Bulk VIN Decoder & Recall Checker

What this Actor scrapes

NHTSA's free vPIC service decodes any 17-character string you throw at it, valid or not, and hands back roughly 150 mostly-empty-string fields with no warning that the VIN itself was garbage. This Actor validates the ISO-3779 check digit locally first, for free, before any network call or billed event, then batch-decodes the survivors and normalizes NHTSA's noisy payload into a clean flat row — optionally joined with recall and crash-safety-rating data for the same make/model/year.

What we handle for you

• 🔍 Local check-digit validation, free — every VIN is validated against ISO-3779 before any network call, so a typo never costs you a billed row.
• 🧹 NHTSA's noisy payload, cleaned — every empty-string field NHTSA returns becomes a proper null, not a string you have to filter yourself.
• 🔁 Retries with exponential backoff on 408 / 429 / 5xx — up to 5 attempts, Retry-After honoured.
• 🫠 One bad batch never fails the run — a failed decode chunk or enrichment lookup is logged and skipped; the rest of your VINs still ship.
• 🧊 Clean, typed dataset rows — Pydantic-validated, stable fields, JSON / CSV / Excel export straight from the Apify Console.
• 💰 Pay-Per-Event pricing — you only pay for VINs that actually decode. Invalid or no-match VINs are free.

Use cases

• Bulk-normalize a dealer inventory feed's raw VINs into make/model/year/trim before listing.
• Screen an incoming used-car lead list against NHTSA recall data before appraisal.
• Back a fleet manager's maintenance system with structured engine/plant/spec data.
• Feed an insurer's underwriting model with decoded vehicle attributes plus crash-safety ratings.

Input

Paste this into the Apify Console, or send it as the run input over the API. Proxy settings are on by default; you rarely need to touch them.

{
  "vins": [
    "1HGCM82633A004352",
    "3VWD07AJ5EM388202",
    "1G1ZT53826F109149"
  ],
  "include_recalls": true,
  "include_safety_ratings": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Output

One row per result, schema-validated before it is written. Export JSON, CSV, Excel or XML from the run, or read it over the API.

vinis_validvalidation_errornhtsa_error_codenhtsa_error_textmakemodelmodel_yeartrimbody_classdrive_typeengine_cylindersengine_displacement_lengine_hpfuel_type_primarytransmission_style

{
  "vin": "1HGCM82633A004352",
  "is_valid": true,
  "validation_error": null,
  "nhtsa_error_code": "0",
  "nhtsa_error_text": "VIN decoded clean. Check Digit (9th position) is correct",
  "make": "HONDA",
  "model": "Accord",
  "model_year": "2003",
  "trim": "EX",
  "body_class": "Sedan/Saloon",
  "drive_type": "FWD",
  "series": null,
  "engine_cylinders": "6",
  "engine_displacement_l": "3.0",
  "engine_hp": "240",
  "fuel_type_primary": "Gasoline",
  "transmission_style": "Automatic",
  "plant_country": "UNITED STATES (USA)",
  "plant_city": "MARYSVILLE",
  "gvwr_class": null,
  "doors": "4",
  "airbag_front": "1st Row (Driver and Passenger)",
  "airbag_side": null,
  "recall_count": 3,
  "recalls": [
    {
      "nhtsa_campaign_number": "04V123000",
      "component": "AIR BAGS",
      "summary": "..."
    }
  ],
  "safety_overall_rating": null,
  "safety_frontcrash_rating": null,
  "safety_sidecrash_rating": null,
  "safety_rollover_rating": null,
  "decoded_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z"
}

Pricing

You pay only for results that land. Cap any run with maxTotalChargeUsd. See pricing & billing for worked examples.

Limitations

• Up to 500 VINs per run — chunked into batches of 50 per NHTSA's documented per-call ceiling.
• Non-US-market VINs vPIC can't resolve are returned best-effort, often mostly null — NHTSA covers the US market.
• Safety-rating enrichment resolves the first matching NHTSA VehicleId when a make/model/year has multiple trims or body styles — it isn't a per-VIN exact trim match.
• Recall and safety data reflect NHTSA's own records at request time; this Actor doesn't backfill or correct upstream gaps.