CarsXE

CarsXE is a B2B vehicle data API platform operated by PiWaves, LLC, offering VIN decoding, vehicle specifications, market value estimates, vehicle history, vehicle imagery, license plate decoding and recognition, VIN OCR, OBD fault-code decoding, international VIN decoding, lien and theft screening, year/make/model lookup and single-VIN or 10,000-VIN batch recall checks. A single OpenAPI 3.1 contract covering 21 operations is published at api.carsxe.com/openapi.json, alongside a remote MCP server, an RFC 9727 api-catalog, an llms.txt index, first-party SDKs for eight languages, and a CLI. Designed for automotive marketplaces, dealerships, insurance, lending, fleet, parking and claims platforms that need programmatic access to rich, current vehicle data.

CarsXE publishes 21 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Specifications API, Market Value API, Recalls API, and 18 more. Tagged areas include Automotive, Vehicles, VIN, Vehicle Data, and License Plate.

The CarsXE catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification, 1 JSON-LD context, and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

CarsXE’s developer surface includes CLI, authentication, code examples, sandbox, developer portal, documentation, API reference, and 41 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

76.8/100 exemplar ▬ flat Agent 69/100 agent ready Front door AI 1/6 silent Heartbeat 100/100 alive saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract 1 MCP Servers 5 Agent Skills

Automotive Vehicles VIN Vehicle Data License Plate OCR Automobiles Recalls Market Value Vehicle History MCP Agents

What people ask CarsXE 10

The questions people put to an LLM, and the jobs they hand an agent, that CarsXE's APIs answer — each one linked to the operation that does it. Generated by API Evangelist

CarsXE Recalls API Check open safety recalls for a VIN “Does my specific car have any open safety recalls?” Find recalls by year, make and model “Can I look up recalls for a car model without knowing the VIN?” Submit a bulk batch of VINs for recall checks “How do I check thousands of VINs for recalls in one go?” Check the progress of a bulk recall batch “Is my bulk recall batch finished processing yet?”

CarsXE Plate Decoder API Decode a license plate with the legacy v1 endpoint “Does the older v1 plate decoder still work with legacy country codes like UK or IND?” Look up a US vehicle and its VIN by plate “How do I find the VIN of a US car from its license plate and state?” Decode a license plate from 60+ countries “Can I decode a South African or Australian registration number into vehicle details?”

CarsXE Year Make Model API Get vehicle data by year, make and model “Can I get specs for a car when I only know its year, make and model?” Populate year, make, model and variant dropdowns “How do I fill cascading year, make and model dropdowns in my car form?” Explain an OBD-II trouble code “What does check engine code P0115 mean?”

CarsXE Recognition API Read a license plate number from a car photo “Can I read the license plate number from a photo of a car?” Extract a VIN from a photo “Can I pull a VIN out of a picture of the dashboard or door sticker?”

CarsXE Market Value API Get a vehicle's retail, trade-in and auction value “What is the auction value of a car, alongside its retail and trade-in price?” Get condition- and mileage-adjusted market values “How much is my car worth wholesale given its mileage and condition?”

CarsXE Specifications API Decode a VIN into full vehicle specifications “How do I decode a VIN into equipment, colors and warranty details?” Decode a non-US VIN “Can I decode a VIN from a car built for the European or Asian market?”

CarsXE History API Get a vehicle history report by VIN “Has this used car ever had a salvage or junk title?”

CarsXE Lien & Theft API Check a VIN for liens and theft records “Is there an active lien on the car I'm about to buy?”

CarsXE Auth API Check that an API key is valid “Is my CarsXE API key still valid?”

CarsXE Images API Find photos of a vehicle by make and model “Where can I get stock photos of a specific car make and model?”

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 76.8/100 · exemplar

Contract Quality 12.6 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 12.1 / 15

Access Clarity 15.0 / 15

Operational Transparency 6.4 / 10

Contract Governance 4.1 / 9

Discoverability 6.4 / 8

Regulatory Posture 4.4 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 69/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 12 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 6 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 6 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 5 / 5

Registration Without a Human 6 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document +5 pts — a parsing /.well-known/ucp.json or acp.json declaring a version and at least one service, OR (0.27) a live x402 payment challenge from _data/x402-adoption.json — `self` when its endpoints are on the provider's own domain, `platform` when they are on a vendor's
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode +4 pts — OpenAPI: destructive operations expose a dry_run / simulate / preview / validate_only parameter
Consent & Bot Identity +3 pts — common[].type includes AIPREF, ContentSignal, WebBotAuth, or HTTPMessageSignatures

