Georgia Tyre Rules 2026: Studs Legal, Sign Required

Read the Law of Georgia on Traffic looking for a winter tyre article and you will not find one. There is no dated season, no compulsory snowflake marking and no stated tread figure. The single tyre-specific requirement in the law is a sign: Article 19 sets out an upward equilateral triangle, white with a red edge, carrying the black character კ, to be fitted at the rear of any vehicle running studded tyres.

Everything else that governs winter driving in Georgia happens at the level of the individual road, when the roads authority and the police restrict or close it after snow.

Tyre Law Summary for Georgia

What the law actually says

The traffic law regulates tyres indirectly. Article 10 requires that a vehicle’s technical condition ensure traffic safety, and Article 12 prohibits driving a faulty vehicle. Neither specifies rubber. The studded-tyre marking in Article 19 is the exception, and it exists to warn following drivers about a vehicle with different braking characteristics rather than to restrict the tyre itself.

Practically, that means two things:

• You will not be fined for lacking a snowflake symbol on a date.
• You can be stopped from driving a road that has been closed or restricted because of snow, regardless of what is fitted.

The Georgian Military Highway

The road from Tbilisi north to Stepantsminda crosses the Jvari Pass at roughly 2,379 metres, and it is the route that defines winter driving here. It carries freight to the Russian border at Dariali, climbs through Gudauri, and is closed or restricted repeatedly between November and April — often to vehicles with chains or four-wheel drive only.

Other high routes behave the same way: Goderdzi on the road from Batumi to Akhaltsikhe, and the approaches to Bakuriani and Mestia in Svaneti.

Check the status of the road before you set off. On these routes that is a more useful question than what the tyre law says.

Studs, and the sign that goes with them

Studded tyres are common on vehicles working the mountains, and they are genuinely effective on the packed ice that forms on shaded switchbacks. If you fit them, fit the K triangle at the rear as well — it is a legal requirement, not a courtesy.

The trade-off is the usual one. Studs lengthen braking distances on dry tarmac and wear quickly, so for a car that spends most of its life on the Tbilisi–Batumi motorway a good winter tyre is the better choice.

Why 1.6 mm is only a starting point

Because the law names no figure, the 1.6 mm quoted here is the international benchmark from Council Directive 89/459/EEC, measured in the main grooves over the central three-quarters of the tread.

For the Jvari Pass in January it is simply not enough. Snow traction depends on tread blocks packing and shearing snow, and that stops working below roughly 4 mm. Fit to the mountain, not to the floor.

Georgia’s four land borders

• Russia: north, via Dariali on the Georgian Military Highway — the crossing most affected by winter closures.
• Turkey: southwest, at Sarpi on the Black Sea coast and at Vale.
• Armenia: south, at Sadakhlo and Bavra; conditions-based winter restrictions there too.
• Azerbaijan: southeast, at Red Bridge and Lagodekhi.

Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait are sometimes grouped with Georgia in regional listings. None of them borders it, and none can be reached from it without crossing other countries first.

Speed limits, fines and required equipment are set out in the Driving in Georgia guide.