Official fees
Alaska tax, title & license fee chart
State registration (passenger vehicle)
$100
biennial, 24 months
Motor Vehicle Registration Tax (MVRT)
$0–$300
set by your borough/city, based on vehicle age
Title fee
$15
Lien recording (if financed)
$15
Local point-of-sale sales tax
0%–5%
only in a handful of cities; most of Alaska charges none
Figures verified July 2026 against official sources (listed below). Always confirm the final amount with the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) - counties can add small local fees.
Step by step
How to title and register in Alaska
- 1
Get an Alaska title within 30 days of buying the vehicle - bring the signed-over out-of-state title or dealer paperwork and a completed Form 812.
- 2
Check whether your city collects a point-of-sale sales tax (Juneau and a few others do) and pay it there if so.
- 3
Apply for registration at any DMV office, by mail, or online at online.dmv.alaska.gov.
- 4
Pay the $100 state fee plus whatever MVRT your borough charges for the vehicle's age.
- 5
Your registration and MVRT are both good for 2 years - mark the expiration month, since Alaska mails a reminder but doesn't chase you after that.
- State sales tax
- None - 0%
- Base registration
- $100 / 2 years
- Borough MVRT
- $0–$300 / 2 years
- Title fee
- $15
- Pay at
- Alaska DMV
Overview
Add the $15 title fee and, in a small number of places, a genuine local sales tax collected at the point of sale (Juneau's 5%, capped at $15,000 of price; the Kenai Peninsula Borough's 3%, capped at just $500), and you get the real Alaska total. Pick your borough and vehicle details below - the calculator applies the exact schedule from the 2026 DMV chart, not a statewide average.
Same state, other costs
More Alaska vehicle costs
Common questions
Alaska tax, title & license FAQ
- How much is tax, title and license on a car in Alaska?
- It depends almost entirely on your borough. In Fairbanks, a new car costs $100 registration + $15 title = $115, because Fairbanks charges no MVRT and has no local sales tax. The same car in Anchorage or Mat-Su adds $150 in MVRT for a total of $265. In Juneau, add the flat $70 MVRT plus a 5% sales tax on the purchase (capped at $750) - a $30,000 car there runs about $935 in TTL.
- Is the Motor Vehicle Registration Tax the same as sales tax?
- No - they're different taxes with different rules. The MVRT is a biennial tax on owning the vehicle, billed by the DMV every time you register, and it shrinks as the vehicle ages. A local sales tax (where one exists) is a one-time tax on the purchase price, paid once at the sale. Juneau and the Kenai Peninsula Borough charge both.
- Why does my neighbor pay less MVRT than I do for the same car?
- MVRT is set by where the vehicle is registered, not by the dealer or the vehicle itself. Move from Fairbanks (no MVRT) to Anchorage and the identical truck starts owing $70–$150 every two years. The DMV determines your taxable location from your registered address.
- Does Alaska tax electric vehicles differently?
- No. As of 2026, Alaska has no EV-specific registration surcharge - an EV pays the same $100 biennial fee and the same local MVRT as a gas vehicle. Several bills to add an EV fee have been introduced but none had passed as of this writing.
- What if I live in a rural area not connected to any road?
- Communities that aren't connected by road to the state highway system (and see under roughly 500 vehicles a day) are exempt from both vehicle registration and mandatory insurance under AS 28.22.011. If your community isn't on that exempt list, though, you still register and pay MVRT like anywhere else - several off-road hub communities (Bethel, Nome, Dillingham) are actually on the MVRT chart.
- Can I skip all of this with permanent registration?
- If your vehicle is 8 years or older (or it's a trailer of any age) and you're in an eligible area - Mat-Su Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, or Anchorage for trailers only - you can pay a one-time $25 surcharge on top of your normal registration and MVRT and never renew that vehicle again.
Receipts
Official sources
Every number on this page comes from these documents - check them yourself.
