How Much Do Custom Plates Cost in Illinois? Fees and Renewals

Custom plates in Illinois cost $47 up front for personalized plates or $94 up front for vanity plates, on top of the standard $151 annual passenger registration fee. Renewals add a smaller yearly surcharge: $7 for personalized, $13 for vanity. The full amount you hand over at the counter depends on whether the vehicle already has a title in your name and when your current plates expire.

Why Personalized and Vanity Plates Are Priced Differently

Illinois sells these as two separate products. Personalized plates use a mix of letters and numbers. Vanity plates allow letters only (up to seven characters) or numbers only (up to three digits). That extra flexibility is what roughly doubles the price.

What You Pay Up Front

For a brand-new vehicle with personalized plates, the total comes to $363: a $165 title fee, the $151 registration fee, and the $47 personalized plate fee. If the vehicle is already titled in your name, you skip the title fee and pay $198.¹

Vanity plates follow the same math at higher numbers. A new vehicle with vanity plates runs $410 ($165 title + $151 registration + $94 vanity fee). An already-titled vehicle costs $245.¹

There’s a timing rule that catches people. If your current plates expire within 90 days of ordering, you’ll also pay a $29 replacement fee on top of the registration and plate fees. That brings a personalized order to $227 and a vanity order to $274. If your plates aren’t inside that 90-day window, you pay only the plate fee plus the $29 replacement fee: $76 for personalized or $123 for vanity.¹

Motorcycle and autocycle owners pay less for the customization itself: $25 for personalized plates and $50 for vanity plates. Registration fees for those vehicles follow a different structure than passenger cars.²

What You Pay Each Year

At renewal, you pay the $151 passenger registration fee plus the plate surcharge. Personalized plates add $7, so your renewal is $158. Vanity plates add $13, so your renewal is $164.¹

Military-series personalized or vanity plates are the exception. They carry no additional surcharge, so qualifying drivers pay only the standard registration fee at renewal.²

Moving Custom Plates to Another Vehicle

In Illinois, plates belong to the owner, not the vehicle, so you can keep your custom plates when you change cars. The transfer fee is $25. If the new vehicle also needs a title, the combined title-and-transfer charge is $190.³

You cannot transfer plate ownership to another person. If the old vehicle was registered under more than one name and one owner is coming off, that owner must submit a separate release (Affirmation of Correction, VSD 393) before the transfer processes.³

Replacement Costs

If a plate is lost, stolen, or damaged, a single replacement plate is $6 and a pair is $9. A replacement registration sticker is $20. Both plates and a sticker together cost $29.⁴

Processing Time and the Risk of Rejection

Expect to wait. The Secretary of State’s office estimates at least 60 to 90 days from the time an application is mailed with proper fees until the plates arrive.⁵

Not every combination clears review. The Secretary of State’s office can refuse or recall any letter or number combination it considers offensive to good taste and decency, and it also flags combinations that could confuse law enforcement because they’re hard to read. The office keeps a permanent prohibited list of more than 8,500 entries. Out of roughly 56,000 custom plate applications in a recent year, more than 550 were denied. No refunds or adjustments are issued once plates have been ordered, so check your spacing and characters carefully before you submit payment.⁶

1
Illinois Secretary of State. Passenger License Plates
2
Illinois General Assembly. 625 ILCS 5 Illinois Vehicle Code – Section 3-806.1 and 3-806.5
3
Illinois Secretary of State. Transferring Plates
4
Illinois Secretary of State. Replacement License Plates
5
Illinois Secretary of State. Vehicles, Plates and Titles FAQ
6
Illinois Secretary of State. Pick-A-Plate