Kentucky car registration and title fees

• Title fee — $9.00. Certificate of title, paid to your county clerk when the car is titled, whether you file or the dealer files for you. The clerk keeps $6 and the Transportation Cabinet gets $3. If you finance, your lender's lien goes on the same title and has its own fee below. On January 1, 2027 the Cabinet starts setting this fee by regulation. (KRS 186A.130(1)(a); KRS 186.017)
• Registration (12 months) — $21.00. One year of registration at the county clerk: $11.50 state fee, $6 clerk fee, $3 added fee for the clerk's computer system and $0.50 for reflective plates. Your plate renews each year in your birth month, and a first registration can run to the end of your next birth month, so the exact charge can differ. Clerks quote $21 for 12 months. (KRS 186.050(1); KRS 186.040(1)(c), (6); KRS 186.240(2); KRS 186A.035)
• Electric vehicle ownership fee — $126.00. An annual fee Kentucky charges plug-in vehicles at first registration and at every renewal. It applies to plug-in hybrids as well as battery electric cars. The amount was $126 in 2025 and is re-indexed each January 1; the law limits a yearly change to 5%. Hybrids without a plug do not pay it. (KRS 138.475(2)-(4); KRS 186.050(16))
• Lien recording fee — $22.00. Recording your lender's lien on the title. County clerks list $22. The statutes we found account for $16 of it: $12 clerk fee plus a $4 state tax. Your lender files the lien and may pass the fee through in the contract. (KRS 64.012(1)(b); KRS 142.010(1)(c); KRS 186A.190(10))

• Temporary tag — $3.00 (dealer fee). A dealer has to put either a 60-day temporary tag or your own plate from the trade-in on the car at the sale. The dealer buys the tag from the county clerk for $3. No law charges it to you directly, so if the dealer passes it on, it is a dealer charge that belongs in the advertised price. (KRS 186A.100(1))

• Kentucky taxes cars as property every year, on top of the one-time 6% usage tax. Your county clerk bills it with your registration renewal in your birth month, on the car's average trade-in value as of January 1. For 2026 the state rate is $0.45 per $100 of value, and county, school and city rates bring the total to about $0.93 to $1.72 per $100 depending on where you live, before any fire-district or city levy. The median is near $1.24. Louisville is about $1.20 and Lexington about $1.22. You are not billed at the sale: the first bill is for the January 1 after you register the car. It is not in this total.
• You have 15 days from the purchase to apply for title and registration with your county clerk. The dealer's temporary tag is good for 60 days. Registration renews every year in your birth month for the same $21.
• Starting January 1, 2027, Kentucky stops mailing paper titles. The title is held electronically and a paper copy costs extra. Title and clerk fees will be set by Transportation Cabinet regulation from that date, so these amounts may change.

• The $126 electric vehicle ownership fee comes back with every yearly registration renewal. The amount is re-indexed each January 1 and can rise by up to 5% a year.

• Kentucky has no sales tax on a car. It charges a 6% motor vehicle usage tax on the retail price, the same rate everywhere in the state. You pay it to your county clerk when you title the car, not to the dealer, and the tax is never less than $6.
• Your trade-in reduces the taxable amount on a new or a used car, with no dollar cap. The trade-in has to be a motor vehicle registered to you; a boat or other non-vehicle does not count.
• Registering the car: you apply for title and registration at your county clerk within 15 days. A dealer can file for you if you agree, and if it files through the state's electronic system it must collect the system's filing fee from you as a separate line labeled "online system filing fee." The dealer's 60-day temporary tag covers you meanwhile. The title and registration amounts are in the calculator's total because you pay them either way.
• If you buy from a dealer outside Kentucky and register here, Kentucky credits the tax you paid that state against the 6% usage tax, unless that state gives no similar credit to tax paid in Kentucky.

Source: Kentucky Department of Revenue — Motor Vehicle Usage Tax (KRS 138.460) · rules last verified Oct 11, 2026. Methodology.