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Contract Quality scores 67.2 — up to +8.2 composite points
Contract Governance scores 45.5 — up to +6.5 composite points
Operational Transparency scores 65.8 — up to +4.4 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/carsxe/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/carsxe to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Agent Skills (SKILL.md packages)	builds-on	26.6	1	1
Official SDKs on Packagist, pub.dev and Hex	builds-on	26.6	1	1

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 4

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

measured — observed by APIs.io (verified)

OAuth 2.0 Protected Resource Metadata

measured — observed by APIs.io (verified)

Dynamic Client Registration

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 21

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

CarsXE Vehicle Specifications API

VIN decoding and comprehensive vehicle specification lookup. Returns year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, body style, and detailed feature and option data for a given No...

CarsXE Vehicle Market Value API

Returns market value estimates (retail, wholesale, trade-in) for new and used vehicles by VIN, informed by millions of historical vehicle sales.

CarsXE Vehicle Images API

Retrieves high-quality photos of vehicles by year, make, model (and optional trim / color / background-transparency options) for use in marketplaces, dealer sites, and compariso...

CarsXE VIN OCR API

OCR endpoint that extracts a VIN string from an image of a VIN plate, windshield, or document, enabling mobile-first vehicle-onboarding and inspection workflows.

CarsXE Vehicle Plate Decoder API

Decodes vehicle information from a license plate plus state/province, returning make, model, year, and VIN where available.

CarsXE Vehicle Plate Recognition API

Image-to-text OCR for license plates. Paired with the Plate Decoder, enables full vehicle lookup starting from a plate image, supporting parking, access-control, law-enforcement...

CarsXE Vehicle History API

Raw vehicle-history data endpoint returning title records, accident history, odometer readings, service history, and salvage/lemon flags for a given VIN.

CarsXE Vehicle Recalls API

Returns safety-recall and campaign data for a given VIN, sourced from manufacturer and NHTSA data, for use in inspection, compliance, and pre-purchase workflows.

CarsXE International VIN Decoder API

VIN decoding for non-US vehicles, returning make, model, year, and market-specific trim/spec data for international markets.

CarsXE OBD Codes Decoder API

Matches an OBD-II diagnostic trouble code (DTC) to a human-readable vehicle fault description for use in service, maintenance, and connected-car applications.

CarsXE Specifications API

VIN decoding for North American and international vehicles — 2 operations (getVehicleSpecs, getInternationalVinDecoder) returning year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, bo...

CarsXE Market Value API

Vehicle market valuation — 2 operations (getMarketValue v1, getMarketValueV2) returning wholesale, retail and trade-in figures by VIN, with optional state, mileage and condition...

CarsXE Recalls API

Safety recall lookup — 6 operations covering single-VIN recalls, recalls by year/make/model, and the asynchronous Recalls Batch surface (submit up to 10,000 VINs, poll status, r...

CarsXE History API

Vehicle history reporting — 1 operation (getVehicleHistory) returning title records, junk and salvage events, insurance records, odometer readings and brand history for a VIN.

CarsXE Images API

Vehicle imagery search — 1 operation (getVehicleImages) returning photo links, thumbnails, sources and dimensions filtered by make, model, year, trim, colour, angle, photo type ...

CarsXE Recognition API

Image recognition — 2 operations (recognizePlate, vinOcr) that read a license plate or a VIN out of a supplied image URL or base64 payload, returning detected text, confidence s...

CarsXE Year Make Model API

Vehicle lookup without a VIN — 3 operations (getYearMakeModel, getYearMakeModelOptions, decodeObdCode) returning trims, features and option packages by year/make/model, dropdown...

CarsXE Lien & Theft API

Encumbrance and theft screening — 1 operation (getLienTheft) returning active lien holders, theft reports and recovery status for a VIN, for lenders and pre-purchase due diligence.

CarsXE Auth API

API key validation — 1 operation (validateKey) against /v1/auth/validate, the endpoint the CarsXE authentication guide documents for confirming that a key is present, valid and ...

CarsXE MCP Server

Remote Model Context Protocol server exposing the CarsXE vehicle-data endpoints as 12 named agent tools over streamable HTTP, authenticated with an X-API-Key header or an OAuth ...

