Texas BAC Limits & DUI Consequences

0.08

Source: Texas Driver Handbook, Chapter 10: Alcohol and Drug Impact on the Driving Ability, p. 55 ('The Number One Killer is Alcohol') and p. 58 ('Know Your Legal Limit') · Verified Sep 2026

0.00 (any detectable amount)

Source: Texas Driver Handbook, Chapter 10: Alcohol and Drug Impact on the Driving Ability, p. 56 ('Zero Tolerance for Minors'); Appendix A Glossary, p. 74 ('zero tolerance law') · Verified Sep 2026

A commercial driver is disqualified at an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more, half the 0.08 that applies to a regular license. The stricter rule is the one that catches people first: it is illegal to drive a commercial vehicle in Texas with any measurable or detectable amount of alcohol in your system, and a driver who does is put out of service for 24 hours.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 522.081(b)(4)(A) (disqualification where an analysis shows "an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more ... while operating a commercial motor vehicle in a public place") and Sec. 522.101(a)-(b): "a person may not drive a commercial motor vehicle in this state while having a measurable or detectable amount of alcohol in the person's system ... shall be placed out of service for 24 hours." · Verified Sep 2026

Anyone arrested in Texas for operating a motor vehicle or watercraft in a public place while intoxicated is deemed to have consented to give one or more breath or blood specimens for analysis. Drivers under 21 also imply consent whenever an officer observes any detectable amount of alcohol in their system while they are operating a motor vehicle in a public place. What the refusal or the failure costs turns on your record, not on how many times you have refused. Refuse, and the license is suspended 180 days if your record shows no alcohol-related or drug-related enforcement contact in the 10 years before the arrest, and two years if it shows one or more. Give a specimen and fail, which for an adult means a BAC of 0.08 or higher, and the suspension is 90 days on a clean 10-year record and one year if that record carries a prior contact. A prior contact is broader than a prior refusal: it counts a suspension arising from an intoxicated-driving conviction, from an earlier refusal, or from an earlier failed specimen, in this state or another. A minor who provides a specimen showing any detectable amount below 0.08 is suspended 60 days, 120 days after one prior qualifying conviction, and 180 days after two or more. A $125 reinstatement fee applies to a revocation of this kind, and you may request a hearing to contest the action.

Source: Refusal: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 724.035(a) (180 days) and (b): "The period of suspension or denial is two years if the person's driving record shows one or more alcohol-related or drug-related enforcement contacts, as defined by Section 524.001(3), during the 10 years preceding the date of the person's arrest." Failed specimen: Sec. 524.022(a), 90 days with no such contact in the preceding 10 years and one year with one or more; minors, Sec. 524.022(b). The definition of an enforcement contact, which covers a conviction, a refusal, or a failed analysis, is Sec. 524.001(3). Implied consent itself: Sec. 724.011. · Verified Sep 2026

A standard first Driving While Intoxicated conviction in Texas is a Class B misdemeanor: a fine of up to $2,000, confinement of 72 hours to 180 days, and a license suspension of 90 days to a year, set by the court. The court may probate the jail sentence, putting the driver on community supervision instead. If that supervision requires an ignition interlock, or requires the driver to complete the state DWI education program, the department may not revoke the license at all while the driver complies. What does not exist for adults is a sliding scale that trades suspension time for a device: the swap of a 365-day suspension for 90 days with an interlock installed comes from the handbook penalty table for minors, not the adult one. "Standard" is doing real work in that sentence, because a first offense can be charged higher on the facts alone, with no prior conviction anywhere in your record. An open container in your immediate possession keeps it a Class B but raises the minimum confinement to six days. A blood, breath or urine analysis showing 0.15 or more makes it a Class A misdemeanor. Driving intoxicated through a school crossing zone while the reduced speed limit is in effect makes it a state jail felony, which is new as of September 1, 2025. So does carrying a passenger younger than 15. A separate Driving Under the Influence charge, reserved for drivers under 21 with any detectable amount of alcohol, is a Class C misdemeanor on a first offense: a fine up to $500 and 20 to 40 hours of community service related to alcohol education, plus an alcohol awareness program the court must order. Because a first offense is punishable by fine only, the automatic under-21 suspension that follows other alcohol convictions does not attach to the conviction itself. That is not the same as keeping your licence. The suspension usually arrives from the other direction: a minor who gives a specimen showing any detectable alcohol is suspended 60 days administratively on a clean record, 120 days after one prior qualifying conviction and 180 days after two, and that action runs whether or not the DUI charge ever sticks. Fail to complete the program or the hours and the court orders a suspension of up to six months. If a minor is convicted of DWI rather than DUI, the suspension is a year, and DPS also requires an SR-22 and a $100 reinstatement fee. Two money items are often confused. The $125 reinstatement fee belongs to an Administrative License Revocation, the separate action that follows refusing or failing a specimen, not to the conviction itself; a conviction-based suspension carries its own reinstatement fee. Separately, a driver who is required to prove financial responsibility files an SR-22.

