Can You Tint Your Windshield in Illinois?
Six Inches, Measured From the Top.

Yes, along the top. On a car registered in Illinois, the law allows nonreflective tinted film on the windshield only if it reaches no more than 6 inches down from the top of the windshield. No other film goes on, clear film included. Two kinds of cars sit outside the rule: cars registered in another state, and cars with the Illinois medical exemption.

The law is 625 ILCS 5/12-503, and the letters in parentheses are its subsections. Everything below follows its text as read on ilga.gov on October 8, 2026.

What windshield tint is legal in Illinois?

On an Illinois registered car without the medical exemption, a nonreflective tinted strip along the top, and no other film. Subsection (a) bars any sign, poster, window application, reflective material, nonreflective material or tinted film on the windshield, then makes one exception: nonreflective tinted film along the uppermost portion, no more than 6 inches down from the top.

The strip has no darkness figure. The statute asks two things of it: the film is nonreflective, so reflective film gets no strip at all, and it stays within those 6 inches. The 35 and 50 percent figures on tint charts belong to the front side windows under (a-5), not to the windshield.

Does the strip end at the AS-1 line or at 6 inches?

At 6 inches at most. The statute never mentions the AS-1 line. It measures 6 inches down from the top of the windshield. The AS-1 line is a mark printed near the top edge of most windshields, and it is where a strip usually ends. If the mark and the 6 inches differ, the 6 inches decide.

So when you check a strip, measure from the top edge of the windshield, not from the mark.

Clear film counts

Clear film gets no pass. Subsection (a) reaches nonreflective material and window applications of any kind, not only dark film. On an Illinois registered car without the medical exemption, clear film is barred on the windshield. The one allowance in (a) is tinted film, nonreflective, in the top 6 inches.

The only things (h) lets onto the windshield outside that rule are stickers or certificates that the state or a local authority requires on a car’s windows to show compliance.

The installer is bound too

Subsection (a) is written for drivers. Subsection (a-10) reaches the shop: no person may install or repair any material that (a) prohibits. Under (j), breaking (a-10) is a petty offense the first time and a Class C misdemeanor after that, the same as breaking (a).

The same subsection allows two things. Under (a-10)(1), removing or altering film to bring a car into compliance is allowed. Under (a-10)(2), installing window treatment for a person with a medical condition described in (g) is allowed, once the installer has a copy of the physician’s statement, kept in the installer’s permanent records.

Who may carry full windshield film

Two kinds of cars.

Cars registered in another state. Under (f)(2), subsections (a), (a-5), (b) and (b-5) do not apply to a vehicle properly registered in another jurisdiction, so the Illinois windshield rule does not bind it. The state that registers it may set its own windshield rule, so check that rule before you book.

Cars with the Illinois medical exemption. Under (g), subsections (a) and (a-5) do not apply to a car with distinctive plates or a plate sticker issued under Section 3-412(k), when it is owned and driven by a person with a disease that requires shielding from direct sun, or used to carry such a person who lives at the owner’s address.

The owner needs a certified statement or letter from a physician licensed in Illinois. It stays in the car at all times, the physician renews it every 4 years, and a copy goes to the Secretary of State. Under (g-7), the plates or sticker must be on the car when the film goes on.

What the shop sells, with the rule beside each price

A sunstrip, a band of film across the top of the windshield, starts at $60. On an Illinois registered car without the medical exemption, the law allows it only if it is nonreflective and reaches no more than 6 inches down from the top of the windshield.

Full windshield film starts at $120 in S5 ceramic and $200 in S9 ceramic. Illinois registered cars: film on the top 6 inches only. Full windshield film is for cars registered in another state or with the medical exemption.

The windshield tint page covers the sunstrip and the full windshield in more detail.

Registering the car in Illinois

The out-of-state exemption lasts only as long as the out-of-state registration. Once the car is registered in Illinois, (a) applies, and the windshield may keep only a nonreflective tinted strip in the top 6 inches unless the car has the medical exemption. Under (l), the Secretary of State must give new residents applying for registration notice of these rules.

Taking film off to bring a car into compliance is allowed under (a-10)(1). The tint removal page explains how removal is priced.

The same rule in every town

Subsection (m) bars home rule units from regulating motor vehicles in a manner inconsistent with 12-503, so the windshield rule reads the same in Mount Prospect as in Elk Grove Village. The Illinois window tint law page has the side and rear window rules as well.

Every windshield is done in the shop at 837 Oakton St Unit C in Elk Grove Village, by appointment, Monday to Saturday 9 to 6. From Mount Prospect Village Hall it is about 10 minutes outside rush hour: Central Rd to Busse Rd, then south to Oakton St. See window tint in Mount Prospect.

Call with the year, make and model and the state the car is registered in, or send them through the quote form, and the shop calls you back with an exact price within minutes during shop hours. Drivers rate the shop 5.0 on Google across 82 reviews.