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Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in Portugal

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

PORTUGAL5090100120

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
100 km/h
Motorways
120 km/h

Before you drive

Vignette and tolls
There is no vignette. Most motorways charge a toll by distance, paid at booths or with the Via Verde tag. Some motorways have electronic tolls only, with no booths, and can be used only with an electronic toll device or with the vehicle registered in the toll system. About 800 km of these became toll-free in January 2025.

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

P

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code P. 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 no regional code, so the letters and numbers do not tell where a car is from.

Plates you will see

  • AA-01-AA

    Standard · Since 2020

Older plates still on the road

  • 00-AA-01

    Standard · 2005–2020

  • 00-01-AA

    Standard · 1992–2005

  • AA-10-00

    Standard · 1937–1992

Plate formats and history of Portugal

Sources