Custom license plates have been a trend in recent years and make our little motor beetle completely original. How much do we pay for a custom license plate? What are the rules for custom plates? Are custom plates transferable? You can read all the important information in the following article.
Custom license plates
The reasons why people get custom license plates vary. Some want to be original, while others want to make sure they can remember their plate better. Drivers often put numbers on their plates that have personal significance for them, such as a date of birth. They believe these numbers will bring them safety behind the wheel. Business owners include their company name. Parents use their child’s name. Some drivers use their pet’s name.
Requirements for custom license plates
License plates with custom text have been allowed by an amendment to Act No. 56/2001 Coll. since January 2016. Although we can choose the text ourselves, we must follow several rules. The basic one is the number of characters. For passenger cars, the registration plate must contain 8 characters, for motorcycles 7 characters, and for mopeds it is 5 characters.
Conditions for custom license plates
When designing custom text for a license plate, we must meet several conditions:
- The license plate must be completely original, and it is not possible to choose text that already exists,
- we must not use any derogatory, insulting, racist, or indecent expressions,
- the text must contain at least one digit,
- we must not use punctuation, diacritics, or special characters,
- we will avoid the letters G, CH, Q, O, and W, as these cannot be used when designing a registration plate,
- we will also avoid abbreviations of public authorities, for example MVCR, PCR, etc.
Drivers most frequently use license plates with a name or humorous and easily memorable expressions (for example TRA-BANT1).
Registration
Assessment and registration of custom license plates are carried out by municipal authorities with extended powers at the place of vehicle registration. The Central Vehicle Register ensures that no two registration plates with identical text are issued.
When registering, we must submit an application with personal details and the proposed text for a custom number plate. We can write the application in a free format or download it from the website of the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic (Application for the issuance of a registration plate). An individual fills in their name, surname, date of birth and permanent residence address. A legal entity fills in the company name, business ID number (IČO) and registered office address. It is not possible to fill in the written application online. We therefore submit it at the office in person, by post or via a data box (datová schránka). The waiting period is 15 days. We can check the availability of a custom number plate directly at the municipal authority with extended powers or in the central vehicle register. This will prevent our number plate from being identical to another registration mark.
Reserving a custom license plate
We can also reserve a registration plate with custom text. We submit an application for the reservation of the given license plate, and if the authority approves it, this reservation is valid for 6 months. During this period, the authority must not issue a license plate with the same text to another applicant. During this time, we either submit an application for the registration plate at the relevant office, or after 6 months have passed, this reservation automatically expires. During the given period, we can only have one reservation per natural or legal entity. The fee for extending the reservation is 500 CZK (about 23 USD).
How much do we pay?
We must pay for a custom registration plate. The price of one license plate with custom text is 5,000 CZK (about 230 USD). This means that for two plates on a car, we pay 10,000 CZK (about 460 USD). In the case of a motorcycle, only one license plate is enough for us, so we pay 5,000 CZK (about 230 USD).
In the event of theft, we must apply for a new license plate at the full purchase price. However, the text must not be the same as on the stolen plate. In case of damage (for example after a traffic accident), we can exchange the license plate for a new one. The fee is 600 CZK (about 28 USD).
Transferability
A custom license plate is transferable, just like a standard registration plate. However, it must have the same owner and can only be used on one vehicle. It cannot be sold separately to another person.
When selling a car, we can re-register our custom license plate to another vehicle. Selling and buying a car is thus an ideal time. If we do not have a new car yet, we can reserve this plate for a period of 3 months. If we decide to sell the vehicle with the registration plate, we must meet several conditions. The first one is that we must not sell the car abroad. Another condition states that the transfer is only possible between natural or legal entities. It is therefore not possible to transfer our registration plate to a legal entity.
In the event of inheriting a vehicle with a custom registration plate, the acquirer of the vehicle also becomes the operator of this license plate.
Can we find the owner by license plate?
If we were attracted by the original text on a registration plate and want to know who the vehicle belongs to, we will not find this information on the internet. Personal information about the car owner is only held by institutions such as the insurance company, the police, and the authority where the owner has the car registered.
Publicly we will only find out the brand and type of vehicle. Furthermore, we will find out the insurance company with which mandatory third-party liability insurance is arranged (on the website of the Czech Insurers’ Bureau). The duration of liability insurance is also publicly available.
Standard registration plate
A classic passenger car registration plate is a rectangular plate. It depicts black letters and numbers on a white background, which identify a specific car. On the license plate, we also find the country code for traveling abroad. EU countries have a uniform blue stripe element. Car sales are inextricably linked with registering or re-registering a car.
Other registration plates
License plates can also be color-coded. These include, for example:
- Blue text on a white background, cars of diplomats.
- Black text on a yellow background, construction, agricultural, and military machinery.
- Green text on a white background, test vehicles or vehicles that have not yet been approved for operation.
- Number plates, Army of the Czech Republic.
- Black text on a white background with a red border, cars for export.
- Black text on a green paper background, single-use document with limited validity (transport of a vehicle from the dealer to the place of registration).
- Racing vehicles, they have the letter R and numbers 01 to 14 (region code) on the license plate.
- Veteran cars, they have the letter V on the license plate and the region is indicated by a number (just like with racing vehicles).
Read another interesting article on the topic of car loan vs leasing or on the topic of how to choose compulsory insurance.
USD amounts are approximate, converted at the Czech National Bank rate of 21.80 CZK per USD on 2 October 2026.
