DMV Now kiosks — what they do, fees & how to use one

What a DMV Now kiosk is

A DMV Now kiosk is a self-service machine — think of an ATM for vehicle registration — placed inside grocery and retail stores such as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, and Superior Grocers. You walk up, follow the on-screen prompts, pay by card, and walk away with your printed registration sticker in a few minutes. There’s no appointment, no line at a counter, and no staff involved — the kiosk does the whole transaction.

Kiosks exist to take the simplest, highest-volume DMV errands out of the field office. If all you need is to renew your registration or replace a lost sticker, a kiosk is almost always faster than driving to an office.

What you can do at a kiosk

The most common kiosk transactions are:

• Renew vehicle registration and print the sticker on the spot
• Replace a lost or damaged sticker or registration card
• File Planned Non-Operation (PNO) or an Affidavit of Non-Use
• Submit proof of insurance to clear an insurance hold
• Reinstate a lapsed registration (where offered — a $14 fee applies)
• Request driver or vehicle records

The exact menu varies slightly by location. Each kiosk’s official page lists what that machine offers — browse kiosks by county to check before you go.

What a kiosk can’t do

A kiosk is for registration and document replacements only. It cannot:

• Issue or renew a driver’s license or ID card
• Process a REAL ID (that always requires an in-person visit with documents)
• Administer a knowledge or driving test
• Handle a first-time registration of a vehicle new to California

For any of those, you’ll need a field office — and many can also be started online.

Hours, payment & finding one

Because a kiosk lives inside a store, its hours are the host store’s hours — you can use it any time the store is open, which often means evenings and weekends when field offices are closed. We list each kiosk’s host-store hours on the county pages and label them as such; there is no separate staffed kiosk schedule.

Payment is credit or debit card only — no cash. To find your nearest machine, browse DMV Now kiosks by county.