Gov Uk Vehicle Enquiry API
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentData EnrichmentCompany Datanone1 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Look up authoritative DVLA records for a UK vehicle from its registration number, including make, fuel type, MOT, tax, and CO2 emissions.
Use for: Look up the make and model for a UK number plate, Check whether a UK vehicle has a valid MOT, Find the CO2 emissions for a vehicle by its registration, Verify the tax status of a UK car before booking
Not supported: Does not return owner, keeper, address, or insurance data — use for DVLA vehicle metadata lookup only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Vehicle Enquiry API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The DVLA Vehicle Enquiry API returns information about a UK-registered vehicle from its registration number, including make, colour, fuel type, CO2 emissions, MOT status, tax status, and year of manufacture. It exposes a single POST /v1/vehicles operation that takes a registration number and returns the DVLA's authoritative record. The API is the canonical source for UK vehicle metadata used in insurance quoting, fleet onboarding, and parking enforcement workflows.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Vehicle Enquiry API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Vehicle Enquiry API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Vehicle Enquiry API.
Retrieve DVLA vehicle details from a UK registration number via POST /v1/vehicles
Surface MOT status and tax status for compliance and insurance workflows
Read CO2 emissions, fuel type, and engine capacity for emissions reporting
Confirm year of manufacture, make, and primary colour for fleet onboarding
Validate that a registration number corresponds to an active DVLA record
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Vehicle Enquiry API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Insurance Quote Pre-Fill
Insurance agents pre-fill a quote form by sending the customer's registration number to POST /v1/vehicles and reading back make, fuel type, engine capacity, and CO2 emissions. This removes manual entry and ensures the quote is based on the DVLA's authoritative record. Coverage is limited to UK-registered vehicles, and the endpoint does not return owner or address details.
Call POST /v1/vehicles with registrationNumber=AA19AAA and return make, yearOfManufacture, fuelType, and co2Emissions for quote pre-fill.
Fleet Onboarding and MOT Compliance
Fleet operators onboarding a new vehicle verify MOT and tax status against the DVLA in real time. The single Vehicle Enquiry endpoint returns motStatus and taxStatus alongside motExpiryDate and taxDueDate, so the agent can flag vehicles that are not road-legal before assigning them to a driver. The API does not return service history or insurance status.
POST /v1/vehicles for each registration in a fleet CSV and produce a list of vehicles where motStatus is not 'Valid'.
Emissions and Clean Air Zone Pre-Check
Apps that determine whether a vehicle is liable for a Clean Air Zone or ULEZ charge use the Vehicle Enquiry API to read fuelType, co2Emissions, and engineCapacity. The returned values feed directly into the local zone's fee logic without needing a manual VED band lookup.
POST /v1/vehicles with a registration number and route the vehicle to the correct CAZ pricing tier based on fuelType and co2Emissions.
Agent Lookup via Jentic
An AI assistant answering 'is this car taxed?' uses Jentic to discover the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry endpoint, load the request schema, and execute the call without scraping the DVLA website. The agent receives the structured response and can quote tax and MOT dates back to the user in natural language.
Use the Jentic SDK to search 'check uk vehicle details by registration', load POST /v1/vehicles, and execute with the user's plate.
Key Endpoints
1 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for vehicle enquiry api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/v1/vehicles
Look up DVLA vehicle details by registration number
POST
/v1/vehicles
Look up DVLA vehicle details by registration number
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
DVLA-issued x-api-key values are stored encrypted in Jentic's MAXsystem vault. Agents receive scoped execution access — the raw key is never exposed in prompts, logs, or tool outputs.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic with intents like 'check uk vehicle details by registration' and Jentic returns POST /v1/vehicles with its request schema, so the agent can populate registrationNumber without reading DVLA's PDF docs.
Time to first call
Direct integration: 1-2 days for DVLA key request, request schema modelling, and error handling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes once the key is in the vault.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Vehicle Enquiry API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Vehicle Enquiry API?
The DVLA does not publish an OpenAPI specification for this service. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Vehicle Enquiry API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up .
What authentication does the Vehicle Enquiry API use?
The Jentic-generated spec exposes no security scheme on the public POST /v1/vehicles operation, but in production the DVLA gateway requires an x-api-key header issued by the DVLA API team (DvlaAPIAccess@dvla.gov.uk). When called via Jentic, the issued key is stored in MAXsystem and injected at execution time.
Can I look up a vehicle's owner with this API?
No. POST /v1/vehicles returns only vehicle metadata — make, colour, fuel type, CO2, year of manufacture, MOT status, and tax status. It does not return keeper, owner, or address details. Owner data requires a separate DVLA service governed by stricter access rules.
What are the rate limits for the Vehicle Enquiry API?
The Jentic spec does not declare rate limits. The DVLA enforces limits at the gateway tied to your issued key, with separate quotas for test and production environments. Cache per-registration responses since DVLA records change infrequently.
How do I retrieve vehicle details through Jentic?
Search Jentic with 'check uk vehicle details by registration', load the POST /v1/vehicles operation, and execute with a registrationNumber field in the body. The Jentic SDK returns the DVLA response as a typed object so the agent can read fields like motStatus directly.
Does this API cover Northern Ireland or non-UK vehicles?
Coverage is for UK-registered vehicles held on the DVLA database. Northern Ireland vehicles are included where DVLA holds the record, but vehicles registered outside the UK will return a not-found response.
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