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Driving licence recognition

Driving licence recognition from a photo: NeuroVision detects the country, the specimen and the side of the document, extracts the full name, dates, number and categories from the front and the back, and checks the image for forgery — in one API response. Russian licences of all specimens on the list and foreign licences; the back side is free of charge.

Driving licence recognition: a specimen of a Russian licence, front and back with the fields highlighted
  • Russian licences of all specimens and foreign licences
  • The back side is free of charge
  • The licence number goes straight to the disqualification check
Data is stored in Russia Russian Software Registry No. 19972 Compliance with 152-FZ

Which driving licences NeuroVision recognises

The model detects the country, the specimen of the form and the side of the document on its own — the user simply photographs the licence. A driving licence can be the main document of the check or the second one, together with the passport in the same session.

  • Russian licences of the current specimen

    A plastic card the size of a bank card under Ministry of Internal Affairs Order No. 365 — the forms issued since 2011, including those after 2014, when subcategories were added. Front and back.

    • Front
    • Back
    • Subcategories
  • Russian licences of earlier specimens

    Licences of the 1963, 1993, 1996 and 1999 specimens from the list of recognised documents. They are no longer valid, but they turn up in questionnaire archives and when old contracts are checked.

    • 1963
    • 1993
    • 1996
    • 1999
  • The back side is free of charge

    A table of categories with opening and expiry dates, restrictions and special notes. Under the price matrix the back of the licence is recognised free of charge and is not counted as a separate document.

  • Foreign national licences

    Licences of other countries from the list of 195+ countries and territories, including licences of individual states, provinces and emirates. The country and the specimen are detected automatically.

  • International licences

    International driving permits from the list — for example, those issued in China, Japan and the UAE. They are recognised as a separate document, but in Russia they are valid only together with the national licence.

    • International permit
    • Only with the national licence
  • No suitable specimen

    The list is updated regularly. If the specimen of your country or region is not there, the team will assess whether the model can be trained on it and an update released.

What data we extract from a licence: front and back

Data is extracted from a driving licence field by field: for each field the service returns the value and the model's confidence level. The field numbers below are as in the specimen description in Ministry of Internal Affairs Order No. 365.

  • Front of a Russian licence

    Full name, dates and number — what the questionnaire and the contract need

    Enable

    Owner

    • 1 — surname
    • 2 — given name and patronymic (in Cyrillic and Latin)
    • 3 — date and place of birth
    • 8 — place of residence (region of Russia)
    • 6 — photo of the holder (crop)

    Document

    • 4a — date of issue
    • 4b — expiry date
    • 4c — traffic police unit
    • 5 — series and number
    • 9 — open categories and subcategories
  • Back of a Russian licence

    recognised free of charge — to check authenticity and to match the number

    Enable

    Series and number

    • Series and number — in red in the lower right corner

    Back-side flag

    • Field isBackSide in the API response
    • The side is detected automatically
  • Foreign licences

    the set of fields depends on the country and the specimen

    Enable

    Owner

    • Surname and given name — as printed, Latin script if the form has it
    • Date of birth
    • Holder's photo (crop)

    Document

    • Number
    • Issuing country (country code in the API response)
    • Issue and expiry dates
    • Categories — if indicated
    • For an international permit — the data of the national licence, if entered

Specimens of Russian licences: from the paper form to the plastic card

  • A licence under Ministry of Internal Affairs Order No. 365 — issued since 2011, replaced the earlier specimens by 1 March 2011 85.6 × 54 mmFrontBack
  • Subcategories A1, B1, C1, D1, C1E, D1E and categories Tm, Tb, M — in licences issued since 2014 Field 9Table on the back
  • Valid for 10 years; on replacement the issue date is new and the category opening dates are carried over Field 4bField 10

  • The date the right to each category was obtained Field 10
  • The term and restrictions for each category — for example, automatic only Field 11Field 12
  • General restrictions and special notes — glasses, medical certificate, experience from a previous licence Field 14
  • A barcode field for traffic police records Not used for recognition

  • Licences of 1993, 1996 and 1999 — before the move to the plastic card FrontBack
  • Licence of the 1963 specimen Archive
  • Expired — needed for archives and for re-checking old questionnaires Expired

  • The electronic licence in Gosuslugi — a display of data from the register, not a document to photograph Not recognised
  • An international permit issued in Russia — valid only abroad Foreign licences block
  • Your customers carry licences of different years: some issued before the move to the plastic card, some before and after subcategories appeared. The model detects the specimen on its own — there is no need to pick it from a list.
  • Field numbers — as in the specimen description in Order No. 365 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia of 13.05.2009. Specimen years — as in the list of recognised documents.