CarsXE Plate Decoder API

Decode license plates into vehicle data

Rate limits

: 100 successful calls
: 5 successful calls
: 1 successful calls

All 39 limits →

Billed by: subscription · FinOps profile →

Pricing Plans 2

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Carsxe Plans Pricing

4 plans

PLANS

Carsxe Price Estimates

0 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Carsxe Rate Limits

39 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

CarsXE

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Carsxe Finops

FINOPS

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Carsxe Recalls Batch Webhooks

ASYNCAPI

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Carsxe Context

0 classes · 8 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

CarsXE API Rules

63 rules · 47 errors 14 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

4 actions · phrasing · carsxe-year-make-model-api-openapi.yml

GENERATED

Scroll for all 20

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Carsxe Authentication

apiKey · 3 schemes

SECURITY

Carsxe Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Carsxe Trust Center

SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Carsxe Agentic Access

22 operations · 4 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 5

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Sandbox

Sandbox

Portal

Portal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Login

SignUp

SignUp

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 5

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

MCPServer

AgentSkill

LLMsTxt

WellKnown

Design & Contract 9

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions

Idempotency

Conformance

ErrorCatalog

ErrorCodes

DataModel

Lifecycle

Webhooks

Vocabulary

Scroll for all 9

Build 6

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Packages

SDKs

CLI

ToolCrosswalk

Examples

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 5

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Compliance

TrustCenter

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 5

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

StatusPage

Deprecation

RateLimits

Support

Contact

Commercial 5

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

FinOps

Pricing

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

Company 4

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

About

About

Blog

Blog

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Overlay

Overlay

APICatalog

APICatalog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: carsxe
name: CarsXE
description: CarsXE is a B2B vehicle data API platform operated by PiWaves, LLC, offering VIN decoding, vehicle specifications,
  market value estimates, vehicle history, vehicle imagery, license plate decoding and recognition, VIN OCR, OBD fault-code
  decoding, international VIN decoding, lien and theft screening, year/make/model lookup and single-VIN or 10,000-VIN batch
  recall checks. A single OpenAPI 3.1 contract covering 21 operations is published at api.carsxe.com/openapi.json, alongside
  a remote MCP server, an RFC 9727 api-catalog, an llms.txt index, first-party SDKs for eight languages, and a CLI. Designed
  for automotive marketplaces, dealerships, insurance, lending, fleet, parking and claims platforms that need programmatic
  access to rich, current vehicle data.
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - rate-limits
  - security
  - sandbox
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
position: Producing
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/carsxe.png
tags:
- Automotive
- Vehicles
- VIN
- Vehicle Data
- License Plate
- OCR
- Automobiles
- Recalls
- Market Value
- Vehicle History
- MCP
- Agents
tags_raw:
- Automotive
- Vehicles
- VIN
- Vehicle Data
- License Plate
- OCR
- Automobiles
- Recalls
- Market Value
- Vehicle History
- Model Context Protocol
- Agents
created: '2025-02-24'
modified: '2026-09-05'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/carsxe/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-specifications-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Specifications API
  description: VIN decoding and comprehensive vehicle specification lookup. Returns year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain,
    body style, and detailed feature and option data for a given North American VIN.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-specifications
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - VIN Decoding
  - Specification
  - Vehicle Data
  tags_raw:
  - VIN Decoder
  - Specifications
  - Vehicle Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-specifications
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-market-value-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Market Value API
  description: Returns market value estimates (retail, wholesale, trade-in) for new and used vehicles by VIN, informed by
    millions of historical vehicle sales.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-market-value
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Market Value
  - Pricing
  - Valuation
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-market-value
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-images-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Images API
  description: Retrieves high-quality photos of vehicles by year, make, model (and optional trim / color / background-transparency
    options) for use in marketplaces, dealer sites, and comparison tools.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-images
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Image
  - Media
  - Vehicle Data
  tags_raw:
  - Images
  - Media
  - Vehicle Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-images
- aid: carsxe:vin-ocr-api
  name: CarsXE VIN OCR API
  description: OCR endpoint that extracts a VIN string from an image of a VIN plate, windshield, or document, enabling mobile-first
    vehicle-onboarding and inspection workflows.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vin-ocr
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - OCR
  - VIN
  - Artificial Intelligence
  tags_raw:
  - OCR
  - VIN
  - AI
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vin-ocr
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-plate-decoder-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Plate Decoder API
  description: Decodes vehicle information from a license plate plus state/province, returning make, model, year, and VIN
    where available.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-plate-decoder
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - License Plate
  - Lookup
  - Vehicle Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-plate-decoder
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-plate-recognition-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Plate Recognition API
  description: Image-to-text OCR for license plates. Paired with the Plate Decoder, enables full vehicle lookup starting from
