How Much Does a Private Number Plate Cost in the UK?

The honest answer: anywhere from about £99 to over £500,000. The spread is enormous. A current format plate with a recent year code can be found for under £100. A dateless plate bearing two letters and a single digit can fetch more than a house.

Understanding why requires knowing a bit about how UK plates are categorised and what makes one combination more desirable than another.

Current Format Plates

The plates issued since September 2001 follow the format AB51 ABC. Two letters identify the region, two digits show the year, and three letters complete the registration. Because millions of these exist, most are cheap. Entry-level current format plates sell from around £99 to a few hundred pounds.

Where they get expensive is when the three-letter suffix spells something. A plate that reads as a name or word commands a premium. Something like BO55 MAN or K41 TAN will attract genuine interest and price accordingly.

Prefix and Suffix Format Plates

Prefix format plates run from 1983 to 2001. They look like A123 ABC. Suffix format ran from 1963 to 1983 and reads ABC 123A. Both are older than current format plates and can sometimes spell words more naturally, which pushes prices up. Expect to pay £200 to several thousand for a tidy prefix or suffix plate.

Dateless Plates

These were issued before 1963 and carry no year identifier whatsoever. Formats include A1, 1 ABC, ABC 1 and similar short combinations. Because you cannot tell how old the car is from the plate, owners can put a dateless registration on any vehicle, regardless of age. That flexibility and prestige makes them the most sought-after category.

Short dateless plates start from around £200 for longer combinations. Single-letter, single-digit plates like F1 or 1 S have sold for astronomical sums. The plate 25 O sold for £518,000 in 2014. 1 D sold for over £285,000 at auction. F1 reportedly changed hands for more than £440,000.

What Drives the Price

Three things determine what a plate is worth. First is rarity: shorter plates with fewer characters are scarcer. Second is readability: how closely the registration spells a word or name. A plate that reads JAMES with minimal imagination sells for more than one that requires you to squint. Third is age: older plates and dateless formats carry prestige that newer plates do not.

Celebrity demand matters too. When a footballer or well-known figure wants a specific plate, word spreads and the price rises fast.

DVLA Fees

On top of the plate price itself, you pay a £80 DVLA transfer fee when assigning a registration to a vehicle. This applies whether you buy from the DVLA directly at one of their auctions or through a private dealer. It is not optional.

If you buy through GetMyPlate, that fee is included in what we charge. No surprises at checkout.