Alabama license plate: Distinctive index
Issued today Documented since 2021. Specialty plates for car, van, truck, and motorcycle, issued by Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division (ALDOR MVD). One of 5 Alabama license plates.
Format, years and the law
- Format
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999999, for example148657(9 any digit)The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it.
- Years issued
- Documented since 2021; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
- Vehicle class
- Specialty: optional-design programs on standard serials (US state programs). Issued for car, van, truck, and motorcycle.
- Size
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12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm) · every country's size
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Distinctive index 7×4 MM
specialty · 7 × 4 in (178 × 102 mm)
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- About this plate
- Two things worth carrying forward. First, Alabama is the best-instrumented specialty program found in this group: an exact published count, a fourteen-category taxonomy, a dated memo series for new issues, and a public pre-commitment portal. Second, the SIX versus SEVEN character split is the most consequential single fact here for a parse API, an Alabama serial of seven characters cannot be a distinctive plate, and that is a sourced discriminator, not a heuristic.
Legal basis and sources
- ALDOR's own plate catalogue: 'Showing 50 of 398 Plates' and the fourteen-category taxonomy https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/license-plates/
- the six-character distinctive cap, the quantity class 1 vs class 2 rules, the 3.22x2.3 in logo maximum, the white-background requirement for class 1, the 0.25 in clearance rule https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/License-Plate-Design-Specifications-040821.pdf
- MVD Memo 2026-004: 'Alabama Is Aviation, will be available for issuance beginning August 1, 2026'; the pre-commitment report and ALVIN ordering mechanism https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/memo-new-license-plate-mvd-memo-2026-004/
- Memo 2026-001: Mental Health Matters, beginning April 1, 2026 https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/memo-new-license-plate-memo-2026-001/
- Protect Wildlife, beginning July 1, 2026 https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/memo-new-license-plate/
This plate in your app
The series id is us-al-distinctive-index. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of Alabama's series:
curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-al \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \ | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "us-al-distinctive-index")'
- Plate image (SVG, sample serial): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-al/us-al-distinctive-index.svg
- Blank template, filled on your side: https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-al/us-al-distinctive-index/template.svg
