a license plate number? FindByPlate will do the work for you to find available license plate information online—for free!

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to search a license plate and report bad drivers:

Open a web browser
Go to FindByPlate.com
Enter the license plate number, and select state
View the report
View images submitted by the community
View videos submitted by the community
Add comments
Add pictures of the vehicle
Add videos related to the vehicle

Is it legal to look up someone's license plate?

It is perfectly legal to look up any license plate, as it is a matter of public records. But if you are trying to retrieve personally identifiable information (PII), then you should have specific DPPA (Driver's Privacy Protection Act) reasons for it. The permissible use cases are:

for government agencies
in connection with matters of motor vehicle or driver safety, and theft
in the normal course of business to verify the accuracy of information provided by the car owner
in connection with any matter before a court or arbitration proceeding
in research activities (excluding personal information)
for insurance purposes
for providing notice to owners of towed cars
by any licensed private investigative agency or licensed security service
by employers to verify commercial driver information as required by US Code Title 49, subtitle VI, chapter 313
by private toll transportation facilities
for responding to requests from departments of motor vehicles
for bulk distribution for surveys, marketing, or solicitations (requires opt-in)
by written consent of the owner
for other reasons (varies by state)

So running a license plate search is perfectly legal—unless you want to find out personally identifiable information, which is still legal if you have a DPPA permissible use case.

Legal Disclaimer: FindByPlate (the “Site”) is not a law firm and not a lawyer referral service; nor is it a substitute for hiring an attorney or law firm. Any information displayed or provided on the Site is for personal use only. This Site offers no legal, business, or tax advice, recommendations, mediation or counseling in connection with any legal matter, under any circumstances, and nothing we do and no element of the Site or the Site’s call connect functionality ("Call Service") should be construed as such. Some of the attorneys, law firms and legal service providers (collectively, "Third Party Legal Professionals") are accessible via the Call Service by virtue of their payment of a fee to promote their respective services to users of the Call Service and should be considered as advertising. This Site does not endorse or recommend any participating Third-Party Legal Professionals. Your use of the Site or Call Service is not intended to create, and any information submitted to the Site and/or any electronic or other communication sent to the Site will not create a contract for representation or an attorney-client relationship between you and these Site or any of the Third Party Legal Professionals.