What a DWI costs in Texas

How much does a DWI cost in Texas?

$3,445 is the floor on a first-offense conviction, at our class price: $3,000 in state fine, $270 in court costs, $75 for the class, and $100 to reinstate the license. Every line below is either an amount a statute fixes or a price somebody publishes, and the table names which.

Three conditions sit under that figure, and the first one is the word conviction. Transportation Code § 709.001(b) reaches “a person who has been finally convicted of an offense relating to the operating of a motor vehicle while intoxicated”, so a first § 49.04 case that ends in deferred adjudication carries no $3,000 at all. The court costs are not escapable the same way: Local Government Code § 133.101 and § 134.002(b) each say a person is considered to have been convicted where the person receives community supervision, deferred adjudication, or deferred disposition, so the $270 attaches anyway.

The other two conditions are the waiver and the price. Where the court finds the person indigent, § 709.001(c) takes the $3,000 off entirely, along with every other fine and cost imposed under that section. And $75 is our price rather than the floor of the market: the same 12-hour class was published as low as $55 in August 2026. The $100 assumes a license that was actually suspended.

Two costs people ask about are missing from that table on purpose. Texas publishes no schedule of defense attorney fees, and the ranges that circulate come from the marketing pages of the firms selling the representation, so a figure here would be somebody else’s advertisement repeated as a fact. The same goes for what a DWI does to a car insurance premium: the state requires the certificate and the insurer prices it. Where we could not find a source to cite, this page says so instead of guessing.

Is the $2,000 fine the whole fine?

No, and it is the smaller half. Penal Code § 12.22 caps a Class B misdemeanor fine at $2,000, and a judge may set it anywhere below that or impose none. Transportation Code § 709.001(b)(1) then adds a fixed $3,000 the court has no discretion over.

That section prices the count and the reading rather than the conduct. Subsection (b)(1) sets $3,000 for the first conviction within a 36-month period, (b)(2) sets $4,500 for a second or subsequent conviction within that period, and (b)(3) sets $6,000 for a first or subsequent conviction where an analysis of a specimen of the person’s blood, breath or urine showed an alcohol concentration level of 0.15 or more. The three amounts do not stack; one of them applies.

Anything written before September 2019 describes a system that no longer exists. Section 709.001 was added by H.B. 2048, which repealed the driver responsibility program and the annual surcharge a Texas DWI used to carry for three years after conviction. A single larger fine replaced three smaller annual bills, so the total arrives at once instead of following you.

The waiver is mandatory, not discretionary: § 709.001(c) says that where the court having jurisdiction over the offense finds the person is indigent, the court shall waive all fines and costs imposed on the person under that section. Subsection (d) lists what establishes indigence, including a recent copy of a federal income tax return, a recent wage statement, or documentation from a public assistance agency showing income at or below 125 percent of the applicable income level established by the federal poverty guidelines.

Court costs are a third amount again, and they are fixed statewide rather than by the county. Local Government Code § 133.102(a) requires a person convicted of an offense to pay $147 on conviction of a Class A or Class B misdemeanor and $185 on conviction of a felony. § 134.102(a) adds $123 as a court cost on conviction of a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, and § 134.101 adds $105 on conviction of a felony. What a county charges on top of those two, in reimbursement fees for the work its own officers did, varies. The consolidated pair does not. How the fine and the class fit into a whole first-offense sentence is worked through in the guide to a first DWI in Texas.

What do the court-ordered classes cost?

$75 for the 12-hour DWI Education class, $225 for the 32-hour DWI Intervention class, and $85 for the 15-hour Drug Offender Education Program. Those are our prices, and they include the certificate.

Prices differ by provider. Published prices for the same 12-hour class ran from $55 to $125 in August 2026, which puts $75 in the lower part of that range rather than at either end of it. Those figures are what three other Texas providers published on the day, and prices move, so treat the range as a guide rather than a quote.

Two things are worth checking before you compare on the headline figure. Ask whether the certificate is included or billed separately, and ask what a missed session costs, because both are where a low advertised number stops being the number you pay. Then compare totals.

The expensive mistake in this part of the process is not overpaying by $40 for the right class. It is paying in full for the wrong one. Code of Criminal Procedure art. 42A.403(a) sends a first intoxication offense to the 12-hour program and art. 42A.404(a) sends a defendant punished under Penal Code § 49.09 to the repeat offender program. Completing one does not satisfy an order that names the other, and the second attempt is charged at full price.

What does a second or third DWI add?

$1,500 more in state fine, $150 more in class fees, and an interlock the judge can no longer decline. § 709.001(b)(2) moves the state fine to $4,500 on a second or subsequent conviction within a 36-month period, and the class moves from twelve hours at $75 to thirty-two at $225.