How driving licence recognition works

Driving licence OCR works like passport recognition: image → specimen detection → fields → checks → JSON. A person steps in only if the model is unsure about a field or anti-fraud has found signs of forgery. How to connect: REST API and Web SDK.

Step 1

The customer photographs both sides

No scanning of the licence is needed: a phone photo is enough. The Web SDK shows a frame and prompts — remove the glare from the lamination, move closer, turn the card over. Photos and scans in JPEG or PNG are accepted.

Scanning a licence from a phone in the Web SDK: a prompt to shoot the back side
Step 2

We detect the country, specimen and side

The model tells a licence from a passport and an ID card, finds the specimen of the form — from 1963 to the plastic card — and understands which side it sees. The response contains a back-side flag.

Automatic detection of the specimen, country and side of a driving licence
Step 3

We read the fields

The full name in Cyrillic and Latin, dates of birth, issue and expiry, the traffic police unit, series and number, categories. Dates and numbers are brought to a single format.

Extraction of driving licence fields with a confidence level
Step 4

We check the image

A photo of a screen, a printout and a photocopy, traces of a graphics editor, altered fields, logical inconsistencies in the dates, an expired document. If the licence and the passport in one session belong to different people, the session gets an error.

Driving licence anti-fraud: forgery and documents of different people
Step 5

We return JSON and launch the checks

Fields with the model's confidence, anti-fraud statuses and errors — in one response. The series, number and issue date go straight to the disqualification check against the database, if it is enabled.

The licence recognition result in JSON and passing the licence number to a database check

A driver's experience from the licence: the issue date or the category opening date

Experience is counted from the back

Both sides are recognised: the service returns the issue date as a field and the back as an image with a flag isBackSide. The back side is free under the price matrix

  • 01

    The issue date is not experience

    A licence is issued for 10 years. On replacement — at expiry, after a change of surname or after loss — a new date appears in field 4a, and a driver with 15 years of experience looks like a beginner.

  • 02

    Experience — from field 10 on the back

    Each category in the table on the back has its own date the right was obtained; on replacement it is carried over from the previous licence. The service recognises the back and returns its image, while the category opening date is checked by a moderator or by your rule.

  • 03

    Special notes — a hint

    Field 14 may carry a note about experience from a previously issued licence — a moderator checks it too. If the dates on the back and the note differ, the application is worth sending to manual review.

  • 04

    The threshold is set by your process

    The taxi law requires a category B licence for at least three years. Car sharing, rental and insurers set their own age and experience thresholds. The service returns the dates; you apply the rule.

  • 10 years a Russian licence is valid
  • 3 years of category B for a taxi driver
  • 0 ₽ for the back side

Foreign and international licences: what can be recognised and what is valid in Russia

  • A national licence of another country

    Recognised against the list: the country and the specimen are detected automatically, and the fields are returned as printed. A foreigner on a temporary trip can drive on a national licence that Russia recognises, and a licence not in the international format is recognised with a certified Russian translation.

  • An international permit is not a stand-alone document

    It is a translation of the national licence into the languages of the Convention on Road Traffic. In Russia a foreigner may drive on it only together with the national licence. An international permit issued in Russia is valid only abroad. So the scenario should ask for two documents.

  • Russian citizens and residence permit holders

    A year after obtaining citizenship or a residence permit, foreign licences are invalid, except Belarusian ones. Working as a driver on a foreign licence is not allowed — there are exceptions for citizens of Kyrgyzstan and of countries where Russian is an official language. The service recognises the document; you apply the rule.

A foreign licence cannot be checked against the traffic police database — it is not there. NeuroVision recognises the document and checks the image for forgery; the foreign person is checked against the Ministry of Internal Affairs register of controlled persons and the wanted lists. For the rules for car sharing in detail, see the page on driver checks.

Checks by licence number after recognition

Recognition answers the question “what is written on the licence”. Whether it is valid, whether the driver is disqualified and how many fines they have can be seen only in the databases. The series, number and issue date go to the check from the recognised document; the customer does not need to enter anything. All checks and input data — in the catalogue. Checking drivers for car sharing and rental.

Driver's licence

They work from the series, number and issue date of a Russian driving licence; no passport is needed.

  • Traffic police

    Disqualification and validity of the driving licence

    Validity, term, disqualification from driving, wanted-document status.

    5 ₽ / check

    Learn more
  • State payments system

    Traffic fines by driving licence

    Unpaid fines for traffic offences by driving licence number.

