Do you need a front license plate?

How the rules are written

State plate laws come in two forms. Some say outright that a car must carry one plate on the front and one on the rear. Montana's law is written that way. Others say that when two plates are issued they go front and rear, and when one is issued it goes on the rear. Under that kind of rule, the real answer depends on how many plates the motor vehicle agency hands out. Vermont's law lets the DMV issue either one or two, and it issues two for ordinary cars. North Carolina's statute still has front-and-rear wording, but the DMV issues a single plate, so it goes on the back.

Most two-plate laws are written around the state's own plates. California's rule applies when its DMV has issued two plates for a car, New York's to the set of plates its commissioner issues, and Texas makes it an offense to drive without the two plates the state assigned to the vehicle.

A rear-only state doesn't always leave the front bumper open, either. Kansas goes further: its law says a Kansas-registered car generally may not have a license plate on the front, with an exception for some personalized plates. Arizona lets owners who were issued two plates choose to mount only the rear one, and Ohio and Utah will issue a second plate to owners who ask for it.

Based on the state records and sources in the table above.

Why police and toll agencies want two plates

Most of the support for front plates comes from police and toll operators. In 2012, at the request of the legislature's transportation chairmen, Virginia's DMV and State Police brought together more than 35 stakeholders to study whether the state should drop its front plate. Police told the group that a second plate gives them another chance to identify a car, especially when equipment carried on the back or a plate frame hides the rear plate. Without a front plate, an officer can't read the plate of an oncoming car. Police also pointed out that a plate number is what links a car to AMBER Alerts and national crime databases.

Toll operators made a similar case. Virginia's toll cameras were set up to capture both the front and rear plates, so if one plate is unreadable, the other image may still identify the car. With only one plate, more images have to be checked by hand, which raises costs. Local tax officials and parking operators that use automated plate readers also wanted two plates. The study recommended that Virginia keep both. It also rejected replacing the front plate with a windshield sticker, citing the sticker's cost, size and placement, and the fact that officers weren't used to it.

The same argument came up in Alaska in 2022. The head of the Anchorage police officers' union told the Anchorage Daily News that officers routinely rely on front plates during traffic stops. An Alaska State Troopers captain told the paper that a missing front plate was a violation troopers rarely ticketed.

Sources: Virginia DMV, License Plate Study (Nov. 9, 2012), report to the General Assembly (RD383) · Anchorage Daily News: Alaska drivers only need single license plate with new law (Aug. 2022)

What a single plate saves

The main argument for dropping the front plate is cost, and the savings are real but smaller than many people expect. Virginia's 2012 study found that the state spent about $7.1 million a year on plates and registration decals. Going to one plate would have saved about $1.8 million, or roughly 26 percent, not half. Metal, reflective sheeting and shipping costs would fall, but the prison workshop that makes Virginia's plates said it takes the same labor to make and ship one plate as a pair. The study put the savings at about 30 cents per customer.

Other states' figures are in the same range. When Alaska went to one plate in 2022, its DMV expected to cut its plate costs in half and save about $332,000 a year. In 2024, Utah's legislative fiscal analysts estimated that one plate per vehicle would lower the state Tax Commission's plate costs by about $1.7 million a year. In both Virginia and Utah, plates are made by prison industry programs, so fewer plates also means less revenue for those programs.

Front-plate tickets carry their own costs and revenue. In 2017, a missing front plate in Ohio was a primary traffic offense and a minor misdemeanor with a fine of up to $150. That year, Ohio's Legislative Service Commission estimated that making it a secondary offense, which police could cite only alongside another violation, could cost cities, counties and townships $340,000 to $680,000 or more a year in fines, fees and court costs.

