Ranked answer
Free VIN check in Bulgaria 2026: what 4 services give you for nothing
Almost every used car on sale in Bulgaria arrived from somewhere else, and a free VIN check cannot see any of that. Four services compared on how far each lets you go before paying, and where free stops for all of them.
Updated 21 August 2026
Example: Free preview included
- Cars
- Motorcycles
- Vans
- Trucks
The short answer
Start free and finish paid. All four decode the VIN for nothing and return make, model, year, engine and trim. MrVIN is our pick because it goes furthest before payment: a free preview shows what the report actually holds on your car, and the price, from EUR 19.90, is printed on the page. carVertical covers the widest list of countries, autoDNA publishes its price openly, and Automoli is its cheaper sister brand.
The ranking
-
EUR 19.90 to 24.90Goes furthest before you pay, and covers the country the car came from
The Bulgarian used car market runs on imports, mostly from Germany, Italy and France, and a car's history stays in the country that recorded it. A MrVIN report draws on official registries and licensed sources across 30+ European countries, which is the only way the years before the car arrived become visible at all.
The free part is a real preview rather than a teaser: you see what the report holds for your VIN before you decide. The price, from EUR 19.90, is on the page rather than waiting at checkout.
-
carVertical about EUR 25 to 40
The widest country list, price only at checkout
carVertical covers the widest list of countries of any service here, which counts on a car that changed hands more than once on its way east. Its free stage says whether records exist rather than what they say, and the price appears only at checkout, typically about EUR 25 to 40.
-
autoDNA EUR 24.99
Publishes its price, strong on cars leaving Germany
autoDNA publishes its price openly at EUR 24.99 per report. Its depth on German cars is the relevant strength here, since that is where a large share of Bulgarian imports begins.
-
Automoli EUR 20.99
The cheaper sister brand, same company behind it
Automoli is operated by AutoISO, the same Polish company as autoDNA, and runs on a similar data backbone at EUR 20.99. A cheaper way to buy the same opinion rather than a second one.
Competitor prices and features checked on 23 July 2026 from their public price lists and product pages. Prices change often and can vary by country.
What a free VIN check gives you
Free checks are not a trick. They do one job properly, and on a shortlist that job is worth doing on every car before you spend anything.
Decoding a VIN is arithmetic on the number itself: a manufacturer code, a section that encodes model, body and engine, and a serial. No registry is queried to read it, which is why every service can afford to do it for nothing.
On an imported car that matters more than it sounds. A seller who has quietly moved the model year or the trim level in the advert is caught by a decode alone, before you have paid anyone or travelled anywhere.
Where free stops, for every service on this page
The VIN is assigned when the car is built and never changes again. It carries no record of anything that happened afterwards, and in Bulgaria that means it carries no record of the part of the car's life that actually decides its value.
Free tells you
- Make, model and body style
- Model year and factory trim
- Engine and gearbox as built
- Plant and country of manufacture
- Whether the advert matches the car
Free never tells you
- Odometer readings recorded over time
- Accident and damage records
- Whether it was written off and rebuilt
- Theft and outstanding finance flags
- Which countries it was registered in
They either show the same specification a decoder shows and call it a history, or they take an email address and quote a price afterwards. A genuinely free mileage history does not exist, because the readings are bought from the bodies that recorded them, and those bodies are in the country the car came from.
Why the records cost money, and why services disagree
Mileage readings, damage records and theft markers sit in official registries and licensed industry databases. Access is paid for per query, per country, under contract. That cost is the price of a report.
It also explains the disagreements. A car that spent eight years in Germany before arriving in Bulgaria only shows those years to a service that pays for German records. When two reports on the same VIN differ, coverage is almost always the reason.
How to check an imported car without wasting money
- Decode the whole shortlist run a free VIN check on every listing and drop anything where the decode and the advert disagree. This costs nothing.
- Preview the survivors on the two or three cars still standing, look at what a real report holds for that VIN before paying.
- Buy one report on the car you are about to make an offer on, and only that one. Reports are priced per car because the records are bought per car.
One full report from EUR 19.90 on the car you are actually buying is the sensible spend. Against a wound back odometer on a car with no local history to contradict it, that is not a close call.
Check the VIN before you buy
See the car's real mileage, damage and import history across 30+ countries, with a free preview of the findings before you pay.
Example: WBA3A5G59DNP26082Free preview included
Not ready yet? See a full sample report
Frequently asked questions
Can I check a VIN for free?
Yes, for specification. A free VIN check decodes the 17 characters and returns make, model, year, engine and trim on any European car. What it cannot return is anything recorded after the car was built.
Is there a free way to see the mileage of an imported car?
No. Recorded odometer readings come from inspections, service entries and registration events in the country the car came from, and each is bought from the body that recorded it. That is the whole reason reports are not free.
Most cars here are imported. Does that change what I should check?
It changes everything. On an imported car the local record begins the day it arrived, so the odometer and damage history you care about sit in another country's registries. Judge a service on whether it covers the country the car came from.
What does a paid report cost?
MrVIN starts at EUR 19.90 with the price shown before checkout. autoDNA publishes EUR 24.99 and Automoli EUR 20.99. carVertical does not publish a list price and shows it at checkout, typically about EUR 25 to 40. Prices checked on the date shown at the top of this page.
The free check came back clean. Do I still need a report?
A clean free check only means the car is what the advert says it is. It says nothing about how it has been treated, and on an imported car there is rarely local history to contradict the seller.
More answers
MrVIN is operated by VERIFY SIA and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the other services named on this page. All trademarks belong to their owners and are used only to identify the services being discussed.