Window tint laws in Texas — what’s legal, what’s not

On an Austin vehicle, Texas measures the finished glass, not the number printed on the film box. Light transmission has to be 25% or more on the windshield strip and on the front side windows, counted together with the glass that came on the vehicle. A darker roll on glass that is already shaded can fail even when the package says it is legal.

The rules below are the Texas Department of Public Safety window tinting standards. An officer can meter the glass. This is the shop explaining the standard, not a substitute for the statute.

Front side windows

The windows to the right and left of the driver are the ones people get wrong. DPS requires both of these, measured with the original glass:

• Light transmission of 25% or more. 35% is legal. 20% and 5% are not.
• Luminous reflectance of 25% or less. That is the mirror-film limit.
• A front window under 25% fails inspection, no matter the model year.

We meter the glass before the plotter cuts. Darker than 25% on the fronts is a medical exemption, and that paperwork is yours to carry. We do not check it.

The windshield

The windshield is not a place for a dark shade. DPS allows a sunscreening device only when every one of these is true:

• It stays above the AS-1 line. If the glass has no AS-1 line, it cannot extend more than five inches down from the top.
• It is not red, amber, or blue.
• Light transmission is 25% or more, with the original glass.
• Reflectance is 25% or less, with the original glass.

A clear film that blocks 99% of UV (ultraviolet) and IR (infrared), without cutting visible light, is allowed on the windshield, and that one does not need a medical exemption. That is the ceramic windshield film we install. A dark shade on the windshield is not.

No mirror film, and no red, amber, or blue

Mirror film fails the reflectance rule. If the glass throws light back at the vehicle behind you, it is over the 25% reflectance limit DPS uses on the windshield and the front sides. We do not install it.

Colored film is the other hard no. Red, amber, and blue sunscreening devices are not legal on the windshield. We do not install colored film on the vehicle. The films we use are carbon, metalized, and ceramic, in a normal gray, not a color and not a mirror.

Windows behind the driver

Windows behind the driver are not held to the same 25% rule as the fronts. That is where 20% and 5% belong if you want privacy. If that glass transmits less than 25% of the light, the vehicle needs an outside mirror on each side so you can see around it. Most vehicles already have those mirrors. We still say it before we go dark on the back.

Medical exemption for darker front windows

Darker than 25% on the two front windows is legal only with a medical exception. DPS says the signed statement has to come from a licensed physician or a licensed optometrist, and it has to do two things:

• Identify the driver or the occupant, specifically enough that it is clearly that person.
• State that, in that doctor’s opinion, sunscreening devices are necessary to safeguard that person’s health.

Keep the statement in the vehicle. You show it at inspection, and you show it if an officer asks. We do not check the statement. That is on you to have on hand when it is needed. The exemption can cover darker film on the front side windows and on the top band of the windshield, the AS-1 line or five inches, whichever is less. It does not allow film on the rest of the windshield, below that line. Passing inspection with the letter is not a free pass in court. DPS tells inspectors that a citation under the tint statute is still up to the officer and the judge.

Who the 25% rule does not cover

• Law enforcement vehicles maintained by an agency and used for that work.
• Vehicles that carry passengers for a fee on a regular basis, such as a taxi, a limousine, or a bus.

A personal vehicle is not in that group. The standard for everyone else is the one above. The DPS page is Window Tinting Standards.

The short version

25% or lighter on the fronts. No mirror film. No red, amber, or blue. A darker front is your medical statement to keep, not something we check.

See auto tint or send the details for a free quote.