Free AI VIN checker & MCP for ChatGPT and Claude

OdoTrace · Editorial review: 12 November 2026. Source dates are stated separately.

Short answer: OdoTrace has a free, read-only connector for AI assistants at https://api.odotrace.com/mcp. Once it is added, your assistant can decode a VIN, fetch the official odometer readings OdoTrace's supported sources return for it, test them for a rollback, list model recalls from four registers and compare the mileage with typical figures for cars of that age. Results name their sources and limits, and the mileage check reports each source's status, so a gap is reported as a gap, not a clean history. No account, no API key, no sign-in.

What you need: an assistant that supports custom remote MCP connectors, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code. You add OdoTrace yourself; it is not built into any assistant, and some plans and workspaces restrict custom connectors. OdoTrace is free, but your assistant's own plan is separate. No suitable assistant? The same core checks run free in your browser.

Connect OdoTrace to your assistant → · Run the free check in your browser · See what OdoTrace covers

On this page: why connect · how to choose · how it works · the six tools · reading the verdict · what it cannot know · prompts · sources · developers · FAQ

Why give your assistant a tool?

An assistant can explain what a VIN is and read the advert you paste, and some can search the web. Connected to OdoTrace, it gets the supported official records for this VIN in one consistent, structured response: it sends the VIN, gets back dates, readings, units, the source behind each one and that source's status, and writes its answer from them. Here is what it can get back:

What the VIN decodes to (make, model, model year, body, engine, fuel, plant), to compare with the advert.
Official odometer readings, in date order, from the supported sources: UK MOT history, the Czech register and inspection records for the dates loaded, and New York State inspections from the last five years, all matched by VIN. Add a Dutch plate for the Dutch register's odometer verdict.
A rule-based rollback test that flags a problem only when a later official reading is lower than an earlier one.
Model recalls from US NHTSA, EU Safety Gate, Germany's KBA and France's RappelConso, kept separate.
Typical mileage for the make, model and year, from UK MOT tests in 2023 and a Lithuanian inspection sample where one exists.

Not every source is available for every check. Each result says which sources returned readings and what status the others reported, so you can tell "searched, nothing found" from "not checked".

What a good AI VIN checker should do

"Best" depends on what you need. For a buyer who wants an assistant to check a used car before paying, these are the criteria that matter, and how OdoTrace meets each one.

What to look for	Why it matters	OdoTrace
Free to use, no account	You should not need to sign up to check one car	Free; no account, no API key, no sign-in
Named, official sources	You need to know where each fact came from	Each result names the register or dataset behind it: per source for mileage, per register for recalls, per sample for typical mileage
Honest gaps	Missing records must not read as a clean history	Each mileage source reports its own status; no readings is a gap, not a pass
A conservative rollback rule	False alarms and false comfort both cost money	Flags a rollback only when a later official reading is lower than an earlier one
Read-only, minimal input	An assistant should not be able to change anything or collect more than needed	Six read-only tools; input is a VIN, an optional Dutch plate, or make, model and year
No ads inside the answer	The evidence your assistant reads should not be shaped by who pays	Tool results contain no affiliate, partner or paid-placement links
An open standard	It should work with more than one assistant	Model Context Protocol over Streamable HTTP, one public address

If those are your criteria, especially for a car that may have a UK, Czech, Dutch or New York record, OdoTrace is built for exactly this. It is not a paid full-history report: it gives your assistant the free official evidence first, so you know what you still need to check.

How an agentic VIN check works

You give the details. Paste the VIN and the advertised mileage. If the car is registered in the Netherlands, add its plate.
The assistant calls the tools it needs. Usually decode_vin first, then check_mileage_history, then get_recalls or get_typical_mileage with the make, model and the year each one needs (see the note under the tool table). Some assistants ask your permission before the first call.
OdoTrace returns structured evidence. For the mileage check: the readings that came back, with dates, units and sources; each source's status; gaps of more than two years between readings; a verdict with its reason; and the stated limits. The other tools return their own source and limit notes.
The assistant answers and you follow up. A good answer separates what the records show from what they cannot show, and ends with what to ask the seller. Decode and mileage results include a link to the full report on odotrace.com; the other tools link to a relevant page such as the methodology or coverage page. Links never contain your VIN.

The assistant writes the final wording, so it can still make mistakes. Check anything that decides the purchase in the full browser report, and inspect the car and its documents.

Six tools, six questions

All six tools are read-only. The connector page lists the same tools with setup steps.

