Find your registration office and work out the fee

What each registration costs

The fee schedule gives every procedure its own number, and almost every one a cheaper online number too. The table shows the most common cases with the registration office’s fee and, on the right, the amount including every small item that may apply: two registration seals, the roadworthiness sticker and the register entry at the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Number plates are never included.

An example: registering a new car in person with a reserved personalised number costs €42.80 in fees instead of €30.00, because €10.20 for the personalised number and €2.60 for the reservation are added. The fee calculator works out every variant line by line, including old logbooks, interchangeable plates and a change of keeper.

Which office is yours

What matters is the keeper’s main address. The search above maps each of the 11,099 municipalities to its district through the official municipality key and shows that district’s registration office with its main office and branches. A few districts have two offices, such as the city and the region of Hannover; then it depends on where you live. The large cities have their own pages, for example Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne.

A plate also leads to the office: the letters before the seal, the district code (Unterscheidungszeichen), belong to one district. Since codes were liberalised many old ones are back, so a district often has several. The plate code list gives all 769.

Registering, moving, deregistering

To register you need an ID card, or a passport with proof of address, registration certificates parts I and II, the insurer’s eVB number, a direct-debit mandate for vehicle tax and, for a used car, proof of the last roadworthiness test. The details are under documents, the amounts under registration costs. After moving to another district you may keep your plate; re-registering then costs less than with a new plate, and no new plates are needed.

Anyone taking a car off the road, selling or scrapping it deregisters it: €15.90 in person, €2.10 online. More under deregistering.

Driving licences: the exchange timetable

Under Annex 8e of the Driving Licence Regulation every licence issued before 19 January 2013 loses its validity on a date set by age group. All paper licences are now due, except for holders born before 1953. Next in line are cards issued in 2002 to 2004, with a deadline of 19 January 2027. The exchange costs €26.50 at the licensing office; the exchange calculator gives your date.

Special plates at a glance

Besides the ordinary plate, the vehicle registration ordinance provides several special forms. Each has its own legal basis and one rule that decides whether it fits your case. The table sums them up; each row leads to a page with worked examples, requirements and common mistakes.

The seasonal plate saves tax and insurance for the months a motorcycle or motorhome is laid up. The H plate needs an expert report and replaces vehicle tax with a flat rate. Short-term and export plates are for trips without regular registration, one for a few days within Germany, the other for leaving the country for good. A personalised number can be combined with almost all of them.

Where most cars are registered

The number of vehicles explains why appointments are scarce in some districts and not in others. The ten registration districts with the largest car stock together look after 12 % of Germany’s 49,486,487 cars, out of 415 districts. The right-hand column shows the share of fully electric cars in each district’s stock.

Where many vehicles fall to one office, registering online pays off most, and an appointment should be booked early. The page on the road traffic office explains what else those offices handle besides registration.

What this calculator does not do

It books no appointments, takes no applications and sells no plates. It calculates from the wording of the regulations and shows addresses as the offices report them to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. How exactly is on the method page; who is behind it under about.