NHTSA vPIC (Vehicle Product Information Catalog) API

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Vehicle Product Information Catalog and VIN decoder, and the most widely consumed API in the department. Decodes any US-market VIN into make, model, model year, body class, engine, plant and safety-equipment fields, and enumerates the full manufacturer, make, model and vehicle-type reference data behind it. Verified anonymously with HTTP 200 on 2026-07-28 — DecodeVinValues returned a decoded 2011 BMW VIN and getallmakes returned 12,306 makes. No API key, no registration, no rate charge. Responses support format=json or format=xml. NHTSA publishes no OpenAPI for it; the reference is HTML at vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/.

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API entry from apis.yml

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: us-dot:nhtsa-vpic-api
name: NHTSA vPIC (Vehicle Product Information Catalog) API
description: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Vehicle Product Information Catalog
  and VIN decoder, and the most widely consumed API in the department. Decodes any US-market VIN into
  make, model, model year, body class, engine, plant and safety-equipment fields, and enumerates the full
  manufacturer, make, model and vehicle-type reference data behind it. Verified anonymously with HTTP
  200 on 2026-07-28 — DecodeVinValues returned a decoded 2011 BMW VIN and getallmakes returned 12,306
  makes. No API key, no registration, no rate charge. Responses support format=json or format=xml. NHTSA
  publishes no OpenAPI for it; the reference is HTML at vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/.
humanURL: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/
baseURL: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/vehicles
tags:
- Automotive
- Vehicles
- VIN
- Safety
- NHTSA
- Open Data
- Vehicle Safety
- Recalls
- Manufacturer
properties:
- type: Documentation
  url: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/
- type: APIReference
  url: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/
tags_raw:
- Vehicle Safety
- VIN
- NHTSA
- Recalls
- Manufacturers