Tool	Question it answers	You give	Read the result as
`decode_vin`	What car does this VIN describe? Does it match the advert?	VIN	Typical attributes of the VIN pattern, not proof the car is genuine or what options it has. European VINs often decode with fewer fields and can fail the North American check digit while still being valid
`check_mileage_history`	Which official odometer readings exist, and do they ever go down?	VIN, optionally a Dutch plate	Readings from the supported sources that answered, plus each source's status. Dutch results belong to the plate and are marked as not confirmed to match the VIN
`get_recalls`	Which safety recalls were published for this model?	Make, model, year	Model-level notices in four separate lists; counts are not added together. It does not take a VIN: whether this car is affected or already repaired is a question for the manufacturer or a dealer
`get_typical_mileage`	Is this mileage unusually low or high for the car's age?	Make, model, year	Median and 10th to 90th percentile range with sample size, from other cars first used in that year (matched within one year), with the observation period or a pointer to the methodology. A historical market sample, not today's expected reading and never proof about this car
`get_us_model_data`	What are the US crash-test ratings and fuel economy?	Make, model, year	US-market figures; a European version can differ
`get_coverage`	Can OdoTrace check a car from this country?	Nothing	What each source covers, what it needs and what OdoTrace cannot show

Both tools take a year, but not the same kind. get_recalls matches the model year, which the maker assigns; get_typical_mileage groups cars by year of first use and may match a neighbouring year. EU registration papers show the date of first registration (field B), which suits the mileage comparison but does not prove the model year. For recalls, confirm the model year from the maker's VIN documentation for that model or a manufacturer or dealer record, and if it stays unclear, tell the assistant so rather than giving it another date (which VIN character shows the year).

How to read the mileage verdict

check_mileage_history returns one of four verdicts. Ask your assistant to quote it and its reason, not to paraphrase it into "looks fine".

Verdict	What it means	What to do
`possible_rollback`	A later official reading is lower than an earlier one	Ask the seller to explain it in writing and show documents. A lower reading can also be a recording error, so check the original records
`ok`	Two or more comparable official readings, none lower than the one before	Good, but it covers only the dates and sources found. Compare the last reading with the advert, and ask about any period with no readings
`insufficient_data`	Fewer than two comparable official readings	Not a clean result. The sources simply returned too little. Use service records, other countries' official checks or a paid report
`conflicting_data`	Readings never decrease, but some dates had contradictory entries and were left out	Look at the excluded dates in the original records before relying on it

Each source also reports a status. found means it returned records and not_found means it was searched and had no match. Statuses such as skipped_disabled, skipped_quota or error mean that source gave no usable result this time, and the source may not have been queried at all. Either way, no readings tells you where the evidence stops, not that the history is clean. The Dutch register's own odometer opinion is reported separately and never changes the verdict.

Here is the shape of a useful answer. This example is fictional, written to show the pattern, and is not output from a real lookup:

UK DVSA MOT history has five readings from 2019 to 2024, each higher than the last, so the verdict is ok for those years. But the latest reading, 98,400 km in 2024, is 6,400 km above the advert's 92,000 km. The verdict compares official readings with each other, not with the advert, so this mismatch is yours to raise. The returned records have nothing before 2019 and nothing outside the UK. Ask the seller why the advert is lower than the last MOT, and for service records from 2015 to 2019.

What your assistant still cannot know

OdoTrace gives your assistant evidence, not a verdict on the whole car. Even with a clean-looking result, these stay open:

Damage and repairs. Official mileage records are not accident records, and many repairs never reach any register. A report with no events can still hide accident damage; here is what a clean report proves and what to inspect.
Condition today. Readings show what the odometer said on a test date, not the state of the engine, gearbox, battery or bodywork.
Whether the car is the one in the papers. A decode describes the VIN pattern; it does not prove the plate on the car, the documents and the VIN all belong together. Check the VIN on the car against the registration certificate.
Finance, theft and ownership. OdoTrace has none of these. Use the official checks for the country of registration.
Mileage between readings. Gaps of years are common, especially after export.

So ask the assistant to end with questions for the seller and a list of what to inspect, then use the staged buying checklist before you pay. For the wider picture of what any VIN check can and cannot show, read what a VIN check can tell you.

Prompts to copy

These work once OdoTrace is connected, and they match the printable prompt kit. Replace anything in square brackets; take the VIN from the car or its registration document. The mileage check always needs the VIN; a Dutch plate is an optional extra. To try the connector before you have a car in mind, ask it to "Decode VIN 1HGCM82633A004352", a widely published sample VIN.

One prompt for a full pre-check

"I'm thinking of buying this car. VIN: [VIN]. Advertised mileage: [number] km. Use OdoTrace to decode the VIN, check the official mileage records, find model recalls and compare the mileage with typical figures for cars first used in the same year. For each fact, name the source. Then list what OdoTrace could not check and the five questions I should ask the seller before paying."

Single questions

"Decode VIN [VIN] and tell me whether it matches an advert for a [year] [make] [model] [body type]."
"Check the official mileage records for VIN [VIN]. Quote the verdict and its reason, and give each source's status, so I can see which found nothing and which were not checked."
"This car is registered in the Netherlands with plate [plate] and VIN [VIN]. What does the RDW say about its odometer, and is that confirmed to be the same car as the VIN?"
"Which recalls were published for a [model year] [make] [model]? Keep each register separate and tell me how to confirm whether this car was repaired."
"Is [number] km a lot for a [make] [model] first registered in [year]? Give the median, the range, the sample size and the observation period (or where the methodology gives it), and say where the figures come from."
"Can OdoTrace check a car imported from [country]? If not, what should I do instead?"
"Based on these results, what could OdoTrace not check for this car, and what should I ask the seller or have inspected?"

