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Texas · DWI

Texas DWI laws and penalties

Texas's legal BAC limit is 0.08%. For a first offense, Texas's statute provides jail of 72 hours to 180 days, a fine of up to $2,000, and a license suspension of 90 days to 1 year. The license hearing, the ignition interlock rule and the statute behind every figure are below.

In Texas the offense is called DWI (driving while intoxicated). It is the offense most states call DUI.

Figures read from official pages on .

Texas · county map

3 counties have a page: select one to open it, or find them under Counties below. The other counties are added as data is published.

Texas DWI laws at a glance

Legal BAC limit
0.08%
Standard US limit
Enhanced penalty BAC
0.15%
Where the penalties step up
Zero tolerance (under 21)
0.00%
Any trace may result in DWI
Lookback period
Lifetime
Prior DWI offenses that count

License hearing: ask within 15 days

In writing, to reach the Department of Public Safety within 15 days of receiving the notice of suspension (a mailed notice counts as received on the fifth day). Count the days with the license-hearing window calculator.
Ignition interlock required in some cases

Higher BAC level. At 0.15 or more a first offense is a Class A misdemeanor instead of Class B.

Ignition interlock. The court may require one as a condition of community supervision; mandatory at 0.15 or more, with a prior conviction, and for drivers under 21.

Lookback. No time limit: one earlier intoxication-offense conviction is enough.

A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor (72-hour minimum jail); it becomes Class A at 0.15 or more, and a third offense is a third-degree felony (Penal Code § 49.09(b)). Other tiers: six-day minimum jail with an open container (§ 49.04(c)); state jail felony with a passenger under 15 (§ 49.045).

01Penalties

Texas DWI penalties

Statutory ranges for standard DWI convictions (no accident, no minor in vehicle).
Texas statutory DWI penalties, first and second offense
Penalty1st offense2nd offense
Jail (minimum)72 hours30 days
Jail (maximum)180 days1 year
Fine (minimum)No minimumNo minimum
Fine (maximum)$2,000$4,000
License suspension90 days to 1 year180 days to 2 years

Statutory ranges only. Actual outcomes vary by county, judge, and attorney. Does not include court fees, surcharges, or program costs.

Published figure for Texas

Published figure · 2019–2025 arrest years (2025 preliminary)

86,478 DWI charges in 2024

−12.2% from 98,497 in 2019. 2025, preliminary: 90,453

Source: Texas Department of Public Safety, Crime Records Division, as of Oct 20, 2026. DWI charges reported to DPS by every Texas agency that filed one, from the DPS reports 'DWI Report by Agency' (2021 to 2026). Each arrest year comes from the latest report that covers it. DPS defines a charge as a DWI charge on a Texas arrest record. County populations: U.S. Census Bureau, county population estimates, Vintage 2025 (July 1, 2025).

  • Counts are DWI charges, not people: a person charged twice counts twice, and one arrest can carry more than one DWI charge.
  • Every county-year in the source reports adds up to DPS's printed total, and the 2026 report matches DPS's own one-page summary (86,478 charges for 2024, 90,453 for 2025).
  • 2025 is preliminary: agencies are still reporting for the newest year.
Show 4 more notes
  • DPS prints no row for an agency with no charges that year, so a missing number means no charge was reported, not a number that was withheld. The chart shows how many agencies reported each year.
  • State and federal agencies (almost all DPS, listed as 'DPS <county> county arrest reporting' or Highway Patrol) are not assigned to a county by DPS and are shown under no county, so county totals leave them out. The county arrest-record file (a separate dataset) counts those arrests in the county.
  • DPS spells agency names differently from one report to the next (older reports add the agency's city). Names that differ only by a trailing city or common abbreviations (PD, Dept, SO) were treated as one agency, only when the two never appear in the same year; a few renamed agencies still appear as two series.
  • The agency type (police, sheriff, college, state) is read from the agency's name by rule; DPS does not publish it.

