Iowa license plate generator
Type a registration, or any text, and see it on the real Iowa license plate, letter for letter. The generator knows the 6 plate formats issued in Iowa and tells you whether what you typed fits one. Download SVG or PNG, free; nothing you type leaves your browser.
Example: D2356.
For display, mock-ups, education and design. These are pictures of plates, not plates. A plate for a vehicle comes from the issuing authority (Iowa Department of Transportation) or a licensed plate maker, and showing a registration that was not issued to the vehicle is an offence in most places.
Private by design. The page downloads an empty plate and writes your registration into it on your device; the registration is never sent to us. Need many plates, or plates in your own app? The plates API returns every plate and its empty template for each format.
- Size
- 12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm)
- Format
- LLL999, for example GQM854 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)
- Plates on a car
- Two plates, front and rear
- Every fact about Iowa license plates, with its source
Every Iowa plate you can make
6 plates across 3 classes (standard, dealer, and specialty), each drawn with a sample registration. Pick one to make your own. Iowa license plates: formats, years and sources. Need them empty? Blank Iowa license plate templates.
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Standard (~2026 → today) Format LLL999 · e.g. GQM854 Format, years and sources
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Standard: Disabled veteran (~2026 → today) Format DV999 · e.g. DV473 Format, years and sources
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Standard: Special truck (~2026 → today) Format LLL999 · e.g. TXB106 Format, years and sources
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Specialty: Blackout (~2026 → today) Format LLL999 · e.g. VUK744 Format, years and sources
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Specialty index (~2026 → today) Format LLL99 · e.g. OHB81 Format, years and sources
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Dealer (~2026 → today) Format D9999 · e.g. D2356 Format, years and sources
How the generator works
- Choose a country or state, then the plate: the standard plate first, then motorcycle, personalized, historic and the rest, each with the years it was issued.
- Where a plate was issued in several looks (front and rear colours, an older base), choose the design.
- Type a registration, a name or any text. It is drawn on the plate as you type, in the plate's own lettering, and shrunk to fit when it is long (24 characters at most). The generator also says whether it fits that plate's real format, the one the issuing authority publishes; tick "Only real formats" to draw real registrations only and see which plates a registration fits. Characters the plate's lettering does not have, like emoji, are left out, and the generator names them.
- Download the plate as SVG (a vector for print and design tools) or PNG (2400 pixels wide), copy a link, or copy the code to embed it on a web page.