Source: Texas Penal Code Sec. 49.04(b) (Class B, minimum 72 hours), (c) (open container, minimum six days), (d) ("an alcohol concentration level of 0.15 or more ... the offense is a Class A misdemeanor") and (e) (school crossing zone during the reduced speed limit is "a state jail felony"), the last added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 991 (S.B. 826), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2025. Child passenger younger than 15: Sec. 49.045. Conviction suspension of "not less than 90 days or more than one year": Texas Transportation Code Sec. 521.344(a)(2)(A). Underage DUI: Alcoholic Beverage Code Sec. 106.041(b) and (d); the alcohol awareness program and the suspension of up to six months for not completing it are Sec. 106.115(a-1) and (d). Sec. 106.041 carries no license-suspension subsection of its own, and the automatic under-21 suspension in Transportation Code Sec. 521.342(a) expressly excludes an offense "classified as a misdemeanor punishable by fine only." Minor DWI consequences, including the one-year suspension, the SR-22 and the $100 reinstatement fee: Texas Department of Public Safety, Alcohol-Related Offenses. The $125 fee attaches to an Administrative License Revocation under Transportation Code Chapters 524 and 724, not to the conviction. The 60/120/180 minor periods are Texas Transportation Code Sec. 524.022(b), an administrative suspension following the specimen rather than a consequence of the Sec. 106.041 conviction. Adult suspension range and the no-revocation rule during community supervision: Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 521.344(a)(2)(A) and (d). The 365-day/90-day interlock alternative appears only in the handbook tables for minors (Tables 29 and 30), not the adult table (Table 31). · Verified Sep 2026

An ignition interlock device is a court-ordered condition in Texas rather than an automatic consequence of every DWI, but the situations where a court has no discretion are broad enough that "conditional" should not be read as "unlikely." Two statutes drive it. Under Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.408, a court placing a driver on community supervision after a conviction in the driving-while-intoxicated group (Penal Code Sections 49.04 through 49.08) may order the device, and must order it in several situations. The one that matters most to a young driver: anyone who was under 21 at the time of the offense gets the device as a condition of community supervision, with no discretion left to the judge. The order is also mandatory when the tested alcohol concentration was 0.15 or higher, when the offense carried an enhanced punishment, or when the driver has a previous conviction in that group that still counts under the statute's 10-year lookback. Deferred adjudication for DWI carries the same requirement, which a judge may waive only after an alcohol and controlled-substance evaluation shows the device is unnecessary for community safety. Under Transportation Code Sec. 521.246, a judge granting an occupational driver's license must impose the same restriction when the driver is already under an interlock order or lost the license after one of those convictions; the court can waive it only by finding the device unnecessary for community safety and the waiver in the interest of justice, and may order it in other cases for good cause. The handbook puts a number on the device only in the penalty tables for minors. A minor convicted of a first DWI faces a 365-day license suspension, or 90 days with a judge's order to install the device, and the same 90-day alternative appears for a third DUI offense by a driver aged 17 to 21. The adult table sets a first-offense suspension of 90 days to 365 days without naming the device, which is a gap in the table rather than a sign that adults escape it. The driver pays for the device unless the court finds that unjust, and the court may set a payment schedule. Installation must be performed by a DPS-certified service center. A restricted interlock license authorizes its holder to drive only a vehicle equipped with the device, is recorded as restriction code P39, and costs $10 to add. One narrow exemption applies: a driver may operate an employer-owned vehicle without a device when the driving is within the scope of employment, the employer is not controlled by that driver, the employer has been notified of the restriction, and proof of the notice is kept in the vehicle.

Source: Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Art. 42A.408 (Use of Ignition Interlock Device), subsecs. (b) discretionary order, (c) mandatory order at 0.15 alcohol concentration, enhanced punishment, or a qualifying prior conviction, (d) 10-year lookback on priors, (e) mandatory order for a defendant under 21, (e-1) and (e-2) deferred adjudication and its waiver, (f) cost and timing. Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 521.246 (Ignition Interlock Device Requirement), as amended eff. Sept. 1, 2023: (a) mandatory restriction on an occupational license, (b) good-cause discretion, (b-1) waiver, (c) cost and payment schedule, (e) employer-vehicle exemption. Texas Driver Handbook (rev. Jan. 2026): Chapter 1 'Court-Ordered Suspensions, Revocations, and Cancellations'; Table 29 (DUI - Minors) and Table 30 (DWI - Minors) for the 365-day/90-day alternative; Table 31 (DWI and DUI - Adults) for the 90-day to 365-day adult suspension; Appendix A Glossary; Appendix D Fees (add interlock restriction, $10); Appendix E Restriction Codes (P39). Art. 42A.408(d) limits which prior convictions count toward the mandatory order. · Verified Sep 2026