Vehicle Law · Window Tint
Window Tint Laws in Pennsylvania
The exact legal darkness allowed on every window of your vehicle in Pennsylvania, plus reflection limits, the medical exemption, and what a ticket costs.
How dark you can legally go
Visible-light transmission (VLT) allowed for each window.
Common tint shades, and whether they're legal here
What the shop sells, mapped to the Pennsylvania limit.
| Film shade | Front side | Back & rear |
|---|---|---|
| 70% (light) | Legal | Legal |
| 50% | Too dark | Too dark |
| 35% (factory look) | Too dark | Too dark |
| 20% | Too dark | Too dark |
| 5% (limo) | Too dark | Too dark |
Passenger-car floors shown; the rear-window 70% applies to model year 1998+. Trucks and multipurpose vehicles have no requirement behind the driver.
Film is sold by its own VLT, but police measure the installed darkness: the film combined with your factory glass. Ask the shop for the net, as-installed VLT before you buy.
The full rules, with the statute
Every limit and where it comes from in the code.
| Rule / window | Legal limit in Pennsylvania | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Windshield | Transparent material along the top edge only: no more than 3 inches from the top, outside the AS-1 area | §175.263(a) |
| Front side | At least 70% (windshield, side wings, and front side windows) | §175.67(d)(4) Table X; 75 Pa… |
| Back side | Passenger cars: 70%. | 67 Pa. Code Ch. 175 Table X;… |
| Rear window | Passenger cars model year 1998+: 70%. | §175.264 |
| SUV / van rear | Trucks and multipurpose passenger vehicles have no transmittance requirement on rear side windows or the rear window | PennDOT fact sheet |
| Reflection | Not specified in statute or regulation, Pennsylvania has no reflectivity cap | 67 Pa. Code Ch. 175 Subch. O |
| Banned colors | None (medical-exemption film must be colorless, but that is an exemption condition, not a general ban) | 67 Pa. Code Ch. 175 Subch. O |
| Medical exemption | AllowedAvailable (details in the medical exemption section below). | §175.265(b)(2) |
| Meter tolerance | Not specified, no meter tolerance exists in the regulation | 67 Pa. Code Ch. 175 Subch. O |
Penalties & how it's enforced
What happens if your tint is too dark.
-: No 2025–2026 change. Governing regulations date to the 1996 rulemaking; the April 2025 PennDOT fact sheet restates them unchanged.
The medical exemption: how to qualify
For drivers with a documented light-sensitivity condition.
What Pennsylvania drivers get wrong
Pennsylvania’s 70% rule looks simple but has a giant carve-out: it binds passenger cars, while trucks, SUVs, and vans built on truck chassis have no rear-glass requirement at all. There is no reflectivity cap, no meter tolerance, and, unusually, tint has not been part of the state inspection since 1996; enforcement is entirely roadside.
Common questions
Is any dark tint legal on a car in Pennsylvania?
Effectively no on passenger cars: windshield, front sides, rear sides, and (for 1998+ cars) the rear window must all allow 70% of light. Trucks, SUVs, and vans may tint behind the driver to any darkness.
Will tint fail Pennsylvania state inspection?
No, PennDOT removed the tint light-meter check from the inspection program in 1996. Illegal tint is enforced by police at roadside as a summary offense with a $25 base fine plus costs.
How does the PennDOT medical exemption work?
A licensed physician or optometrist certifies medical need on the Department’s form (commonly MV-402, confirm with PennDOT’s Medical Unit), and the exemption covers colorless, UV-filtering material only. The certificate rides in the vehicle.
Not legal advicePlainStatute provides plain-language summaries of public law for general information only. This is not legal advice. Statutes change; always confirm current requirements with the official source linked above before acting.