Free tool
Contact lens prescription expiration checker
Find out exactly when your contact lens prescription expires, how many days are left, the last sensible day to place an order under it, and whether the unopened packs in your drawer reach that date. Everything is calculated in your browser.
Last reviewed 2026-08-08. Rule references come from 16 CFR Part 315, the FTC Contact Lens Rule.
Your prescription dates
Everything runs in your browser. No dates, quantities, or prescription details are uploaded.
Your wear pattern
Unopened supply on hand (optional)
Count only sealed, unopened boxes. Read the pack count from the box label rather than assuming 30 or 90.
Appointment availability, prescriber verification, and shipping all take time. This buffer moves your personal deadline earlier than the legal one.
Your timeline
Enter a printed expiration date, or an issue date and a term, to see your expiration date, your remaining days, the last sensible ordering date, and how far your unopened supply reaches.
Why the date is not always one year
Almost everyone assumes a contact lens prescription lasts a year. That is the floor, not the rule. The FTC Contact Lens Rule, which implements the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act, sets out three separate ways an expiration date is decided, and two of them can produce something other than twelve months.
State law sets the date, when that date is a year or more out
16 CFR 315.6(a)(1)A contact lens prescription expires on the date specified by the law of the state in which it was written, if that date is one year or more after the issue date. This is why a prescription written in one state can run longer than one written in another.
Otherwise, one year is the federal floor
16 CFR 315.6(a)(2)If state law specifies no date, or specifies a date less than one year after the issue date, the prescription expires not less than one year after the issue date. A state cannot shorten the federal minimum.
A prescriber can set a shorter date only on documented medical judgment
16 CFR 315.6(a)(3)A prescription can expire on a date set by the prescriber when that date is based on the medical judgment of the prescriber with respect to the ocular health of the patient. A shorter-than-one-year date is allowed, not routine.
A shorter date has to be written down and kept
16 CFR 315.6(b)(1) and (b)(2)When a prescription expires in less than one year, the specific reasons for the medical judgment must be documented in the patient medical record in enough detail for review by a qualified professional, kept for not less than three years, and made available for inspection by the FTC.
The expiration date cannot be shorter than the recommended recheck interval
16 CFR 315.6(b)(3)A prescriber may not set an expiration date that is less than the period of time he or she recommends for a medically necessary reexamination of the patient.
The practical takeaway is short. Do not calculate your own expiration date if you can read it. The rule requires the prescription to carry both the issue date and the expiration date, so the document answers the question directly. Use the estimate mode in the tool above only when the paper is genuinely gone, and treat the result as a planning date until you get a copy.
What has to be on the prescription
A contact lens prescription is defined in the rule as one issued in accordance with state and federal law that contains sufficient information for the complete and accurate filling of a prescription. In practice that means a specific list of fields. If a field is missing, a seller may not be able to fill your order the way you expect, and you will find out at the worst point in the process.
- Your name
- The examination date
- The issue date and the expiration date
- The prescriber name, postal address, telephone number, and fax number
- The power, material or manufacturer, or both
- The base curve or appropriate designation
- The diameter, when appropriate
- For a private label lens, the manufacturer, the private label brand name, and the equivalent brand name where applicable
Two of those fields are the reason this page exists. The issue date and the expiration date are separate from the examination date, and the expiration term runs from the issue date, which the rule defines as the date the patient receives a copy of the prescription at the completion of the fitting.
Getting your copy is not a favor
You do not have to ask. When a prescriber completes a contact lens fitting, the prescriber must give you a copy of the prescription whether or not you request it. The prescriber may not charge a fee for that release as part of or in addition to the examination, fitting, and evaluation fee, and may not require you to buy lenses from the prescriber or anyone else as a condition of handing it over. The prescriber also has to obtain confirmation that you received it, which is what the signature or the acknowledgment at the front desk is for.
If you lost the copy, ask your prescriber. The rule puts an explicit clock on one route: on request, a prescriber must provide any person designated to act on your behalf with a copy, by electronic or other means, within forty business hours of receiving the request. That is the deadline a seller or a family member acting for you works to, and forty business hours is roughly a week of normal office days. It is the single best argument for requesting the copy before you start shopping rather than at checkout.
How a seller checks the prescription, and why it takes time
You can hand a seller your prescription, or the seller can verify it with your prescriber. Verification is not a phone call that either succeeds or fails on the spot. The seller sends the prescriber a defined set of information: your full name and address, the lens power, manufacturer, base curve or appropriate designation, and diameter where appropriate, the quantity ordered, the date of your request, the date and time of the verification request, and a contact person at the seller with telephone and fax numbers.
From there the clock matters. If the prescriber does not communicate with the seller within eight business hours of receiving that information, the prescription is treated as verified and the seller may fill it. If the prescriber responds and confirms the prescription, it is verified directly. If the prescriber tells the seller the prescription is inaccurate, expired, or otherwise invalid, the seller may not fill it, and a prescriber correcting an inaccurate prescription has to supply the accurate one.
Eight business hours is not eight hours. A verification request sent late on a Friday can sit until the following week before the passive window closes. Add order handling and transit on top and the gap between clicking buy and holding the box is easily a week. That is the whole reason the tool above asks for a lead time and moves your personal deadline earlier than the legal one.
Two expiration dates, not one
The prescription has an expiration date. Every sealed blister pack also has its own manufacturer expiration date printed on the foil. They are unrelated, and people who buy a large advance supply run into the second one without ever thinking about it. A pack that sits at the back of a drawer for two years can pass its printed date while the box around it looks perfectly fine.
