Windshield Tint: What Every State Actually Allows
The windshield is the one piece of glass no US state lets you cover in dark film across the area you drive through. What the law leaves you is narrower and more interesting: a strip along the top, clear film that blocks heat without blocking light, and in a few states nothing at all. This page holds the windshield rule for every jurisdiction, pulled from the same verified data behind our window tint law checker.
Verified August 2026. Laws change; confirm with your installer before film is cut.
Can you tint your windshield?
Not the way you tint a door window. Most states draw a line near the top of the windshield and keep darkening film above it, so the answer in practice is a strip, not a sheet. 5 states go further and permit no aftermarket darkening film on the windshield at all: Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, Virginia.
A second group writes the rule as a light floor instead of a strip. In Iowa, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, the statute says the windshield must keep passing a set share of light, which quietly legalizes something the strip states struggle with: a clear, heat-rejecting film across the whole glass, as long as the assembly stays above the floor.
What is the AS-1 line?
Look at the top corner of almost any windshield and you will find a small etched marking that reads AS-1, with a short line extending from it. Glass makers print it to mark the edge of the zone that must stay optically clear, and most state tint statutes borrow it as their boundary: film above the line is a legal visor strip, film below it is a violation.
Where the marking is missing or worn, states fall back to a measured depth, most commonly five or six inches from the top edge, and a few write the inch figure into law directly instead of referencing the marking at all. The table below quotes each jurisdiction the way its own statute frames it.
Windshield tint rules in every US state
Each state name links to that state's full page, with side-window limits, medical exemption details, and the statute notes that do not fit in a table cell.
| Jurisdiction | Windshield rule | Front side limit |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Non-reflective strip above the AS-1 line | 32% |
| Alaska | Strip above the AS-1 line; approved colors only | 70% |
| Arizona | Strip above the AS-1 line; no red or amber | 33% |
| Arkansas | Strip above the AS-1 line | 25% |
| California | Top strip only, bottom edge 29+ inches above the seat; not red or amber | 70% combined; the film itself must rate 88%+ VLT |
| Colorado | Strip above the AS-1 line; no reflective film | 27% |
| Connecticut | Non-reflective strip above the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Delaware | Strip above the AS-1 line | 70% combined; aftermarket film must be certified to FMVSS 205 |
| Washington, D.C. | Strip above the AS-1 line | 70% · 55% for minivans |
| Florida | Transparent strip above the AS/1 line | 28% (±3%), max 25% reflectance |
| Georgia | No tint below the top 6 inches; the strip may not be red or amber | 28% (±3% tolerance) |
| Hawaii | No tint below the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Idaho | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Illinois | Top 6-inch strip only | 35% if nothing behind the driver is below 35%, otherwise 50% |
| Indiana | Strip above the AS-1 line | 30% |
| Iowa | Entire windshield must keep 70%+ transmittance | 50% (lowered from 70% effective July 1, 2026) |
| Kansas | Strip above the AS-1 line; no red/yellow/amber | 35% |
| Kentucky | Strip above the AS-1 line; no metallic film | 35% |
| Louisiana | Strip above the AS-1 line | 25% (lowered from 40% in Aug 2025) |
| Maine | Strip above the AS-1 line; no reflective film | 35% |
| Maryland | No tint below the AS-1 line or 5 inches from the top, whichever is less | 35% |
| Massachusetts | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Michigan | Top 4-inch strip only | No film except a top 4-inch strip |
| Minnesota | No aftermarket tint | 50% |
| Mississippi | Strip above the AS-1 line | 28% |
| Missouri | Factory-style upper strip only | 35% |
| Montana | Strip above the AS-1 line; no red/yellow/amber | 24% |
| Nebraska | Strip above the AS-1 line; no red/yellow/amber | 35% |
| Nevada | Strip above the AS-1 line; no red or amber | 35% (with 7% meter tolerance) |
| New Hampshire | No aftermarket windshield tint | 70% |
| New Jersey | No aftermarket tint below the top 6 inches | No aftermarket film (medical exemption only) |
| New Mexico | Top 5-inch strip or AS-1 line; no red/yellow/amber | 20% — the darkest front-side allowance in the U.S. |
| New York | 70%, except the uppermost 6 inches | 70% |
| North Carolina | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% (32%+ readings presumed compliant) |
| North Dakota | 70%+ across the windshield | 35% (lowered from 50% in Aug 2025) |
| Ohio | 70% · 3-point tolerance, or a strip above the AS-1 line; no reflective film | 50% · 3-point tolerance in the rule |
| Oklahoma | Strip above the AS-1 line | 25% |
| Oregon | Strip above the AS-1 line; strictest reflectivity cap (13%) | 35% combined (film must rate 50%+) |
| Pennsylvania | Strip above the AS-1 line | 70% |
| Rhode Island | Strip above the AS-1 line | 70% |
| South Carolina | Non-reflective strip above the AS-1 line | 27% |
| South Dakota | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Tennessee | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% |
| Texas | Strip above the AS-1 line at 25%+; no red/blue/amber | 25% |
| Utah | Strip above the AS-1 line | 35% (lowered from 43% in May 2025) |
| Vermont | No aftermarket tint | No aftermarket film (medical exemption only) |
| Virginia | No darkening film; clear film permitted since July 2026 | 50% |
| Washington | Top 6-inch strip; no gold/yellow/black/mirror film | 24% |
| West Virginia | Top 5-inch strip | 35% |
| Wisconsin | Strip above the AS-1 line | 50% |
| Wyoming | Top 5-inch strip or AS-1 line | 28% |
Windshield rules in Canada
Canada runs stricter than the US on glass the driver looks through. Several provinces allow no windshield film of any kind, and the ones that do permit a band measure it in centimeters from the top edge.
