canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/carapi.dev/carapi-dev

# CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API

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.

## For AI agents

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

## Scope

Does not handle insurance quotes, vehicle telematics, or driver licensing - use for VIN decoding, history, valuation, and listings only.

## Capabilities

- 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
- Calculate a monthly loan payment schedule from price, down payment, term, and interest rate
- Generate a market valuation for a make/model/year combination across 24 countries
- Search vehicle marketplace listings filtered by make, model, year with pagination

## Use cases

### 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.

Example prompt: 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.

Example prompt: 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.

Example prompt: 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.

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

## Key endpoints

| 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 |

## Key resources

- **VIN** — Decode a VIN or convert a license plate to a VIN
- **Vehicle History** — Stolen check, inspection history, and mileage history per VIN
- **Valuation** — Market valuations across 24 countries and loan payment calculations
- **Listings** — Search current vehicle marketplace listings with filters and pagination
- **Media** — Retrieve photos available for a VIN

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring CarAPI.dev by hand means passing your API token in the token query parameter on every call and threading the vin path through each of the decode, history, and valuation routes against the api.carapi.dev host yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the CarAPI.dev automotive data API from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** CarAPI.dev is read-only lookup, so you scope by operation: limit the agent to the ones it needs, such as decoding a VIN, checking stolen status, or retrieving mileage history, and leave the others out of the allowed set until you want them.
- **Credential handling:** Your CarAPI.dev token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the token query parameter at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as '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 calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **CarsXE** — Global VIN decoder and vehicle data provider with broader US/international coverage.
- **CarbonAPI** — Calculates CO2 emissions for vehicles and journeys.
- **Carrier Lookup** — Phone number carrier and line-type lookup for verifying owner contact details.

## FAQ

### 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 with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### 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.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the CarAPI.dev API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which CarAPI.dev operations and credentials the agent may use. Since CarAPI.dev is read-only lookup, you scope by operation: allow only the calls the agent needs, such as decoding a VIN, checking stolen status, or retrieving mileage history, and leave endpoints like valuation, listings, or photos out of the allowed set. Your API token is injected at execution time under your control, so the agent can reach only the operations you have permitted.