CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey9 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Decode VINs, check stolen status, retrieve mileage history and inspection records, value vehicles across 24 countries, and search current car listings.
Use for: I need to decode a VIN into its full vehicle specification, Look up the VIN that matches a Czech license plate, Check whether this car has been reported stolen anywhere in central Europe, Retrieve the mileage history for a used vehicle I am about to buy
Not supported: Does not handle insurance quotes, vehicle telematics, or driver licensing — use for VIN decoding, history, valuation, and listings only.
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.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API.
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
Patterns agents use CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API for, with concrete tasks.
★ 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.
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.
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.
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.
Through Jentic, decode the VIN the user pasted in chat and return make, model, year, and stolen status as a structured response.
Key Endpoints
9 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for carapi.
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
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
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
The CarAPI.dev API token is stored encrypted in Jentic's vault. Agents receive scoped execution rights only — the raw token is injected into the `token` query parameter at request time and never enters the agent's context window or chat logs.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent (e.g., '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 can call the right endpoint without parsing docs.
Time to first call
Direct CarAPI.dev integration: 2-4 hours for auth wiring, error handling, and retry logic across the nine endpoints. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes — search, load, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using CarAPI.dev - Automotive Data API through Jentic.
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 at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
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.
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