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How to turn on Valet Mode on a Tesla, and what it changes

Valet Mode is a Tesla restriction profile the owner switches on before handing the car to someone else. Turn it on in two ways: at the touchscreen, by tapping the driver profile icon at the top of the screen, choosing Valet Mode, and setting a four-digit PIN; or from the Tesla mobile app while the car is in Park, where no PIN is asked for because the app session is already authenticated as you.

What it changes is the car, not who is allowed to drive it. Speed caps at 70 mph, the frunk and glovebox lock, Home and Work disappear from navigation, and the key list is hidden. A key card that worked before still works. Below: the exact steps, everything the mode restricts, and the one interaction nobody can answer honestly.

LAST REVIEWED AUGUST 16, 2026

What is Valet Mode on a Tesla?

Valet Mode is a restriction profile a Tesla owner switches on before handing the car to someone else. While it is active the car caps out at 70 mph with reduced drive power, the frunk and glovebox stay locked, saved Home and Work navigation destinations are hidden, driver profiles and the list of paired keys are hidden, and HomeLink and voice commands are disabled. The car still starts, drives, and parks normally in every other respect.

The distinction that matters is between a restriction and a lock. Valet Mode is the first one. It is designed for a short handover to a stranger with the owner’s permission — a podium, a hotel drive, a shuttle to an overflow deck — and it assumes the driver is supposed to be there. It is not a theft control, not an immobilizer, and not a substitute for knowing where the car went.

How do you put a Tesla in Valet Mode?

Two ways, and either one works. In the car, tap the driver profile icon at the top of the touchscreen, choose Valet Mode, and create or enter a four-digit PIN. From the Tesla mobile app, open the vehicle while it is in Park and switch Valet Mode on there. The app does not ask for the PIN, because the app session is already authenticated as the owner.

  1. Park the car and wake the touchscreenStart at the vehicle with the car in Park. Valet Mode is a touchscreen setting, so the sequence below happens in the driver's seat rather than on a phone.
  2. Tap the driver profile iconThe driver profile icon sits at the top of the touchscreen. Tapping it opens the profile menu, which is where Valet Mode lives — not under Controls, and not under Safety.
  3. Select Valet ModeChoose Valet Mode from that menu. The restrictions apply from the moment it is enabled, not retroactively to anything that already happened.
  4. Create or enter a four-digit PINThe first time, you set a four-digit PIN. Every time after that, you enter the same one. That PIN is what turns Valet Mode back off at the touchscreen, so it is worth choosing something you will still know at pickup.

The remote path is shorter and is the one most owners forget exists. Open the Tesla mobile app, confirm the car is in Park, and toggle Valet Mode there. Because the app is already signed in to your Tesla account, it does not prompt for the four-digit PIN — the authentication happened when you logged in. That also means you can enable Valet Mode after the car has already driven away, which is genuinely useful at a valet stand and worth knowing before you need it.

What does Valet Mode do?

It restricts the car, not the credential in the driver's hand. Speed is capped at 70 mph and acceleration is limited, the frunk and glovebox are locked, Home and Work destinations are hidden from navigation, driver profiles and the key list are hidden, HomeLink and voice commands are disabled, new Bluetooth and WiFi pairing is blocked, and the Mobile Access setting is locked so it cannot be changed from the touchscreen.

The full behavior list is documented at Not a Tesla App alongside the owner’s manual. Read it end to end and a pattern shows up: roughly half the list protects the owner’s data — addresses, profiles, keys, paired phones — and the other half limits what the car will physically do.

Which restriction is doing what

How does Valet Mode work once someone is driving?

The valet never enters a PIN. Tesla's owner's manual states that in Valet mode the car can be driven without the need for the valet to enter a driving PIN, and that the PIN to Drive setting is disabled whenever Valet mode is active. The glovebox lock has one owner-controlled exception: the manual states that using a Glovebox PIN allows the glovebox to be opened even when the car is in Valet mode.

Tesla’s Model S owner’s manual puts the PIN rule directly: “In Valet mode, Model S can be driven without the need for the valet to enter a driving PIN. The PIN to Drive setting is disabled whenever Valet mode is active” (tesla.com/ownersmanual). Owners who use PIN to Drive every day sometimes expect to stack the two features. They are mutually exclusive by design: PIN to Drive exists to stop a stranger from driving the car, and Valet Mode exists to hand it to one.

The glovebox has the one documented override. The same manual states: “Using a Glovebox PIN allows the glovebox to be opened even when Model S is in Valet mode.” If you need a valet or an installer to reach the glovebox, that setting — not Valet Mode itself — is the lever.

One more thing to expect, and it surprises people: a physical NFC key card still unlocks and drives the car normally while Valet Mode is on. That is widely documented by owners rather than spelled out in Tesla’s published documentation, so treat it as field knowledge — but plan around it. Valet Mode restricts what the car will do. It does not restrict who holds a working credential, and a key card cannot be remote-wiped and keeps no usage trail.

Does Valet Mode work the same on a Model Y?

Yes. Valet Mode is a touchscreen and mobile app feature rather than a per-model option, and Tesla documents the same behavior across the current lineup with only the vehicle name changed between manuals. On a Model Y the path is the one every other model uses: the driver profile icon at the top of the touchscreen, then Valet Mode, then a four-digit PIN — or the mobile app while the car is in Park.

The practical consequence for a Model Y owner is that nothing on this page needs translating. The driver profile icon is in the same place, the PIN is the same four digits, the app toggle is the same toggle, and the restriction list is the same list. Where model differences do appear on a Tesla — the key card reader location is the usual one — they are about hardware, not about this feature.

How do you turn Valet Mode off on a Tesla?

From the touchscreen, open Valet Mode again and enter the same four-digit PIN. From the Tesla mobile app, switch it off with no PIN at all. A forgotten PIN is widely reported by owners to be resettable using Tesla account credentials, but that path is not spelled out in Tesla's published documentation, so treat it as field knowledge rather than a guarantee you can make to a customer.

Two habits are worth building. Turn Valet Mode off yourself rather than asking the person returning the car to do it, because the PIN is yours and there is no reason to say it out loud. And check the frunk before you drive away: the lock releasing is the clearest signal that the mode is actually off.

What nobody can tell you: Sentry Mode

Sentry Mode behavior while Valet Mode is active is inconsistent across owner reports, and Tesla publishes no canonical answer. That is the whole of what can be said honestly. The long-running Tesla Motors Club thread asking exactly this question ran for years without resolving it (teslamotorsclub.com), owners describe different behavior across cars and software versions, and there is no Tesla documentation that settles it.

So do not assume your car is recording during a valet window, and do not assume it is not. If a stand, a shop, or a piece of software tells a customer their Tesla is being recorded while Valet Mode is on, that claim is not supported by anything published. We refuse to make it, which is why a GuestLot receipt reads “not recorded” for Sentry rather than implying a witness we do not have.

When Valet Mode is the wrong choice

Valet Mode is right for a valet stand and wrong for a body shop, and the deciding factor is the frunk. At a podium nobody needs to open it, so the lock costs nothing and the speed cap does real work on a run to an overflow deck — the case for it is laid out on the valet operators page. On a PPF, wrap, or collision job the crew is in and out of the frunk, the trunk, the glovebox, and all four doors continuously for days. Turning Valet Mode on for that work trades a speed limit nobody needed for a full day of friction, which is the argument in Valet Mode vs Service Mode.

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