Window Tint Laws in Alaska (2026): Legal VLT Limits and Exemptions

Alaska regulates window tint through 13 AAC 04.223. Below: the minimum visible light transmission (VLT) for each window, the windshield rule, what counts as too reflective, who can get a medical exemption, and how an officer checks a car at the roadside.

Legal tint limits in Alaska

• Front side windows: at least 70% VLT.
• Back side windows: at least 40% VLT.
• Rear window: at least 40% VLT.

SUVs, trucks and vans follow a different rule behind the driver: back side windows any darkness and the rear window any darkness.

VLT is measured through film and glass together. Factory glass already blocks some light, usually landing between 70% and 80% VLT before any film, so a roll sold as "35%" on a window that started at 75% ends up darker than 35% once installed. Officers meter the finished window, not the box the film came in.

Windshield

Only a tint strip along the top edge, extending no more than 5 inches down from the top of the glass.

Federal standard FMVSS 205 sets the baseline for the glass itself: the windshield and front side windows of a new car must transmit at least 70% of visible light. State law decides what film may be added afterwards, which is why the windshield rule is usually a strip above the AS-1 line rather than a percentage.

Reflective and colored film

Mirrored tint is banned on every window; ordinary sun-reflective auto film is otherwise allowed. Film colors not permitted: anything other than green, gray, bronze or neutral smoke.

Medical exemptions

Alaska allows darker tint with a medical exemption. An Alaska-licensed physician must certify the need for shielding from sunlight every year, and that certification must be kept in the vehicle; no agency permit is issued.

Stickers, mirrors and enforcement

No sticker or certificate is required for legal tint. Tinting the rear window does not trigger a second-mirror requirement. $150 scheduled fine, marked correctable, in the court system's traffic bail schedule (Alaska Administrative Rule 43.1).

In practice

Alaska's limits sit in an administrative regulation rather than a statute and have applied to all vehicles since July 1, 1994. Officers read transmittance with a meter that carries a 3% manufacturing tolerance. Vehicles the manufacturer labels multipurpose, plus limousines, motor homes and for-hire buses, only have to satisfy the federal glazing standard, which leaves their windows behind the driver without a state darkness floor. Proposals to loosen the 70/40 limits have surfaced in the legislature several times without changing the regulation.

Sources

• 13 AAC 04.223
• www.law.cornell.edu
• courts.alaska.gov
• www.cityofhomer-ak.gov

Checked Nov 5, 2026. Laws change; confirm with the statute before tinting.