5% Window Tint: What It Looks Like and Where It's Legal
5% tint - limo tint - blocks 95% of visible light. Here is what it looks like from both sides, what it is used for, and the states that allow it on each window.
What 5% tint looks like
From outside, 5% film is a black mirror in daylight: nothing inside is visible, not even silhouettes, and at night the glass reads as solid black. From inside, daytime driving is fine once your eyes adjust, but at night side and rear visibility drops hard - reversing without a camera, checking a blind spot at an unlit junction and spotting a cyclist all get harder. Installers call it limo tint because livery cars are where it started.
What it is used for
Rear windows and back side windows on trucks, SUVs and vans where the state sets no floor, cargo areas that never need to be seen into, and privacy for people who sit in the back rather than drive. It is almost never legal on front side windows; the handful of states with no front floor still expect the driver to see out at night. Most installers will refuse it on the windshield outright.
Legal on front side windows in 0 states
Sedan rules. A state is listed when its minimum VLT for that window is 5% or lower, or it sets no limit there.
No state allows 5% on front side windows without a medical exemption.
Legal on back side windows in 14 states
Sedan rules. A state is listed when its minimum VLT for that window is 5% or lower, or it sets no limit there.
Arizona California Delaware Iowa Maine Michigan Missouri Nevada New Jersey North Dakota Ohio Texas Utah Vermont
Legal on the rear window in 16 states
Sedan rules. A state is listed when its minimum VLT for that window is 5% or lower, or it sets no limit there.
Arizona California Connecticut Delaware Iowa Maine Michigan Missouri Nevada New Jersey New York North Dakota Ohio Texas Utah Vermont
Questions
Is 5% tint legal?
On rear and back side windows in most states, because those windows usually have no minimum. On front side windows it is illegal almost everywhere; the strictest states allow nothing darker than 70% there.
Can you see out of 5% tint at night?
Poorly. Daytime is manageable, but at night the film swallows most of what little light there is. Drivers who run 5% on the back usually rely on a backup camera and mirrors.
Why is 5% called limo tint?
Because limousines used it long before it was sold to private cars. The name stuck as the shorthand for the darkest film on the market.