Free VIN decoder API

Decode any 17-character VIN into make, model, year, engine, body and factory — plus 1,900 Japanese chassis codes you will not find anywhere else in English. JSON, one GET request, no key and no signup — paste the URL in a browser and it works.

Try it now

Open either link in a browser. Nothing to sign up for.

The request

# One endpoint, one parameter. That is the whole API.
GET https://jpsheet.com/api/v1/decode?vin=JTDKARFU2J3060748

# curl
curl "https://jpsheet.com/api/v1/decode?vin=JTDKARFU2J3060748"

# JavaScript — CORS is open, call it straight from a browser
const r = await fetch('https://jpsheet.com/api/v1/decode?vin=JTDKARFU2J3060748');
const d = await r.json();
console.log(d.vehicle.headline);   // "2018 Toyota Prius"

# PHP
$d = json_decode(file_get_contents(
  'https://jpsheet.com/api/v1/decode?vin=JTDKARFU2J3060748'), true);
echo $d['vehicle']['headline'];

What comes back

A 17-character VIN

{
  "ok": true,
  "input": "JTDKARFU2J3060748",
  "type": "vin",
  "vin_structure": {
    "wmi": "JTD",
    "vds": "KARFU2",
    "check_digit": "2",
    "year_code": "J",
    "plant_code": "3",
    "serial": "060748",
    "wmi_make": "Toyota",
    "wmi_country": "Japan"
  },
  "vehicle": {
    "headline": "2018 Toyota Prius",
    "make": "TOYOTA",
    "model": "Prius",
    "year": "2018",
    "series": "ZVW50L/ZVW51L",
    "body": "Hatchback/Liftback/Notchback",
    "engine_litres": "1.8",
    "cylinders": "4",
    "fuel": "Gasoline",
    "transmission": "Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)",
    "plant_city": "TOYOTA CITY",
    "plant_country": "JAPAN"
  },
  "source": "NHTSA vPIC (manufacturer filing)",
  "quota": { "limit": 10, "used": 1, "resets": "midnight UTC" }
}

A Japanese chassis code

{
  "ok": true,
  "type": "jdm_chassis",
  "chassis_code": "ZRE172",
  "vehicle": {
    "make": "Toyota",
    "model": "Corolla Axio",
    "years": "2012-2021",
    "engine": "1.5L 2NR-FE"
  },
  "source": "JP Sheet JDM chassis database"
}

Limits

Only a new VIN counts. Once a VIN has been looked up it is cached forever, and every request for it after that is free, instant and uncounted — so a site showing the same few hundred vehicles is effectively unlimited.

Japanese chassis codes are read from a local database, so they never count at all. A failed lookup does not count either — a typo should not cost you your allowance.

Building something that needs more? Email [email protected] and tell us what it is. There is no paperwork.

Errors

Where the data comes from

17-character VINs are decoded against the US Department of Transportation's vPIC database — the specification the manufacturer itself filed. Not inferred, not guessed.

Japanese chassis codes come from JP Sheet's own database, built from real auction sheets since 2023. Around 1,900 codes, and nowhere else publishes them in English.

What it will not tell you. vPIC covers vehicles type-approved for the US market. A car built only for Japan is not in it — search its chassis code instead. And no decoder, ours included, knows what happened to a specific car: its accidents, its real mileage, whether it was in a flood. A VIN describes the model; only an inspection record describes the vehicle.