Last updated: 13 November 2026
The most expensive Saudi license plate on public record is ع 1 (written "1 E" in Latin letters). It sold for SAR 21 million at an Absher auction on 17 April 2024, or about SAR 24.15 million including 15% VAT. Second is م ل ك 1 ("KLZ 1"), which cost SAR 15.7 million in total at the Riyadh Car Show in December 2025. Third is ى 1 ("1 V"), bought for SAR 10 million in January 2024.
Every record on this list is a single digit with one or three Arabic letters. Not one is a long or "pretty" number. At the very top of the Saudi market, shortness and meaning are everything.
TL;DR
- #1 ع 1 (1 E): SAR 21 million hammer price, Absher auction, 17 April 2024. With 15% VAT the buyer paid about SAR 24.15 million, which is why both figures circulate.
- #2 م ل ك 1 (KLZ 1): SAR 15.7 million total at the Riyadh Car Show, December 2025: SAR 13.4 million hammer, SAR 2 million VAT and SAR 335,000 commission. The letters spell "Malik", king.
- #3 ى 1 (1 V): SAR 10 million, January 2024, bought by rally driver Yazeed Al Rajhi.
- The world record is not Saudi: Dubai's "P 7" sold for AED 55 million (about SAR 56 million) in April 2023.
- Ordinary plates are a different market: the median asking price for a single-digit plate on KSAplate is about SAR 311,000, for a four-digit plate about SAR 3,400.
- A record is not a return. There is no public index of Saudi plate prices, so no one can honestly quote an appreciation rate.
The record list
These are the highest Saudi plate sales with a named, published source. Lower sales are reported too, but most come without a date, a source or a verifiable plate, so we leave them out.
| Rank | Plate | Price | Date | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ع 1 (1 E) | SAR 21,000,000 hammer (≈ SAR 24,150,000 incl. VAT) | 17 April 2024 | Absher auction |
| 2 | م ل ك 1 (KLZ 1) | SAR 15,700,000 total (SAR 13,400,000 hammer) | December 2025 | Riyadh Car Show |
| 3 | ى 1 (1 V) | SAR 10,000,000 | January 2024 | Bought by Yazeed Al Rajhi |
#1: ع 1 for SAR 21 million
On 17 April 2024 the plate ع 1 sold at an Absher auction for SAR 21 million. Gulf News reported ten bids in under eleven minutes. The buyer has not been publicly identified.
Two figures circulate for this one sale. SAR 21 million is the hammer price. Add 15% VAT and the total is SAR 24.15 million. Both are correct; they measure different things, so always check which one a source means before comparing it with another record.
The plate is the digit 1 with the single letter ع (Ain). On Saudi plates ع is written E in the Latin row, so the same plate appears as "1 E" in English reports. If the letter pairs are new to you, our guide to how the Arabic letters on Saudi plates map to Latin explains all 17.
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Calculate My Plate's Value#2: م ل ك 1, the "King" plate
The letters م ل ك read "Malik", king, and with the digit 1 the plate reads "King 1". It sold at the Riyadh Car Show in December 2025, and Gulf News and Gulf Insider published the full bill:
- Hammer price: SAR 13.4 million
- VAT (15%): SAR 2 million
- Commission: SAR 335,000
- Total: SAR 15.7 million
Even its full total stays below ع 1's hammer price, which is why it ranks second. What made this plate special is that its letters form a real word, and one with a strong meaning. Most plates draw their value from the number; this one also draws it from what it says.
#3: ى 1 for SAR 10 million
In January 2024 Saudi rally driver Yazeed Al Rajhi paid SAR 10 million for the plate ى 1, written "1 V", as Gulf News reported. It is the only record plate on this list with a publicly named buyer.
Like ع 1, it pairs the digit 1 with a single letter. Three months later ع 1 sold for more than twice as much, which shows how far apart two plates of the same shape can land at auction.
What the record plates have in common
- One digit. Every plate on the list carries a single digit, and all three carry the digit 1.
- Few letters, or a word. Two plates use a single letter; the third uses three letters that spell a word.
