Private plate prices: how far dealers differ on the same plate
Sellers charge different Private plate prices for one and the same registration. Every plate offered by two or more sellers goes into the price-spread index, which measures the spread between the lowest all-in price and the highest.
Price spread by plate type
| Type | Typical gap | Typical all-in price | Shared plates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suffix (ABC 123D) | £686 | £8,825 | 1,050 |
| Prefix (A123 BCD) | £181 | £3,024 | 1,004 |
| Dateless | £1,940 | £21,920 | 968 |
| Current style (AB12 CDE) | £55 | £554 | 664 |
| Irish | £239 | £5,035 | 233 |
Where sellers differ most: 20 gaps, cheapest offer £5,000 or less
One plate, priced all-in at its cheapest seller and at its dearest. The dearest offer can sit far above £5,000.
| Plate | Cheapest, all-in | Dearest, all-in | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
J1 WOW | £3,380 | £73,406 | £70,026 |
L14 OVE | £2,195 | £29,791 GoReg | £27,596 |
V1 MUM | £3,895 | £31,182 Yellowhite | £27,287 |
E4 LEE | £4,880 | £18,140 | £13,260 |
MR69 WOW | £3,614 | £16,526 | £12,912 |
BMW 135X | £4,773 | £13,268 | £8,495 |
LEO 707 | £3,672 | £11,296 GoReg | £7,624 |
S894 RAH | £4,308 | £11,300 | £6,992 |
AM68 AMG | £3,680 | £9,476 | £5,796 |
K600 LEO | £1,736 | £6,638 | £4,902 |
J2 OVE | £4,592 | £9,333 GoReg | £4,741 |
PAU 181W | £2,780 Yellowhite | £6,952 | £4,172 |
L28 LEO | £1,828 | £5,930 | £4,102 |
JA14 ACK | £1,531 GoReg | £5,612 | £4,081 |
B333 VAN | £4,970 | £8,810 | £3,840 |
DAD 117Y | £1,874 | £5,480 | £3,606 |
TON 7X | £4,546 GoReg | £8,000 | £3,454 |
ROB 100M | £4,555 | £7,607 Yellowhite | £3,052 |
JAY 63Y | £4,360 Yellowhite | £7,285 | £2,925 |
GOL 10N | £1,753 Yellowhite | £4,580 | £2,827 |
What the price-spread index means
More than one dealer lists many plates, and DVLA lists some of them too. Sellers set their own margin, and most list a price that leaves out VAT and the £80 DVLA assignment fee. Each price is treated the same way: plate plus VAT plus the £80 fee. We then work out the gap between that plate's cheapest and dearest seller.
Checking prices first is how you save that gap. It answers how much do private plates cost: there is no single figure, only a range, and that range depends on the plate type and where you buy it.
How to read each table
Shared plates are sorted by style in the price gaps by plate type table: current, prefix, suffix, dateless and Irish. By type, you can see how many plates turned up at two or more sellers, the usual all-in price, and how far sellers typically differ. Here typical means the middle value; a handful of very dear plates therefore do not skew it.
Single plates appear in the 20 widest gaps table when sellers differ most, and the cheapest seller is named for each. One listing may be out of date or priced on request when the gap is very wide, so read the seller's page before trusting it. Less than 20% VAT applies to some plates, and these are often stock taken from private sellers; our standard all-in figure can then sit a little above the checkout total.
Inside the CSV
For every shared plate, the download includes a single row. This records the registration and type, the number of sellers listing it, and the cheapest and dearest sellers. It gives both all-in prices in pounds, the gap in pounds and percentage, the price band, and the source page for the price.
Choose the number plate search or number plate valuation to put a price on a registration you own. Look at cheap private plates for the lowest prices overall, and read how we check prices.