    5 ₽ / check

    Learn more
  • RSA

    The compulsory motor insurance no-claims bonus

    The driver's KBM class and coefficient: a discount for accident-free driving or a surcharge for payouts caused by them.

    Soon

Recognition, the traffic police database and the agency's site: what covers what

  • Data from the licence

    Entering fields. Manually — the user retypes the full name, number and dates and a moderator checks them against the scan; NeuroVision — fields from both sides in JSON with a confidence level.

    Foreign licences. Manually — a moderator has to understand the specimens of other countries; NeuroVision — the country and the specimen are detected automatically.

    Experience. Manually — they look at the issue date on the front; NeuroVision — the back is recognised in the same session, and the category opening date is visible on it.

  • Authenticity of the image

    Photos of a screen and printouts. Manually — by eye; NeuroVision — separate flags in the response.

    Editing and pasting-in. Manually — by eye; NeuroVision — traces of an editor, altered fields, logical inconsistencies.

    Expired licences. Manually — a moderator checks the date; NeuroVision — an error with a prompt to upload a valid document.

  • Status of the right to drive

    Disqualification and validity. The traffic police site — one licence at a time, manually; NeuroVision — 5 ₽ via the API, the number comes from the recognised licence.

    Fines. Manually — on the agencies' sites; NeuroVision — by licence and passport, 5 ₽.

    Car, accidents, compulsory motor insurance policy. Not checked; the driver's KBM — coming soon.

Recognition does not replace checking the driving licence against the traffic police database: a photo will not show disqualification. So one scenario usually includes both — the licence is recognised and its number goes straight to the check.

Who needs driving licence recognition

Wherever a person is allowed to use a car or is insured from a photo of a document, and the licence data is now retyped by hand.

  • Car sharing and rental

    • Registration in an app from a photo of the licence and passport
    • The licence number — to the disqualification and fines check
    • For tourists — national licences together with international ones Learn more
  • Taxi

    • Connecting a driver to a fleet without a visit to the office
    • The opening date of category B — for the three-year requirement
    • Re-checking licences before a shift Learn more
  • Couriers and delivery

    • Couriers by car and motorcycle — licence and category at registration
    • Foreign licences — with the rule on working as a driver
  • Insurance

    • Online compulsory and comprehensive motor insurance: drivers on the policy — from recognised licences
    • Category opening dates for calculating experience
    • Claims settlement from photos of documents Learn more
  • Leasing and car rental

    • The lessee's drivers and long-term renters
    • The licence and passport into the contract without retyping Learn more
  • Fleets and HR

    • Hiring drivers as staff and as contractors
    • Categories and restrictions from fields 12 and 14
    • Employees' licences — into the HR system Learn more

What comes in the API response: fields and statuses for a driving licence

  • type — the type of the result document
  • docName — the country, type and specimen of the form RUS — Driving License (2019)
  • countryCode — the country code of the document RUS
  • isBackSide — back side or not true for the back

  • checks → fraud — statuses of the image checks isDisplayisPrintedisEditedisFieldsModifiedisLogicalMismatch
  • errors — step errors with a prompt [document] expired

  • ocr.fields[].title — the field name depends on the specimen
  • ocr.fields[].value — the value as in the document VORONIN
  • ocr.fields[].conf — the model's confidence high

  • driverLicense.series, driverLicense.number, driverLicense.issueDate — the input of the check driverLicenseVerification from the recognised document
  • outcome — whether the source was queried: performed, skipped, unavailable skipped = “not checked”, not “clean”

How much driving licence recognition costs

A licence can be the main document of the check or the second one to the passport. Document anti-fraud is included in the price, the back side is free, and checks against databases are paid separately. The price of a session falls with volume: 18 ₽ at 10,000 checks a year, 16 ₽ at 50,000. Test access — 1 month.

Calculate the cost
  • 01

    From 16 ₽ per check — a licence as the main document in the “Document” package, anti-fraud included

  • 02

    10 ₽ — a licence as the second document to a passport; the back side — 0 ₽

  • 03

    5 ₽ — disqualification check by licence number

Connection: Web SDK, REST API or your perimeter

Licences are recognised by the same integration as the passport: just add a “Driving licence” step to the check scenario.

Web SDK

A ready capture screen for a website and a mobile browser, and in an app — via WebView. Prompts help to shoot both sides of the licence without glare; the screen texts are configured in the scenario editor. Web SDK

  • Fields in JSON
  • Confidence for every field
  • Both sides of the licence
  • Sandbox and documentation

Terms

Test access for 1 month, a personal manager, ticket-based technical support, image storage — free for 3 months, then at the tariff rate, payment per check.

Glossary: categories, fields and notes on a licence

Short definitions of terms from the driving licence form and the API response.

