Hawaii Window Tint Law 2026
Hawaii requires at least 35% on the front side windows. We have not established a published figure for the back side windows and rear window, and this page marks that as a gap rather than implying no limit applies.
As an Amazon Associate, StreetLawful earns from qualifying purchases. Product listings are matched to statutory requirements as we read them — this is not a guarantee of compliance, and we do not test or measure any film ourselves.
Choose a tint level
Our pick at 35% VLT
- 35%VLTIAQWEIAQWE 35% VLT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film 20 in x 20 ft Roll | High Heat Rejection, UV Block, Privacy, Shatterproof, Scratch Resistant & No Signal InterferenceCeramic (nano-ceramic, 5-layer)20″ × 20′ rollRated 35% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
Our pick at 50% VLT
- 50%VLTIAQWEIAQWE 50% VLT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film 20 in x 20 ft Roll | High Heat Rejection, UV Block, Privacy, Shatterproof, Scratch Resistant & No Signal InterferenceCeramic (nano-ceramic, 5-layer)20″ × 20′ rollRated 50% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
Our pick at 70% VLT
- 70%VLTARANAARANA 70% VLT 36"x15FT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film | Keep Car Cool, UV Heat Blocking, Daytime Privacy & Anti-Glare, Scratch Resistant, Phone/GPS Friendly, DIY InstallCeramic (nano-ceramic)36″ × 15′ rollRated 70% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
More options that clear this figure, darkest first
- 35%VLTIAQWEIAQWE 35% VLT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film 20 in x 20 ft Roll | High Heat Rejection, UV Block, Privacy, Shatterproof, Scratch Resistant & No Signal InterferenceCeramic (nano-ceramic, 5-layer)20″ × 20′ rollRated 35% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
- 35%VLTRockRoseRockRose 35% Nano Ceramic Car Window Tint 36 in x 25FT 2PLY Privacy Film Heat Block, 99% UVR, and 85% IRR Block for Auto or Home Strong Adhesive, Easy Shrink, Plotter Friendly - CharcoalCeramic (2-ply nano-ceramic)36″ × 25′ rollRated 35% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
- 50%VLTIAQWEIAQWE 50% VLT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film 20 in x 20 ft Roll | High Heat Rejection, UV Block, Privacy, Shatterproof, Scratch Resistant & No Signal InterferenceCeramic (nano-ceramic, 5-layer)20″ × 20′ rollRated 50% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
- 70%VLTARANAARANA 70% VLT 36"x15FT Ceramic Car Window Tint Film | Keep Car Cool, UV Heat Blocking, Daytime Privacy & Anti-Glare, Scratch Resistant, Phone/GPS Friendly, DIY InstallCeramic (nano-ceramic)36″ × 15′ rollRated 70% VLT — may comply with the 35% requirement for front side windows; verify the installed reading.View on Amazon
Showing 4 of the 12 films we list that clear this figure. Verify before you tint. We match a film’s own rating against the figure in the statute above. We do not measure film, and a manufacturer rating is not a compliance certificate.
The limits at a glance
Hawaii sets the same limits for passenger cars and for SUVs, vans and trucks, so there is nothing to switch between.
Film that may meet the 35% requirement for front side windows
- 35% VLT minimum — measured on the installed glass, film and window together
- This limit is measured on the installed glass, not on the film. Factory glass blocks light on its own, so film rated at or above the figure can still read below it once applied. Treat these as candidates and verify the installed reading.
- This state also restricts film colour: Red, yellow, amber and blue appearances are prohibited where produced by a mirrored or high reflective finish. No colour is restricted independently of reflectivity.
