Prescription ski goggles: the three options
Prescription ski goggles come three ways, and the same three apply to snowboard goggles: your glasses under an OTG goggle, contact lenses, or a prescription insert behind the goggle lens. Which one is right depends on your numbers, so the table below starts from the prescription and works outward.
On this page
- The three options in one table
- What to do with your prescription, the verdict table
- Option 1: glasses under the goggle, and why I would not
- Option 2: contact lenses
- Option 3: a prescription insert, and the one thing to check before buying any insert
- What I would actually buy
- Questions people ask
The three options in one table
| Glasses under the goggle (OTG) | Contact lenses | Prescription ski goggle insert | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works with the goggle you own | Only if it is an OTG model | Yes | Yes |
| Cost | Lowest, the goggle only | Ongoing, every day you ride | Made to order, priced by the lens, bought once |
| Progressive lenses | Yes, your own glasses | No reading zone | Yes |
| Strong prescription | Yes, but heavy and fogs | Yes | Yes, with the depth set right |
| Astigmatism | Yes | Toric contacts, dries faster | Yes |
| Fog | The worst of the three | None from the lens | Low, sits in the goggle's dry air |
| Pressure on nose and temples | Yes, the frame is squeezed inward | None | None |
| Strap tension | Presses the glasses into your face; loosen it and the goggle moves | Unaffected | Unaffected |
| Cold, wind, long days | Fine, if you can stand the pressure | Dry eyes, the complaint | Fine |
What to do with your prescription
This is the table I would want if I were buying. Read your own row.
| Your prescription | What I would do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Low sphere, under about ±2, no cylinder | Contacts if you already wear them. Otherwise an insert. Not glasses under the goggle. | At this power any of the three corrects you fine, so choose on comfort. Glasses under a goggle are the one option that hurts by lunchtime, whatever the power. |
| Comfortable daily contact wearer, single vision, short days | Keep wearing contacts. Not an insert. | Nothing to fit, nothing to fog, and I am not going to sell you something you do not need. Read the altitude row below first. |
| Any cylinder above about 0.75 | Insert | Astigmatism needs the lens held at a fixed angle to the eye. Glasses under a goggle move and contacts rotate. |
| Progressive, any power | Insert | The reading zone has to sit where your eye expects it. OTG puts your progressives in the wrong place behind the lens, and contacts have no reading zone at all. |
| High sphere, above about ±4 | Insert, height and depth set | Lens distance changes the effective power. At ±4 and beyond, a lens sitting too far out is a different prescription outright. Depth matters at every power; here it stops being optional. |
| Very high: cylinder beyond about -4, sphere beyond ±6, prism, big difference between the eyes | Insert, from Banana Optics. | This is what I specialise in. Most suppliers stop here; I work with a specialist lab that does not. See the section below, and the high prescription guide for the optics. |
| You own more than one goggle | Insert | It moves between them, and between ski and snowboard goggles. |
| Long cold days, dry eyes, high altitude | Not contacts. Either of the other two. | Altitude and wind dry the eye. Contacts are the option that fails there. |
One of those rows sends you back to what you already do, and none of them sends you to glasses under a goggle. I would rather you read that here than find out on the hill.
Not sure which row is yours? Send me a photo of your prescription and the goggle model, and I tell you what I would do and what it costs before you order anything.
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Option 1: glasses under the goggle (OTG)
The most common answer, and the reason ski goggles for glasses wearers is the biggest search on this topic. An OTG goggle has channels at the temples so the arms of your glasses pass through, and a deeper frame so the glasses sit inside. I have skied this way, and I would not do it again at any prescription. The goggle pushes the arms onto the bone beside your ears, the nose pads carry the strap tension, loosening the strap trades pressure for a goggle that moves and lets air in, and the glasses fog in the sealed air behind the lens. About half an hour before one of those takes over the day. What each of those looks like, what the usual tips do about it, and where OTG is still enough, is on its own page: Ski goggles for glasses wearers: what actually works.
Option 2: contact lenses
If you already wear contacts comfortably, this is the simplest answer. Nothing to fit, nothing to fog, and the goggle is just a goggle.
Where it fails. Altitude, cold, wind and long days dry the eye, and dry eyes and contacts do not mix. Skiers who wear contacts daily at home report problems on the mountain they never get in town. Toric lenses for astigmatism dry faster still. There is also no reading zone, so if you wear progressives you lose the near vision for the phone, the map and the lift ticket.
Who it suits. Single vision, no astigmatism, already a comfortable contact wearer, and short days. That is a real group and I am not going to sell them an insert.
Option 3: a prescription ski goggle insert
This is what Banana Optics makes: the prescription ski goggle insert. A small frame carrying your prescription lenses that seats inside the goggle, behind the goggle's own lens. The goggle keeps its lens, its tint, its fog protection and its look. The insert carries the correction.
Why it works where OTG does not. The insert has no temples, so nothing presses on the sides of your head or your nose; it holds itself on four small arms against the inside of the goggle lens. It sits in the goggle's own dry, vented air, so it fogs far less than glasses do. And it is small and light: 16 g including lenses.
