Vehicle Data API
Add vehicle information to your app or website in minutes.
Get API AccessGet DVLA and DVSA vehicle, tax, MOT, identity and specification data from a UK registration with the Car Tax Check API.
Make your first API call in minutes
- Create your free account and verify your email address.
- Create an API key.
- Add credit to your account - you can start with just £10.
- Open the API Explorer, enter a registration and make your first call.
What information can I access?
Use the Get Vehicle Data endpoint to request:
- Vehicle identity and specifications, including make, model, fuel, colour, engine size and registration details.
- Vehicle tax information, including tax status, SORN, expiry, tax band and payment options.
- MOT status and history, including test dates, results, recorded mileage and advisory notices.
- Mileage summaries, including annual mileage, recorded issues and an estimated current mileage.
- Emissions and additional recorded details, including CO₂, V5C issue date, export status and recall information.
Example JSON response
{
"vehicle": {
"vrm": "KX65XFV",
"make": "Volkswagen",
"model": "Golf",
"fuel": "Hybrid Electric",
"colour": "Black",
"engine_size": "1395cc",
"mileage": "126,855 miles \non 29 May 2026",
"year": "2015",
"type": "Car",
"registered": "02 Sep 2015",
"emissions": "39 g/km",
"tax": {
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Tax due in 10 months.",
"valid": true,
"sorn": false,
"expires": "01 Sep 2027",
"cost_per_six_months": "-",
"cost_per_twelve_months": "£20",
"ved_band": "A",
"payment_options": [
{
"description": "12 Months",
"base_rate": "£20",
"total_cost": "£20"
},
{
"description": "Monthly",
"base_rate": "£1.75",
"total_cost": "£1.75"
}
],
"additional_rate": {
"status": "Pass",
"message": "There is no additional rate of tax due for this vehicle."
}
},
"mot": {
"status": "Pass",
"message": "MOT due in 7 months.",
"valid": true,
"expires": "14 Jun 2027",
"mileage_last_year": "11,107 miles",
"mileage_average": "11,532 p/Year",
"mileage_status": "average",
"test_result": [
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with 1 advisory notice.",
"sort_order": 0,
"test_date": "29 May 2026",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2027",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 1,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "126,855 miles",
"advisory": [
{
"description": "Nearside Front Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement rear (5.3.4 (a) (i))",
"dangerous": false
}
]
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with 3 advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 1,
"test_date": "23 May 2025",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2026",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 3,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "115,748 miles",
"advisory": [
{
"description": "Offside Rear Nail in tyre",
"dangerous": false
},
{
"description": "Nearside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
},
{
"description": "Offside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
}
]
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with 2 advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 2,
"test_date": "07 Jun 2024",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2025",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 2,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "106,143 miles",
"advisory": [
{
"description": "Nearside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
},
{
"description": "Offside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
}
]
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with 2 advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 3,
"test_date": "01 Jun 2023",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2024",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 2,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "94,893 miles",
"advisory": [
{
"description": "Nearside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened Pitting to inner disc face. (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
},
{
"description": "Offside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened Pitting to inner disc face. (1.1.14 (a) (ii))",
"dangerous": false
}
]
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with no advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 4,
"test_date": "26 May 2022",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2023",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 0,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "86,352 miles"
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with no advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 5,
"test_date": "15 Jun 2021",
"expiry_date": "14 Jun 2022",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 0,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "81,638 miles"
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with no advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 6,
"test_date": "04 Jan 2021",
"expiry_date": "18 Jan 2022",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 0,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "78,019 miles"
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with no advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 7,
"test_date": "04 Jul 2019",
"expiry_date": "18 Jan 2021",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 0,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "51,165 miles"
},
{
"status": "Pass",
"message": "Vehicle passed MOT with no advisory notices.",
"sort_order": 8,
"test_date": "19 Jul 2018",
"expiry_date": "18 Jul 2019",
"passed": true,
"advisory_count": 0,
"failure_count": 0,
"odometer_reading": "35,446 miles"
}
],
"test_summary": {
"test_count": 9,
"pass_count": 5,
"pass_with_advisory_count": 4,
"fail_count": 0,
"advisory_count": 8,
"rfr_count": 0,
"pass_rate": "100%"
},
"estimated_current_mileage": "131,662 miles"
},
"specification": {
"revenue_weight": "2020 KG",
"euro_status": "No Data",
"engine_litres": 1.4
},
"age": "11 years 2 months",
"v5c_issue_date": "22 Aug 2026",
"exported": {
"status": "Pass",
"message": "This vehicle has not been marked as exported."
},
"mileage_status": {
"status": "Pass",
"message": "No mileage issued were found."
},
"registered_location": "Not Available",
"recalls": {
"status": "Info",
"message": "No DVSA recall data was found for this vehicle."
},
"type_approval": "M1",
"wheelplan": "2 AXLE RIGID BODY",
"v5c_issue_duration": "2 months 11 days ago",
"body_type": "Car"
}
}How do I start using the API?
- Create your free Car Tax Check account.
- Verify your email address.
- Create an app and API key.
- Add credit to your account, starting with £10.
- Open the API Explorer and make your first call.
You can complete the setup and start testing in minutes, directly on our website. The API documentation explains the endpoints and current pricing.
Get StartedWhy choose the Car Tax Check API?
Get the vehicle data you need with the tools to manage it already built in. Spend less time setting up API infrastructure and more time building the features that make your project useful.
Serverless Vehicle Data Platform with Caching, Logging, Rate Limiting and API Key Management Included in the Price
These managed features are included with your API usage. Configure them from your dashboard, without adding separate services or maintaining a backend just to handle API requests.