- Fixed supply. For any letter combination there are only nine single-digit plates, 1 to 9. The format itself caps the supply.
- A public stage. All three sold in an auction, where a visible underbidder pushes the price, not in a quiet private deal.
The same logic runs down the whole market, only with smaller numbers: the shorter the plate and the clearer its pattern, the higher the price. You can see what single-digit plates are listed for right now on our page of single-digit plates for sale.
Saudi records against the world
| Plate | Where | Price | ≈ SAR | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P 7 | Dubai | AED 55 million | 56 million | 2023 |
| 1 | Abu Dhabi | AED 52.2 million | 53 million | 2008 |
| AA 9 | Dubai | AED 38 million | 39 million | 2021 |
| ع 1 (1 E) | Saudi Arabia | SAR 21 million | 21 million | 2024 |
| 28 | Hong Kong | HKD 18.1 million | 8.7 million | 2016 |
| 25 O | United Kingdom | GBP 518,000 | 2.4 million | 2014 |
"P 7" was sold by Emirates Auction at the "Most Noble Numbers" charity auction on 8 April 2023, with the proceeds going to the 1 Billion Meals Endowment. The UAE records are higher because their biggest sales are charity events with a very small pool of extremely wealthy bidders. Saudi Arabia's market is far larger by number of plates and buyers, but its record is lower. SAR conversions are approximate.
What ordinary plates ask today
Records sit far above the everyday market. We can measure the everyday market directly, because the listings are on this site. Median asking prices on KSAplate on 13 November 2026, by number of digits:
| Digits | Listings with a price | Median asking price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 digit | 258 | SAR 311,000 |
| 2 digits | 898 | SAR 42,500 |
| 3 digits | 2,114 | SAR 26,500 |
| 4 digits | 8,859 | SAR 3,400 |
Across all 12,129 priced listings the median is about SAR 6,100. These are asking prices, not sale prices: a seller can ask anything, and what a plate finally sells for is agreed privately and never published.
Are record plates an investment?
Nobody can tell you what Saudi plates have returned, because there is no public record of what ordinary plates sell for. The record list is not a price index: it is a list of maximums, and the maximum does not even rise steadily. The December 2025 hammer price was lower than the April 2024 one.
What can be said plainly: the supply of short plates is fixed by the format, demand comes from a growing and wealthy population, and the higher the price, the fewer buyers exist when you want to sell. A single-digit plate can take a long time to find its buyer. If you want a sense of where your own plate sits, use our free tool to estimate what your plate is worth, and treat the result as a starting point, not a promise.
How plates at this level are sold
The record plates were sold at government auctions, on Absher or at a live event such as the Riyadh Car Show. Buyers bid through their Absher account, and the winner pays the hammer price plus 15% VAT; the KLZ 1 sale also carried a commission of about 2.5%. After that the plate is transferred in Absher. If you want to take part, we walk through the process step by step in how to bid in an Absher plate auction.
Below auction level, most plates change hands privately between owners, with the transfer completed in Absher. Transferring a plate to another vehicle costs SAR 1,030 in government and Absher fees.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive license plate in Saudi Arabia?
Why do some sources say SAR 21 million and others SAR 24 million?
How much did the KLZ 1 "King" plate cost?
Who bought the 1 V plate?
What is the most expensive license plate in the world?
How much does an ordinary Saudi plate cost?
Is buying a record plate a good investment?
Conclusion
Three Saudi plates have sold for SAR 10 million or more, and all three are a single digit with one or three letters: ع 1 at SAR 21 million, م ل ك 1 at SAR 15.7 million in total, ى 1 at SAR 10 million. When you compare records, check whether a figure is the hammer price or includes VAT, and remember that a record says what one buyer paid once, not what the market pays.
Reviewed by Khalid Al-Rashid, Saudi License Plate Expert. Auction results are taken from the published reports named below; asking prices are measured on KSAplate listings and are not sale prices.
Sources: Gulf News, April 2024; Gulf News, December 2025; Gulf Insider, December 2025; Gulf News, January 2024.