Is my formula under the California VOC limit?
Updated
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Add up the percent by weight of every ingredient that counts as a volatile organic compound (VOC), take off the fragrance and monoterpene allowance California gives your category, and compare the total with your category's limit in 17 CCR 94509. For a nonaerosol general purpose cleaner the limit is 0.5 percent VOC by weight, effective December 31, 2012; for a nonaerosol glass cleaner, 3 percent from the same date; for a nonaerosol bathroom and tile cleaner, 1 percent from December 31, 2008 [1]. Concentrates are judged after their minimum recommended dilution with water, unless they are sold in a pump spray, which includes a trigger sprayer [1][3]. The calculator does the arithmetic and flags each exemption for you to check.
The limits the calculator uses
These are the current limits from the Table of Standards in 17 CCR 94509(a), "Percent Volatile Organic Compounds by Weight," with the category names as the table writes them, as read on the Legal Information Institute on October 22, 2026 [1]. The Cornell text is a republication, not the official code. Confirm them against the official California Code of Regulations and with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) before you rely on them.
| Category (as named in the 94509 table) | Form | VOC limit, % by weight | Effective date | Notes the calculator shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Purpose Cleaner | Nonaerosol | 0.5 | Dec 31, 2012 | Fragrance and monoterpene allowances in 94510(c)(1) and (c)(3); see also 94509(m)(1)(A) and (m)(3) |
| General Purpose Cleaner | Aerosol | 8 | Dec 31, 2008 | |
| General Purpose Degreaser | Nonaerosol | 0.5 | Dec 31, 2012 | As general purpose cleaner, nonaerosol |
| General Purpose Degreaser | Aerosol | 10 | Dec 31, 2010 | |
| Glass Cleaner | Nonaerosol | 3 | Dec 31, 2012 | See 94509(m)(3) |
| Glass Cleaner | Aerosol | 10 | Dec 31, 2012 | |
| Bathroom and Tile Cleaner | Nonaerosol | 1 | Dec 31, 2008 | See 94509(m)(1)(A) |
| Bathroom and Tile Cleaner | Aerosol | 7 | Jan 1, 1994 | |
| Toilet/Urinal Care Product | Nonaerosol | 3 | Dec 31, 2006 | |
| Oven or Grill Cleaner | Nonaerosol | 4 | Dec 10, 2011 | Earlier step 1% (Dec 31, 2008). Raised from 1 to 4 percent by CARB's 2010 amendments; grill cleaners are in the category; the table points to 94509(q) [1][4] |
| Carpet/Upholstery Cleaner | Nonaerosol (ready-to-use) | 1 | Dec 31, 2010 | See 94509(m)(1)(A) |
| Carpet/Upholstery Cleaner | Nonaerosol (dilutable) | 0.1 | Jan 1, 2001 | See 94509(m)(1)(A) |
| Spot Remover | Nonaerosol | 3 | Dec 31, 2012 | |
| Furniture Maintenance Product | Nonaerosol (except solid or paste) | 3 | Dec 31, 2008 | See 94509(n) |
| Floor Polish or Wax | Resilient Flooring Material | 1 | Dec 31, 2010 | |
| Floor Polish or Wax | Nonresilient Flooring Material | 1 | Dec 31, 2010 | |
| Floor Polish or Wax | Wood Floor Wax | 70 | Dec 31, 2010 | |
| Floor Wax Stripper | Nonaerosol | No figure | The table says "See 94509(j)"; the calculator gives no result | |
| Metal Polish or Cleanser | Nonaerosol | 3 | Dec 31, 2012 | See 94509(m)(1)(A) and (n) |
| Dusting Aid | Nonaerosol | 3 | Dec 31, 2010 | |
| Disinfectant | Nonaerosol | 1 | Dec 31, 2008 | EPA-registered products only; fragrance allowance 94510(c)(4) from 2031 |
| Sanitizer | Nonaerosol | 1 | Dec 31, 2008 | As disinfectant |
| Fabric-Refresher | Nonaerosol | 6 | Dec 31, 2006 | |
| Laundry Prewash | All other forms (other than aerosol or solid) | 5 | Jan 1, 1994 | |
| Laundry Prewash | Aerosol or solid | 22 | Jan 1, 1994 | |
| Laundry Starch/Sizing/Fabric Finish Product | All forms | 4.5 | Dec 31, 2008 | |
| Multi-purpose Solvent | Nonaerosol (outside the South Coast district) | 3 | Dec 31, 2013 | South Coast nonaerosol: the table says "see 94509(p)(4)"; the calculator gives no result there |
| Air Freshener | Liquid or pump spray | 18 | Jan 1, 1993 | Fragrance allowance 94510(c)(4) from 2031; 94510(f) exempts air fresheners made entirely of fragrance |
These are the rows on VOC limits on cleaning products, which is the home for these figures; the current limit is the row with the latest effective date that has passed [1]. The disinfectant and sanitizer rows apply to EPA-registered products; a product that is not registered cannot claim to disinfect or sanitize, whatever its VOC content.
