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About this tool
Parse an Indian driving licence number into its state, RTO, issue-year and serial fields, and identify the state it was issued in.
The Driving Licence Number Decoder splits an Indian driving licence number into its four parts — a two-letter state code, a two-digit RTO code, a four-digit issue-year field and a seven-digit serial — and names the state the code belongs to. Enter DL-0420110012345 and it returns Delhi, RTO 04, year field 2011 and serial 0012345, after stripping everything that is not a letter or digit and uppercasing the rest if you leave normalisation on. It is for anyone checking whether a licence number they have been given is even structurally plausible before they act on it.
Open Driving Licence Number Decoder on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Type the licence into Driving licence number, or load the Delhi example preset which fills DL-0420110012345.
Leave the Normalize toggle on so Strip punctuation and use uppercase applies, or switch it off to test the raw string exactly as written.
The rows show State, RTO code, Issue-year field and Serial — DL0420110012345 reads Delhi, 04, 2011, 0012345 — with Copy and Download beside them.
State, RTO code, year field and serial are broken out into their own rows, so you can see exactly which segment is malformed rather than being told the whole number is wrong.
Numbers that do not fit the two-letter, two-digit, four-digit, seven-digit pattern are reported as unrecognised instead of being force-fitted into fields.
Any character that is not a letter or digit is stripped and the remaining letters are uppercased only when you leave the toggle on, so you can also test the raw string exactly as it was written.
The common format is 15 characters: two letters for the state, two digits for the issuing RTO, four digits for the year, and a seven-digit serial. In DL0420110012345 that reads as Delhi, RTO 04, year 2011, serial 0012345.
Older licences and several state-specific formats do not follow the state-RTO-year-serial layout, so a valid licence can still be reported as unrecognised here. Check the number against the RTO or the Parivahan Sarathi portal rather than assuming the licence is invalid.
A licence for non-transport vehicles is generally valid for 20 years from issue or until the holder turns 50, whichever comes first, and is then renewed in five-year terms. A learner's licence is valid for six months. Confirm the current position and any state variation with your RTO.
No. It only checks the structure of the number and identifies the state code; it does not verify that the licence exists, is currently valid, or belongs to the person who gave it to you. For that, use the official government verification service.