DUI Under 21 in Texas: Any Detectable Amount Counts

Texas has a separate, lower-bar offense for drivers under 21 — any detectable amount of alcohol, not the 0.08% DWI line — and it's legally walled off from DWI, not a lesser version of it. Cross 0.08%, and you're facing full adult DWI instead.

The actual minor-DUI law: any detectable amount

Alcoholic Beverage Code § 106.041 makes it an offense for a minor to drive with any detectable amount of alcohol in their system — there's no numeric BAC threshold in the statute itself. An officer isn't required to arrest a minor for this; they can issue a citation with a time and place to appear instead. It's a Class C misdemeanor (fine only) for a first or second offense, and — importantly — it's written into the law as not a lesser included offense of DWI, BWI, or DWI with a child passenger. That means a prosecutor charges one or the other; a jury can't fall back to this charge from a failed DWI case.

License suspension for this specific offense

The suspension ladder here is its own, separate from both the DWI table below and the general minor-alcohol-offense table further down: 60 days with no priors, 120 days with one prior conviction, 180 days with two or more — counting priors under this section or the DWI statutes. A deferred-disposition outcome still counts as a prior for this ladder, even though it isn't a formal conviction.

The alcohol awareness program — a different one than the DWI class

This offense has its own education requirement under § 106.115, separate from the 12-hour DWI-track program mentioned below — hours aren't fixed by statute and depend on the certified provider. In counties under 75,000 people without program access, a court can substitute at least 8 hours of alcohol-related community service instead. Not completing it within 90 days adds its own suspension: 6 months for a first offense, a year if there's a prior conviction.

If it escalates further

A third offense (two or more prior convictions) stops being a simple fine-only Class C matter: it carries a fine of $500–$2,000 and up to 180 days in jail, with alcohol-related community service rising to 40–60 hours (versus 20–40 for a first offense). At 21, someone with only one alcohol-code incident on their record — conviction or arrest without conviction — can petition the court for a one-time expunction of it, for a $30 filing fee.

When it becomes a full DWI instead

According to the Texas DPS, if you're under 21 when the violation happens and you're convicted of DWI, you receive a one-year driver license suspension; subsequent alcohol-related offenses can bring an 18-month suspension. Before your license can be renewed or reissued you must:

1. Serve the suspension
2. File an SR-22 and keep it for two years from the date of conviction (see our Texas SR-22 guide)
3. Pay the $100 reinstatement fee, plus any other fees owed

If the court orders community supervision that requires an ignition interlock, the suspension can be 90 days instead, and you'll need an interlock-restricted license to drive. The court may also order a 12-hour Alcohol Education Program; not completing it adds a 180-day suspension and another $100 reinstatement fee.

Other alcohol offenses by minors

Separate from DWI, DPS lists these offenses by minors: buying or attempting to buy alcohol, consuming or possessing it, misrepresenting your age, and public intoxication. A conviction brings a license suspension of:

Conviction	Suspension
First	30 days
Second	60 days
Third	180 days

What it does to your insurance rates

We didn't find comparable published insurance rate data for an under-21 alcohol violation in Texas. Two things are true everywhere: teen drivers already pay the highest premiums of any age group, and an alcohol-related violation on a young driver's record makes that worse. See what teens normally pay in our Texas teen driver guide, and what an adult DUI does to rates in our Texas DUI guide.

Related: Car insurance after a DWI in Texas · SR-22 in Texas