Vehicle registration plates of Brazil
Brazilian vehicle registration plates are issued by the states. Each state has a Departamento de Trânsito that is in charge of vehicle registration and car tax collection, but plates are standardized across the country and form a national vehicle registration database.
Description
The current system, being phased out in favor of Mercosul standard plates, was created in 1990 and was named Registro Nacional de Veículos Automotores. It uses the form "LLL·NNNN", where LLL is a three-letter combination followed by a four-digit number with a dot between the letters and numbers. A combination given to one vehicle stays with it "for life" - it cannot be changed or transferred to another vehicle. Vanity plates are allowed as long as they abide by the same standard as non-vanity plates.Above the combination is a metallic band with the standardized state abbreviation and the name of the municipality in which the vehicle is currently registered. This band has to be changed when a vehicle needs to be registered in a different municipality.
Rear number plates are bound to the vehicle by a plastic seal. Broken seals invalidate the number plate, which has to be re-sealed by the authorities. Seals need to be broken in order to change State/Municipality tags.
The size of the Brazilian license plates has been standardized to 400 × 130 mm in 2008. That standardization also requires a unique typeface known as "Mandatory", which is similar to the typeface used on British plates introduced there in 2001. Plates in North American standard or European standard size can no longer be used as of 1 January 2008.
Colors
Mercosur license plates (2018–)
- Black on white: privately owned vehicles;
- Red on white: any kind of paid transportation and driving schools ;
- Blue on white: official use ;
- Grey on white: collector's items, unrestricted circulation inside and outside Brazil;
- White on black: same as above, but without Mercosur's logo and with circulation restricted inside Brazil;
- Green on white: manufacturer plates for vehicles under testing, dealer-testing, or in some cases test-drive ;
- Gold on white: diplomatic use.
Old system (1990–2018)
- Black on grey: privately owned vehicles;
- White on red: any kind of paid transportation ;
- Red on white: driving school ;
- Black on white: official use ;
- Gray on black: collector's items ;
- White on green: manufacturer plates for vehicles under testing, dealer-testing, or in some cases test-drive ;
- White on blue: diplomatic use.
Sequences
Vertical Distribution of Alphanumeric Combinations
The letters on the license plate can describe the state where a vehicle was originally registered. Vehicles transferred from one state to another will display the new state/municipality on the temporary plate, but it is always possible to determine the original registration location of a used vehicle by observing the letter sequence on the plate for each Brazilian state.:| State | 1st sequence | 2nd sequence | 3rd sequence | 4th sequence | 5th sequence | 6th sequence | 7th sequence | 8th sequence | 9th sequence | 10th sequence | 11th sequence | 12th sequence | 13th sequence | 14th sequence | 15th sequence | 16th sequence | 17th sequence | 18th sequence | - | |||||||||||||||||||||
 ParanáVertical distribution of sequences in alphabetical orderBelow is an alphabetically organized list of Letter Sequences and corresponding States. This list is up to date as of January 2026.
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São PauloNts|38.447.155