Colorado Window Tint Laws: What Is Actually Legal

The 27 percent rule, and the part most shops skip

The rule lives in Colorado Revised Statutes 42-4-227. The default is 27 percent VLT, meaning visible light transmission, on every window other than the windshield.

Then comes the part that matters. The statute says the windows behind the driver, including the back window, are allowed to go below 27 percent if the front side windows and the windshield both let through at least 70 percent.

Most shops in the metro quote you 27 all around and never explain the alternative. If you drive a truck or an SUV and you mostly care about privacy for the rear cargo area and back seats, the 70 percent front option is usually the better build.

Your windshield gets four inches

You can run a strip of non-transparent film across the top of your windshield. The bottom edge of it cannot sit more than four inches down from the top of the glass.

It cannot be red or amber. It cannot distort how you see colour, and it cannot throw glare back at oncoming drivers. That is the whole rule. There is no separate AS-1 line provision in the Colorado statute the way there is in some other states, it is measured in inches from the top.

Mirrored and metallic film is out

Colorado bans any window material that presents a metallic or mirrored appearance. Not “too reflective”. Any.

This catches a lot of the cheap older metallised films that are still floating around online. It is also why we install ceramic. A 2022 Tesla Model 3 came through our bay for a full ceramic tint at $625 and we kept the front doors at the legal number, because ceramic blocks heat through the ceramic particles rather than through a reflective metal layer. Same heat rejection, no reflectivity problem, and it does not interfere with your phone signal or your tyre pressure sensors.

Factory glass is a separate case. If your car came from the manufacturer with tinted glass that meets federal regulation, that glass is fine. The law is about what gets added afterwards.

What happens if the tint is illegal

Driving a car with illegal tint is a class B traffic infraction.

Installing it is worse. The statute puts a class A traffic infraction on the person who installs, covers or treats a window so that it fails the light transmission rule. Fine amounts sit in a separate penalty schedule and vary by court, so ask the clerk on the citation rather than trusting a number you read online.

The expensive part is that you paid for tint you now have to strip and pay for again. That is the real cost, and we have redone enough illegal tint jobs from other shops to know it stings.

There is no medical exemption in the statute

We get asked this constantly, usually by people with light sensitivity or a skin condition, and the honest answer is that the text of 42-4-227 does not contain a medical exemption.

You will find websites claiming Colorado offers one. Some of them are tint shops. Before you spend money on darker film on the strength of a doctor’s note, call the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles and get the answer from them directly, because a note from your physician is not written into this statute and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

What we install at 218 Customs

For most Denver metro drivers the answer is ceramic at the legal number on the fronts, and then as dark as you want behind the driver.

Full vehicle ceramic runs $400 to $700 with us and our most-booked job is $550. Carbon is $250 to $400 if you want the look and the heat rejection matters less to you. A full car takes two to three hours.

Colorado sun at a mile up is harder on an interior than most people expect, and that is the argument for ceramic over carbon far more than the darkness is. We install Llumar and SunTek, and we will tell you at the counter if the build you are asking for is going to get you pulled over.

Last verified 28 July 2026. Checked against the text of Colorado Revised Statutes 42-4-227 as published by the Colorado General Assembly, current through the 2025 session.

This article was drafted with the help of AI and reviewed by the install team at 218 Customs.
This page explains C.R.S. 42-4-227 as we read it and is not legal advice. Verify current requirements with the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles or your local court before making a decision.