| Jurisdiction | Windshield rule | Front side limit |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| British Columbia | Top 7.5 cm strip only | No film allowed |
| Manitoba | Top 12.7 cm strip only | 50% |
| New Brunswick | 70%+ transmittance required | 70% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Northwest Territories | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Nova Scotia | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Nunavut | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Ontario | No aftermarket tint | No film allowed (vehicles made after Jan 1, 2017) |
| Prince Edward Island | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Quebec | Top 15 cm strip only | 70% (glass + film combined, measured by the SAAQ) |
| Saskatchewan | No tint allowed | No film allowed |
| Yukon | 70%+ transmittance required | 70% |
Where is clear windshield film the better play?
If the goal is a cooler cabin rather than a darker look, a ceramic film in the seventy-plus VLT range does most of the work a dark tint would, because it targets infrared rather than visible light. That is the honest pitch for the whole-windshield films sold in the floor states listed above, and the same logic drives ceramic pricing on the side glass, which our window tint cost guide breaks down by film type. Legality still varies by state, so read your row before booking a full-windshield install.
Who installs windshield tint near you?
A visor strip or a clear windshield film is a window tint job, so any competent tint shop handles it, usually as an add-on to a side-glass appointment. Our directory lists verified installers for window tinting in New York and Brooklyn, with the rest of the coverage area browsable from the directory hub. Ask the shop to meter your glass before cutting film, since the law measures glass and film together.
Windshield tint questions
How dark can a windshield tint strip be?
Most states never put a VLT number on the strip itself. The rules that do exist govern character rather than darkness: many states require the band to be non-reflective, and red, amber, and yellow are the most commonly banned colors because they mimic emergency lighting. Texas is the notable exception that meters the strip, holding it to 25 percent or lighter. Your own row in the table on this page carries any such condition.
Can you get pulled over for windshield tint?
Yes, and more readily than for dark side windows. Film sitting below the legal line faces oncoming traffic and patrol cars head-on, which makes it the easiest tint violation to spot without a meter. In states with annual safety inspections the glass gets checked again in the bay, so a windshield that survives the road can still fail the sticker.
Do medical exemptions cover the windshield?
Usually not in full. Exemption programs vary by state and are aimed mostly at the side windows, because the driving view is the one surface every legislature protects hardest, so never assume a side-window exemption extends upward. If a condition such as lupus or xeroderma pigmentosum is in play, the practical route on the windshield is usually a clear UV film, which blocks nearly all ultraviolet without darkening the glass.
What happens if you tint your windshield anyway?
The common outcome is a fix-it citation: a fine plus an order to remove the film and show proof. The quiet cost is the removal itself, since stripping baked-on film from a windshield without damaging defroster elements or the glass takes real shop time. In inspection states the car also stops passing until the film comes off, which turns one ticket into a recurring problem.
Is the tint strip the same as a sun visor strip?
Same thing, different names. Installers call the band across the top of the windshield a visor strip, a brow, an eyebrow, or a sun strip, and every one of those refers to the piece of film this page describes: a band that stops at the AS-1 line or at the inch depth your state sets. If a shop quotes you a brow or an eyebrow, they mean the legal strip.
Does clear windshield film actually block heat?
Good ceramic and infrared-rejecting films do. Heat arrives mostly as infrared, and a quality clear film can turn away a large share of it while passing more than 70 percent of visible light, which is what keeps it legal where darkening film is not. The effect is a cabin that heats more slowly in sun and a dashboard that ages slower, without any visible change to the glass.