    a plate image, supporting parking, access-control, law-enforcement, and valet use cases.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-plate-recognition
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - License Plate
  - OCR
  - Artificial Intelligence
  tags_raw:
  - License Plate
  - OCR
  - AI
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-plate-recognition
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-history-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle History API
  description: Raw vehicle-history data endpoint returning title records, accident history, odometer readings, service history,
    and salvage/lemon flags for a given VIN.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-history
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - History
  - Title
  - Accident
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-history
- aid: carsxe:vehicle-recalls-api
  name: CarsXE Vehicle Recalls API
  description: Returns safety-recall and campaign data for a given VIN, sourced from manufacturer and NHTSA data, for use
    in inspection, compliance, and pre-purchase workflows.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-recalls
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Recalls
  - Safety
  - Compliance
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-recalls
- aid: carsxe:international-vin-decoder-api
  name: CarsXE International VIN Decoder API
  description: VIN decoding for non-US vehicles, returning make, model, year, and market-specific trim/spec data for international
    markets.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/international-vin-decoder
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - VIN Decoding
  - International
  - Specification
  tags_raw:
  - VIN Decoder
  - International
  - Specifications
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/international-vin-decoder
- aid: carsxe:obd-codes-decoder-api
  name: CarsXE OBD Codes Decoder API
  description: Matches an OBD-II diagnostic trouble code (DTC) to a human-readable vehicle fault description for use in service,
    maintenance, and connected-car applications.
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/obd-codes-decoder
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - OBD
  - Diagnostics
  - Maintenance
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.carsxe.com/obd-codes-decoder
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-specifications-api
  name: CarsXE Specifications API
  description: VIN decoding for North American and international vehicles — 2 operations (getVehicleSpecs, getInternationalVinDecoder)
    returning year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, body style, dimensions, equipment and option data from a 17-character
    VIN.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/specifications
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Specification
  - VIN Decoding
  tags_raw:
  - Specifications
  - VIN Decoder
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-specifications-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-specifications-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/specifications
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-market-value-api
  name: CarsXE Market Value API
  description: Vehicle market valuation — 2 operations (getMarketValue v1, getMarketValueV2) returning wholesale, retail and
    trade-in figures by VIN, with optional state, mileage and condition adjustment on v2.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v2/market-value
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Market Value
  - Valuation
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-market-value-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-market-value-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v2/market-value
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-recalls-api
  name: CarsXE Recalls API
  description: Safety recall lookup — 6 operations covering single-VIN recalls, recalls by year/make/model, and the asynchronous
    Recalls Batch surface (submit up to 10,000 VINs, poll status, retrieve or download results, with an optional completion
    webhook).
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/vehicle-recalls
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Recalls
  - Safety
  - Batch
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-recalls-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-recalls-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/carsxe-recalls-batch-webhooks.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/recalls-batch
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-history-api
  name: CarsXE History API
  description: Vehicle history reporting — 1 operation (getVehicleHistory) returning title records, junk and salvage events,
    insurance records, odometer readings and brand history for a VIN.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/history
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - History
  - Title
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-history-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-history-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/history
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-images-api
  name: CarsXE Images API
  description: Vehicle imagery search — 1 operation (getVehicleImages) returning photo links, thumbnails, sources and dimensions
    filtered by make, model, year, trim, colour, angle, photo type and transparent-background option.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/images
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Image
  - Media
  tags_raw:
  - Images
  - Media
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-images-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-images-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/images
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-recognition-api
  name: CarsXE Recognition API
  description: Image recognition — 2 operations (recognizePlate, vinOcr) that read a license plate or a VIN out of a supplied
    image URL or base64 payload, returning detected text, confidence scores and bounding boxes for mobile capture and inspection
    workflows.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/plate-image-recognition
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - OCR
  - Recognition
  - Artificial Intelligence
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-recognition-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-recognition-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/vin-ocr
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-year-make-model-api
  name: CarsXE Year Make Model API
  description: Vehicle lookup without a VIN — 3 operations (getYearMakeModel, getYearMakeModelOptions, decodeObdCode) returning
    trims, features and option packages by year/make/model, dropdown population data, and OBD-II diagnostic trouble code descriptions.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/year-make-model
