How to blur a license plate (or number plate) in a photo
A licence plate isn't a face, so face-detection tools skip straight past it. Here is why that gap exists and how to cover a plate anyway, in a photo or a video.
Why blurring a plate is a different job to blurring a face
Face detection tools, including the automatic detection in this app, look specifically for faces — that's what they're trained and tuned to find. A number plate has no facial features for a detector to lock onto, so it is invisible to that kind of automatic scan no matter how good the detector is. Covering one means marking the region yourself.
Deface has a manual region tool for exactly this: anything in the frame that isn't a face but that you want treated the same way — blurred, pixelated, or blocked out solid. You draw a box, position it over the plate, and it gets exported with the same coverage a detected face would get.
How to blur a license or number plate with Deface
Works the same whether it's a parked car in a photo or a plate visible throughout a dashcam clip.
- Import the photo or video. Deface reads it straight from your library.
- Add a manual region. Draw a box over the plate. Precision size controls let you fit it tightly, which matters for a plate since it's small relative to the rest of the frame.
- Pick a style. Solid colour gives the cleanest, most obviously deliberate cover for a plate; blur or pixelate work too if you want it less conspicuous.
- For video, check it across the clip. Manual regions persist across frames, but if the car moves relative to the camera, reposition the region to keep it aligned with the plate as it moves.
- Export. The saved file keeps the plate covered and, separately, has its metadata stripped.
A plate at an angle needs a bit more box than you'd think. Reflective plates, plates shot at a steep angle, or a plate that's partly obscured by glare can be harder to fully cover with a tight rectangle. Size the region generously enough to cover the full plate including its edges, and for video, recheck the position on a few frames rather than assuming a single placement holds for the whole clip if the car or camera is moving.
Other things worth covering the same way
Anything that identifies a specific vehicle, address or document gets missed by face detection for the same reason a plate does — it isn't a face.
- VIN plates and stickers visible through a windshield or on a doorjamb in car-for-sale photos.
- House numbers and street signs in the background of a driveway or front-door shot.
- Boat and trailer registration numbers, which work the same as a car plate but are easy to forget since they're less familiar.
- Motorcycle and bicycle plates, smaller and often at an odd angle, worth a closer look before assuming a tight box will catch them.
- Documents, screens and name badges that happen to be in frame — a delivery label, a boarding pass, a laptop screen showing an open inbox.
Why people blur a plate before posting a photo
Selling a car online. Listing photos on marketplace sites routinely show the plate in shots of the front, back or interior. Blurring it before posting keeps the registration out of a listing that strangers will see and screenshot.
Dashcam footage. Sharing a dashcam clip of an incident — a near-miss, a parking dispute, evidence for insurance — usually means other people's plates are visible in the background, not just the vehicle involved.
Property and real estate listings. A driveway or street-view photo in a listing often has a car with a legible plate parked in frame, along with house numbers or post that can identify the address, which is worth stripping the photo's location data over as well.
None of these are face-detection problems, which is exactly why a manual region — rather than relying on automatic detection — is the tool for the job. The same approach covers a street sign, a name badge, a phone screen, or anything else that identifies something you'd rather not publish.
Frequently asked questions
Does an app need to detect the plate automatically to blur it?
No. A licence plate has no facial features, so automatic face detection cannot find it. Deface's manual region tool lets you draw a box over any object — a plate, sign, or screen — and apply the same blur, pixelate or solid cover a detected face would get.
Can I blur a number plate on iPhone without a computer?
Yes. Deface runs entirely on the iPhone. Import the photo or video, draw a region over the plate, choose a style, and export — no desktop editor required.
Is there a way to blur license plates automatically, without drawing a box each time?
Not with face-detection-based tools, since a plate isn't a face. You draw the region once per photo, or once per video (it persists across frames), rather than for every occurrence.
What's the best style to use for a license plate — blur, pixelate, or solid?
Solid colour is the most reliable choice since it removes the plate's characters completely and reads unambiguously as deliberate. Blur or pixelate work too if you'd rather the cover be less visually obtrusive in the photo.
Do I need to blur plates in a video the whole way through, or just once?
A manual region persists across the frames of a video, but if the car or camera is moving relative to each other, check the region's position through the clip and adjust it so the cover stays aligned with the plate.
Does blurring the plate also remove GPS data showing where the photo was taken?
No, those are separate. Covering the plate only changes those pixels. Deface strips EXIF, GPS and timestamp data from the file on export regardless of which regions or styles you use.
Cover a plate in a couple of taps.
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