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Vanity and personalized license plates can cost anywhere from a couple bucks to an arm and a leg. It all comes down to what you want on the plate, where you live, and a couple other factors that we’ll discuss at length in this article.
What Is a Vanity Plate?
A vanity license plate is a personalized license plate. That’s it. It is, in fact, that simple. However, the laws surrounding vanity license plates are a little more complicated than the definition.
Vanity license plates allow you to customize and personalize your license plate to say any number of things. As long as you’re not in violation of the law by writing profanity, inappropriate words or acronyms, etc., then you will quite likely be able to purchase one of these plates.
Of course, doing so requires you to spend extra money. To obtain a vanity license plate, you will have to pay the standard cost for plates as well as an additional price (which varies from state to state). Once paid and the governing agency approves your request, you will receive your personalized license plate.
Where Can One Get a Personalized License Plate?
All 50 states have some kind of vanity license plate law on record that allows you to obtain personalized license plates. To do so, you’ll have to go through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC), or other similar government agency in your state.
To find out more about the process for obtaining vanity plates in your state, contact the local DMV or similar government agency with authority where you live.
Why Would Someone Get Personalized Plates?
There are plenty of reasons why somebody would want to obtain personalized license plates. One of the most common reasons is because they’re nice to look at. Many people like to have their license plates spell out words or acronyms that are important and meaningful to them. For example, you might get your name, an acronym of your favorite sports team, or other vanity text spelled out on your license plate.
Other times, people like to use their license plates to make jokes. One of our favorite vanity plates we’ve seen was on an Impala. It read “VLAD THE.” Seems normal until you look at it and see that the branding on the vehicle’s plate holder changes it to read “VLAD THE Impala.”
Another reason to get vanity plates is to make your license plate number easier to remember. Something like “GKX22S” can be a challenge to remember. But when you spell out your name, that tends to be easier to remember.
How Much Do Vanity Plates Cost?
The price of vanity license plates depends on the state in which you live. The following table contains information about the prices of personalized license plates in all 50 states:
| State | Cost |
| Alabama | $50 |
| Alaska | $30 |
| Arizona | FREE |
| Arkansas | $5 – $50 |
| California | $50 – $100 |
| Colorado | $60 |
| Connecticut | $90 – $150 |
| Delaware | $40 – $50 |
| Florida | $12 |
| Georgia | $20 – $25 |
| Hawaii | $25 |
| Idaho | $25 |
| Illinois | $47 |
| Indiana | $30 – $50 |
| Iowa | $25 |
| Kansas | $46 |
| Kentucky | $25 |
| Louisiana | $25 |
| Maine | $25 |
| Maryland | $25 |
| Massachusetts | $20 – $50 |
| Michigan | $30 |
| Minnesota | $100 |
| Mississippi | $31 |
| Missouri | $15 |
| Montana | $25 |
| Nebraska | $40 |
| Nevada | $36 |
| New Hampshire | $40 |
| New Jersey | $50 |
| New Mexico | $17 |
| New York | $50 – $85 |
| North Carolina | $30 |
| North Dakota | $25 |
| Ohio | $50 |
| Oklahoma | $23 |
| Oregon | $10 – $50 |
| Pennsylvania | $20 |
| Rhode Island | $67 – $90 |
| South Carolina | $30 |
| South Dakota | $25 |
| Tennessee | $35 |
| Texas | $55 – $200 |
| Utah | $55 |
| Vermont | $38 |
| Virginia | $10 |
| Washington | $50 |
| West Virginia | $45 |
| Wisconsin | $15 |
| Wyoming | $30 |
You may notice that the only state in which vanity license plates won’t cost you any extra is Arizona. One of the perks of living in the desert!
There are also yearly fees associated with vanity plates in some states.
How Long Does It Take to Get Vanity Plates?
Vanity license plates take time to manufacture, package, and ship to your address. On top of the standard manufacturing process associated with making a custom item, license plates have to go through layers and layers of red tape bureaucracy before they can be approved. Naturally, that adds a good bit of time onto the process.
After purchasing vanity plates at the DMV (or similar government agency) and having them approved thereby, you should expect to wait between 8 and 12 weeks for the personalized plates to arrive at your registered mailing address.
How Many Letters Can Be on a Vanity License Plate?
Letters on license plates have to be of a particular font and size, which means there’s limited space available. You cannot simply resize the text in order to fit more or fewer letters. Instead, you’re limited to one federally mandated maximum of 7.5 letters and numbers in total.
Of course, that additional 0.5 might seem a little strange at first glance. However, it is not what you might think. Rather than being space for half of a letter, the 0.5 is space for a space or a hyphen. In other words, the following potential license plate text is 7.5 characters: WNIT N0W.If you have any additional questions about license plate requirements and related information, reach out to a lawyer in the WinIt app for more information today. Every second you wait is another second that you may be at risk of getting a ticket for an invalid license plate.
