> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.rekor.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.rekor.ai/developers/vehicle-recognition-sdk/vehicle-recognition-image-api.md).

# Vehicle Recognition Image API

The Vehicle Recognition Image API recognizes license plates given individual images. In addition to the previous Vehicle Recognition SDK installation options, the Vehicle Recognition Image API is available upon request. The library instance should be initialized once for each thread. There is a significant initialization time (a few seconds) so you should not destroy the instance until you are finished using it.

This instance is not thread-safe by design. An ALPR instance should be used on a single thread and not shared across threads.


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