Personalized license plates
Personalized license plates are available with the standard plate background for passenger vehicles, recreational vehicles and one-ton pickup trucks. Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) will not issue a plate that replicates any existing series of license plates or a series reserved for future use.
What's allowed on a personalized plate?
Standard passenger plates are allowed to have a minimum of one character and a maximum of seven characters (including spaces). The maximum characters allowed may be less for motorcycles, mopeds, one-ton pickups, recreational vehicle or other vehicles. For other vehicle types, refer to the Special Plate brochure for characters and character limits.
A character is considered any upper-case letter, space, hyphen or number. All personalized plate choices must include at least one letter character.
Specialized plates may be personalized. Personalized plates are available with the disability parking symbol for qualified applicants. Plates can be transferred to another vehicle owned by the applicant.
Check the availability of your desired personalized plate name and purchase plates with the Personalized Plate Search.
Review and approval
Applications for personalized plates are reviewed by DVS for compliance with Minnesota law. The review process can take up to six weeks.
Options are reviewed to ensure no words or combination of letters requested are:
- Used for commercial advertising
- Considered obscene, indecent or immoral
- Of a nature that would offend public morals or decency
You may request up to three options to personalize your plates. You must explain the meaning of each plate option. This explanation will be used if a complaint is received about the plate. DVS may contact you to request more information if the meaning of your choice is unclear.
Plate images
Fees
Initial plate fee: $100
Plates may be transferred to another vehicle of the same type owned by the applicant for a $5 fee.
How to apply
Online: You can check if your personalized plate choice is available and purchase plates using the Personalized Plate Search.
In person: Visit your local deputy registrar office.
By mail: Applications mailed in take longer to process and will be returned if the fees are incorrect. When mailing, please use the motor vehicle fees page to determine fees due or contact Driver and Vehicle Services at 651-297-2126 for more information on fees. Our mailing address is:
Driver and Vehicle Services
445 Minnesota St.
St. Paul, MN 55101-5187