Driving licence
A document that confirms the right to drive vehicles. A Russian national licence is issued for 10 years.
Driving licence
Category and subcategory
The kind of vehicles one is allowed to drive: B — passenger cars, subcategories such as B1 — already within the category.
Category
Field 10
The date the right to a category was obtained, on the back. On replacement it is carried over to the new licence — experience is counted from it.
Field 12
Restrictions for a single category, as codes: for example, AT — an automatic-transmission car only.
Restrictions
Field 14
General restrictions and special notes: glasses or lenses, a medical certificate, experience from a previous licence.
Additional information
Traffic police unit code
Field 4c on the front: the unit that issued the licence, in coded form.
Issuing authority
International permit
A translation of national licences under the Convention on Road Traffic. Valid only together with the national licence.
International driving permit
Disqualification from driving
An administrative penalty by court decision. It is not visible from a photo of the licence — only in the traffic police database.
Suspension
isBackSide
A flag in the API response: the image is the back side of the document.
API
Document anti-fraud
Checks of an image for forgery: a capture from a screen, a printout, editing, pasting-in, logical inconsistencies.
Document fraud checks

Why recognise licences with NeuroVision

Licence recognition is part of the customer verification platform: the same models, infrastructure and security requirements.

NeuroVision — an expert in computer vision and AI

AI-OCR works as part of customer verification (KYC), trusted by the largest companies in fintech, e-commerce and transport services.

We develop identification algorithms that automate checks, detect fraud and help meet regulatory requirements.

A licence and a passport in one session

A licence as the main document or the second one to a passport — 10 ₽, the back side is free.

Photo Fields JSON

From recognition to checking

The licence number from the recognised licence goes straight to the disqualification check against the database.

All specimens — no manual selection

Russian licences from 1963 to the plastic card and foreign licences from the list of 195+ countries and territories.

Skolkovo — participant

A Russian developer

A Skolkovo resident, Russian software register No. 19972, Rospatent certificate No. 2023661508. Data — in Russia.

Test recognition on your customers' licences

Tell us which licences your customers present — Russian, foreign, old specimens — and how many checks a month. We will give test access to the API and the Web SDK for 1 month.

Can't put your request into words? Book a call and our team will contact you at a convenient time

Book a call

The company is included in the register of IT companies and the register of personal data operators of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development.

Address: Moscow, Presnenskaya Embankment 12 — Moscow City business centre, Federation Tower. Nearest metro stations: Delovoy Tsentr and Mezhdunarodnaya.

Frequently asked questions about driving licence recognition

Answers about passport types, the registration page, accuracy, data storage and integration

It is the automatic extraction of data from a photo of a licence: the full name, dates, number and categories — into structured JSON. NeuroVision detects the country, specimen and side of the document itself and checks the image for forgery in the same request.

Russian licences of all specimens from the list — from the 1963 form to the plastic card — and foreign national licences from the list of 195+ countries and territories. International permits are recognised for the countries that are on the list.

Yes, the back is recognised and, under the price matrix, is not charged separately. It carries a table of categories with opening dates and restrictions, from which experience is counted.

From the date the right to the category was obtained in field 10 on the back, not from the issue date: licences are replaced every 10 years, and the issue date becomes new. The experience threshold is set by your process or by the insurer.

No. The licence of a disqualified driver looks the same as a valid one. Disqualification is visible only in the traffic police database — it is a separate check for 5 ₽, to which the number from the recognised licence is passed.

Yes. The series, number and issue date from the recognised licence are passed to the check of validity and disqualification. Unpaid fines are checked separately — by licence number and by passport.

It depends on the task. For admission to rental or for a policy, the licence is the main document. If the law requires customer identification, a passport is required: a licence does not replace it. Both documents can be uploaded in one session.

Yes, for the countries on the list. But in Russia it is valid only together with the national licence, and an international permit issued in Russia is not valid for travel within Russia. So the scenario should request both documents.

No, a photo of the licence itself is needed. The service will flag a screenshot of the app as a photo of a screen. The data in Gosuslugi is a display of the register, not a document for recognition.

Retake it without glare and flash so that the whole card fits in the frame. Laminated plastic glares under a lamp — it is better to shoot at an angle to the light. The Web SDK gives this prompt during capture.

In Russia: in the NeuroVision cloud or on your servers when installed in your perimeter. Original images are stored for 3 months free of charge, then at the tariff rate.

From 16 ₽ per check if the licence is the main document; 10 ₽ if the licence is a second document to a passport. The back side is free, the disqualification check is 5 ₽. Test access — 1 month. More in the price matrix.