Sources: Virginia DMV, License Plate Study (Nov. 9, 2012), report to the General Assembly (RD383) · Anchorage Daily News: Alaska drivers only need single license plate with new law (Aug. 2022) · Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst, fiscal note for S.B. 45 (2024), License Plate Revisions · Ohio Legislative Service Commission, fiscal note for H.B. 71, 132nd General Assembly (2017)

States that dropped the front plate, and two that brought it back

The recent trend has been toward a single rear plate. Ohio made the switch in its 2019 transportation budget, House Bill 62, which moved the state to one rear plate on July 1, 2020. A Senate bill introduced later in 2019 would have repealed that change before it began, but the one-plate rule took effect as scheduled. Ohio drivers can still ask for two plates. Alaska went to one plate in 2022, under a law that took effect when the governor signed it. Utah followed on January 1, 2025, though it could keep handing out leftover two-plate sets through the end of that year.

Nebraska is next. A 2026 law, LB972, keeps the two-plate rule through December 31, 2028, and then switches every registered vehicle to one rear plate starting January 1, 2029. Until then, Nebraska is still a front-and-rear state on this map.

The change has gone the other way before. According to Virginia's 2012 study, Connecticut dropped its front plate in 1980 and restored it in 1983, although the switch back to two plates on every car took until 1992. Massachusetts went from one plate to two for new registrations in 1987, and as of 2012, cars that still had its old green single plate could keep driving with it. The study says both states made the change for law enforcement reasons.

Sources: Ohio Rev. Code § 4503.21 (version history: amended by HB 62, 133rd General Assembly, July 1, 2020) · Ohio Legislative Service Commission, bill analysis of S.B. 179, 133rd General Assembly (Aug. 20, 2019) · Anchorage Daily News: Alaska drivers only need single license plate with new law (Aug. 2022) · Utah Code § 41-1a-404 (eff. 1/1/2025) · Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-3,100 (as amended by LB972, 2026) · Virginia DMV, License Plate Study (Nov. 9, 2012), report to the General Assembly (RD383)

Cars built without a front bracket

American plates all share one size. A 1956 agreement among automakers, U.S. states and Canadian provinces set them at 6 by 12 inches, and the national association of motor vehicle administrators has kept that standard, according to Virginia's DMV. European plates are much longer and narrower, about 20.5 by 4.7 inches. Cars sold in the United States are built around the American size, but not every model comes with a place to mount a plate on the front.

Some two-plate states write that into their laws. Idaho requires the front plate only if the car has a front bracket, and Wyoming exempts cars originally built without one. Nevada lets those owners decide whether to mount the front plate, though they must keep it, and it doesn't require a front plate on cars with an authorized digital plate on the rear. Montana lets owners apply for a waiver when a car body can't hold a front plate, and Nebraska offers a single plate with a windshield decal for an extra $50 a year. Wisconsin's law has no general exemption for cars built without a bracket. Illinois took another approach: starting January 1, 2027, a dealer may install a front bracket if the buyer asks.

Texas considered a windshield sticker in 2025. House Bill 1607 would have let owners of cars built without a front mounting spot display only a rear plate plus a windshield insignia from the Texas DMV, as long as the driver carried the unmounted front plate. The bill's author told a House committee that some owners were modifying their cars, sometimes damaging them, to avoid tickets. The bill passed the House but stalled in a Senate committee.

Sources: Virginia DMV, License Plate Study (Nov. 9, 2012), report to the General Assembly (RD383) · Texas House Committee on Transportation, bill analysis of H.B. 1607 (2025) · Texas Senate Research Center, bill analysis of H.B. 1607 (engrossed, 2025) · Texas HB 1607 (2025) bill history · Idaho Code § 49-428 · Wyo. Stat. § 31-2-205 (FindLaw) · NRS 482.275 · Mont. Code Ann. § 61-3-301 · Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-3,100 · 625 ILCS 5/3-413 (Illinois General Assembly)

Bills that didn't pass

Front-plate bills move in both directions. A 2026 New Mexico bill, SB 69, would have required front and rear plates starting in 2027, but it died in committee. In New Hampshire, a 2026 bill to make most cars rear-only, HB 1176, did not become law. New Jersey lawmakers have introduced bills to switch to a single plate, and none has passed.

Based on the state records and sources in the table above.