Dubai Metro rides are paid for with a nol card, and the price is set by the tier of your journey: the further you go, the more it costs. Let’s break down what the metro costs, how zones and tiers work, whether single rides, a day pass or a season pass is better value, and why comparing the metro with a taxi by total fare simply doesn’t work.
Every figure below was checked on 24 September 2026 against two official RTA sources: the nol fares page and the brochure Dubai Metro and Tram — Fares, Fines and Etiquette. Fares change, so it is worth opening them again before you travel.
This is a companion piece to our Dubai Metro — the complete guide; that one also covers lines, timetables and transfers.
How the price is calculated: zones and tiers
The network is divided into 7 fare zones, but in the RTA tariff the price is set not by the zone count directly but by the tier of the journey:
- Tier 1 — travel within one zone, or crossing two zones if the distance is less than 3 km;
- Tier 2 — starts in one zone and ends in a neighbouring one;
- Tier 3 — crosses three zones or more.
The fare is worked out when you leave: you tap your nol card on entry and on exit, the system determines the tier and deducts the amount. Failing to check in or out carries a fine of AED 200. The RTA brochure puts it word for word: “Tap to check-in/out your nol card or ticket on the gates at the metro and tram stations before and after you travel. Failing to do so carries a fine of AED 200.” The rule is written for metro and tram gates specifically. The minimum e-wallet balance that will let you through the gate is 7.5 AED.
For exactly how the zone borders run and which stations belong where, see the metro map and zones piece, and station locations are easy to check on the interactive metro on the map.
Fares per trip
| Tier | Silver and Blue | Gold class | Red Ticket | Red Ticket, Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 3 AED | 6 AED | 4 AED | 8 AED |
| Tier 2 | 5 AED | 10 AED | 6 AED | 12 AED |
| Tier 3 | 7.5 AED | 15 AED | 8.5 AED | 17 AED |
The personalised Blue card gives no discount by itself: an ordinary trip on it costs the same 3 / 5 / 7.5 AED as on a Silver card. The half fare — 1.5 / 2.5 / 3.75 AED — is the rate for specific categories: senior residents, students and social-affairs beneficiaries. The personalised card exists precisely to prove that entitlement with documents; for a tourist it offers nothing. Passes for the same categories are halved too: 30 days costs 70 / 115 / 175 AED instead of 140 / 230 / 350.
Children under 5 years old or shorter than 90 cm travel free on the metro and tram.
The takeaway: most tourist routes in the centre fall into Tier 1–2, meaning 3–5 AED per ride. Longer hauls — from the airport to the Marina, for instance — are Tier 3 at 7.5 AED.
Transfers: three of them, 30 minutes, 180 minutes overall
Each card or ticket grants three free transfers between different modes of transport — metro and tram, metro and bus, tram and bus. RTA allows 30 minutes for the transfer itself, and the maximum duration of the whole journey is 180 minutes. Both figures come from the RTA tariff.
In practice: a metro-plus-tram trip out to JBR is charged as one journey rather than two, provided you stay inside those limits.
A day pass, not a “daily cap”
There is no automatic daily cap in the RTA fare tables. If you have come across the claim that Silver and Blue cards never charge more than 14 AED a day, it is not supported by the official tariff, and we have removed it.
What does exist is a 1-day pass loaded onto a Red Ticket:
- 20 AED in regular class, 40 AED in Gold class;
- an unlimited number of trips during a single day;
- activated on the date of travel and valid until midnight on that same day;
- a single Red Ticket holds up to 10 trips or up to 5 day passes.
The maths is simple: three long trips at 7.5 AED come to 22.5 AED, so the day pass pays for itself from the third cross-city trip onwards. If you make one or two trips a day, you do not need it.
