The correct tire pressure for your car is the number on your vehicle manufacturer's placard, usually a sticker inside the driver's door jamb, in the glovebox, or on the fuel filler flap, or in the owner's manual. The number molded into your tire's sidewall next to "MAX PRESS" is not that answer. It is the tire's own maximum cold inflation rating, a ceiling the tire can safely hold, not the pressure your vehicle is tuned to run at.
Reviewed: August 2026.
Two numbers, two different jobs
Every tire carries a pressure figure on its sidewall, and every vehicle carries a different figure on a placard somewhere in the cabin. They are not competing answers to the same question. They are answers to two different questions.
The sidewall number is set by the tire manufacturer and describes the maximum pressure that specific tire is rated to hold cold, regardless of what car it ends up on. It is a ceiling for the tire as a product, not a recommendation for how you should run it.
The placard number is set by the vehicle manufacturer, tuned during development for that specific car's ride quality, handling balance, braking performance and how evenly the tire wears across its tread. It accounts for the vehicle's weight, suspension geometry and how the car is expected to be loaded. Two cars can wear the exact same tire model and still carry two completely different placard numbers, because the placard is about the car, not the tire. When the two numbers disagree, and they usually do, the placard is the one that applies to you.
If you are also still deciding which inflator to buy in the first place, our guide to choosing a portable tire inflator covers that separate decision.
Where the placard actually is
The most common location is a sticker on the driver's side door jamb, the vertical piece of the body you see when you open the driver's door and look at the frame itself, not the door. On many vehicles it lists separate figures for the front and rear axles, and sometimes a separate figure for a full-size or compact spare.
Not every vehicle puts it there. Some place the same information inside the glovebox door, on the inside of the fuel filler flap, or only in the printed or digital owner's manual under a heading like "Tire and Loading Information." If you cannot find a sticker in the usual spot, check those three places before assuming your vehicle does not have one. Nearly all production vehicles are required to display this information somewhere in the cabin, so it is almost always findable, just not always in the same spot from one make to the next.
Why front, rear and the spare are often different figures
It is common for a placard to show one number for the front tires and a different number for the rear, reflecting how weight is distributed across the car, particularly in front-engine vehicles where the front axle carries more load. Filling all four tires to whichever number you remember, instead of matching each axle to its own line on the placard, is an easy way to end up with two tires slightly off target without realizing it.
A compact or space-saver spare almost always carries its own figure, and it is typically a noticeably higher number than the car's regular tires. That is intentional. A compact spare is a smaller, narrower tire doing the same job as a full-size one, and it needs more pressure to carry the load safely for its limited, short-term use. We are not going to print any of these figures here, because they vary by vehicle. Your placard will show all three lines, front, rear and spare, if your vehicle has a compact spare at all. Read your own placard rather than assuming a number that applied to a different car applies to yours.
When the sidewall number matters at all
The sidewall figure is not meaningless, it is just answering a different question than "what should I run day to day." It matters in a narrow situation: it tells you the absolute upper limit that specific tire can safely hold when cold, which is useful context if you are ever unsure whether a reading is dangerously high, or if you are evaluating whether a tire is rated for a heavier load than your placard's baseline assumes.
For ordinary daily driving, running anywhere near that maximum is not the goal and generally is not what your vehicle needs. Overfilling toward the sidewall's ceiling instead of your placard's target can change how the car rides and handles and can wear the center of the tread faster than the edges. If you are trying to decide whether your inflator or gauge let you go past a safe point, our guide to whether you can overinflate a tire with a portable inflator covers that question directly. Treat the sidewall number as a ceiling you should stay well under, not a target you are working toward.
If the placard is missing, or your tires are not the original size
Placards fade, and on an older vehicle or one that has changed hands a few times, the sticker in the door jamb can be worn to the point of being unreadable. If that has happened to you, the owner's manual carries the same figures, and if you no longer have the manual, most manufacturers make it available as a free download by year, make and model, or a dealership's service department can look it up from your vehicle's identification number.
If your car is fitted with a different tire size than it came with from the factory, whether that was your choice or a previous owner's, the original placard figures may no longer be the correct ones for the tires actually on the car. This is a case where guessing is not appropriate. A tire professional can recalculate the correct pressure for a non-original tire size against your vehicle's actual load requirements, and that is worth doing rather than assuming the old sticker still applies.
If your two readings just do not agree with each other today
Sometimes the issue is not which number to target, it is that a gauge or an inflator's readout gave you two different numbers on the same tire within a short span of time, and neither one seems to line up with what you expected. That is a measurement question, not a "which number is correct" question, and it deserves its own answer rather than a guess here.
If the disagreement is between a morning reading and one taken later in the day, our guide to why cold and warm readings disagree walks through the mechanism. If the disagreement is between your portable inflator's built-in display and a separate gauge, our look at inflator gauge accuracy covers why that happens and which one to trust more. If a tire keeps losing pressure over days rather than showing a one-off mismatch, that points toward a leak, and diagnosing a leak is a job for a qualified tire professional, not a gauge comparison.
Correct pressure also has a payoff beyond ride and wear: our honest look at tire pressure and fuel economy covers what running your placard's number, rather than guessing, actually buys you at the pump.
FAQ
Should I fill my tires to the pressure printed on the sidewall?
No. That number is the tire's maximum cold pressure rating, a ceiling set by the tire manufacturer, not the pressure your vehicle is designed to run at. Use the figure on your vehicle's own door jamb placard, glovebox label or owner's manual instead.
Where exactly is the door jamb sticker located?
On most vehicles, on the vertical body frame you see when the driver's door is fully open, not on the door itself. If it is not there, check the glovebox door, the inside of the fuel filler flap, or the printed owner's manual, since placement varies by manufacturer.
Why do my front and rear tires need different pressures?
Weight distribution across the car is uneven, and most vehicles, especially front-engine layouts, carry more weight over the front axle. Vehicle manufacturers tune separate front and rear figures on the placard to account for that, so check both lines rather than filling all four tires to one number.
Why does my spare tire need a different, much higher pressure than my regular tires?
A compact or space-saver spare is smaller and narrower than your regular tires but still has to carry the same load, so it needs a higher pressure to do that safely for its limited, short-term use. Its figure is listed separately on the same placard.
What if my car's placard sticker has worn away and I can't read it?
Your owner's manual carries the same figures. If you no longer have it, most manufacturers offer it as a free download by year, make and model, or a dealership can look it up from your vehicle's identification number.
Does the correct pressure change if I put a different size tire on my car?
It can. A placard's figures assume the original factory tire size. If your fitted tires are a different size, the old figures may no longer be accurate, and a tire professional can work out the correct pressure for your actual setup rather than guessing.
My tire pressure light came on but I just checked it this morning and it was fine. What's going on?
That usually means the reading has changed since this morning, most often from a temperature swing rather than the number you set being wrong. If it keeps happening or the pressure keeps dropping over several days, that points toward a slow leak, which a qualified tire professional should check.