How Much Does carVertical Cost in the UK? (2026 Prices)

How Much Does a carVertical Check Cost in the UK?

A single carVertical report costs £37.99 for a UK-registered vehicle at the time of writing. Buy more than one and the per-report price drops sharply: £25.99 each in a two-report bundle, or £20.99 each in a three-report bundle. There is no subscription for private buyers — every report is a one-off purchase, or a credit drawn from a bundle you've already paid for.

That single paragraph answers the search query. The rest of this guide goes further: exactly how the bundle maths works out, whether carVertical charges a recurring fee anywhere in the process, what a discount code actually saves you, what — if anything — is free, what the refund policy really covers (and doesn't), and how the price stacks up against HPI, Carhealth, and the other UK providers you're likely to be comparing it with.

This is a pricing guide specifically. If you want the full feature-by-feature comparison between carVertical and an HPI check — what each one actually covers, where carVertical's international data genuinely earns its premium, and where it doesn't — read our companion piece: carVertical vs HPI Check: Which Is Better for a UK Car?. This article stays focused on the number that brought you here: the cost.

Key Takeaways

• A single carVertical report costs £37.99 in the UK (verified directly on carvertical.com/gb, August 2026)
• Buying more than one report cuts the price sharply: £25.99 each for two reports (£51.98 total), or £20.99 each for three reports (£62.97 total)
• There is no consumer subscription. Every purchase is a one-off report or a bundle of report "credits" that stay valid for six months
• carVertical does not offer a genuinely free full report — only a free basic VIN decoder that shows manufacturer, model, and year, with none of the history data
• Refunds are narrow: a "no-findings" report gets an automatic report credit, but once you've generated a report with actual data in it, there is no cash-back guarantee
• Carhealth's equivalent report costs £14.99 — covering the same core UK finance, write-off, stolen, mileage and MOT categories, with an AI-written summary, and no subscription or recurring charge
• Prices in this article were checked directly against carVertical's UK pricing page in August 2026. Providers change prices often — always confirm the live figure at checkout before paying

How Much Does a Single carVertical Report Cost in the UK Right Now?

As of August 2026, carVertical's UK pricing page (carvertical.com/gb/pricing) lists a single vehicle history report at £37.99. That's the full, undiscounted price for checking one car with no bundle applied.

You'll see other figures quoted elsewhere online — some comparison sites cite £33.99, £34, or £35.99. None of those are necessarily wrong; they were simply correct on the day someone checked, and carVertical's own terms and conditions state explicitly that "prices for Reports may vary depending on the availability of data in a particular country, the complexity of its acquisition, the rates applied by data providers, as well as market changes, currency fluctuations, or special offers." In plain English: the price moves, and it has moved upward over the course of 2025 and 2026 based on the figures different sources have recorded at different times.

This is the single most important thing to understand about carVertical pricing: there is no fixed, permanent price. What matters is the figure shown on the checkout screen at the moment you pay, which is why this article gives you the maths and the mechanics rather than treating any single number as gospel. Always glance at the live price before you commit.

A few practical notes on what that £37.99 buys, before we get into bundles:

• It covers one vehicle, identified by VIN or UK registration plate
• The report is generated in around 40 seconds once payment clears
• Payment methods accepted include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, alongside PayPal and cryptocurrency
• The finished report is available in your carVertical account and by email link for 30 days, and can be downloaded as a PDF for your own records
• VAT is applied according to carVertical's terms based on your place of residence, so the price shown at UK checkout should already reflect what you'll actually pay — but always check the total before confirming

carVertical Bundle Pricing: Single Report vs Multi-Report Packages

carVertical's headline offer is not really the single report — it's the bundle. The pricing page leads with "save up to 40%" (in practice closer to 45% on the largest bundle), and the checkout page defaults to the three-report option as the "Most popular" choice.

Here is the full breakdown, taken directly from carVertical's UK pricing page:

Prices verified directly on carvertical.com/gb/pricing, August 2026. carVertical periodically runs promotional pricing on top of these figures, so the live checkout price may occasionally differ from this table.

A few things worth flagging about how the bundles actually work in practice:

• You don't have to use all the reports on the same car. Each purchase gives you a set number of report "credits" tied to your account. You can spend them on entirely different vehicles — useful if you're cross-shopping two or three cars before deciding which to view in person.
• Unused credits expire after six months from the date of purchase. If you buy a three-pack, use one report, and then don't buy a car for eight months, the remaining two credits are gone.
• The discount only makes sense if you'll actually use the extra reports. Buying a three-pack to check a single car you're fairly sure about is not a saving — it's spending £62.97 to save £37.99 you were never going to spend in the first place.
• carVertical also maintains a separate pricing track for business and trade accounts, shown behind a "Show prices for business" toggle on the pricing page. That's outside the scope of this guide, which focuses on private buyers checking a car before purchase.

