Brazilian License Plate Generator

License plate formats in Brazil

The old model was used until 2018 and showed 3 letters followed by 4 numeric digits, like ABC-1234. The Mercosul standard, in place from 2018, arranges the plate as 3 letters, 1 digit, 1 letter and 2 more digits (see ABC-1D34). Because it opens up far more possible combinations, this newer format now goes on every brand-new vehicle.

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Brazilian licence plates: the Mercosul format explained

Brazil began rolling out the Mercosul licence plate in 2018 and made it mandatory for newly registered or transferred vehicles in 2020, under CONTRAN Resolution 780/2019. The format harmonises plate layouts across Mercosul member states (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay), with each country keeping its colour scheme but sharing the same structure: 4 letters + 1 digit + 1 letter + 2 digits, written as LLL-NLNN. A typical example: ABC1D23.

The previous Brazilian standard, in force since the 1980s, was LLL-NNNN — three letters followed by four digits (e.g. ABC-1234). Both schemes share seven characters total, so Brazil drafted a translation rule for when an old plate is re-issued under the Mercosul layout: the fourth character (originally a digit) becomes a letter following the mapping 0→A, 1→B, 2→C, 3→D, 4→E, 5→F, 6→G, 7→H, 8→I, 9→J. So ABC-1234 becomes ABC1B34.

Plate colours and what they mean

• White — private vehicles (cars, motorcycles, light trucks).
• Red — commercial passenger and freight (taxis, buses, lorries, ride-share fleets, rental cars).
• Black — collector vehicles (over 30 years old, registered as antigo de coleção).
• Blue — official government and diplomatic corps vehicles.
• Grey — agency-of-state vehicles (federal, state, municipal fleets).
• Green — manufacturer test plates and experimental vehicles.

Anti-fraud features

Mercosul plates are not just a new font — they bundle several physical anti-counterfeiting elements: a QR Code printed in the upper-right corner that links to Senatran records, a holographic strip with the country flag, a watermark visible only under UV light, individually serialised aluminium blanks tracked from press to dealership, and an embossed "BRASIL" band along the top with the EU-style flag of Mercosul.

FAQ

Can I switch my old plate to the Mercosul format? Yes — you can voluntarily request the change at any DETRAN office, and it becomes compulsory whenever you transfer ownership, change municipality of registration, or the old plate is damaged or lost. Cost varies by state but is typically R$ 200-400 including labour.

Can I generate a real plate with this tool? No. The tool produces strings that follow the Mercosul format and are useful as mock data for tests, mockups, design comps, and form-validation development. Using a generated plate on a real vehicle, in a fake document, or to evade traffic enforcement is the federal crime of falsificação de placa (Código Penal art. 311), with imprisonment from 3 to 6 years.

What if the generated plate collides with a real one? It can happen — there are tens of millions of issued plates and a finite Mercosul namespace. Always treat the output as placeholder data only, never as a real-world identifier.

Is the format the same across all Mercosul countries? The structure (4 letters + 1 digit + 1 letter + 2 digits) is shared, but each country uses its own colour palette and graphical elements. Argentina, for example, uses a white background with a blue stripe; Uruguay uses a different font and country code.