Passes
| Period | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | All zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | 50 AED | 80 AED | 110 AED |
| 30 days | 140 AED | 230 AED | 350 AED |
| 90 days | 330 AED | 550 AED | 830 AED |
| 365 days | 1,060 AED | 1,770 AED | 2,670 AED |
The Gold-class version costs roughly double: 7 days — 100 / 160 / 220 AED, 30 days — 280 / 460 / 700 AED, 90 days — 660 / 1,100 / 1,660 AED, a year — 2,120 / 3,540 / 5,340 AED.
One important detail: the 30, 90 and 365-day passes are sold only to holders of registered cards. One-time registration costs 30 AED. The 7-day pass needs no registration.
For a tourist on a week-long trip a pass almost never pays off — it is easier to pay as you go, or buy a day pass for your busiest day. For a detailed look at which card type to choose, see the nol card: types and top-up guide.
Red Ticket for one-off rides
A paper Red Ticket costs 2 AED to issue, and the fare for your trip is loaded on top of that straight away. The example given in the RTA brochure: a ticket with a single Tier 1 trip comes to 6 AED — 2 AED for the ticket plus 4 AED of fare.
What to know about the red ticket:
- it is valid for 90 days from purchase;
- you can reload it with up to 10 trips or up to 5 day passes;
- it works on only one mode of transport at a time — metro, tram or bus;
- each trip costs more than on a silver card: 4 / 6 / 8.5 AED against 3 / 5 / 7.5 AED.
The Red Ticket is handy as a “bare-minimum ticket”, but for regular trips a silver card works out cheaper by the second or third day.
Gold class (×2)
The front carriage of the train is Gold class: fewer people, soft seats, panoramic windows and a forward view. The price is exactly double the standard one: 6 / 10 / 15 AED per ride, with the all-zones pass at 700 AED.
To ride in Gold you need a Gold nol card or a Blue Gold card. Sitting in areas designated for specific categories of passenger — Gold class and the women-and-children carriage — without being entitled to do so is on the RTA list of offences that carry a fine.
Why we don’t compare the metro with taxis by total fare
The metro is cheaper than a taxi; that much is obvious. But you cannot state the cost of a specific taxi trip in advance — and not because the tariff is secret. The tariff is published: the starting fare, the per-kilometre rate and the minimum. What is unknown is the conditions of your trip: its length, the time of day, the time spent in traffic and the number of Salik gates on the way, which are billed separately.
What the RTA taxi fare page confirmed on 24 September 2026:
| Booking channel | Starting fare |
|---|---|
| Road pickup, daytime | from 5 AED |
| Road pickup, night | from 5.5 AED |
| E-hail app | from 9 to 13 AED depending on day and time |
| Airport taxi | from 20 AED, van from 25 AED |
| Port Rashid | from 25 AED |
These are starting fares, not trip costs. On top of them comes the distance charge: 2.45 AED per kilometre under the tariff of Dubai Taxi Company, the largest city operator, as published on 24 September 2026. We do not extend that figure to every operator — the RTA licenses several companies and separately notes that the meter rate per kilometre is tied to the monthly fuel price. The minimum fare is 12 AED for a road pickup and 13 AED via the app; waiting time is 50 fils per minute.
An earlier version of this article carried a table quoting “taxi roughly 12–20 / 30–50 / 80–110 AED” — those figures are not supported by the official tariff, so we have removed them: you can multiply the rate by the distance, but we do not know your distance or your traffic. For the full breakdown of expenses, see the Dubai transport guide.
How to save
- Take a silver card instead of Gold — the same route costs half as much.
- Count the tiers when planning — choose your hotel and stations so that frequent trips stay within Tier 1–2.
- On a busy day buy the 20 AED day pass — it pays for itself from the third long trip.
- Stay inside the 30-minute transfer window — then metro, tram and bus count as one journey.
- A pass is only for long visits; 30 days and longer require a registered card.
A silver card costs 25 AED to buy, of which 19 AED is credited to your balance straight away. The card is valid for 5 years and holds up to 1,000 AED (up to 5,000 AED if registered).
For how the metro cost fits into your overall holiday expenses, see the Dubai trip budget piece.
