California custom license plates: how much one costs
California custom license plates start with a plain personalized plate at $53 when you order it and $43 a year after that, added to each registration renewal. Want a design, like the Whale Tail, Yosemite or your college? Those are $103 personalized and then $83 a year, or $50 and $40 with a regular number. The black-and-yellow 1960s Legacy plate costs less than the plain one even with your own letters: $50, then $40. Personalized plates take about 8 to 12 weeks. Below is every DMV fee in one table, the rules for what you can put on a plate, and a calculator for what yours will cost over time.
Every DMV fee for a California custom plate
The DMV splits the cost into a fee when you order, a yearly fee with your registration, a fee to hold a plate when it isn’t on a car, and a fee to move it to another of your cars. No single DMV page puts them side by side, so here they are.
| Plate | When you order | Every year after | Holding it with no car | Moving it to another of your cars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental (the plain California plate), personalized | $53 | $43 | $43 a year | $43 |
| Special interest design, personalized | $103 | $83 | $43 a year | $58 |
| Special interest design, regular number | $50 | $40 | Free | $15 |
| 1960s Legacy (black and yellow), personalized or not | $50 | $40 | $38 a year | $15 |
| Kids plate, personalized | $50 | $40 | Free | $15 |
| Kids plate, regular number | $20 | $15 | Free | $15 |
| Veterans’ Organizations, personalized | $78 | $40 | Free | $15 |
Source: DMV Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual, Appendix 1F, checked against the order fees on the DMV’s choosing your license plate page. Paying online by card adds a 1.95% processing fee.
Your plate’s cost over the years
The order fee is the small part. The yearly fee is what adds up, and moving the plate to your next car costs extra too.
How much is a black California license plate?
The black plate with yellow characters is the DMV’s 1960s Legacy plate, a reissue of the design California used in that decade. It’s also one of the two cheapest ways to get your own characters, alongside the Kids plate: $50 to order, with or without a personal message, then $40 a year, against $53 and $43 for the plain white personalized plate. You order it the same way as any other special plate.
Are personalized plates legal in California?
Personalized plates issued by the DMV are completely legal, and they count as your registered plates like any others. What doesn’t count is a plate made by a shop or bought online as a novelty. Vehicle Code §5200 requires the plates the DMV issued for a car to be attached to that car, front and back, so a replica can be a souvenir in the garage but not a plate on the road.
What you can and can’t put on a California plate
- Two to seven characters, letters and numbers, with full or half spaces where you want them.
- No zero. Only the letter O is allowed, and the DMV rejects any request that swaps 1 and I, or 0, O and Q, to dodge a taken configuration.
- "69" only on a 1969 car. The application has to name the 1969 vehicle it will go on.
- Symbols come with the Kids plate. The hand, star, plus sign and heart belong to that series.
The DMV must also refuse anything with a sexual meaning, anything vulgar, profane or insulting, terms of prejudice against a group, a foreign or slang word, anything that makes the car look like law enforcement, and phonetic spellings or mirror images of any of those. It also keeps a list of three-letter combinations taken out of regular plates that you can’t use. The full criteria are in the DMV’s mandatory refusal rules.
Checking if your plate is available
Use the DMV’s online personalized plate order tool, which checks whether a configuration is already taken. Online ordering is only for a first order; renewals, retention, replacements, conversions and transfers all go on form REG 17. If a configuration you ask for by mail turns out to be taken, the DMV sends back your form and your fee.
How long it takes to get the plates
About 8 to 12 weeks for personalized plates, according to the DMV, which tells you by mail when they’re ready. A design with a regular number is quicker, about 4 to 6 weeks, mailed to the address on your vehicle record. One timing trap: if the car’s registration expires within 30 days of the plates being ready, you have to renew before they can be assigned to it. And if you’ve moved, update your address with the DMV at least 72 hours before ordering.
Buying or selling a car with personalized plates
Selling? Take the plates off first. The buyer gets regular plates free when the title is transferred, and you can hold yours for a future car (with the yearly holding fee in the table) or move them straight onto another car you own.
Buying a car that has someone’s personalized plates on it is where people get caught. The plates can stay only if the plate owner signs a release on a REG 17, and even then you pay the full order fee as if you were buying them new. If the owner doesn’t release them, the plates go back to the DMV. The exception is a transfer between spouses, parents, children or grandparents.
Where the extra money goes
For special interest plates, part of the fee goes to the organization or program on the plate, such as the arts, coastal protection or a university. That is why a design plate costs more than the plain one, and why the same letters cost $40 a year more on a Yosemite plate than on a white one.
Questions people ask
Is there a yearly fee for a California personalized plate?
Yes. On top of the one-time fee when you order, the DMV charges an annual plate renewal fee with every registration renewal: $43 for a plain personalized plate and $83 for most personalized designs. If you take the plate off the car and hold it for later, a yearly retention fee takes its place, and skipping that fee lets the DMV cancel the plate.
Can I put a personalized plate on my motorcycle?
Often, but not always. The plain Environmental plate is issued to motorcycles as well as cars, commercial vehicles and trailers. Special interest designs are a different story: the DMV says motorcycle versions are not available for all of them, so check the design before you order. If the one you want isn’t offered for bikes, the plain personalized plate is the fallback.
What happens if I lose one of my personalized plates?
You apply for a replacement on form REG 17 and the DMV makes a duplicate with the same characters. Lose both plates, or have both stolen, and the rules change: the same configuration cannot be reissued, so you have to choose a new one. A plain personalized plate costs $43 to replace, and most personalized designs $78.
Can I give a personalized plate as a gift?
Yes, online or with a REG 17 form. The catch is that the plate has to be ordered in the recipient’s name, and the recipient must be the registered owner of the car it will go on, because the DMV only issues a plate to the owner of record. That means you need their vehicle details before you order, not just the message you want.
Can I keep my letters and change the design?
Yes. The DMV calls it a conversion: you file a REG 17 asking to move your configuration to a different type of plate, for example from the plain white plate to a Yosemite or Legacy design. The fee depends on the plate you are moving to and is listed on the second page of the REG 17 form.
Sources: DMV fee appendix 1F; DMV, choosing your license plate; DMV, how to obtain personalized and special interest plates; DMV manual 21.180, mandatory refusal; DMV manual 21.185, personalized plate applications.