The Real Cost Per Report — Doing the Maths

The percentage discounts on carVertical's pricing page are accurate, but it's worth seeing the actual pounds-and-pence arithmetic laid out, because "save 45%" sounds more dramatic than "each extra report costs you £20.99 instead of £37.99."

The break-even logic is simple: if you're fairly confident you'll check more than one vehicle before buying — which is realistic if you're viewing a shortlist rather than a single car you're already sold on — the two-report bundle at £25.99 per report is worth buying even if you only end up using one of the two credits, since £25.99 for the one you actually use is still cheaper than the £37.99 single-report price. The three-report bundle only pays off if you're reasonably likely to use at least two of the three credits within six months; if you use only one, you've effectively paid £62.97 for a single report, which is considerably worse value than buying singly.

For context on what "checking multiple cars" actually costs when you compare providers rather than bundle tiers within one provider, see the provider comparison table further down this guide.

Is There a carVertical Subscription or Recurring Charge?

No — not for private buyers. carVertical does not charge UK consumers a monthly or weekly subscription fee. Every transaction is a one-off purchase: either a single report or a bundle of report credits, paid for once and used (or left to expire after six months).

This is worth confirming explicitly because a number of UK vehicle-check providers do run recurring-charge models — trial-priced access that auto-renews into a weekly or monthly fee unless cancelled — and it's a legitimate concern to check before entering payment details on any car-check site. carVertical's checkout flow does not include a recurring billing option for individual consumers; you pay once, you get your report(s), and nothing renews automatically.

The one caveat is that carVertical operates a separate commercial arrangement for dealers, traders, and businesses that check vehicles regularly, visible via the "Show prices for business" toggle on the pricing page. Those business terms can differ from the consumer model described in this article and may include volume-based or recurring arrangements — but that's a B2B product, not something a private buyer checking a single car will encounter.

Does carVertical Cost the Same Everywhere?

No. carVertical's own terms and conditions state plainly that "Report prices may vary depending on the country in which the vehicle being registered is registered or used, as data availability, complexity of acquisition, and rates charged by data providers vary between jurisdictions. Prices may also be affected by general economic and market factors, currency fluctuations, and applicable local taxes."

In practice, this means:

• The price you see is tied to the region setting on carVertical's website (the UK site defaults to GB pricing in pounds sterling)
• Other country versions of the site — the US site, or the general EU-facing site — show different currencies and different bundle structures, reflecting local data costs and market conditions in that region
• Switching your account's region or checking prices while connected via a VPN in another country will not reliably get you a cheaper UK report, because the price that applies is tied to the vehicle and checkout region, not simply whichever currency happens to display

If you're a UK buyer, the figures in this article — £37.99 single, £25.99 and £20.99 in bundles — are the ones that matter to you. Don't be surprised if a friend abroad, or an old bookmark to a non-UK version of the site, shows a different number; that's expected, not a mistake.

Are carVertical Discount Codes Real — and What Do They Actually Save?

carVertical's own terms confirm that the company "may run marketing campaigns during which discount codes are provided for Reports or Report packages," and that these must be entered at checkout to apply — they cannot be applied retroactively after you've paid.

In practice, discount codes for carVertical circulate in a few ways:

• Newsletter sign-up, which has historically offered a one-off percentage discount for new subscribers
• Seasonal promotions around events like Black Friday or New Year
• Third-party coupon aggregator sites, which list a rotating set of codes claiming anywhere from 10% to 30% off

That third category is the one to treat with real caution. Coupon aggregator sites are not run by carVertical, and the codes they list are frequently expired, region-restricted, or simply don't work by the time you try them — some of these sites earn a commission if you click through, which is an incentive to list codes generously rather than accurately. There's no way for us to verify which specific codes are live right now, and by the time you're reading this, any code we could quote here would likely be out of date anyway.

The sensible approach: if a discount code matters to your decision, search for a current one immediately before you buy, enter it at checkout, and see whether it actually reduces the total before you confirm payment. Don't assume a code works, and don't delay a purchase decision on a car you're seriously interested in just to chase a discount that may not materialise. Given that the bundle pricing already reduces the effective cost by up to 45% without any code at all, a genuine discount code stacked on top of a bundle is the best-case outcome — but it's not something you should count on.

