Spanish license plate validator
Check current (1234 BCD) and old provincial (M-1234-AB) Spanish license plates, see their province or place in the series and generate test plates.
One per line, up to 1000.
Type a current plate (1234 BCD) or an old provincial one (M-1234-AB).
How it works
The two formats
Since September 2000 Spanish plates are national: 4 digits and 3 letters (1234 BCD), with no reference to a province. The letters are consonants only, without Ñ or Q, so that no words are formed and Q is not mistaken for O or 0. That leaves 20 letters, and the series moves forward in order: first the digits, then the letters from right to left. That is why the validator can tell you a plate’s place in the series, from 1 to 80 million, and which of two cars was registered later.
Between 1971 and 2000 the provincial format was used: the province prefix (M for Madrid, GI or GE for Girona), 4 digits and 1 or 2 letters (M-1234-AB). The validator knows every prefix and tells you the province.
What is left out
It does not check whether a given combination was actually issued, and it does not work out the year. Moped plates (C 1234 BCD), historic, temporary and diplomatic plates, and those from before 1971 have their own formats that this tool does not validate. The Generate tab creates current or provincial plates with a correct format for test data.