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url: /detection/license-plates.md
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# License plates

License-plate recognition reads plate numbers from vehicles. It builds on [object detection](/detection/ai-backends): a vehicle is detected, then its plate is located and read by OCR. Enable an AI backend with license-plate support on the camera. If the camera detects objects itself without reporting where they are (many Reolink models), enable [Object Assist](/detection/ai-backends#object-assist) so plates get a proper crop.

## Setup

In the backend's plugin settings, license plates use two models, a **detector** that finds the plate and an **OCR model** that reads the characters. camera.ui downloads them automatically. Each has its own confidence on the camera in [Settings → Detection](/cameras/settings), next to a length filter:

* **Plate detection.** Plates found with less confidence than this are ignored (0 to 1, default 0.3).
* **Plate reading.** Readings the OCR is less sure about than this are ignored (0 to 1, default 0.9).
* **Min. plate length.** Readings shorter than this are dropped as fragments (default 4 characters).

## Where plates appear

A read plate is attached to its vehicle as an **attribute**. You'll find it:

* On the event, alongside the vehicle.
* In [Recordings](/recording/browsing), where you can filter by the **License plate** attribute or search for a specific plate.
* In [notifications](/notifications/) and [AI descriptions](/detection/genai-descriptions), for example "Plate ABC-123".