The standard Bulgarian license plate consists of a blue vertical strip (the European strip) on the left side of the plate containing either the flag of Bulgaria or that of the EU and the country code of Bulgaria (BG), always followed on a white surface, using black font, by the one- or two-letter province code, four numerals and a final one- or two-letter code, called a "series". They thus take the form "X(X) NNNNY" or "X(X) NNNNYY". The one-letter series appears primarily on mopeds and motorcycles, but also on some other older vehicles. All vehicular trailers (whether goods/agricultural trailers or caravans, etc) have "E" as the first letter of the series suffix (i.e. CA 1234"E"X).
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The format "XX AAAAAA" may be used instead of the standard one, where "A" represents either letters or numbers chosen by the owner (a name for example). The price of such a custom plate is €3,500 (BGN7,000), so these are rare.
Similar system is used in Greece and Ukraine. Regions are as per ISO 3166-2:BG. This new 1992 series used a white background, and all former yellow background plates became invalid.
In use are also three other types of plates: "NNN T NNN" — plate for transit of unregistered vehicle through Bulgaria; "NNN H NNN" — plate for a new vehicle, not registered yet; "NNN B NNN" — temporary plate for car dealers. These three types use a white background with black text and a red vertical strip on the right side. Usually, the expiry date is inscribed on the red strip.
Since 2006, all military vehicles' plates are subject to change with the new ones: the letters "BA" (for Bulgarian Army) and 6 digits — the form is "BA NNNNNN". The same form is adopted for the new license plates of the Civil Protection Service of Bulgaria, beginning with "CP" (for Civil Protection) followed by 6 digits — "CP NNNNNN". On the left side of both kinds of plates there's a blue vertical strip, same as the one described above.
| Current province code | Province | Old province code (pink fields indicate changed codes) |
|---|---|---|
| А | Burgas Province | Бс, Б |
| В | Varna Province | Вн, В |
| ВН | Vidin Province | Вд, ВД |
| ВР | Vratsa Province | Вр, ВР |
| ВТ | Veliko Tarnovo Province | ВТ |
| Е | Blagoevgrad Province | Бл, БЛ |
| ЕВ | Gabrovo Province | Гб, Г |
| ЕН | Pleven Province | Пл, ПЛ |
| К | Kardzhali Province | Кж, К |
| КН | Kyustendil Province | Кн, КН |
| М | Montana Province | Мх, М |
| Н | Shumen Province | Ш |
| ОВ | Lovech Province | Лч, Л |
| Р | Ruse Province | Рс, Р |
| РА | Pazardzhik Province | Пз, ПЗ |
| РВ | Plovdiv Province | Пд, П |
| РК | Pernik Province | Пк, ПК |
| РР | Razgrad Province | РЗ |
| С and СА (since 2006) | Sofia-Capital | Сф, С, А |
| СН | Sliven Province | Сл, СЛ |
| СМ | Smolyan Province | См, СМ |
| СО | Sofia Province | СФ |
| СС | Silistra Province | Сс, СС |
| СТ | Stara Zagora Province | Сз, СЗ |
| Т | Targovishte Province | Тщ, Т |
| ТХ | Dobrich Province | Тх, ТХ |
| У | Yambol Province | Яб, Я |
| Х | Haskovo Province | Хс, Х |
Additionally, there is a special code for Bulgarian Army and Civil Protection vehicles:
| Current code | Entity | Old code |
|---|---|---|
| BA | Bulgarian Army vehicles | В, red on a white plate |
| CP | Civil protection vehicles | ГЗ |
Diplomatic and consular car number plates are similar to ordinary ones, but are recognizably different in their color: white symbols on a red background without the blue "Europlate" elements. Plates starting with "C" indicate diplomatic status, "CC" indicate consular status, while "CT" is used for cars belonging to other staff of diplomatic representations. Additionally, the first two digits of the numeric group represent the country of the diplomatic or consular mission to which the vehicle belongs. Two smaller digits in the upper right corner denote the expiry year of the plate.
Finally, cars belonging to foreigners and imported into Bulgaria for a limited period of time are blue with white characters, starting with "XX", followed by four (meaningless) digits and two small digits denoting the expiry year.