Is There a Free Version of carVertical?

Not in the sense most buyers are hoping for. There is no way to get a full carVertical vehicle history report — the one with damage records, mileage verification, ownership history, and theft checks — for free directly from carVertical.

What carVertical does offer for free is a VIN decoder tool. Enter a 17-character VIN and it will tell you:

• Manufacturer and model
• Model year
• Basic equipment information
• A breakdown of what each section of the VIN code represents

That's genuinely useful for confirming a VIN is valid and matches the vehicle you're looking at, but it contains none of the history data — no damage records, no mileage timeline, no theft or finance checks, no ownership history. It's a decoder, not a history check.

The other way people end up with a "free carVertical report" is indirectly: some dealerships that partner with carVertical include a report with the cars they sell, and some private sellers choose to buy and share a report themselves to build trust with buyers. If a listing shows a carVertical badge or the seller offers to share an existing report, that's a genuine free look at the data — but it's the seller choosing to pay for and share a report, not carVertical giving one away.

This pattern — a useful free basic tool, with the data that actually protects your money kept behind a paywall — is common across the UK vehicle-check market, not unique to carVertical. We've covered this in detail, including exactly what GOV.UK's genuinely free tools show, in Is There a Free HPI Check? The Honest Answer. The short version: free MOT history, tax status, and basic vehicle details are available from GOV.UK at no cost from any provider; outstanding finance, write-off status, and stolen markers are not, because they come from private licensed databases that charge every provider — carVertical included — for access.

carVertical's Refund and Return Policy Explained

This is one of the most misunderstood parts of carVertical's pricing, so it's worth setting out precisely, based on carVertical's own Report Return Policy and Terms of Service.

Automatic refunds for "no-findings" reports

If you generate a report and it comes back with no historical data at all — specifically, nothing in the Odometer, Damage, or Timeline sections — carVertical classes this as a "no-findings report." In that case, an unused report credit is automatically returned to your account, instantly, with no need to contact support. That credit is then valid for six months and can be used to check a different vehicle.

Note what this is and isn't: it's a replacement credit, not cash back. If you paid for a single report and it comes back with no findings, you get another report credit — worth another check — not a refund to your card.

Requesting a return for other issues

If the report you generated is not a no-findings report but you believe it contains genuine errors, you never actually received it, or some other legitimate issue occurred, you can request a return within 30 days of generating the report by emailing carVertical's support team with the VIN, purchase date, and a description of the problem. carVertical reviews these on a case-by-case basis; there's no automatic entitlement, and outcomes depend on the specifics of the complaint.

The 14-day statutory right of withdrawal — and its limit

Separately, UK and EU consumer law gives buyers a 14-day right to withdraw from a purchase without giving a reason. carVertical's terms apply this correctly but narrowly: the right of withdrawal applies to unused report credits — a bundle you bought but haven't yet spent on generating an actual report. The moment you use a credit to generate a report, carVertical considers the service "fully provided," and the 14-day withdrawal right no longer applies to that specific report.

In practice, this means: if you buy a three-report bundle and only generate one report within the first 14 days, you could in principle withdraw from the unused two credits for a partial refund — but you cannot get your money back on the report you've already generated and looked at, no findings issue notwithstanding.

What this means compared to HPI's guarantee

It's worth being direct about this: carVertical does not offer anything equivalent to HPI's £30,000 data guarantee, which compensates buyers if HPI's data turns out to be wrong and they suffer a financial loss as a result — for example, buying a car with undisclosed outstanding finance that HPI's report said was clear. carVertical's return policy protects you against a specific narrow scenario (no data returned at all, or a demonstrable error), not against the underlying data itself being incomplete or inaccurate for a car that did have a history.

What Do You Actually Get for £37.99?

This article is deliberately about the price rather than the full feature set — for the detailed breakdown of exactly what carVertical checks versus HPI and Carhealth, see carVertical vs HPI Check: Which Is Better for a UK Car?. But in short, a carVertical report at £37.99 covers:

• Outstanding finance and stolen vehicle markers
• UK insurance write-off categories (Cat A, B, S, N)
• Mileage verification, cross-referenced against multiple sources including — where available — European service and fleet records
• Ownership and registration history, including how many countries a vehicle has been registered in
• Damage records, and photographs where carVertical's sources hold them
• A carVertical Score summarising overall risk at a glance (currently available for UK vehicles)
• Specs and equipment data, and an estimated market value

The genuine differentiator, and the reason some buyers pay the premium over cheaper UK-only alternatives, is international data coverage: cars that spent time registered in Germany, Poland, France, or elsewhere in Europe before arriving in the UK can have a materially fuller history in carVertical's database than in a UK-only check. For a car that has only ever been registered in the UK, that advantage is largely irrelevant, and you're paying £37.99 (or £20.99–£25.99 in a bundle) primarily for the brand, the presentation, and the UK-specific data that cheaper providers also cover.