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Year Make Model
  - OBD
  - Diagnostics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-year-make-model-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-year-make-model-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/year-make-model
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-lien-theft-api
  name: CarsXE Lien & Theft API
  description: Encumbrance and theft screening — 1 operation (getLienTheft) returning active lien holders, theft reports and
    recovery status for a VIN, for lenders and pre-purchase due diligence.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/lien-theft
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Lien
  - Theft
  - Lending
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-lien-theft-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-lien-theft-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1/lien-theft
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-auth-api
  name: CarsXE Auth API
  description: API key validation — 1 operation (validateKey) against /v1/auth/validate, the endpoint the CarsXE authentication
    guide documents for confirming that a key is present, valid and active before issuing product calls.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/authentication
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Authentication
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-auth-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/carsxe-auth-api-overlay.yaml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/authentication
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-mcp-server
  name: CarsXE MCP Server
  description: Remote Model Context Protocol server exposing the CarsXE vehicle-data endpoints as 12 named agent tools over
    streamable HTTP, authenticated with an X-API-Key header or an OAuth 2.1 authorization code + PKCE flow whose discovery
    documents are served from the same host.
  humanURL: https://carsxe.com/docs/integrations/mcp-quickstart
  baseURL: https://mcp.carsxe.com/mcp
  tags:
  - MCP
  - Agents
  - Artificial Intelligence
  properties:
  - type: MCPServer
    url: mcp/carsxe-mcp.yml
  - type: ToolCrosswalk
    url: mcp/carsxe-tool-crosswalk.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/integrations/mcp-quickstart
- aid: carsxe:carsxe-plate-decoder-api
  name: CarsXE Plate Decoder API
  description: Decode license plates into vehicle data
  humanURL: https://api.carsxe.com/vehicle-specifications
  baseURL: https://api.carsxe.com
  tags:
  - Plate Decoder
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carsxe-plate-decoder-api-openapi.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v2/plate-decoder
common:
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/carsxe-plate-api-overlay.yaml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/carsxe-agentic-access.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/carsxe-packages.yml
- type: SDKs
  url: packages/carsxe-packages.yml
- type: CLI
  url: cli/carsxe-cli.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/carsxe-mcp.yml
- type: ToolCrosswalk
  url: mcp/carsxe-tool-crosswalk.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/carsxe-llms.txt
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/carsxe-well-known.yml
- type: APICatalog
  url: https://carsxe.com/.well-known/api-catalog
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/carsxe-conventions.yml
- type: Idempotency
  url: conventions/carsxe-conventions.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/carsxe-conformance.yml
- type: Compliance
  url: https://carsxe.com/trust
- type: TrustCenter
  url: security/carsxe-trust-center.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/carsxe-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/carsxe-authentication.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/carsxe-problem-types.yml
- type: ErrorCodes
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs/errors
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/carsxe-data-model.yml
- type: Examples
  url: examples/carsxe-examples.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/carsxe-lifecycle.yml
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://carsxe.com/status
- type: Deprecation
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs/versioning
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/carsxe-recalls-batch-webhooks.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/carsxe-sandbox.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/carsxe-rate-limits.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/carsxe-plans-pricing.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/carsxe-finops.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/carsxe
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carsxe
- type: Website
  url: https://carsxe.com/
- type: Portal
  name: Vehicle Data API | CarsXE
  url: https://carsxe.com/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs
- type: APIReference
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs/v1
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs/quickstart
- type: Authentication
  url: https://carsxe.com/docs/authentication
- type: Pricing
  url: https://carsxe.com/pricing
- type: About
  url: https://carsxe.com/about
- type: Blog
  url: https://carsxe.com/blog
- type: Support
  url: https://carsxe.com/support
- type: Contact
  url: https://carsxe.com/contact-us
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://carsxe.com/terms-and-conditions
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://carsxe.com/privacy-policy
- type: Login
  url: https://carsxe.com/signin
- type: SignUp
  url: https://carsxe.com/register
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-09-05'
  status: enriched
  artifacts_added: 41
  pass: local-v3

CarsXE API — frequently asked questions

Does CarsXE have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 21 APIs from CarsXE, including CarsXE Vehicle Specifications API, CarsXE Vehicle Market Value API and CarsXE Vehicle Images API, and 18 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the CarsXE API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 10 OpenAPI specifications for CarsXE, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the CarsXE API?

CarsXE documents its authentication (apiKey · 3 schemes). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Carsxe Authentication.

How much does the CarsXE API cost?

CarsXE publishes its prices; its Sandbox plan is $0/mo, billed annually as of 2026-10-28. APIs.io lists 4 pricing plans for CarsXE, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Does CarsXE have an MCP server?

Yes. APIs.io lists 1 MCP server for CarsXE: Remote MCP server at mcp.carsxe.com over HTTP requiring an API key; 12 tools listed.

Is the CarsXE API ready for AI agents?

CarsXE has a Kin Score of 76.8 out of 100 (exemplar) and an Agent Readiness score of 69.1 (agent-ready), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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