New York Window Tint Law 2026

New York never mentions the AS-1 line. The measure is a flat six inches from the top, which is one inch more than the five-inch figure used by Oklahoma, Wyoming, Texas and the District of Columbia, and it does not vary with the glazing manufacturer's marking.

NET_ASSEMBLY basis: each subparagraph regulates a window "composed of, covered by or treated with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent" — the composed/covered/treated window is the measured object, not the film in isolation. (b)(3) is even plainer, attaching the figure to the window itself: "any rear side window has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent".

The boundary is drawn at the operator's SEAT, and it catches the sidewings as well as the side windows. NET_ASSEMBLY basis: each subparagraph regulates a window "composed of, covered by or treated with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent" — the composed/covered/treated window is the measured object, not the film in isolation. (b)(3) is even plainer, attaching the figure to the window itself: "any rear side window has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent".

New York does not step down behind the driver for these body styles — the rear side windows carry the same seventy percent as the front. The enumerated list is exhaustive and does not include SUVs, pickups, vans or minivans. New York therefore imposes NO transmittance limit on the rear side windows of a vehicle outside those six body styles — a gap in the statute, not in this dataset. Note the contrast in drafting within the same subdivision: (b)(4) governs "the rear window" of every vehicle without any body-style qualifier, so the carve-out is deliberate and confined to the rear SIDE glass. NET_ASSEMBLY basis: each subparagraph regulates a window "composed of, covered by or treated with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent" — the composed/covered/treated window is the measured object, not the film in isolation. (b)(3) is even plainer, attaching the figure to the window itself: "any rear side window has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent".

Unlike (b)(3), this subparagraph carries no body-style qualifier and reaches every motor vehicle. NET_ASSEMBLY basis: each subparagraph regulates a window "composed of, covered by or treated with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent" — the composed/covered/treated window is the measured object, not the film in isolation. (b)(3) is even plainer, attaching the figure to the window itself: "any rear side window has a light transmittance of less than seventy percent".

THIS ROW HAS A HARD REVIEW DATE OF 2026-08-25. The source carries two separately enacted versions of paragraph (c), the first marked "NB Effective until August 25, 2026" and the second "NB Effective August 25, 2026". The quote above and this summary state the version in force on the 2026-07-29 extraction date. The change is narrow but real: the later version substitutes "a physician's or nurse practitioner's statement" for "a physician's statement" and correspondingly allows the certifying condition to be certified "by the physician or nurse practitioner". Everything else — the Commissioner's grant, the sticker, the Public Health Law §206(16) list, and the limitation to subparagraphs one and two — is identical in both versions. Two further points that are easy to miss: the exemption does NOT reach the rear side windows under (b)(3) or the rear window under (b)(4), and the Commissioner "shall distribute a sufficiently noticeable sticker to the applicant to be attached to any window so shielded or altered pursuant to such exemption."

Recorded as a positive finding about the scheme rather than a gap. New York imposes no duty resembling Texas's §547.609 label, South Carolina's certificate of compliance or Oklahoma's point-of-sale certification. Its trade-facing rule is a flat prohibition instead — (e): "no person shall manufacture, sell, offer for sale, equip or operate a motor vehicle in this state in violation of the provisions of this subdivision", with a grandfather for 1991-or-earlier model year vehicles whose windows conformed to the subdivision as it stood on 31 December 1991.

The condition attaches only to the rear window under (b)(4). It is not a precondition for the rear side windows, which are governed by (b)(3) and are either held to 70% (six named body styles) or unregulated (everything else), in neither case on a mirror condition.