Read a VIN from a photo — and check it is right
A VIN is seventeen characters, and the ninth is a check digit computed from the other sixteen. Misread a character and the arithmetic stops working — so you find out immediately.
Show everything the scan found
This tool runs in the browser. The app does the same from your camera, keeps a history, and works offline.
How the check works
Each character is converted to a number, multiplied by a position weight, and the total taken modulo eleven. The result must equal the ninth character, where a remainder of ten is written as X. It is the same standard worldwide, so this validates a VIN from any market.
The design has one more feature worth knowing, because it saves you from the most common misreads: the letters I, O and Q never appear in a VIN. They were excluded precisely because they are confusable with 1 and 0. So if a reader hands you an O, it is a zero — every time, with no ambiguity.
Where to find it
| Where | Notes |
|---|---|
| Base of the windscreen, driver's side | Visible from outside. Usually the easiest photo, though reflections are the enemy |
| Driver's door jamb | On the sticker with tyre pressures and weights. Shaded, so often the cleanest read |
| Registration document or logbook | Printed as text — by far the most reliable source |
| Insurance certificate | Same, and usually already on your phone |
More on the structure of a VIN — what the first three characters mean and where the model year hides — in the full guide.
Windscreen glare
The windscreen plate sits under glass at an angle, close to the worst case for any reader. Shade it with your hand, get square on rather than shooting from the side, and if the result fails the check digit, use the door jamb instead.
Questions
The check failed — is the VIN fake?
Almost always it just means a character was misread. Try the door-jamb sticker, which photographs better than the windscreen. A genuinely invalid VIN on paperwork is worth questioning.
Are I, O and Q really never used?
Correct. They are excluded from the standard because they are confusable with 1 and 0.
Does this work on motorcycles and trucks?
The 17-character standard covers most modern road vehicles worldwide. Some older and some off-highway machines use shorter formats that will not validate.
Guides for this
The tool reads the number. These cover where it lives, why a read fails, and what to do with the result.
Do this with a camera instead
Your phone will offer its camera right here — the file picker above includes Take Photo. What the app adds is selecting a region on the photo it just took, a paid history of every scan, working with no connection, and no 7 MB engine download. The check-digit verification on this page is a web feature and is not in the app yet.