How Much Are Black License Plates in Colorado?

Black license plates in Colorado cost $25 on top of your standard registration fees, and that $25 repeats every year at renewal. Add small material and processing charges the first time you order, and expect most drivers to pay somewhere between $40 and $100 at the counter beyond what they’d normally owe to register the vehicle. Personalization, if you want a custom combination, pushes the first-year extras closer to $86.

Where the $25 Goes

The black plate is a recreation of Colorado’s 1945 design, authorized under SB22-217 and administered by the Colorado Disability Funding Committee.¹ The $25 fee is remitted to the Disability Support Fund under C.R.S. 24-30-2205.5, which finances programs for Coloradans with disabilities.²

Full First-Year Cost Breakdown

The $25 historical plate fee is the headline charge, but a handful of smaller line items ride along on every order with a standard assigned number:

Historical plate fee: $25, to the Disability Support Fund.²
Plate material fee: $7.38 for the embossed set.
Clerk hire fee: $4 per transaction.
POST (Peace Officer Standardized Training) fee: $1.
Insurance verification fee: $0.50.

Weight-based registration fees stack on top. Passenger vehicles start at $6 for the first 2,000 pounds, plus 20 cents per 100 pounds up to 4,500 pounds. Over 4,500 pounds, the base rises to $12.50 plus 20 cents per 100 pounds above that threshold. Motorcycles pay a flat $3.³

If the vehicle is registered in an emissions program area, three more fees apply: a $1.50 Emissions-Area Air Account fee, a $0.70 Emissions Program County Area fee, and a $0.50 Statewide Air Account fee.⁴

Personalized Black Plates Cost More

You can pick your own letter-and-number combination, but the fees jump. Personalization adds a one-time $60 charge at issuance plus a $25 annual renewal fee for the personalized configuration, both separate from the $25 historical plate fee. That works out to $85 in extra fees the first year and $50 per year after that, on top of standard registration.⁵

One catch worth knowing: if you already have standard plates and want to carry your existing plate number onto a new black plate, Colorado treats that as personalization. You pay the $60 personalization fee plus the $25 historical plate fee plus plate material costs, bringing first-year plate costs to roughly $86 before registration.⁵

What You Pay Each Year at Renewal

The $25 historical plate fee hits again at every renewal.² Personalized plates add another $25 for the personalization renewal. Standard registration fees renew too.

The charge that surprises most people at renewal isn’t the plate fee. It’s the specific ownership tax, which Colorado charges in place of personal property tax on vehicles. The tax is based on 85 percent of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price when the vehicle was new, and it drops on a fixed schedule:⁴

Year 1: 2.10% of taxable value
Year 2: 1.50%
Year 3: 1.20%
Year 4: 0.90%
Years 5 through 9: 0.45%, with a $10 minimum
Year 10 and later: $3 flat

A vehicle with a $45,000 MSRP has a taxable value of $38,250. First-year ownership tax on that vehicle is about $803. By year five it falls to roughly $172, and after ten years it’s $3. That’s why two neighbors with identical black plates can walk out of the DMV having paid very different totals.

Colorado also auto-includes a $29 Keep Colorado Wild Pass in your renewal, which grants entry to all state parks for the year. It’s optional. You can decline it online, at a county office, or by paying the amount listed without the pass.⁶ Same-day reversals are available at any DMV office if you forget to opt out.

Late Registration Penalties

If your registration lapses, Colorado charges $25 to $100 per month past expiration.⁷ Driving on expired plates also risks a traffic stop and citation, and a registration expired six months or more can lead to impoundment. Recovering an impounded vehicle typically requires paying all outstanding fines and correcting the registration first.

What Happens to the Plate When You Sell the Car

Standard black plates with an assigned number expire when you transfer the title, so they don’t move to your next vehicle. You retain priority rights to that same number combination if you later want to apply for it as a personalized plate, but that means paying the personalization fees at that point.⁵

Personalized black plates are exempt from that expiration rule. They can be transferred to a new vehicle you purchase, as long as the registrant and registration class stay the same.⁵ If plates are lost, stolen, or damaged, replacement fees vary by plate type and whether you’re due for renewal, so contact your county motor vehicle office for a specific quote.⁸

1
Disability Funding Committee. Historical/Retired Backgrounds
2
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Standard License Plates
3
Larimer County. Non-Qualifier Plates
4
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Taxes and Fees
5
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. License Plate Reissue Program
6
Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Keep Colorado Wild Pass
7
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. href=”https://dmv.colorado.gov/faqs-registration” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>FAQs Registration
8
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Lost, Stolen or Misuse of License Plates