Prescription Sunglasses UK: Costs, Options and Where to Buy

If you wear glasses, ordinary sunglasses mean choosing between seeing clearly and shading your eyes. Prescription sunglasses solve that by putting your prescription into tinted lenses. This guide covers your options for prescription sunglasses in the UK and what they cost in September 2026. It also explains the driving rules and where to buy.

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Prescription Sunglasses UK: Your Options

• Tinted lenses: your prescription made in a sunglasses tint, usually grey, brown or green. It’s the simplest option, and most retailers offer it on any frame.
• Polarised lenses: these cut the glare that bounces off water, wet roads and snow, which makes them popular for driving in low sun, fishing and golf.
• Light-reactive lenses: clear indoors and darker outside, often called photochromic, or Transitions after the best-known brand. One pair does both jobs, but they take time to change and many darken less inside a car.
• Clip-ons and fitovers: tinted lenses that clip onto your glasses, or a larger frame that fits over them. They’re cheap and quick, though less neat than a proper pair.

How Much Do Prescription Sunglasses Cost?

Most retailers turn a glasses frame into prescription sunglasses by adding a tint at checkout, so you pay for the frame plus the tint. Here’s what we found in September 2026:

• Specsavers adds a sun tint with UV protection to any glasses frame for £30.
• Glasses Direct was advertising two pairs of prescription sunglasses for £39 in its September sale.
• Mojoglasses charges from £20 for a sunglasses tint on top of the frame, with designer frames starting from around £40.
• Specscart and Lentiamo both let you add a sunglasses tint to their glasses frames at checkout, and Specscart offers nine tint colours plus polarised lenses.

However, polarised lenses, thinner lenses and varifocals all add to the price. So check the total before you pay. Online retailers often work out cheaper, as our guide to how much glasses cost in the UK explains.

Tinted or Polarised: Which Do You Need?

A standard tint suits most people for everyday sun. However, polarised lenses are worth the extra if glare is your main problem, such as driving into low sun, days by the sea, or sport near water and snow.

One thing to know: polarised lenses can make some screens look dark or patchy, including phones and some car dashboards, so try that before relying on them for driving. In any case, make sure the lenses block 100% of UV, often shown as UV400.

Driving With Tinted Lenses

• Avoid category 4 lenses. Sunglass lenses come in filter categories from 0 to 4, and College of Optometrists guidance says only categories 0 to 3 are suitable for driving. Category 4, the darkest, is not.
• Take them off at dusk. Rule 94 of the Highway Code says not to use tinted glasses at night or in poor visibility if they restrict your vision, so keep a clear pair in the car.
• Don’t rely on light-reactive lenses in the car. Many darken less behind a windscreen, because the glass blocks much of the UV that makes them change. For driving, a dedicated tinted or polarised pair is the safer choice.

Prescription Sunglasses UK: Where to Buy

On the high street, Specsavers, Vision Express and Boots all sell prescription sunglasses, and you can try frames on and have them adjusted. Alternatively, these online retailers let you order with your prescription:

• Specscart: nine tints, polarised options and 30-day free returns.
• Lentiamo: add a sunglasses tint to any of its glasses frames, including brands like Ray-Ban and Prada.
• Mojoglasses: genuine designer frames with lenses made in its own UK lab. Our Mojoglasses review has the details.
• SmartBuyGlasses: a big range of designer and own-brand prescription sunglasses, with polarised, varifocal and Transitions lenses on selected styles. Its 100-day free returns also cover prescription lenses, which is unusual.

For running, cycling or swimming, our guide to prescription sports eyewear covers wraparound styles and goggles.

Can You Get Them on the NHS?

Usually not. An NHS optical voucher can go towards tinted lenses only when a tint is clinically necessary, for example for certain eye conditions, and your optician decides that. However, you can’t use a voucher for sunglasses you want for comfort or style. Our NHS vouchers page explains who qualifies.

Prescription Sunglasses UK: The Short Answer

For most people, a tinted pair made from a frame you like is the simplest choice, at around £20 to £30 on top of the frame at the retailers we checked. Choose polarised if glare bothers you, and keep category 4 lenses away from the car. Finally, use the Prescription Sunglasses option in our comparison tool to see prices for your prescription.