This is a storage problem as much as a paperwork problem. If your supply lives as loose boxes in a bathroom cabinet, you cannot see your count, you cannot see the dates, and you rotate stock by accident. Keeping sealed packs upright, labeled left and right, and visible turns both dates into something you check rather than something you discover. That is the job a Sturdysight organizer does for unopened daily-disposable packs. It is a dry organizer only, never a soaking case, and it never holds a worn lens, a bare lens, or solution.
Six timing mistakes that cost people a week
Reading the exam date as the start of the clock
The issue date is the date you receive a copy of the prescription at the completion of the fitting, and the fitting ends when a successful fit is achieved or, on a renewal, when the prescriber determines no change is required. On a first fitting those dates can be weeks apart, so read the printed expiration date instead of counting a year from the exam.
Assuming a saved retailer account keeps a prescription current
An account, a past order, and an auto-refill plan record what you bought before. None of them extends an expiration date. A seller that is told the prescription is expired or otherwise invalid may not fill it.
Ordering on the expiration date itself
Verification with your prescriber can take up to eight business hours before a seller may treat a prescription as verified, and then the order still has to be picked, packed, and shipped. Give the process a lead time rather than testing the deadline.
Buying a two-year supply on a one-year prescription and calling it done
Buying ahead is legitimate while the prescription is valid, but it does not remove the exam. Your prescriber sets the recheck interval for the health of your eyes, and the expiration date cannot be shorter than that interval.
Confusing prescription expiration with pack expiration
The prescription has an expiration date and every sealed blister pack has a separate manufacturer expiration date printed on the foil. A large advance order can outlive one, the other, or both. Check both dates before you rely on a stockpile.
Waiting until the last pack to notice
Most people discover the problem when the box is empty, which is the worst moment to need an appointment. Count your unopened packs on a fixed day each month and keep them somewhere you can see the count without opening anything.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a contact lens prescription good for?
Under the FTC Contact Lens Rule, a contact lens prescription expires on the date specified by the law of the state where it was written when that date is one year or more after the issue date, and otherwise not less than one year after the issue date. A prescriber may set a different date based on documented medical judgment about the health of your eyes. The printed expiration date on your prescription is the one that governs.
Can I order contacts with an expired prescription?
No. A US seller may not fill an expired contact lens prescription, and if a prescriber tells a seller that a prescription is inaccurate, expired, or otherwise invalid, the seller may not fill it. If you are running low, book an eye exam and ask your prescriber what to do in the meantime rather than stretching wear on the lenses you have.
Does the clock start on my exam date or my issue date?
The issue date is the date you receive a copy of your prescription at the completion of the fitting, and the expiration term runs from there. The examination date is a separate field on the prescription. On a first fitting the two can be weeks apart, so use the printed expiration date rather than adding a year to the exam.
Do I have to ask for a copy of my contact lens prescription?
No. When a prescriber completes a contact lens fitting, the prescriber must give you a copy of the prescription whether or not you ask. The prescriber cannot charge you a fee for the release or require you to buy lenses as a condition of getting it, and must obtain confirmation that you received it.
How do I get another copy later?
Ask your prescriber. The rule puts an explicit clock on one route: on request, a prescriber must provide any person designated to act on your behalf with a copy, by electronic or other means, within forty business hours of receiving the request. A seller or a family member acting for you falls under that deadline. Either way, ask for the copy before you start shopping, not while a cart is open.
How does a seller check my prescription with my eye doctor?
A seller can verify by sending your prescriber your name and address, the lens power, manufacturer, base curve or appropriate designation and diameter where appropriate, the quantity ordered, the date of your request, the date and time of the verification request, and a contact person with phone and fax numbers. If the prescriber does not communicate with the seller within eight business hours, the prescription is treated as verified.
What if my state requires a two-year prescription?
When the law of the state where the prescription was written specifies an expiration date one year or more after the issue date, that date applies. A state can require longer than the federal minimum but cannot cut it below one year. Read the printed date on your own prescription rather than assuming your state term.
Does buying a full year of lenses in advance make sense?
It can, because it is usually where per-box pricing and rebates are best, and it removes the risk of running out mid-cycle. Compare like-for-like totals first, confirm what the seller will do with your prescription, and remember that a large advance order does not extend the prescription or replace the exam your prescriber recommends.
Does this tool store or send my prescription details?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. The dates, wear pattern, and pack counts you enter are not uploaded.
How does Sturdysight fit into this?
Only after the order arrives. Sturdysight makes reusable hard-shell organizers for sealed, unopened daily-disposable blister packs, with a labeled left case and a labeled right case, so a bulk pre-expiration order stays countable instead of loose in a drawer. It is not a soaking case and never stores worn lenses, bare lenses, or solution.
Sources
Rules and requirements on this page come from the current text of the FTC Contact Lens Rule and federal consumer health guidance. Requirements change. Check the current text before relying on any of it, and treat your own prescription and your eye care provider as the authority on your eyes.
- 16 CFR 315.6, Expiration of contact lens prescriptions (eCFR)
- 16 CFR Part 315, the Contact Lens Rule (eCFR)
- FTC, Contact Lens Rule legal library entry
- FTC, The Contact Lens Rule: A Guide for Prescribers and Sellers
- FTC, FAQs on complying with the Contact Lens Rule
- FDA, Buying Contact Lenses
- CDC, About Contact Lenses