The fine for the offense moves with the offense level. Penal Code § 49.09(a) makes a second intoxication offense a Class A misdemeanor, which § 12.21 caps at $4,000. Section 49.09(b) makes a third a third-degree felony, which § 12.34 caps at $10,000, and the consolidated court costs move with it, from $270 to $290.

The device is the line item that changes from a maybe to a certainty. Article 42A.408(b) lets a court require an ignition interlock as a condition of community supervision for a defendant placed on supervision after a conviction under §§ 49.04–49.08, and subsection (c) requires one where an analysis showed 0.15 or more, where the defendant was punished under § 49.09(a) or (b), or where the court determines there is a previous conviction under those sections. Subsection (f) then puts the device on the defendant’s own bill and keeps it installed for a period not less than 50 percent of the supervision period.

What the device itself costs comes from a private provider rather than from a statute. On 19 August 2026 Smart Start listed a Texas monthly lease that “Starts at $89.99+” and installation labor that “Starts at $150.00+”, noting on the page that its figures are as of 1 October 2024 and subject to change. LifeSafer listed Texas rates that “start at under $3 per day” with installation that typically ranges from $50 to $150. Both are starting prices. Where the device is ordered at the bond stage, art. 17.441(d) adds a monitoring fee the magistrate sets in an amount not to exceed $10 a month, paid to the designated agency. The three statutes that order the device, and the different durations each one runs, are in the guide to Texas ignition interlock law.

The rest of what a repeat offense adds is not billed in dollars. Article 42A.401(a) requires county jail as a condition of community supervision on a repeat case, and the full penalties guide sets the three offense levels beside each other.

What does it cost to get the license back?

$100 after the conviction, or $125 after an Administrative License Revocation, plus an SR-22 certificate held for two years. The two suspensions are separate cases with separate fees, and somebody whose license was suspended on the arrest and again on the conviction pays both.

The conviction fee is $100. Transportation Code § 521.313(a) says a license suspended or revoked under that subchapter may not be reinstated, and another license may not be issued, until the person pays the department a fee of $100 in addition to any other fee required by law. The Department of Public Safety prints the same figure on its alcohol-related offenses page: “Pay a $100 Reinstatement fee, in addition to paying any other outstanding fees.”

The arrest-side fee is higher. The department’s Administrative License Revocation page states that “A $125 Reinstatement fee is required prior to the renewal or issuance of your driver license”, and the same page sets the window for contesting that suspension at 15 days from the date the notice is served.

The insurance certificate is a condition rather than a fee. DPS lists it among the reinstatement requirements after an alcohol-related offense: obtain a Financial Responsibility Insurance Certificate (SR-22) from an authorized insurance company, and an SR-22 “must be maintained for two years from the date of conviction.” The filing is made by the insurer, and what carrying one does to a premium is priced by that insurer rather than by the state, which is why no figure for it appears on this page.

One more $100 is avoidable entirely. § 521.344(e) directs the director to revoke the license where the date for completing the education program has passed with no completion in the department’s records, and art. 42A.406(d) then charges $100 to reinstate a license revoked over an educational program requirement imposed under art. 42A.403. Finishing the class inside the window costs nothing extra; missing it costs the license and the fee to get it back.

Which of these costs can you actually change?

Three of them, and the class fee is the one you decide today. The state fine, the consolidated court costs and both reinstatement fees are fixed amounts written into statute or set by the department, so they are the same in Harris County as in Lubbock.

• The § 709.001 fine, the $147 and $123 consolidated court costs and the $100 and $125 reinstatement fees are fixed by statute or by the department. The one route around the state fine is the indigence finding in § 709.001(c), which the court must make on the documents subsection (d) lists.
• The fine for the offense itself is the judge’s, anywhere between nothing and the cap Penal Code chapter 12 sets for the offense level.
• The class fee and the interlock lease are set by whoever you buy them from. A 12-hour class that satisfies the same order was published between $55 and $125 in August 2026, and approved interlock providers differ on the lease the same way.

Two statutes offer terms rather than a discount. Article 42A.408(f) lets a court that determines the defendant is unable to pay for the interlock impose a reasonable payment schedule not to exceed twice the length of the period of the court’s order, and § 521.246(c) puts the cost of an occupational-license device on the person unless the court finds otherwise and enters that finding on the record.

The largest avoidable cost on this page is not on the table at all: paying for a class your order does not name and then paying again for the one it does. Send us a photo of the order, or have it in front of you when you call, and we will read the program name off it before you pay for anything.