CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API

Name: CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API API
Brand: CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey9 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Decode VINs, check stolen status, retrieve mileage history and inspection records, value vehicles across 24 countries, and search current car listings.

Quickstart

Get started with CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"decode a vehicle vin"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API API.

Decode a 17-character VIN into make, model, fuel type, transmission, engine power, and registration date

Convert a license plate plus ISO country code into the underlying VIN

Check whether a vehicle has been reported stolen in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, or Romania

Retrieve mileage history records for a VIN to detect odometer rollbacks

GET STARTED

Start building with CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. CarAPI.dev provides automotive data lookups including 17-character VIN decoding, license-plate-to-VIN conversion, stolen-vehicle checks across five Central European countries, mileage history, technical inspection (STK) and emissions (EK) records, vehicle valuation across 24 markets and 40 makes, and current marketplace listings. Agents can use it to verify a vehicle's identity, history, and market value, or to surface listings and photos for a given VIN. Authentication is a query-parameter API token.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Used Car Buyer Due Diligence

Verify a used car before purchase by chaining VIN decode, mileage history, stolen check, and inspection lookup into a single agent flow. CarAPI.dev returns structured make, model, fuel, transmission, and engine power for the VIN, mileage records over time so an agent can flag odometer inconsistencies, a stolen-status flag across five Central European registries, and the next STK and EK validity dates for Slovak vehicles.

Decode VIN WVWZZZ3CZWE123456, fetch its mileage history, run a stolen check, and return a one-paragraph risk summary.

Vehicle Valuation for Listing Pricing

Generate a market-accurate asking price for a vehicle by querying the valuation endpoint with make, model, year, and target country. CarAPI.dev supports 40 manufacturers and 24 countries (CZ, SK, DE, AT, CH, FR, PL, RO, HU, HR, PT, BG, SI, RS, NL, LT, BE, ES, IE, IT, UK, NO, SE, US) and returns the estimated valuation price with currency. Pair with the loan-payments endpoint to produce a full pricing card with monthly finance estimates.

Get the valuation for a 2020 Volkswagen Golf in Germany and calculate monthly payments at 5.5% over 60 months on a 25000 EUR price.

Listing Aggregator Enrichment

Power a vehicle marketplace or comparison site by combining listing search, VIN decoding, and photo retrieval. The /listing endpoint returns paginated results filtered by make, model, and year with availability counts (images, plates, history items) for each VIN. The /photos/{vin} endpoint returns the full set of photo URLs for a chosen vehicle.

Search listings for 2019 Skoda Octavia, pick the first VIN, decode it, and return its photo URLs.

AI Agent Vehicle Lookup via Jentic

Wire CarAPI.dev into an agent through Jentic so it can answer natural-language vehicle questions without browsing docs. The agent searches Jentic for the right operation, loads its input schema, and calls it with vault-managed credentials, so VIN decoding, stolen checks, and valuations become single-step tool calls in any LangChain, CrewAI, or MCP-based agent.

Through Jentic, decode the VIN the user pasted in chat and return make, model, year, and stolen status as a structured response.

Key Endpoints

9 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for carapi.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/vin-decode/{vin}

Decode a VIN into full vehicle specifications

GET

/plate-to-vin/{plateNumber}

Convert a license plate to its VIN

GET

/stolen-check/{vin}

Check stolen status across five Central European countries

GET

/mileage-history/{vin}

Retrieve historical mileage records

GET

/inspection/{vin}

Get technical inspection (STK) and emissions (EK) validity

GET

/vehicle-valuation

Get market valuation by make, model, year, country

GET

/listing

Search current vehicle marketplace listings

GET

/photos/{vin}

Get available photos for a VIN

GET

/vin-decode/{vin}

Decode a VIN into full vehicle specifications

GET

/plate-to-vin/{plateNumber}

Convert a license plate to its VIN

GET

/stolen-check/{vin}

Check stolen status across five Central European countries

GET

/mileage-history/{vin}

Retrieve historical mileage records

GET

/inspection/{vin}

Get technical inspection (STK) and emissions (EK) validity

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The CarAPI.dev API token is stored encrypted in Jentic's vault. Agents receive scoped execution rights only — the raw token is injected into the `token` query parameter at request time and never enters the agent's context window or chat logs.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent (e.g., 'decode a vin' or 'check if a car is stolen') and Jentic returns the matching CarAPI.dev operation with its input schema, so the agent can call the right endpoint without parsing docs.

Time to first call

Direct CarAPI.dev integration: 2-4 hours for auth wiring, error handling, and retry logic across the nine endpoints. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

CarsXE

Global VIN decoder and vehicle data provider with broader US/international coverage.

Choose CarsXE when the agent needs US-market VIN decoding or international plate lookups beyond Central Europe.

Complementary

CarbonAPI

Calculates CO2 emissions for vehicles and journeys.

Pair with CarAPI.dev when the workflow needs both vehicle identity (VIN/specs) and per-trip carbon footprint estimates.

Complementary

Carrier Lookup

Phone number carrier and line-type lookup for verifying owner contact details.

Use alongside CarAPI.dev when verifying both the vehicle and the seller's contact number in marketplace fraud-screening flows.

FAQs

Specific to using CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API?

CarAPI.dev does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the CarAPI.dev API use?

CarAPI.dev uses an API token passed as the `token` query parameter on every request. Tokens are issued from the dashboard at https://carapi.dev/dashboard. Through Jentic the token is stored encrypted in the credential vault and injected at execution time, so the raw token never enters the agent's prompt or chat history.

Can I check if a car is stolen using the CarAPI.dev API?

Yes. Call GET /stolen-check/{vin} with a 17-character VIN and the response returns a top-level `stolen` boolean plus per-country flags for Slovakia (sk), Czech Republic (cz), Slovenia (si), Hungary (hu), and Romania (ro). Coverage is limited to those five Central European registries.

Which countries are supported for vehicle valuation?

The /vehicle-valuation endpoint covers 24 country codes: CZ, SK, DE, AT, CH, FR, PL, RO, HU, HR, PT, BG, SI, RS, NL, LT, BE, ES, IE, IT, UK, NO, SE, and US. Pass `country` as an optional query parameter to get a market-specific price; omit it for a default valuation.

What are the rate limits for the CarAPI.dev API?

The OpenAPI specification does not declare explicit rate limits. Limits are typically tied to the plan associated with your API token; check the dashboard at https://carapi.dev/dashboard or contact support@carapi.dev for the current quota on your account.

How do I decode a VIN with CarAPI.dev through Jentic?

Run `pip install jentic`, then use Jentic's search to find the VIN-decode operation with the query "decode a vin", load its schema, and execute with `{"vin": "WVWZZZ3CZWE123456"}`. Jentic handles the GET /vin-decode/{vin} call, injects your CarAPI.dev token from the vault, and returns the decoded specifications and feature list.

Can I use the listings endpoint without specifying a make or model?

Yes. GET /listing accepts make, model, and year as optional filters. Without filters it returns the most recent listings paginated by `limit` (1-50, default 10) and `offset`. Each listing includes the VIN, basic specifications, and counts of available images, plate numbers, and history items.