The part that matters, at every prescription. Most inserts hold the lens wherever the goggle happens to hold it, which is further from your eye than your glasses sit, and usually lower. Your prescription was measured with the lens at a set distance and centred on your pupil. Move it out by a centimetre and drop it a few millimetres and it is no longer quite your prescription: the power drifts, the centre is off, and the world tilts a little at the edges. You feel it as "something is wrong with these" long before you can name it. I feel it on my own prescription, which is not a high one.
My V3 insert adjusts in both directions. A ladder of holes in the bridge sets the lens to your pupil height. The insert holds itself with four arms resting against the inside of the goggle lens; without an adapter the prescription lens sits at its outermost position, and three push-on adapters, 5, 10 and 15 mm, bring it back to the distance your own glasses sit at. Above about ±4 and for any progressive the drift becomes a different prescription outright. Below that it is still the difference between an insert you forget you are wearing and one you keep fiddling with.
Before you buy any goggle insert, from Banana Optics or anyone else: only buy one that adjusts in height and in depth. A fixed insert puts the lens where the goggle wants it, not where your prescription was measured, and it will feel wrong. This is true at every prescription, not only high ones. The Banana Optics insert adjusts in both.
What it costs. Priced by the lens and made to your prescription in about two weeks. It moves between every goggle you own, so it is bought once. The product page has the lens options and prices; send me your values and I tell you the exact price before you pay anything.
Very high prescriptions. This is the case I specialise in, and the one every other option on this page handles worst. Sphere from +5 to -7.5 is my standard range. Beyond that I work with a specialist lens lab: cylinders to -8, prism, and the awkward combinations opticians turn away. Two things make it work. The lens has to sit at the distance your prescription was measured at, which is what the depth adapter sets. And each lens has to be centred on your own pupil, so I ask for monocular PD and monocular heights, and the lab centres each lens individually. Those lenses are made to order and excluded from returns, so I confirm everything with you first. The formulas, the dioptre limits and what to get from your optician are in the high prescription guide.
Which goggles. I have seated it in every goggle I have tried: Smith 4D MAG, Oakley Flight Deck M and Line Miner L, Smith Squad, Anon M4 Toric MFI, Oakley Fall Line M, the Smith Reason OTG, and a 100% Strata 2, which is a motocross and mountain bike goggle, not a snow one. Same insert, same seat. On the magnetic lens goggles, Smith MAG and Anon MFI, the lens still swaps with the insert in place. The full list with sizes and status is in the fit table. If yours is not on that list, send me the model and I will check.
Live Chat Email me your prescription Buy the insert
What I would actually buy
If I wore contacts happily and rode short days, I would keep wearing them, at any prescription. If I did not, I would use an insert, again at any prescription, because it is the only option that neither presses on my face nor dries my eyes. If I had astigmatism, a progressive, or anything above ±4, the insert gets its depth set properly. I would not put glasses under a goggle. I have, and half an hour is where it ends.
That is the honest version. If your row said insert, the product page is here: Prescription insert for ski and snowboard goggles. If you are not sure, send me your prescription and the goggle model first.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can you put prescription lenses in ski goggles?
Yes. A prescription insert seats behind the goggle lens and carries your prescription, so the goggle keeps its own lens, tint and anti-fog. It takes any prescription, including progressives and high cylinders, and it moves between goggles.
Do prescription inserts fog up?
Far less than glasses under a goggle. The insert sits in the goggle's own vented air with no arms and no second frame. It is not zero, nothing is, but it is not the fog problem OTG has.
Can I get progressive lenses in ski goggles?
Yes, in an insert. Not in contacts, and not well under an OTG goggle, because the reading zone ends up in the wrong place behind the lens.
Will an insert fit my goggle?
Very likely. It has seated in every goggle I have tried, across Smith, Oakley, Anon and 100%. Send me the model and I will confirm.
What about strong prescriptions?
The distance between lens and eye changes the effective power at every prescription, and above about ±4 the change is large enough to be a different prescription. The V3 insert's depth adapters put the lens back at the distance your prescription was measured at, and the height ladder centres it on your pupil. Very high values are what I specialise in: cylinders to -8 and prism through a specialist lab. Send me your values and I tell you what is possible before you order.
Do I need an adjustable insert?
Yes. Buy only an insert that adjusts in height and in depth, whoever makes it. The Banana Optics insert does both. A fixed insert holds the lens where the goggle happens to hold it, further out and lower than your glasses, and it feels wrong at any prescription. You will notice it on the first run.
Do prescription snowboard goggles work the same way?
Yes. A snowboard goggle is a ski goggle with different marketing. The insert seats the same way and the three options compare the same way.
What about motocross, mountain bike or paintball goggles?
Same three options, same verdicts. The insert has seated in a 100% Strata 2, which is a motocross and MTB goggle, exactly as it does in snow goggles.
What about goggles with the prescription ground into the goggle lens?
They exist, and I do not recommend them. The lens has to follow the goggle's steep curve, which limits the prescription and distorts the edges, the correction is locked to that one goggle, and most of what is sold as "direct glazed" is a second lens mounted behind the goggle lens anyway. An insert does that job without the limits.
Is an OTG goggle good enough?
Not in my experience, at any prescription. The goggle squeezes the frame onto the bone beside your ears and into your nose, and loosening the strap lets the goggle move and the air in. If you already own one, half an hour on the hill will tell you the same. The cheap alternative, if you wear them, is contacts.