San Francisco Noise Ordinance: Limits, Quiet Hours & How to File a Complaint

How San Francisco decides what counts as too loud

San Francisco is one of the few cities that regulates the level measured inside the affected dwelling, not only at the property line.

Noise limits in San Francisco

What's specific to San Francisco

• The interior standard means you measure in your own sleeping or living room — which is exactly the measurement a phone-based meter can document.
• Night construction requires a special permit from Public Works or Building Inspection.

What San Francisco residents most often report

• Fixed mechanical sources — restaurant exhaust fans, compressors, heat pumps — which the interior standard targets directly.
• Night construction without a Public Works or Building Inspection permit.
• Entertainment venue noise, which the Entertainment Commission handles alongside 311.

How to measure it in San Francisco

San Francisco is unusual in regulating the level inside your home. Measure in the affected sleeping or living room with windows in their normal position, and compare against 45 dBA between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM or 55 dBA during the day. That interior measurement is exactly what a phone meter is well suited to, and it is the reading 311 will ask about.

Record levels with the free online decibel meter, and log the date, start time and duration with each reading. A phone microphone is accurate to roughly ±2 dB and is not a calibrated instrument — enough to establish a pattern, not enough for an enforcement hearing.

Penalties in San Francisco

Administrative penalties; permits for night noise can be conditioned or withdrawn.

How to file a noise complaint in San Francisco

SF 311 with time-stamped recordings and the exact address and source; SFPD non-emergency 415-553-0123 for active disturbances.

311 →

Noise ordinances in other metros

See all US metro noise ordinances or read how many decibels is too loud.