How Does carVertical's Price Compare to Other UK Vehicle History Checks?

Here's how carVertical's single-report price sits against the other providers UK buyers most commonly compare it with:

carVertical's price was verified directly on carvertical.com/gb/pricing in August 2026. Other providers' prices were checked against their own published pricing and independent UK comparison sources in the same period; all providers change pricing periodically, so confirm the live figure on each provider's own site before buying.

The pattern is consistent: carVertical is the most expensive single-report option among mainstream UK providers, by a meaningful margin — roughly double HPI's Full Check, and around two-and-a-half times Carhealth's price. That's not automatically a criticism; it reflects carVertical's international data infrastructure, which none of the UK-focused competitors in this table replicate. Whether that premium is worth paying depends entirely on the car you're checking, which is the subject of the next section.

Is carVertical Worth the Price?

The honest answer depends on what you're buying, not on the provider in the abstract. For a deeper discussion of value specifically in the HPI context — including the scenarios where paying more genuinely reduces your risk — see Is an HPI Check Worth It?. The same logic applies to carVertical's premium pricing.

carVertical's price is more likely to be worth paying if you're buying:

• A car that was first registered in Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands, or another EU country before arriving in the UK
• A nearly-new or late-plate premium vehicle where European leasing or fleet history is common
• A car with a conspicuously short UK MOT history that can't tell you much on its own
• Several cars from your shortlist, where the bundle pricing (£20.99–£25.99 per report) brings the per-check cost down substantially

carVertical's price is harder to justify if you're buying:

• A UK-registered car that has spent its entire life in the UK, with a full UK MOT history and UK ownership record
• A single car you're checking once, where the £37.99 single-report price applies in full with no bundle discount
• A purchase where a cheaper UK-focused provider — HPI at £19.99, or Carhealth at £14.99 — covers the same core finance, write-off, stolen, and mileage checks that actually protect your money on a domestic car

The core insight, covered in more depth in our head-to-head comparison, is that carVertical's £37.99–£20.99 pricing buys you data breadth that only pays off when a car actually has a cross-border history to reveal. If it doesn't, you're paying a premium for capability you're not using.

How Carhealth Compares on Price

If your car is UK-registered with a UK-only history — which describes the majority of used cars bought and sold in Britain — it's worth weighing carVertical's price against a UK-focused alternative before you commit.

Carhealth's full vehicle history check costs £14.99 — less than half of carVertical's single-report price, and it covers the same core categories that actually protect your money on a UK purchase: outstanding finance, insurance write-off status (Cat A/B/S/N), stolen and police markers, MOT history, mileage discrepancy checks, plate change history, and keeper records. Reports are delivered in under a minute and come with an AI-generated plain-English summary that explains what each finding actually means for you as a buyer, rather than presenting raw data flags you have to interpret yourself.

On pricing structure specifically, Carhealth also offers multi-report bundles if you're checking more than one car:

Carhealth charges a one-off fee with no subscription and no recurring charge — payment is processed securely via Stripe, and reports are delivered instantly. If you want to see exactly what the report looks like before paying, view a sample report, or try the free check first to see what basic data is available on a vehicle at no cost.

Where Carhealth doesn't compete is on international data: it doesn't replicate carVertical's EU and cross-border history coverage, so if you're buying an import with a genuine European past, carVertical's premium may still be the right call. But for the far more common case — a UK car with a UK history — Carhealth covers the same protective ground at under half the price.

Check a UK car's full history for £14.99 — outstanding finance, write-off status, stolen markers, MOT history and mileage, with a plain-English AI summary, delivered in under a minute, as a one-off payment with no subscription. Get your Carhealth report →

Getting the Best Value: Practical Tips

Whichever provider you choose, a few habits will save you money without cutting corners on the checks that actually matter:

Run the free checks first. GOV.UK's MOT history checker is genuinely free and shows pass/fail results, advisories, and mileage recorded at every test. Run this before spending anything — it's often enough on its own to rule a car out.

Don't buy a bundle you won't use. carVertical's discount only pays off if you're realistically going to check more than one car. If you've already decided on a single vehicle, the single-report price applies in full regardless of how attractive the bundle percentages look.

