Georgia Window Tint Law 2026

Georgia measures in INCHES FROM THE TOP and names no AS-1 line and no manufacturer marking. Read the exception precisely: it exempts a TRANSPARENT ITEM placed on the uppermost six inches, which is narrower than a general permission to tint that band — the item must be transparent, and it must not be red or amber. The 2026 amendment did not touch subsection (c)(4).

Note what is absent: (b)(1) carries no percentage and no tolerance, unlike (b)(2) and (b)(3). Any reduction is a violation, subject only to the exceptions in subsection (c) — sun visors mounted forward of the side windows, the two corner squares for signs and stickers, common-carrier destination signs, legally required stickers and certificates, and the uppermost six inches. The 2026 amendment left this paragraph substantively alone; it only deleted a trailing "or".

CHANGED 1 JULY 2026: this was 32 percent from 2005 until then. BASIS: `net_assembly`. Georgia regulates "material and glazing ... when so applied or affixed" as a single quantity, and § 40-8-73.1(a)(3) defines light transmission as the ratio of light "allowed to pass through a surface" — the finished surface, not the film. Nothing in the section states a figure for the material measured on its own. "Front side and door windows" is now a defined term — § 40-8-73.1(a)(1) fixes it as "the side and door windows of a motor vehicle that are directly to the right and left of the driver", which is what makes the new front/rear split administrable.

NEW ON 1 JULY 2026 — THIS PARAGRAPH DID NOT EXIST BEFORE. Until the 2026 amendment Georgia held every side window to a single figure; (b)(3) creates a separate and far more permissive class for glass behind the driver. § 40-8-73.1(a)(6) defines "rear side and door windows" as the side and door windows "that are not directly to the right and left of the driver". BASIS: `net_assembly`. Georgia regulates "material and glazing ... when so applied or affixed" as a single quantity, and § 40-8-73.1(a)(3) defines light transmission as the ratio of light "allowed to pass through a surface" — the finished surface, not the film. Nothing in the section states a figure for the material measured on its own. The rear-glass figure does not reach every vehicle: § 40-8-73.1(c)(6) lifts subsection (b) entirely from the rear windshield and rear side or door windows of multipurpose passenger vehicles, school buses and other public-transport buses, religious and nonprofit buses and vans, limousines owned or leased by a public or private entity, and any vehicle whose glass was tinted before factory delivery or as federal law permits. Note that the 2026 amendment narrowed this paragraph too, inserting "rear" and deleting the old words "except those windows to the right and left of the driver".

The rear windshield sits in (b)(3) with the rear side glass at 15 percent. IT SITS THERE ALONE: an earlier reading of the bill redline placed it in (b)(2) as well, at 28 percent, and that was wrong — the Code Commission's amendment note records that the 2026 amendment "deleted 'the rear windshield or'" from (b)(2). BASIS: `net_assembly`. Georgia regulates "material and glazing ... when so applied or affixed" as a single quantity, and § 40-8-73.1(a)(3) defines light transmission as the ratio of light "allowed to pass through a surface" — the finished surface, not the film. Nothing in the section states a figure for the material measured on its own. The rear-glass figure does not reach every vehicle: § 40-8-73.1(c)(6) lifts subsection (b) entirely from the rear windshield and rear side or door windows of multipurpose passenger vehicles, school buses and other public-transport buses, religious and nonprofit buses and vans, limousines owned or leased by a public or private entity, and any vehicle whose glass was tinted before factory delivery or as federal law permits. Note that the 2026 amendment narrowed this paragraph too, inserting "rear" and deleting the old words "except those windows to the right and left of the driver".

Stated as a maximum: material that would "increase light reflectance to more than 20 percent" is unlawful. The 2026 amendment newly DEFINED the quantity — § 40-8-73.1(a)(2) now sets "light reflectance" as "the ratio of the amount of total light that is reflected outward by a product or material to the amount of total light falling on the product or material" — where the pre-2026 section used the term without defining it. Note the reflectance limit carries NO plus-or-minus tolerance, unlike the transmission figures in the same sentence.

Georgia split the transmission figures front and rear in 2026 but kept reflectance uniform: the same 20 percent ceiling is written into both (b)(2) and (b)(3). The rear-glass figure does not reach every vehicle: § 40-8-73.1(c)(6) lifts subsection (b) entirely from the rear windshield and rear side or door windows of multipurpose passenger vehicles, school buses and other public-transport buses, religious and nonprofit buses and vans, limousines owned or leased by a public or private entity, and any vehicle whose glass was tinted before factory delivery or as federal law permits. Note that the 2026 amendment narrowed this paragraph too, inserting "rear" and deleting the old words "except those windows to the right and left of the driver".

Two features a reader should not miss. The exemption is DISCRETIONARY — "may ... issue", not "shall" — and it comes with conditions "as may be prescribed by the Department of Public Safety", so the permitted darkness is not published in the Code and is set case by case. It also covers a habitual passenger's vehicle, not merely a vehicle the patient owns. The procedure is fleshed out in Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 570-22-.06, which requires application to the Department of Public Safety Permit Section on a departmental form supported by written attestation stating the specific medical diagnosis; that rule states no permitted percentage and cross-refers to the statute, so no figure is recorded from it.

Red and amber are the colours reserved for signalling on a vehicle, which is why they are the two excluded — the rule is about not creating a false light forward, not about aesthetics. Recorded as a VERIFIED restriction that is narrow rather than as a general colour rule: nothing in § 40-8-73.1 constrains the colour of side or rear window film.