---
id: vininfo
version: "1.11.0"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# vininfo — Extracts useful information from Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 377.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Vininfo is a Python library and CLI tool that decodes Vehicle Identification Numbers to extract structured information about vehicles. It parses the standard VIN format into its components (WMI, VDS, VIS) and maps them to real-world data like country of origin, manufacturer, and region. For supported brands—AvtoVAZ, Ford Australia, Nissan, Opel, and Renault—it can extract additional details such as body type, engine code, model name, and plant location. The package also provides VIN checksum verification to validate whether a number is correctly formatted.

You can use it either as a Python library by importing the Vin class and calling methods on VIN strings, or as a standalone CLI tool to query VINs from the command line. It has no runtime dependencies for basic use, making it lightweight to integrate into existing projects.

Use it for:

- Validate and decode VINs in automotive inventory or sales systems to automatically populate vehicle metadata.
- Verify VIN checksums in data pipelines to catch data entry errors or corrupted identifiers.
- Extract manufacturer and country information from bulk VIN lists for compliance or analytics reporting.
- Build a vehicle lookup feature in a mobile or web app that shows detailed specs for supported brands.
- Audit vehicle registration databases by decoding and cross-checking VIN components against expected values.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Extracts and verifies information from Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), including manufacturer, country, region, and detailed vehicle specs when available.

Yes. Vininfo is lightweight, actively maintained, has no runtime dependencies, and solves a specific problem well. Install it if you need to parse or validate VINs in your application. The permissive BSD-3-Clause license poses no barrier. Be aware that detailed vehicle specs are only available for five major brands; for other manufacturers, you get only basic WMI-level information.

## Install

pip install vininfo
uv add vininfo
poetry add vininfo

## Installing vininfo

Before you install: Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained as of 2026-05-02 with 146 repository stars and recent activity.

License in practice: BSD-3-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute this package with minimal restrictions provided you include the license notice.

Quickstart:

pip install vininfo

from vininfo import Vin

vin = Vin('VF1LM1B0H36666155')
print(vin.country)  # France
print(vin.manufacturer)  # Renault
vin.verify_checksum()  # False

Requires Python 3.10 or later. CLI usage requires the click package, installed via `pip install vininfo[cli]`.

Verify before relying:

- How frequently the WMI and brand details dictionaries are updated to cover new manufacturers and vehicle models.
- Coverage completeness for non-major manufacturers beyond AvtoVAZ, Ford Australia, Nissan, Opel, and Renault.

## Package facts

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 377.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

vin decoder, vehicle identification number parser, vin checksum verification, car vin lookup, vehicle data extraction, vin details extractor, automotive vin tools, automotive, data-extraction, cli-tool

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/vininfo) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/vininfo/)