Every Hawaii tint rule we track
| Rule | Applies to | What the law says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windshield strip — how dark the strip may be | All vehicles | No numeric VLT for the permitted windshield band. The film must be transparent and must stay above the AS-1 line (or within four inches of the top where no AS-1 marking exists); no percentage attaches. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(6) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Transparent sun screening film materials that are installed, affixed, or applied along the top edge of the windshield” |
| Windshield strip — how far down it may extend | All vehicles | AS-1DetailTwo-branch rule, and the fallback is unusually precise: where no AS-1 marking can be found in the upper margin, the limit is four inches below the top of the windshield measured from the middle point of the bottom edge of the top moulding. Rendering only the AS-1 branch would leave drivers of unmarked windshields with no rule. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(6) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Transparent sun screening film materials that are installed, affixed, or applied along the top edge of the windshield so long as the materials do not encroach upon the AS-1 portion of the windshield as provided by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 205 or no lower than four inches below the top of the windshield, when measured from the middle point of the bottom edge of the top windshield moulding if no AS-1 markings can be found in the left or right upper margin of the windshield;” |
| Windshield below the strip | All vehicles | Transparent sun screening materials may be applied to the AS-1 portion of the windshield if they meet FMVSS 205. Outside that allowance the general prohibition in (a) and (b) applies, and Hawaii sets no percentage for the windshield.Detail(e)(11) sits oddly against (e)(6): (6) permits film along the top edge so long as it does NOT encroach on the AS-1 portion, while (11) permits transparent material applied TO the AS-1 portion if it satisfies FMVSS 205. Both are recorded because the statute contains both; no attempt is made here to reconcile them. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(11) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Transparent sun screening materials, when applied to the AS-1 portion of the windshield, that meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 205.” |
| Front side windows | All vehicles | 35% VLT minimum measured on the installed glass + film together Detail(e)(7) sets the same 35% ±6% for the front side wing vents and windows, so the two subsections agree. NET ASSEMBLY basis, stated outright: both (e)(7) and (e)(8) qualify the figure with "when used in conjunction with the glazing material", so 35% governs the finished window rather than the film. The tolerance is ±6% — the widest in the dataset so far, and wide enough that publishing a bare "35%" materially misstates the enforceable floor. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(8) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Sun screening devices for front side windows and wing windows necessary for driving visibility that are adjacent to the driver and necessary for driving that, when used in conjunction with the glazing material, have a light transmittance of no less than thirty-five per cent plus or minus six per cent;” |
| Back side windows | All vehicles | confirmed No transmittance limit on the side windows to the rear of the driver, provided the vehicle is equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides. (e)(9) exempts them from the section entirely rather than setting a floor. vehicle equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides DetailThe fifth jurisdiction in this dataset with no rear-side limit, after Texas, Indiana, New York and Utah — but the only one that conditions the exemption on mirrors. Note the asymmetry inside (e)(9): the REAR window list ends with "or other motor vehicles", while the SIDE window list stops at buses, so a body style outside sedan/van/minivan/truck/bus is not named for its rear side windows. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(9) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Rear windows, including the rear windshield on sedans, vans, minivans, trucks, buses, or other motor vehicles; and side windows to the rear of the driver on sedans, vans, minivans, trucks, or buses; provided that the vehicles are equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides;” |
| Rear window | All vehicles | confirmed No transmittance limit on the rear window or rear windshield, provided the vehicle is equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides. vehicle equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides DetailThe rear-window branch of (e)(9) closes with "or other motor vehicles", so unlike the rear-side branch it is not limited to named body styles. | HRS §291-21.5(e)(9) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “Rear windows, including the rear windshield on sedans, vans, minivans, trucks, buses, or other motor vehicles;” |