Each category has a definition in 17 CCR 94508, and the limit that applies is the one for the category your product falls in, by how it is designed and labeled. In paraphrase of CARB's 2010 proposed-amendments text of 94508, the edition read for this page, a General Purpose Cleaner is a product labeled to clean a variety of hard surfaces, small appliances included, and a Glass Cleaner is one designed or labeled mainly for cleaning glass surfaces [3]. The current 94508 text could not be reached, so read your category's current definition in the official code before choosing a row.
To see how little room a limit leaves, read it as grams per kilogram of product. As plain arithmetic on a 1 kg batch: 0.5 percent is 5 g of counted VOC in a 1 kg batch of general purpose cleaner, and 3 percent is 30 g in a 1 kg batch of glass cleaner.
Sorting each ingredient
The calculator asks you to put every ingredient in one class. The definitions are paraphrased from CARB's 2010 proposed-amendments text of 17 CCR 94508 [3], the only edition read; check them against the current code.
| Class | What goes in it | Counted? |
|---|---|---|
| Not a VOC | Water and ingredients with no carbon atom. CARB's VOC definition also excludes carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, and ammonium carbonate [3] | No |
| Exempt compound | A carbon compound on the 94508 list of excluded compounds, which includes acetone and methyl acetate [3] | No |
| LVP-VOC | A carbon compound or mixture with a vapor pressure under 0.1 mm Hg at 20°C, more than 12 carbon atoms, or a boiling point above 216°C, as determined by ARB Method 310 [3]. The VOC limits "shall not apply to any LVP-VOC" [2] | No |
| Fragrance | Aroma chemicals, essential oils and related components with a combined vapor pressure not over 2 mm Hg at 20°C, whose only purpose is to give a scent or counteract a malodor [3] | Yes, less the category's allowance |
| Monoterpene | The monoterpenes listed in Table 94510(c): limonene (d, l and dipentene forms), alpha-pinene and beta-pinene [2], when not part of a fragrance you entered as fragrance | Yes, less the allowance for general purpose cleaner and degreaser |
| VOC | Every other compound containing carbon: alcohols, glycol ethers and other volatile solvents | Yes |
Under CARB's definition in the 2010 text, a VOC is any compound containing at least one carbon atom, apart from the listed exclusions [3], so for each organic ingredient the question is whether it is an exempt compound or an LVP-VOC; how volatile it smells does not decide it. A surfactant, a chelator or a carbon-containing solid such as citric acid may qualify as LVP-VOC; take the vapor pressure, carbon number or boiling point from its safety data sheet or supplier, and keep that document in your file.
The fragrance and monoterpene allowance
17 CCR 94510(c) exempts part of the fragrance from the limits [2]:
| Category | Manufactured before January 1, 2031 | Manufactured on or after January 1, 2031 |
|---|---|---|
| General Purpose Cleaner and General Purpose Degreaser (nonaerosol) | "fragrances up to a combined 2 percent by weight and monoterpenes up to a combined 0.25 percent by weight," and "not to exceed a combined total of 2 percent fragrances and monoterpenes by weight" (94510(c)(1)) | "fragrances and/or monoterpenes up to a combined 0.25 percent by weight" (94510(c)(3)) |
| Air freshener, disinfectant, sanitizer | "fragrances up to a combined level of 2 percent by weight" (94510(c)(2)) | Fragrance up to 0.25 percent (94510(c)(4)) |
| All other categories | "fragrances up to a combined level of 2 percent by weight" (94510(c)(2)) | No allowance found in 94510(c); the calculator applies none and flags it |
The 2031 change matters for any general purpose cleaner you expect to keep making: an allowance of up to 2 percent becomes 0.25 percent. Because (c)(1) caps monoterpenes separately at 0.25 percent even before 2031, a cleaner that relies on d-limonene as a solvent should not assume the fragrance allowance covers it; ask the Air Resources Board how your limonene is counted. A formula that passes today because of its fragrance can fail on the same ingredients once that date arrives.
