Yes. Costa Del Mar's sunglass range is polarized across the board — there is no non-polarized Costa sunglass lens to accidentally buy. The confusion comes from the lens etching: "580P" means polycarbonate, not polarized, and a lens etched "580" with no P is the glass version. Both are polarized. If you want one pair, buy the Fantail in 580P; choose 580G glass only if scratch resistance and optics matter more to you than weight.
This is one of the most useful things to know about buying at this price, because it removes the single biggest risk. With Ray-Ban and with Oakley, polarization is an option you have to select, and people regularly spend $200 and come home with a plain tint. With Costa that cannot happen. The brand's own lens technology page is the primary source, and SportRx's breakdown of the 580 range states it explicitly: all of Costa's sunglasses are polarized, so the "P" refers to polycarbonate rather than polarization.
How to read a Costa lens in five seconds
Look at the top left of the lens. An etched 580P is the polycarbonate lens: lighter, cheaper, impact-resistant, and the right default for most people and for anything where a hook or a thrown lure could reach your face. An etched 580with no letter is the glass lens, sold as 580G: heavier, the most scratch-resistant option Costa makes, and the most optically true. SportRx notes Costa's claim that its glass is appreciably thinner and lighter than other polarized glass lenses, which narrows the weight penalty without erasing it.
The 580 number itself refers to the light the lens filters rather than the material. Costa describes the lens as cutting a specific band of yellow light to lift the contrast anglers rely on; SportRx quotes a 99.9% polarization efficiency figure for the range and notes that the lenses block UVA, UVB and UVC and filter blue light. Those are the maker's and the retailer's published claims — we have not measured them, and we do not run a lab.
What "all polarized" actually costs you
It is worth being even-handed: an always-polarized range is a constraint as well as a feature. A polarized lens dims LCD screens, so a chartplotter, a fish finder, a phone at a gas pump and a car dashboard will all look darker through any Costa, and there is no Costa SKU that avoids it. For an angler reading a sonar screen in bright sun this is a real nuisance, and the usual workaround is tilting your head to rotate the filter rather than removing the glasses.
If being able to choosenon-polarized matters to you — because you ride with a bike computer, read a rangefinder on a tee, or want surface reflections for reading wet ground — then Costa is the wrong brand and Oakley is the obvious alternative, since much of its Prizm sport range is deliberately unpolarized. We set the two against each other in Costa vs Oakley.
580P or 580G: how to actually choose
Buy 580P polycarbonate if you want the lighter pair, if you are around fast-moving hooks, lures or balls, if the pair will be worn for whole days, or if you would rather spend less. It is the default for a reason.
Buy 580G glass if you are hard on lenses and keep pairs for years, if you spend long sessions sight-fishing and want the most optically honest view available, and if you can live with the extra weight on your nose. Glass will chip or break under a hard impact rather than flex, which is the real argument against it in sport. Our glass lens sunglasses guide makes that case in both directions, and best lens color for fishing matters more than the material for whether you see fish.
Is Costa the right brand at all?
If you fish, it is one of two or three right answers — and it is not the only one. Bajío, founded by former Costa people, builds its LAPIS lens around blocking blue light as well as polarizing, and its glass option is directly comparable; we compare them in Costa vs Bajío. Maui Jim is the other premium alternative and the comparison turns on lens material — see Costa vs Maui Jim.
And if the price is the problem, say so plainly: the Huk Spearpoint in the picks above is polarized, mirrored and performance-framed at roughly a quarter of a Costa, and a KastKing at a tenth still removes the same reflected glare. What you lose is tint engineering, coating life and frame refinement, not the fundamental filter. The whole ladder is in the fishing sunglasses roundup and are Costa sunglasses worth it.
The short version
Every Costa sunglass is polarized. 580P is polycarbonate, 580 is glass, and the number refers to the light the lens filters. You cannot buy an unpolarized Costa by mistake, which is worth real money at this price point; the flip side is that you cannot buy a non-polarized one on purpose either.