Texas DWI charges by year, county and agencyTexas DWI arrests by county

What Happens to Texas DWI Charges: published figure

Published figure · 2019–2025 arrest years

58% have a final outcome on file

of the 86,478 DWI charges from 2024, two years after the arrests. Of those, 82% ended in a conviction of some offense and 18% in a dismissal. The other 42% are unknown, not acquitted.

Source: Texas Department of Public Safety, Crime Records Division, as of Oct 20, 2026. Final court outcomes for DWI charges as courts report them to DPS, from the DPS reports 'DWI Report by Agency' and 'DWI Completeness'.

  • Outcomes arrive late. Two years after arrest, 49% to 59% of a year's charges have a final outcome on file; the newest year has far fewer. Compare shares only between arrest years of the same age (the same number of years after the arrest).
  • The charges without an outcome are unknown, not acquitted.
  • 'Convicted' is a conviction of the original offense or of another offense.
Show 3 more notes
  • Counts of 1 to 4 are withheld at county level, and so is anything that would give one back: when one of the final-outcome, convicted and dismissed counts is withheld, the split is withheld too, and when exactly one county's count of a column and year would be recoverable from the statewide total, one more county's count is withheld. A missing number means it was withheld or DPS printed no row; the statewide counts are DPS's own totals.
  • Do not compare counties' outcome shares. Outcomes reach DPS at very different rates from county to county (for 2024 charges a final outcome was on file for about 85% of Tarrant County's, 76% of Harris County's, 31% of Dallas County's and 21% of Nueces County's), so a county's convicted share of the outcomes on file says more about reporting than about the county's courts.
  • Outcomes are published at county and statewide level only, never by agency.

Texas DWI charge outcomes, by year and county

02Compare

How Texas compares

Of the 49 states with a confirmed BAC limit, 48 (Texas among them) use 0.08%; Utah has 0.05%.

On this site's reading of the statutes, of the 49 states with a confirmed rule, 21 require an ignition interlock after every first conviction, 18 in some cases and 8 leave it to the judge; 2 do not require one. Texas requires one in some cases.

The 40 states with a fixed deadline give from 6 to 90 days to ask for a license hearing (the middle one is 10); Texas gives 15.

Texas and the states that border it, first-offense figures side by side
StateBAC limitHearing requestInterlock, first offenseJail, first offenseFine, first offenseLicense, first offense
Arkansas0.08%7 daysRequired24 hours to 1 year$150 to $1,0006 months
Louisiana0.08%30 daysRequired10 days to 6 months$300 to $1,00012 months suspension
New Mexico0.08%10 daysRequiredUp to 90 daysUp to $5001 year
Oklahoma0.08%30 daysRequired10 days to 1 yearUp to $1,000At least 180 days, and until the Impaired Driver Accountability Program is completed
Texas (this page)0.08%15 daysIn some cases72 hours to 180 daysUp to $2,00090 days to 1 year

Every figure is the statute's own, read from the same kind of page. See DUI laws and penalties for all 50 states.

03The process

How a DWI case moves through the system in Texas

The typical sequence, in general terms. Timing and details differ by county and by case.

  1. Arrest and booking

    Police arrest a driver on suspicion of DWI and take the person to the local jail, where booking records the arrest, the charge and the times.

  2. Release

    A person is released after posting bail, on their own recognizance, or after a hold. Amounts and timing differ by county.

  3. License action

    In writing, to reach the Department of Public Safety within 15 days of receiving the notice of suspension (a mailed notice counts as received on the fifth day).

  4. Arraignment

    The first court appearance, where the charge is read and a plea (guilty, not guilty or no contest) is entered.

  5. Pretrial resolution

    A case can end in a plea to a reduced charge, in a diversion or deferred program where the state has one, in a trial, or in a dismissal, depending on the state and the facts.

  6. Sentencing or trial

    For a first offense, Texas's statute provides jail of 72 hours to 180 days, a fine of up to $2,000, and a license suspension of 90 days to 1 year. See the penalties table above.