| Reflectivity — front side windows | All vehicles | No numeric reflectance ceiling. Hawaii prohibits mirrored or high reflective finishes that produce a red, yellow, amber or blue appearance from outside the vehicle, rather than capping a percentage.DetailThe prohibition is a conjunction, not two separate rules: what is banned is a mirrored or high-reflective finish THAT PRODUCES one of the four named appearances. A mirrored finish producing, say, a silver appearance is not caught by the words of (b)(2). Recorded as prose because no meter reading can express that test — which (g) implicitly concedes by authorising the department of transportation to adopt rules establishing "standard criteria or visual references" for enforcing the colour and reflectivity prohibitions. | HRS §291-21.5(b)(2) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “With mirrored or high reflective finishes that produce a red, yellow, amber, or blue appearances as viewed from the exterior of the motor vehicle.” |
| Reflectivity — back side windows | All vehicles | No numeric reflectance ceiling; the mirrored/high-reflective prohibition in (b)(2) is written against the glazing material of the vehicle generally, not against a particular window. | HRS §291-21.5(b)(2) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “With mirrored or high reflective finishes that produce a red, yellow, amber, or blue appearances as viewed from the exterior of the motor vehicle.” |
| Medical exemption | All vehicles | unclear No published figure Under review — the official sources we read state no figure for this. This is a gap in our research, and it says nothing about what Hawaii requires here; the state may set its rule in words rather than a percentage. THERE IS NONE IN HRS §291-21.5, and that is a finding rather than an unread gap — subsections (a) through (g) are in the retrieved cache and contain no medical provision of any kind: no permit, no physician's certificate, no affidavit, no defence to prosecution. The eleven exemptions in (e) are all about equipment and geometry (mirrors, visors, stickers, wipers, motor-home drapes), none about a person. Hawaii is the second jurisdiction extracted with no medical accommodation in its tint section, after Utah. Subsection (d) cuts the same way: it requires ALL drivers and passengers of tinted vehicles to roll their windows fully down at a traffic stop, and its only carve-out is for physical disability or mechanical failure preventing compliance — an accommodation for the act of lowering the window, not for the tint. Whether Hawaii provides relief elsewhere in HRS ch. 291 or by department of transportation rule under (g) was not determined, and none is asserted either way. | — |
| Certification sticker / label | All vehicles | RequiredDetailA carried certificate rather than an affixed sticker, and the evidentiary weight runs against the INSTALLER: its absence at citation is prima facie evidence of installer non-compliance, and the installer's receipt in the vehicle is prima facie evidence of who installed the film. The penalties in (f) match — $300–$550 for an owner, $700–$1,200 for an installer, who must also reinstall compliant film free of charge or reimburse the owner. | HRS §291-21.5(f) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “The installer shall issue a certificate to the vehicle owner at the time the sunscreen device is installed certifying that the device complies with law. Failure of an installer to issue the required certificate shall be considered a violation of this section. The certificate shall be stored in the motor vehicle at all times. The absence of the certificate in the vehicle at the time of citation shall constitute prima facie evidence of installer noncompliance.” |
| Restricted colors | All vehicles | Red, yellow, amber and blue appearances are prohibited where produced by a mirrored or high reflective finish. No colour is restricted independently of reflectivity.DetailDeliberately not rendered as a flat "no red, yellow, amber or blue tint": the colours are only reached through the mirrored/high-reflective finish they are produced by. Contrast Louisiana and New Mexico, which bar named colours on the windshield band outright. | HRS §291-21.5(b)(2) — Hawaii Revised Statutes · read · browser-retrieved “With mirrored or high reflective finishes that produce a red, yellow, amber, or blue appearances as viewed from the exterior of the motor vehicle.” |
| Side mirrors required if the rear window is tinted | All vehicles | unclear No published figure Under review — the official sources we read state no figure for this. This is a gap in our research, and it says nothing about what Hawaii requires here; the state may set its rule in words rather than a percentage. Recorded instead inside the vlt_back_side and vlt_rear rows, where the statute actually puts it: dual rearview mirrors are the CONDITION of the (e)(9) exemption, not a requirement imposed on tinted vehicles generally. Encoding it as a standalone boolean would state the rule backwards — Hawaii does not require mirrors because the rear glass is tinted; it declines to regulate the rear glass where mirrors are present. | — |
This state publishes no light-transmittance figure for this glass, so there is no percentage to match a film against. Other rules — colour, reflectivity, obstruction — can still apply, so we are not going to present a shelf as though nothing does.
Sources
- HRS §291-21.5(a) — Hawaii Revised Statutes, read
Other Hawaii modification laws
Hawaii exhaust and muffler laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii lighting and underglow laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii lift kit and bumper height laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii wheel and tire laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii ECU tuning and emissions laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii intake laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.
Hawaii body and appearance laws
Not published yet. We have not researched this category for Hawaii — which is a statement about us, not about whether Hawaii regulates it.