Texas license plates

United States · 5 registration series, sourced from Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV).

The Texas Classic, introduced in July 2012, is black lettering on white sheeting with two security threads in the material. What reads as a hyphen between the letters and numbers is, by statute, a silhouette of the shape of Texas at least half an inch wide — and Texas is unusual in claiming copyright over its plate designs in the statute itself.

Try a plate

Type any Texas registration — valid plates render below, on their real designs.

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Everything on this page — formats, validity, colours, the renders themselves — is one request away.

GET /v1/plates/us-tx/match?plate=…

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GET /v1/plates/us-tx/match?plate=ABC-1234

{ "plate": "ABC-1234",
  "valid": true, "exact": true,
  "matches": [{ "id": "us-tx-standard",
    "render_url": "…svg?serial=ABC-1234" }] }

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Worth knowing

The hyphen isn't a hyphen

What looks like a dash on a Texas plate is a legally defined design element: a silhouette of the state of Texas, required by statute to be at least half an inch wide.

Tex. Transp. Code § 504.005(c)

The plate that never wears out

Texas abolished its plate replacement cycle in November 2016. Most states cycle plates every 7–10 years as the reflective sheeting ages; Texas now replaces on request only.

txdmv.gov

No more paper tags

House Bill 718 ended Texas's paper temporary tags from July 2025 — dealers now hand buyers a metal plate at the point of sale, distributed in strictly sequential order.

HB 718 (2023)

standard plates 2

the default series issued to private road vehicles

Standard lone star

Lone Star Texas (2009–2012): the first fully digital full-colour Texas plate, and the origin of the seven-character format — retired after law enforcement disfavoured it.

Seven characters as pure capacity math: after thirty-three years of six-character serials ran dry, Texas added a seventh in 2009. The mixed AB1-C234 arrangement is TxDMV's odometer, not a code — no letter or digit means anything.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2009–2012 issued for: car, van, truck, bus

Standard

The Texas Classic (2012–present): TxDMV's stated goal was public-safety legibility, reversing the full-colour graphic base that preceded it.

Nothing in ABC-1234 encodes anything: no county, no date, one statewide sequence — and vowels and Q are banned, so a serial can never spell a word. The one legislated character is the separator: a half-inch silhouette of Texas between the letters and numerals.

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

2012 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus

personalized plates 1

owner-chosen serials inside an official frame

Personalized

Sold through a private vendor under state contract — an owner-chosen message on the same seven-character frame as general issue.

In the sample, L stands for any letter.

~2012 → today documented from 2012 — the format is likely older issued for: car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, trailer

specialty plates 1

optional-design programs on standard serials (US state programs)

Specialty index

In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.

~2012 → today documented from 2012 — the format is likely older issued for: car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle

government plates 1

civil government fleets with distinct series

Exempt

All digits, no code — the word EXEMPT above the serial does the marking for government fleets. The X-prefix is history: early Department of Public Safety permanent plates wore XA–XF and XS before Texas went all-numeric.

In the sample, 9 for any digit.

2014 → today issued for: car, van, truck, bus