04Counties

Counties in Texas

3 counties have a page here, with the state's arrest counts where it publishes them.
County pageHarris County12,393 DWI arrests in 2024 (state count)
County pageDallas County6,716 DWI arrests in 2024 (state count)
County pageTarrant County5,274 DWI arrests in 2024 (state count)

05Sources

Where Texas's figures come from

Each figure was read on the official page linked here on Oct 26, 2026, and the quoted words were checked against the page the day it was read. The exact words are below so you can check them. Found a mistake? Write to hello@duiarrested.com with the state and the figure.
Show the exact words behind each figure
Main statute

Tex. Penal Code § 49.04

Tex. Penal Code § 49.04(a)

A person commits an offense if the person is intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle in a public place.
BAC limit, age 21 and over

0.08%

Tex. Penal Code § 49.01(2)(B)

(B) having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more.
Higher BAC level

0.15%

Tex. Penal Code § 49.04(d)

If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this section that an analysis of a specimen of the person's blood, breath, or urine showed an alcohol concentration level of 0.15 or more at the time the analysis was performed, the offense is a Class A misdemeanor.
BAC limit under 21

0.00%

Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 106.041(a)

A minor commits an offense if the minor operates a motor vehicle in a public place, or a watercraft, while having any detectable amount of alcohol in the minor's system.
Lookback period

Lifetime

Tex. Penal Code § 49.09(a), (e)-(f)

(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an offense under Section 49.04, 49.05, 49.06, or 49.065 is a Class A misdemeanor, with a minimum term of confinement of 30 days, if it is shown on the trial of the offense that the person has previously been convicted one time of an offense relating to the operating of a motor vehicle while intoxicated ... (e) Repealed by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 996, Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2005.
License hearing request

15 days

Tex. Transp. Code § 524.031

not later than the 15th day after the date on which the person receives notice of suspension under Section 524.011 or is presumed to have received notice under Section
Ignition interlock, first offense

Required in some cases

Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.408(c)(1)

(b) The court may require as a condition of community supervision that a defendant placed on community supervision after conviction of an offense under Sections 49.04-49.08, Penal Code, have an ignition interlock device installed ... (c) The court shall require as a condition of community supervision ... if: (1) it is shown on the trial of the offense that an analysis of a specimen of the defendant's blood, breath, or urine showed an alcohol concentration level of 0.15 or more
First offense: jail, minimum

72 hours

Tex. Penal Code § 49.04(b)

an offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor, with a minimum term of confinement of 72 hours.
First offense: jail, maximum

180 days

Tex. Penal Code § 12.22(2) (Class B misdemeanor)

confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days
First offense: fine, minimum

No minimum

Tex. Penal Code § 12.22(1) (Class B misdemeanor)

a fine not to exceed $2,000
First offense: fine, maximum

$2,000

Tex. Penal Code § 12.22(1) (Class B misdemeanor)

Same passage as above.

First offense: license

90 days to 1 year

Tex. Transp. Code § 521.344(a)(2)(A)

not less than 90 days or more than one year, if the person is punished under Section
Second offense: jail, minimum

30 days

Tex. Penal Code § 49.09(a)

is a Class A misdemeanor, with a minimum term of confinement of 30 days, if it is shown on the trial of the offense that the person has previously been convicted one time of an offense relating to the operating of a motor vehicle while intoxicated
Second offense: jail, maximum

1 year

Tex. Penal Code § 12.21(2) (Class A misdemeanor)

confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year
Second offense: fine, minimum

No minimum

Tex. Penal Code § 12.21(1) (Class A misdemeanor)

a fine not to exceed $4,000
Second offense: fine, maximum

$4,000

Tex. Penal Code § 12.21(1) (Class A misdemeanor)

Same passage as above.

Second offense: license

180 days to 2 years

Tex. Transp. Code § 521.344(a)(2)(B)

not less than 180 days or more than two years, if the person is punished under Section

06Related

Related pages

Note: This page summarizes state statutes and published figures. It is general information, not legal advice, and it may be out of date or incomplete. Penalty ranges are statutory ranges; actual outcomes depend on the case. See the Disclaimer.