Florida License Plates With 7 Characters: Eligibility, Fees, and Renewal

Florida license plates with 7 characters are available, but only on plate designs that place the graphic in the center. If the plate design has a large graphic on the left side, the combination is capped at five characters. Motorcycle plates cap at six, regardless of design.¹²

Which Florida Plates Allow Seven Characters

The design of the plate decides how much room you get. The standard Sunshine State plate and the In God We Trust plate both use a center layout, so both support up to seven characters. Many specialty plates place a large image on the left side of the plate; those are limited to five characters.¹

Before you lock in a seven-character combination, confirm your preferred background is a center-design plate. Picking a left-design specialty plate means cutting your idea down to five characters, no exceptions.

What Counts as a Character

Your combination can mix capital letters and numbers, and you can include a single space or a single hyphen. On seven-character plates, you get one bonus position: one extra space or hyphen beyond the seven, which can be useful for separating two words or groups.¹ Five-character plates do not get that bonus.

The statute recognizes three personalized formats: numbers only (1 to 999), letters only, or a mix of letters and numbers.³ Every space and hyphen counts toward your limit. “GO GATA” uses seven positions even though only six are visible letters, so count carefully when you draft options.

Check availability first through the FLHSMV’s free lookup tool at services.flhsmv.gov/MVCheckPersonalPlate. It tells you in real time whether the combination is already taken.² Have a second and third choice ready.

Combinations the State Will Reject

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles screens every application and can reject any combination it considers objectionable.³ County tax collector staff also look over the application before it gets processed.⁴

Approval at the counter is not the final word. The department can recall a plate during the registration period if it later decides the combination is obscene or otherwise objectionable.³ If your plate is recalled, you get back the $10 use fee, the 50-cent special fee, and a prorated share of your license tax for the months left in the period. A clever workaround that slips past the first review can still be pulled later.

How to Apply

Once you’ve confirmed your combination is available, complete Form HSMV 83043, the Application for Personalized License Plate.² The form asks for your current plate number, your vehicle identification number, and the plate background you want. Match the details on your current registration exactly; mismatches cause delays.

Submit the application in person at your local county tax collector’s office or a licensed plate agency.⁵ Online submission for personalized orders is not currently available. Lessees qualify too, not just owners; bring a copy of the lease agreement. Vehicles registered under the International Registration Plan and commercial trucks required to display two plates are not eligible for personalized plates at all.³

What It Costs

Personalization runs $15 per year: a $10 annual use fee plus a $5 processing fee deposited into the Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund.³ That amount is in addition to your regular registration taxes. The first year also carries a $28 new-plate manufacturing fee, so expect a higher out-of-pocket cost upfront than at renewal.

Choosing a specialty background instead of the standard Sunshine State plate adds the specialty plate’s annual use fee on top of the personalization fee. Specialty fees range from $15 to $25 depending on the plate, with most at $15, $20, or $25. The fees stack. A $25 specialty plate with personalization comes to $40 per year in plate-related fees before registration taxes. The tax collector’s office may also charge a small handling fee that varies by county.

Keeping the Combination Year to Year

A personalized plate renews annually with your registration, and the $15 personalization fee shows up on each renewal notice. Skip the fee and you lose the combination; you’ll receive a standard-issue plate instead.

The statute gives you a one-year grace window. Once a personalized combination lapses, no one else can claim it until a full year has passed since your last registration period.³ After that, it opens up to anyone. If a combination matters to you, don’t miss the renewal.

If you change vehicles, you can keep the plate. Florida law lets you transfer a personalized plate to a replacement vehicle during the registration period, under the standard plate-transfer process in Section 320.0609.³ The same option applies to specialty plates with personalization.⁶ You won’t get a refund on fees already paid, and you won’t owe them again until the next renewal. Handle the transfer at your local tax collector’s office before the old vehicle leaves your possession, or you risk losing the combination.

1
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Personalized License Plate Check
2
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Application for Personalized License Plate
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 320.0805 – Personalized Prestige License Plates
4
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. RS-27 Motor Vehicle Procedure Manual – Personalized License Plates
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Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Personalized and Specialty License Plates
6
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 320.08068 – Specialty License Plates