Call the API Directly Without Running a Backend Server
Connect your app directly to our API while we handle the configured caching, quotas, logging and key management. There’s no need to run a proxy server just to add those features, or pay for another server to pass requests through.
If your project needs its own backend for payments or other functionality, you can still use one. Use managed direct calls, server-side calls or a combination, depending on what you’re building.
Set Rate Limits and Avoid Unexpected Costs
Set request limits that match your expected usage and help keep costs under control. Apply several limits to one key, such as 10,000 calls per day, 5 calls per second and 10 calls per client per minute, all enforced together.
You can also set individual client allowances, such as 100 requests per hour. Adjust the limits from your dashboard to control traffic spikes, restrict excessive use and reduce scraping without writing your own rate-limiting service.
Built In Caching for Faster Response Times and Lower Costs
Choose a cache lifetime for each API key, up to 24 hours. Repeat lookups served from that cache return faster and don’t incur another data charge, helping you avoid paying again for information you’ve already requested.
If the same vehicle is checked twice an hour apart within your cache period, the second result can come straight from the cache. Use a shorter lifetime when your project needs more frequent updates; you control the balance between freshness, speed and cost.
API Key Management for Multiple Platforms and Projects
Give each website, mobile app or internal tool its own API key and configuration. Your public website can have different quotas and caching from your iOS app, Android app or business tools, without maintaining separate API-management code for each one.
Change settings or revoke a key directly from your dashboard. Keeping configurations separate makes it easier to manage one project without disrupting the settings you’ve chosen for the others.
Built In Logging to Monitor API Usage
Review daily usage summaries showing how many calls were made, which endpoints were used, the response codes returned and how many results came from the cache. The information is available without adding a separate logging service to your project.
Use the logs to spot traffic spikes, investigate errors and understand how your app is using the API. You can check whether requests are reaching the expected endpoint and whether caching is reducing repeat lookups.
Live, Up to the Second Cost Monitoring
See your API spend update as calls are made, directly in your dashboard. Check the effect of traffic changes straight away, without waiting for an invoice or calculating costs from request counts.
Built In API Explorer
Start testing without writing request code. The Explorer loads your API key and configuration, so you can select an endpoint, enter a registration and see the JSON response in your browser in seconds.
What can I build with the API?
The API is available for commercial and personal projects. You could build:
- A vehicle-check website that displays tax and MOT information after a registration search.
- A garage’s internal tool that brings vehicle identity and MOT advisories into its existing workflow.
- A fleet dashboard that helps staff review recorded expiry dates and mileage.
- Your own personalised vehicle tool, showing only the information and calculations you find useful.
You can also use an AI coding tool, such as Claude Code, ChatGPT or Antigravity, to help build an interface around the API. For example, ask it to create a registration form and display the MOT expiry and recent advisories from the JSON response, using our documentation and example as the reference.
Built on the platform behind Car Tax Check
We’ve spent over 10 years running a vehicle-data platform and understand the work involved in keeping an API running reliably.
Our API uses the same Google Cloud infrastructure behind Car Tax Check, built to handle millions of monthly requests. We optimise the request path to keep response times low, while the managed features reduce the setup and maintenance needed in your own project.
You get the data alongside the tools to manage access, cache responses and monitor costs, rather than having to build those parts yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the vehicle data API cost?
Car Tax Check’s vehicle data API starts from 2.5p + VAT per call. The Get Vehicle Data endpoint includes vehicle identity and specifications, tax, MOT history, mileage and emissions data where available.
The API uses pay-as-you-go credit, with no subscription, contract or minimum monthly spend. You can get started with £10. Check the current endpoint pricing in the documentation before adding credit or estimating your costs.
Do you offer high-volume pricing or payment by invoice?
Yes. We can consider call pricing and payment by invoice individually for high-volume customers. Please contact us with details of your intended use and expected volume, and we’ll discuss the options.
Can I get vehicle data while DVLA VES API registration is closed?
Yes. DVLA is currently not accepting new Vehicle Enquiry Service API registrations while it carries out system upgrades.
You can use Car Tax Check’s API to access DVLA and DVSA vehicle information without applying for your own VES API key. Create an account, add credit and start making calls from 2.5p + VAT using our API Explorer. This gives you a low-cost route to start building while new VES registrations are unavailable.
Can I use the API for MOT history and vehicle tax?
Yes. You can use the Get Vehicle Data endpoint as an MOT API for recorded test history and as a vehicle tax API for the returned tax information. We use DVLA and DVSA records alongside our own data, information from third-party suppliers and our own analysis to return vehicle identity, tax status, MOT records and mileage in one response.
Do I need my own server?
No. Calling our API directly is the simplest starting point for a vehicle-data app when you don’t need other server-side functionality. Caching, rate limits, logs and key management are already included, so you don’t have to run a server just to add them.
If you need a backend for something specific, such as processing payments, you can use one. Separate API keys and configurations let you combine direct calls with your own server-side workflow.
Will every field contain data for every vehicle?
No. The available information depends on the vehicle and the source records. Your app should handle missing fields and unavailable values rather than assuming every result is complete.
We rely on third-party records for some of the information returned and can’t guarantee the accuracy or completeness of data outside our control. Make your customers aware of any relevant limitations when using vehicle data in your application.
What if I need data that isn’t listed?
Please contact us if you need data that isn’t listed in our API documentation, and we’ll see if we can help.
Can I set up API access on my mobile device?
Yes, our API platform is fully mobile responsive so you can set up API access, get your API keys and manage your account from any device.
All account management features including billing, API key management, configuration and logging is available through the same interface on desktop and mobile devices.