Skip to content
Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in Bulgaria

The licence plates you will see on the road in Bulgaria, how to read them, and what a car from abroad needs.

BULGARIA5090120140

Speed limits

Default limits for cars, unless signs say otherwise, as on the signs at border crossings.

In towns
50 km/h
Outside towns
90 km/h
Expressways
120 km/h
Motorways
140 km/h

Before you drive

Vignette and tolls
Vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes need a vignette on all roads outside towns and villages. It is electronic only, registered to the plate number. Buy it online from the National Toll Administration (web.bgtoll.bg) or its partners, or at border crossings, most petrol stations and post offices.

Rules and prices change. Check the official site before you travel.

BG

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code BG. Plates carry it on the blue EU band, which counts as the country sign: no separate oval sticker is needed in the European Economic Area, and the plate is also valid in other countries of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. A car from abroad shows its own country code at the rear in the same way.

Reading the plates

Plates carry an area code that shows where the car was registered: 30 codes across 28 provinces. For example:

E 1234 AB
Area codes on the mapAll area codes

Plates you will see

  • CB 1234 AB

    Standard · Since 1992

Special plates

Plate formats and history of Bulgaria

Sources