Concentrates and trigger sprayers
The regulation's dilution rules decide which formula the limit is measured on [1]:
- Diluted with water before use: the limits apply "only after the minimum recommended dilution has taken place," where the label, packaging or literature "specifically states" the product should be diluted (94509(b)(1)). Directions for occasional use of the concentrate on hard-to-remove soils or stains do not count as the minimum recommended dilution.
- Sold in a pump spray container: the limits apply "prior to any minimum recommended dilution" (94509(b)(4)). In CARB's 2010 text, a pump spray is an unpressurized package whose product comes out only while a pumping action is applied to a button, trigger or other actuator [3]. So a concentrate in a trigger bottle is measured as it is in the bottle, which is how the VOC limits page reads (b)(4) too.
- Diluted with a VOC solvent: the limits apply after the maximum recommended dilution (94509(b)(2)). The calculator does not handle this case.
For a concentrate in a jug, the calculator asks for the minimum recommended dilution by weight (parts water per part product, or by volume with the product's density). Ready-to-use and trigger-bottle products are measured as entered.
What the result says, and what it does not
The calculator reports your counted VOC percent, the limit, the category and effective date, the date the regulation was read, and either "not in excess of the limit on these inputs" or "in excess of the limit on these inputs." The regulation bars products that contain VOC "in excess of the limits" [1], so a formula exactly at the limit is reported as not in excess. It never says "compliant."
It also flags:
- Chlorinated solvents. Several rows point to 94509(m)(1)(A), which in the text read concerns methylene chloride, perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene [1]. Enter any of them and the calculator tells you to read that subsection.
- General purpose cleaner and glass cleaner rows point to 94509(m)(3), which was not read for this page; the calculator tells you to check it.
- Sell-through. A product made before a limit's effective date "may be sold, supplied, or offered for sale for up to three years after" it, with exceptions (94509(c)(1)) [1].
- Out-of-state shipment. 94510(a) and (b) exclude products made in California for shipment and use outside California, and products shown to be intended for shipment and use outside the state, but not products sold to retail outlets in California [2].
Other states have their own consumer product VOC rules, and the calculator does not cover them; which states and categories are on VOC limits on cleaning products.
| Limit | 0.5 percent by weight, effective Dec 31, 2012 |
|---|---|
| VOC in the formula | 0.40% |
| Fragrance | 1.00% |
| Monoterpenes | 0.20% |
| Allowance applied | 1.20% |
| VOC as sold | 0.40% |
| VOC as tested | 0.40% |
| Result | not in excess, margin 0.10 |
Confirm with CARB how the fragrance allowance applies to a diluted product.
read on LII October 22, 2026
This row points to 94509(m)(3) for additional requirements; check it.
Sell-through: 94509(c)(1).
Keep the document that shows this classification.
Category and VOC definitions are paraphrased from CARB's 2010 proposed text of 94508; check the current code.
References
- California Code of Regulations, title 17, section 94509, Standards for Consumer Products, via Cornell Legal Information Institute, read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/17-CCR-94509
- California Code of Regulations, title 17, section 94510, Exemptions, via Cornell Legal Information Institute, read October 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/17-CCR-94510
- California Air Resources Board, Appendix A, Proposed Amendments to the Regulation for Reducing Emissions from Consumer Products, section 94508 definitions, 2010. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2010/cp2010/cpappa.pdf
- California Air Resources Board, *Updated Informative Digest, Amendments to the California Consumer Products Regulation* (2010 rulemaking; Board hearing November 18, 2010), read October 22, 2026. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2010/cp2010/cpuid.pdf
