Clear sources. Clear limits.
Know where the facts come from.
Your free report brings together two public NHTSA datasets. Here’s what they can tell you, and what they can’t.
Vehicle specifications from NHTSA vPIC
We decode the VIN using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s vPIC API. Specifications reflect information supplied by manufacturers. Available fields can include model year, make, model, trim, engine, fuel, body style, drivetrain, and assembly location. Some fields may be incomplete or missing.
Recall notices matched to the model
Public notices come from NHTSA’s recall API, matched by year, make, and model. A model-level match does not confirm that a notice applies to your exact VIN, or that a repair remains open. Check NHTSA’s official VIN lookup or the manufacturer to confirm your vehicle’s status. Even that tool has coverage limitations.
Retrieval dates and caching
Specifications are cached for up to 30 days to reduce repeated requests. Recall notices refresh on a daily cache cycle and can lag newly published information. Live reports show separate retrieval dates. If a source is unavailable, the report says so rather than treating the failure as an empty result.
What is not in your report
The report does not include accident, title, theft, salvage, odometer, or ownership history. It cannot verify current condition, installed equipment, legal ownership, or whether a VIN plate is genuine. Use it as one part of your research.
Optional theft and salvage checks on NICB
Our reports link to NICB’s free VINCheck as a separate external resource. You enter your VIN on NICB’s site; we do not retrieve or display its results. NICB searches records supplied by participating insurers and limits use to five searches per IP address per 24 hours. Its coverage is limited, and no matching records does not establish that a vehicle has no damage or a clean history.
Free, with clearly labeled advertising
No payment, credit card, or account is required to view your decoded results. Advertising placements are separate from vehicle information. Any sponsored offers are optional and labeled. Advertisements are not NHTSA endorsements.
An independent service
freevininfo.com is an independent project maintained by Jesse Barrueta. It is not affiliated with NHTSA or a vehicle manufacturer. To report a problem or ask a question, use the project’s public GitHub issue tracker. Never include personal documents or sensitive information in a public issue.
About the sample report
The sample reports contain illustrative vehicle configurations and an example notice. Vehicle images are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs or lookups of specific vehicles. Example notices are not live recalls. Assembly location depends on the actual VIN and is not inferred from a model name.