California Window Tint Law

What Vehicle Code section 26708 actually allows on each window — and what that means for your car.

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The short version

California is strict about the two windows beside the front seats and relaxed about everything behind them. In practice that means we can go as dark as you like from the driver's shoulders back, and we cannot legally darken the glass next to you.

That is not a shop policy. It is Vehicle Code section 26708, and it is the same for every installer in the state.

Window by window

  • Windshield — a strip of transparent material along the top only. The law does not measure it in inches down from the roof, which is what most people expect. It measures up from your seat: the bottom edge has to sit at least 29 inches above the undepressed driver's seat, taken from a point five inches in front of the bottom of the backrest with the seat all the way back and all the way down. The strip must not be red or amber, must not carry opaque lettering, and must not throw any more glare at oncoming drivers than the bare glass would.
  • Front side windows, yours and your front passenger's — no darkening film of any kind. Clear film only, and only if it passes three tests at once: it lets through at least 88 percent of visible light, the glass with the film on it still meets the federal 70 percent minimum, and the film is made to block the sun's UVA rays.
  • Rear side windows, the ones behind the driver — as dark as you want. The obstruction rule simply does not apply to them.
  • Rear window — as dark as you want, provided the car has outside mirrors on both the left and right that give you a view at least 200 feet back. Nearly every car built in the last forty years does.

About the "4 inches" you have probably read

Plenty of tint pages say California allows tint on the top four inches of the windshield. The statute does not contain that number anywhere. Four inches is a rule of thumb borrowed from the AS-1 marking that vehicle manufacturers etch into the glass, and on many cars it lands in roughly the right place — but the rule you would actually be measured against is the 29 inch one above.

We measure the car in front of us rather than the rule of thumb.

Why front windows get clear film only

This is the question we get asked most, usually by someone who has just moved here.

The 88 percent figure is the film on its own. The 70 percent figure is the film and your glass together, and it comes from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 205. Factory glass is not perfectly clear to begin with, so once you account for the glass itself there is very little room left before the pair of them drops under 70 percent. A film dark enough to see on the car is nowhere near it.

So 35 percent on your front doors is a citation waiting to be written, whoever fits it. We would rather you heard that from us first.

The certificate that goes in your glovebox

If clear UV film is fitted to the front side windows, the law requires the driver to have a certificate in the vehicle, signed by the installing company, naming both that company and the film's manufacturer with full street addresses.

We write it for you when the work is done. Keep it in the car — it is what settles the conversation at the roadside.

Medical exemptions

There are two, and they are commonly mixed up.

  • Sun screening devices, on the side windows either side of the front seat. These need a letter from a licensed physician and surgeon, or from a licensed optometrist, saying you have to be shaded from the sun. The device has to be readily removable — a frame, a rigid panel on temporary fasteners, or a roller shade — and if it is transparent it must be green, gray or neutral smoke, pass at least 35 percent of light, and be no more than 35 percent reflective on either face. It may not be used after dark.
  • Clear UV film, on the windshield, side or rear windows. This one needs a certificate signed by a licensed dermatologist saying you should not be exposed to ultraviolet rays. The film still has to be clear, colorless and at least 88 percent.

Neither exemption is a license to fit dark film. Both are about blocking sun, not light.

If the film wears out

The law says that if film tears, bubbles, or is otherwise worn to the point of prohibiting clear vision, it has to be removed or replaced. That is worth knowing when you are comparing a cheap job against a warranted one.

If you do get pulled over

A tint violation is an infraction. In practice many are written as correctable citations — you have the film removed, get the citation signed off, and pay the dismissal fee — but whether yours is written that way is the officer's decision and not something any shop can promise you in advance.

What changed in 2026

Section 26708 was amended effective 1 January 2026 by SB 506. The change added an exception for certain vehicle safety technology on commercial vehicles. Nothing about what you may put on the windows of an ordinary passenger car changed, so if you had legal tint in 2025 you still have legal tint now.

Read it yourself

We would rather you checked us than took our word for it. The full text is published free by the state:

Still not sure?

Tell us the car and what you are trying to achieve — heat, glare, privacy, or the look — and we will tell you what is legal on it and what we would actually recommend. Ring (323) 542-3773, or put it in a booking request and we will come back to you.

Ready When You Are

Tell us the car and what you want out of it. We will come back with a price and a day that works.

Book Your Tint (323) 542-3773