Clever plate ideas.
Only ones you can actually get
Live preview
Real plate designs from all 50 states + DC
The bridge
The market makes you pick. We don't.
Idea generators
- Clever ideas
- No availability check
You fall in love, then find out it's taken.
Availability checkers
- Real availability
- Weak or no ideas
Accurate, but you still have to think of the plate.
AvailablePlates
- Clever ideas
- Real availability
- Ranked available-first
- Honest timestamps
The whole loop in one place. That is the product.
Available-first ranking
We check the DMV and put the open plates at the top, so you stop falling for ones that are already taken.
Honest and timestamped
Every result shows its state tier and exactly when we last checked. No stale data dressed up as live.
Real plate craft
Vowel drops, number swaps, homophones. Generated to fit your state's exact character rules, automatically.
Watchlist alerts
Love one that is taken? We watch it and email you the second it frees up. Recurring plates do free up.
Clever plates, generated and checked
A taste of what the generator turns out, on real state plates.
How it works
Set the scene
Pick your state, type a theme or name, choose a vibe. The form adapts to your state's real rules.
We generate and check
A big batch of legal ideas, then a live DMV check on the best ones, open plates first.
Grab it or watch it
Claim an available plate at your DMV, or watchlist a taken favorite for an alert.
Pricing
Free to find.
Paid to never miss.
Generating ideas and checking availability is free. Upgrade for more watches, faster checks, and category alerts.
Questions, answered
What is AvailablePlates?
AvailablePlates does two things nobody else does in the same breath: it generates clever, theme-based vanity plate ideas (the fun part), then checks which of those ideas are actually available at your state's DMV right now (the useful part). Results come back ranked available-first, so you spend zero time falling in love with a plate that's already taken. Try the generator and see what shakes out.
How is this different from just using my state's DMV website?
Your DMV site checks availability just fine. What it does not do is help you think of something worth checking. That's the gap we fill. You bring a theme (your dog's name, your profession, a terrible pun you've been sitting on for years) and we generate a whole set of clever candidates, filter out the ones that break your state's rules, and surface only the plates that are actually available. One loop instead of two.
Is availability information actually real-time?
It depends on your state, and we tell you exactly which situation you're in. States fall into three tiers. Tier 1 states get a live check against the DMV's own system, with a timestamp showing exactly when we last checked. Tier 2 states get full idea generation plus a direct link to the DMV pre-filled with your candidate, so you do the final click yourself. Tier 3 states get idea generation plus a link to the DMV site. Every result shows its tier and its timestamp. We never dress up a cached result as if it just came off the wire.
What does 'last checked' mean, and why does it matter?
Vanity plates get claimed and released constantly. A plate that was available last Tuesday might be gone today. We show a 'last checked' timestamp on every Tier 1 result so you know exactly how fresh that data is. If a result is hours old, we'll tell you. If it's stale enough to matter, we flag it. The DMV is always the source of truth. We're the fast shortlist; they're the official answer.