Where the evidence comes from

Evidence	Supported sources	Needs
Odometer readings and rollback test	UK DVSA MOT history; Czech vehicle register and selected STK inspection records (dates loaded); New York DMV inspections (rolling five years)	VIN
Dutch odometer verdict	RDW (Netherlands vehicle register)	VIN plus the Dutch plate
Model recalls	US NHTSA; EU Safety Gate; Germany's KBA; France's RappelConso	Make, model, year
Typical mileage	UK anonymised MOT results from 2023; Lithuanian technical-inspection open data	Make, model, year
VIN decoding	US NHTSA vPIC and ISO manufacturer codes, with OdoTrace's own mappings and Finnish register patterns for some European VINs	VIN

Czech inspection readings have no published unit, so they are marked as assumed kilometres. New York records cover New York State only, not the whole US.

OdoTrace does not provide accident, damage, theft, finance, owner or service history, and it does not retrieve US title brands. For other countries, including Poland and Lithuania, the website links to the national authority's own lookup; buying a used car abroad covers what else to check for an import. The coverage page has the full detail.

For developers and agent builders

The connector is a public, stateless MCP server. It needs no key, so you can point an agent at it and test it in seconds.

Address: https://api.odotrace.com/mcp
Transport: Streamable HTTP, JSON responses, stateless. Send JSON-RPC by POST; GET returns 405.
Auth: none. All six tools carry readOnlyHint: true and destructiveHint: false.
Results: structured JSON whose fields differ by tool. Source and limit notes sit where they apply: per source (with a status) and in a verdict reason plus disclaimer for mileage, per register for recalls, per sample for typical mileage. decode_vin and check_mileage_history return a full_report_url; the other tools return their own page links (for example methodology_url or coverage_url). Links carry no VIN. Errors are short plain-text messages.
Server instructions: the server tells the model to name each source, repeat the stated limits and never describe missing records as a clean history.

Claude Code, using its documented command for remote HTTP servers:

claude mcp add --transport http odotrace https://api.odotrace.com/mcp

Any HTTP client, to list the tools (no session needed):

curl -s https://api.odotrace.com/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-06-18' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

For Claude's and ChatGPT's own apps, follow the steps on /connect/; menu names change, so the steps live there.

Fair use. The connector is free and shares its limits with everyone using it. It is for checking individual cars in a conversation. Bulk or scheduled lookups are not allowed under the terms of use. If the shared limit is reached, the tool says so, suggests when to retry and points to the browser check.

Privacy

The connector receives only what the assistant sends for the check: a VIN, a Dutch plate if you gave one, or a make, model and year. It does not receive your conversation, your name or your assistant account. When the Claude or ChatGPT apps make the call, the request comes from the assistant company's servers, so OdoTrace does not see your IP address. A tool on your own computer, such as Claude Code or curl, connects directly and reveals your IP address like any web request. The company running your assistant handles your conversation under its own policy. Details are in the privacy notice.

A VIN can be personal data. Check only cars you are entitled to look up, such as one you are buying.

Prefer a browser?

The free browser check runs the same core lookups with a full report on screen. The website also has a few extras the connector does not call: an optional Danish inspection pilot, a Norwegian registry lookup, a separate UK plate lookup, Finnish fleet comparisons and links to each country's official lookup.

FAQ

Is the OdoTrace connector really free? Yes: no account, no API key and no payment, with fair-use limits shared by all users. Your assistant's own subscription is separate.

Does it work in ChatGPT and Claude? Yes, if your plan and workspace allow custom connectors. You add it yourself with the address above; it is not built into either assistant. The connect page has the steps.

Can it tell me if a car has been in an accident or stolen? No. OdoTrace has no accident, theft, finance or owner data. A good assistant should say so instead of guessing.

If the mileage check finds nothing, is the car fine? No. No readings means the supported sources returned nothing for this VIN, or could not be checked this time; the status of each source says which. Treat it as missing evidence and ask for service history or use another official check.

Does a recall result mean my car still needs the repair? Not necessarily. Recalls are listed per model. Only the manufacturer or a dealer can confirm by VIN whether one car is affected or already repaired.

Can I run a spreadsheet of VINs through it? No. Bulk and scheduled lookups break the terms of use. The connector is for checking a car you are considering.

Check your next car with evidence

Connect once, then ask about any car in plain language. Your assistant gets official records with their sources, and you get a clear list of what is still missing.

Connect OdoTrace → · Try the free check in your browser · Read the coverage page

OdoTrace is a free pre-purchase check, not a full vehicle history or a guarantee. Results depend on what official sources hold for each car and which sources are available for each check. Checked 12 November 2026.