At a glance
- Photos per batch
- Up to 10
- Cost
- Free, no account
- Download
- One photo at a time or a zip
- Your photos
- Blurred in your browser, not stored
On this page
How to blur a license plate in a photo online
Use the tool above. It's made for car photos, so you don't need an editing app or an account. Your photos stay on your device: the tool sends only a small copy of each one to find the plate, then draws the blur on your photo in your browser.
Add up to 10 photos
Drag in your car photos or pick them from your phone or computer. Ten at a time is the limit.
Let the tool find the plates
It finds the license plate in each photo, then blurs it heavily, right in your browser.
Check every photo
Look at each one at full size. If a plate was missed, cover it by hand with the iPhone or Android steps below.
Download
Save photos one at a time, or download the whole batch as a zip. Do it before you leave the page: nothing is saved on our servers, so there's no link to come back to.
Why blur your license plate in car photos?
For most private sellers, it's privacy. A listing photo gets copied, shared and screenshotted long after the car sells, and the plate is the one detail in it that points back to you. Blurring it takes a minute.
Dealers have their own reasons:
- Trade-ins can arrive still wearing the previous owner's plates.
- Dealer plates and paper tags look out of place in a polished listing.
- Plate-free photos look consistent across the whole inventory.
Do you have to? Usually it's your call, not a rule. Listing sites set their own photo policies, so check the one you post on, whether that's a classifieds site or Facebook Marketplace. We go deeper on the question in why people blur license plates.
How to blur a license plate on iPhone
The Photos app's Markup tools can cover a plate completely, and a solid cover hides it better than a light blur.
Open Markup
In Photos, open the picture, tap Edit, then tap the Markup button.
Set up the pen
Pick the pen and a dark color. Tap the pen again to change the color opacity, and set it all the way up so nothing shows through.
Cover the plate
Draw over the plate until no letter or number is visible.
Save it
Tap Done, then Done again. Zoom in on the saved photo to make sure the plate can't be read.
How to blur a license plate on Android
Google Photos has a Redact tool, which Google describes as the way to blur or remove sensitive info in a photo.
Open the editor
Open the photo in Google Photos and tap Edit, then Markup. On some versions, Markup is under Tools.
Redact the plate
Tap Redact and use it on the plate. Google says people you share a redacted photo with can't undo the edit or uncover the hidden pixels.
No Redact button?
Some editing features depend on your phone. Tap Pen instead, pick a dark color and draw over the plate until it's covered.
Save a copy
Tap the checkmark, then Save as copy to keep the original untouched.
Blur, pixelate or cover: which hides a plate best?
A plate is only hidden if nobody can read it, so don't go easy on it:
- Cover it with a solid box or scribble for the surest result. Nothing shows through.
- Pixelate it with blocks big enough that no character survives.
- Blur looks cleanest in a listing, but a light blur can leave letters readable. Blur hard, then check at full size.
Then check the whole photo, not just the bumper. Front plates show up in three-quarter shots, other cars' plates turn up in the background, and glossy paint or showroom glass can reflect a plate. For the rest of the shot list, see how to take pictures of a car to sell.
Can you blur license plates in bulk?
With this tool, up to 10 photos at a time, free. A dealer shooting a full lot every week is better off dealing with plates while the photos are being made, not as a separate step afterward.
That's how it works in CarShots. You shoot each car on your phone, each photo comes back on a clean studio backdrop in about 20 seconds, and you hide the plate with an edit in plain words, like "hide the license plate." It isn't automatic: you ask for it with the edit. Then you download each photo or the whole car as a zip for your listings. See how edits work in the car photo editor, or try it on a photo of your own car.