How Many Points Is a DUI in GA? Suspensions, Appeals, and Costs

A DUI conviction in Georgia adds zero points to your driving record. If you’re asking how many points a DUI is in GA because you’re trying to figure out whether it will push you over the 15-point suspension threshold, the honest answer is that points are the wrong thing to worry about. Georgia pulls DUI out of the points system entirely and runs it through a separate, harsher track: automatic license suspension on the first conviction, mandatory jail time, fines the judge cannot waive, risk reduction classes, and reinstatement fees. A six-point speeding ticket is a bad day. A zero-point DUI can cost you your license for a year and several thousand dollars.

What the Points System Covers (and Why DUI Isn’t On It)

Georgia’s Department of Driver Services assigns two to six points for most moving violations. Hit 15 points inside any 24-month window and your license is suspended. Aggressive driving and speeding 34 mph or more over the limit sit at the top with six points each. Reckless driving carries four. An open container while driving adds two. Driving “too fast for conditions” without exceeding the posted limit is still citable but carries zero points.¹

DUI isn’t on that schedule at all.² The points system exists to catch drivers whose repeated violations show a pattern. DUI is treated as serious enough on its own that a single conviction triggers consequences no points-based offense carries. So when you check your record after a DUI, you won’t see points added. You’ll see a suspension.

What a DUI Conviction Actually Triggers

Criminal penalties for DUI in Georgia scale with how many prior DUI convictions you have in the past ten years. Every conviction carries a mandatory minimum fine the judge cannot reduce.³

First Offense Within Ten Years

Fine of $300 to $1,000. Jail of 10 days to 12 months, though the judge can probate most of it; if your BAC was 0.08 or higher, everything but 24 hours of actual jail time can be probated. At least 40 hours of community service. A DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program must be completed within 120 days of conviction. A clinical substance abuse evaluation, and treatment if the evaluation recommends it. Probation runs 12 months minus any days you actually spend locked up.³

Second Offense Within Ten Years

Fine of $600 to $1,000. Jail of 90 days to 12 months, with all but 72 hours probatable. Community service jumps to 30 days. Twelve months of probation, plus ignition interlock and supervision requirements.³

Third Offense Within Ten Years

Classified as a “high and aggravated” misdemeanor. Fine of $1,000 to $5,000, none of it suspendable or probatable. Jail of 120 days to 12 months, with all but 15 days probatable. At least 30 days of community service. On a second or subsequent DUI within five years, you also pay $25 for your county newspaper to publish your conviction notice and photograph, and you surrender the license plates on any vehicle registered in your name.³

The License Suspension That Follows Conviction

Jail and fines come from the criminal court. The license suspension comes from DDS and runs on a different clock: a five-year lookback instead of the ten-year window used for criminal sentencing. You can end up facing first-offense criminal penalties but second-offense suspension terms, or the reverse, depending on when your prior arrests happened.

First conviction within five years: 12 months suspended. After 120 days, you can apply for early reinstatement by completing a DUI Risk Reduction Program and paying a $210 restoration fee ($200 by mail).⁴
Second conviction within five years: three years suspended. For a second DUI specifically, reinstatement isn’t available until 18 months have passed.⁴
Third conviction within five years: license revoked, not just suspended, and you’re declared a habitual violator. The revocation lasts five years, and driving during that period is a felony called “habitual impaired driving,” carrying at least a $1,000 fine and one to five years in prison.⁵⁴

Your license doesn’t come back automatically when the clock runs out. If you haven’t completed the Risk Reduction Program and paid the restoration fee, the suspension continues indefinitely.⁶

The Administrative Suspension You Have 30 Days to Fight

There’s a second suspension that runs on a completely separate track from the criminal case. DDS can suspend your license administratively if you refused the officer’s chemical test (breath, blood, or urine) at arrest, or if you took it and your BAC was at or above the legal limit: 0.08 if you’re 21 or older, 0.02 if you’re under 21, or 0.04 in a commercial vehicle.⁷ This can take effect even if you’re later acquitted of the DUI in criminal court.

At arrest, the officer usually hands you a DDS-1205 form. It works as a 45-day temporary driving permit and as notice that the administrative suspension is on its way. You have 30 calendar days from receiving it to request a hearing to contest the suspension, with a nonrefundable $150 filing fee. Miss that deadline and the suspension takes effect automatically with no chance to challenge it. People who focus entirely on the criminal case and let the 30 days slip by lose their license without ever arguing against it.

If the chemical test case stands, the administrative suspension periods under Georgia’s implied consent law track the criminal side:

First administrative suspension within five years: one year, with reinstatement eligibility after 30 days once you complete a DUI Risk Reduction Program and pay a $210 fee ($200 by mail).⁸
Second within five years: three years, reinstatement after 18 months.⁸
Third within five years: five years.⁸

A single arrest can produce both a criminal suspension under § 40-5-63 and an administrative suspension under § 40-5-67.2. Each has its own reinstatement requirements, and you have to clear both before your full license comes back.

Getting Back on the Road

If this is your first DUI and you have no prior DUI conviction in the past five years, you can apply for a limited driving permit immediately after conviction. You don’t have to wait 120 days; that waiting period is for early reinstatement of your full license, not the temporary permit.⁹

A limited permit lets you drive only for specific purposes: work, school, medical care, court-ordered treatment or support group meetings, and court or probation appointments. DDS will issue the permit only if you can show that losing your driving privilege creates an extreme hardship because reasonable alternative transportation isn’t available.⁹

Repeat offenders face a tighter picture. With a prior DUI conviction in the past five years, you aren’t eligible for a standard limited permit. An ignition interlock limited permit may be available through probation, but it requires court approval and installation of an interlock device. If you got a financial hardship exemption from the interlock requirement, you’re barred from any driving permit for a full year.⁹

What a DUI Actually Costs Beyond Court

Georgia requires proof of financial responsibility, typically an SR-22 certificate filed by your insurer, before reinstating your license. You’ll generally carry that SR-22 filing for at least three years, and your premiums go up for the full stretch. Nationally, drivers with a DUI pay roughly 79% more for auto insurance than drivers with a clean record.

Then there’s the DUI Risk Reduction Program enrollment fee, the clinical substance abuse evaluation, any treatment the evaluation recommends, and ignition interlock lease and monitoring fees if the court orders one (typically $70 to $125 per month). Add fines, reinstatement fees, lost wages from jail and court appearances, and program costs, and a first DUI in Georgia can run $5,000 to $10,000 or more across the suspension and probation period. That’s the real answer to the points question: zero points, and a bill that keeps arriving for years.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-57 – Suspension or Revocation of License of Habitually Negligent or Dangerous Driver; Point System
2
Georgia Department of Driver Services. Points Schedule
3
Justia. Georgia Code 40-6-391 – Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, Drugs, or Other Intoxicating Substances
4
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-63 – Periods of Suspension for Certain Convictions of Code Section 40-5-54 or 40-6-391
5
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-58 – Habitual Violators
6
Georgia Department of Driver Services. Reinstatement Fees and Payment
7
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-67.1 – Chemical Tests; Implied Consent Notice
8
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-67.2 – Terms and Conditions for Implied Consent Suspension
9
Justia. Georgia Code 40-5-64 – Limited Driving Permits for Certain Offenders