---
title: "Extract license plate from image"
method: POST
path: "/extract-plate"
tags: ["OCR"]
---

# Extract license plate from image

`POST /extract-plate`

Extract a license plate string from a vehicle photo. When `country` is provided, the result must additionally pass region-specific format validation.

## Request body

- ExtractPlateRequest
  - `image` string, required — Base64-encoded image. Optional `data:image/<fmt>;base64,` prefix is stripped automatically.
  - `country` 'sk' | 'cz' | 'de' | 'at' | 'pl' | 'hu' | 'ro' | 'bg' | 'hr' | 'si' | 'rs' | 'fr' | 'gb' | 'it' | 'es' | 'pt' | 'be' | 'nl' | 'se' | 'no' | 'dk' | 'fi' | 'ch' | 'ie' | 'gr' | 'us' | 'ca' — 2-letter region code (case-insensitive). When set, region-specific plate format validation is enforced.

## Response `200`

OCR result. A null `plateNumber` indicates no plate could be extracted - this is not an error.

- ExtractPlateResponse
  - `plateNumber` string, nullable, required — Uppercase plate string with no spaces or dashes, or null when nothing found
  - `confidence` number, nullable, required — 0.0 - 1.0 self-reported by the upstream OCR, null on failure

## Other responses

- `400` — Missing image or unsupported country
- `403` — Invalid or missing API key, suspended account, or inactive subscription
- `413` — Payload too large (>15 MB)
- `429` — Monthly quota exhausted or per-minute rate limit exceeded. Quota responses carry resetDate; rate-limit responses carry a Retry-After header.

## Changes

- **2026-08-10** `cf1d4e12baca` — 9 info
  - added the non-success response with the status `403`
  - added the non-success response with the status `429`
  - removed the non-success response with the status `401`
  - added the optional property `code` to the response with the `400` status
  - …5 more

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/carapi/apis/carapi-dev-automotive-data-api/changes/extract-plate/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/carapi/apis/carapi-dev-automotive-data-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/carapi/apis/carapi-dev-automotive-data-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/carapi/carapi-dev-automotive-data-api/revisions/cf1d4e12baca/schema)