Optical and electrical properties of electrochemically lithium ion intercalated thin films of x-ray amorphous tungsten oxide made by magnetron sputtering on glass substrates coated with a thin layer of conductive tin doped indium oxide, have been studied. The composition and the density of the films were characterized by the ion beam analysis methods Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy and Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis. The optical properties, transmittance and reflectance were investigated by spectophotometry in the wavelength range 300-2500 nm. The absorption coefficients were calculated at different lithium intercalation levels. It was found that the absorption coefficient in an as-deposited blue film has a similar asymmetric shape as for films intercalated to a Li/W ratio of ~0.03. It was possible to electrochemically bleach this film to transparency. Stoichiometric films show optical irreversibility between the bleached and the colored state in the first cycle. A polaron absorption model has been compared to the absorption coefficient for films of different intercalation levels. An increase in the Fermi level and in the polaron band width, and a nearly constant activation energy was found as the Li/W value increased. The radius of the polaron wavefunction for different lithium intercalation levels and film compositions has been estimated from electrical measurements. The total absorption coefficient has been compared to the site-saturation model. The model is good for films intercalated in the optically reversible region. A modified site-saturation model that could be applied also in the optically irreversible region and involves electron transitions between W6+, W5+ and W4+ sites, has also been compared to experimental values. It was found that the total absorption, optical density and the coloration efficiency is higher for the WO2.63 film than in the less oxygen deficient films and that this film is optically more durable in an electrochemically cyclic lifetime device test.