Replacing a lost car title in Michigan
Michigan is one of the few states where paying $5 more gets you the title the same day instead of in a fortnight.
What Michigan charges
The replacement title fee is $15. $15 by mail (arrives in about 14 days); $20 for a same-day instant title issued at a Secretary of State office. Apply online, by mail, or in person.
That figure comes from Michigan Department of State (Secretary of State / SOS), read from its own page and current as of August 2026. The hub compares all fifty states if you want to see where Michigan sits — the spread runs from $5 to $101, which is wider than most people expect for the same piece of paper.
The part that catches people out
By post it is $15 and takes roughly 14 days. At a Secretary of State office it is $20 for an instant title, printed while you wait. For a seller with a buyer standing by, that is the cheapest five dollars in this entire table — it converts a two-week hold into an afternoon. Michigan also accepts the application online, by post or in person, so the counter visit is a choice rather than a requirement.
Michigan ISS-TITLE: Out-of-State Duplicate Title, with every box filled in
That is the document Michigan wants, and we publish a worked example of it: Michigan ISS-TITLE: Out-of-State Duplicate Title.
Michigan is a state where the Secretary of State, not a county office, does the work, which at least means one set of rules statewide rather than the county-by-county variation several of its neighbours have.
Related: what a replacement title costs in every state, and why the wait matters more than the fee · every Michigan form a seller meets · selling a car in Michigan.
Sources
- Michigan Department of State (Secretary of State / SOS) — replacement title fee — Where the Michigan figure of $15 was read, current as of August 2026
- Michigan Department of State (Secretary of State / SOS) — agency home — The agency that issues Michigan titles