# Vehicle Makes and Models — AutoSugges platform dataset

## How do I add Vehicle Makes and Models autocomplete to my app?

Vehicle Makes and Models is a free AutoSugges reference list of 17,173 items. Query it with your publishable key as the key parameter and the typed text as q, after at least two characters. Results come back pre-ranked from the edge, ten by default, ready for the AutoSugges React, React Native or HTML component.

NHTSA vPIC's vehicle models, one level under each make — pick a make, then search its models.

17173 items, across levels: make, model.
Level breakdown: make: 2164, model: 15009.

## Provenance
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), vPIC (https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/vehicles/GetModelsForMakeId/440?format=csv)
Retrieved: 2026-10-25, effective version 2026-10-25 snapshot
Authority: authoritative
Licence: A U.S. Government work under 17 U.S.C. §105. NHTSA publishes no separate explicit licence grant for vPIC; this is the same statutory posture the Census and BLS platform datasets already take. (public_domain)
Attribution: Source: NHTSA vPIC (Vehicle Product Information Catalog), vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov
Export allowed: yes

## Availability
Free

## Authority
Authoritative

## Dataset kind
Reference list

## Worked example
```json
{
  "value": "440:1684",
  "displayValue": "V8 Vantage",
  "aliases": [
    "V8 Vantage"
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "makeId": "440",
    "modelId": "1684"
  },
  "ancestors": [
    {
      "value": "440",
      "displayValue": "Aston Martin"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Query it
```
/v1/query?key=YOUR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY&q=v8
```

A publishable key is public by design and belongs in client code as written; it is not a secret.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is in the Vehicle Makes and Models dataset?

NHTSA vPIC's vehicle models, one level under each make — pick a make, then search its models. It has 17,173 items. Its source is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), vPIC. Authority: Authoritative. Licence: A U.S. Government work under 17 U.S.C. §105. NHTSA publishes no separate explicit licence grant for vPIC; this is the same statutory posture the Census and BLS platform datasets already take. Refresh cadence: vPIC adds models as manufacturers register them; refetched periodically.

### Is the Vehicle Makes and Models dataset free?

AutoSugges-published free datasets are never priced on their own — every plan includes all of them. What a plan prices is how many queries you may make, not which free list you may query. A few catalog entries are licensed from a third party or supplied by you, and those carry their own access terms, shown on that dataset's own page.

### How do I query Vehicle Makes and Models?

Call GET /v1/query with your publishable key as the key parameter and the typed text as q, or mount the AutoSugges component for React, React Native or HTML. The runtime answers from the edge and never reads a database.

### What is the minimum number of characters before a query runs?

Two by default. A list owner can change the minimum, but it can never be 1. The client reads the real value from bootstrap and sends no request below it, so do not hardcode it.

### How long does the client wait after typing before it queries?

150 milliseconds by default. The value is delivered through bootstrap and a list owner can raise it, so the client uses the policy value rather than a constant.

### What happens when my query quota runs out?

The runtime returns a structured quota_exceeded response that carries no items and no placeholder suggestions, so exhaustion is never mistaken for no results. Render it from the typed error code and prompt an upgrade.

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Canonical page: https://autosugges.com/datasets/vehicle-models