Match the provider to the car, not the other way round. If the car has a UK-only history, a cheaper UK-focused check covers the risks that matter. Save the international-data premium for cars that actually have — or might have — a history outside the UK.

Check the discount code before you need it, not after. Codes expire and vary by region; verify one works at checkout rather than assuming it will apply.

Read the return policy before you buy, not after something goes wrong. Understanding that a "no-findings" report gets you a replacement credit rather than a refund — and that generating a report ends your 14-day statutory withdrawal right for that report — avoids a frustrating surprise later.

Keep the receipt and the report. Download the PDF while it's available (carVertical reports expire from view after 30 days) and keep proof of purchase in case you need to raise an issue within the provider's return window.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a carVertical check cost in the UK?

A single carVertical report costs £37.99 in the UK as of August 2026. Buying a two-report bundle brings the price down to £25.99 per report (£51.98 total), and a three-report bundle brings it down further to £20.99 per report (£62.97 total). Always check the live price at checkout, since carVertical's own terms confirm pricing changes based on data costs, currency, and promotions.

Is carVertical free?

No. There is no genuinely free full carVertical vehicle history report. carVertical does offer a free VIN decoder that shows basic details — manufacturer, model, model year, and a breakdown of the VIN code — but it contains none of the history data (damage, mileage, ownership, theft, or finance records) that a paid report provides. Some sellers and partner dealerships choose to share a report they've already paid for, which can feel like a free report to you as a buyer, but it isn't a free product from carVertical itself.

Does carVertical charge a subscription?

Not for individual consumers. Every carVertical purchase for a private buyer is a one-off payment — either a single report or a bundle of report credits — with no recurring monthly or weekly charge. carVertical operates a separate business/trade pricing structure for dealers and companies checking multiple vehicles regularly, which may include different commercial terms, but that's not something a private buyer checking their own car will encounter.

Can I get a refund from carVertical?

It depends on the situation. If a report comes back with genuinely no historical data (a "no-findings report"), carVertical automatically credits you with a replacement report, valid for six months — though this is a credit, not cash back. For other issues, such as errors in the report or non-delivery, you can request a return within 30 days of generating the report, reviewed case by case. Separately, UK consumer law gives you 14 days to withdraw from a purchase, but only for unused report credits — once you've generated a report, that specific report is considered "used" and is no longer eligible for the statutory withdrawal right.

Are carVertical discount codes real?

Some are. carVertical does run genuine promotional discount codes through channels like its own newsletter and seasonal campaigns. However, many codes listed on third-party coupon aggregator sites are outdated, region-specific, or no longer valid by the time you try them, and those sites often have a financial incentive to list codes generously rather than accurately. If a discount code matters to your purchase, search for a current one and test it at checkout before assuming it will apply — don't build your buying decision around a saving that hasn't been confirmed.

Is carVertical cheaper if I buy more than one report?

Yes, substantially. A single report costs £37.99, but a two-report bundle brings the effective price down to £25.99 per report, and a three-report bundle brings it down to £20.99 per report — a 45% saving over buying three singles. The bundle only represents genuine value if you'll actually use the extra reports within six months of purchase; unused credits expire after that window.

Is carVertical worth the price compared to HPI or Carhealth?

It depends on the vehicle. carVertical's £37.99 single-report price is roughly double HPI's £19.99 Full Check and around two-and-a-half times Carhealth's £14.99 report. That premium is genuinely justified for cars with a European or import history, where carVertical's international data coverage can reveal information UK-only providers simply cannot access. For a UK-registered car with a UK-only history, the same core protective checks — finance, write-off, stolen, mileage, MOT — are available from HPI or Carhealth at a lower price, making carVertical's premium harder to justify. See our full carVertical vs HPI comparison for the detailed feature breakdown behind this recommendation.

Does carVertical's price change depending on where you are?

Yes. carVertical's own terms and conditions state that report pricing varies by country based on data availability, local data provider rates, currency, and applicable taxes. The UK site displays prices in pounds sterling specific to the UK market; other regional versions of carVertical's site show different currencies and bundle structures. The figures in this article — £37.99, £25.99, and £20.99 — apply to the UK checkout specifically.

Prices and terms in this article were checked directly against carVertical's UK pricing page and terms of service, and are correct as of August 2026. Vehicle history check pricing changes frequently — always confirm the current price on the provider's own website before paying. Vehicle history checks provide information based on available records and do not guarantee the mechanical condition or roadworthiness of any vehicle.