Dubai Metro Fares
A Dubai Metro fare is AED 3, AED 5 or AED 7.50 on a Silver or Blue NOL card, and the figure you pay depends on how many fare zones your journey touches rather than how far you travel. Gold Class doubles it, a paper Red Ticket adds about a dirham a trip, and students and seniors pay half. Every price below comes from RTA's published fare table.
Every Dubai Metro fare by card and zone
RTA prices journeys in three tiers: inside one zone, across two adjacent zones, and anything that touches more than two. Silver and Blue Personal cards share the cheapest adult column. A Gold card pays exactly double for the front cabin on metro and tram, though on a bus it reverts to the standard fare. A Red Ticket sits between the two because it is a paper ticket bought for a short stay.
Concession holders pay half the Silver fare: students aged 5 to 23 enrolled in the UAE, residents and Emiratis aged 60 and over, and Social Affairs beneficiaries, all on a Blue card. Children aged 5 or under and People of Determination travel free and need no ticket at all. The wider Dubai Metro guide collects timings, zones and rules in one place.
| Journey | Silver or Blue | Gold Class | Red Ticket | Red Ticket Gold | Concession |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Within 1 zone | AED 3 | AED 6 | AED 4 | AED 8 | AED 1.50 |
| 2 adjacent zones | AED 5 | AED 10 | AED 6 | AED 12 | AED 2.50 |
| More than 2 zones | AED 7.50 | AED 15 | AED 8.50 | AED 17 | AED 3.75 |
Based on RTA nol Fares, fetched 21 August 2026. Returns are simply twice the single fare.
Why zones set the price, not distance
Dubai is split into seven RTA fare zones, and only four of them hold a rail station: 1, 2, 5 and 6. The gate counts the distinct zones on your path and charges the matching tier. Mall of the Emirates to Ibn Battuta is nine stops but stays inside Zone 2, so it costs AED 3. Union to BurJuman is one stop, but the creek is the boundary between zones 5 and 6, so it costs AED 5.
Two stations sit on a zone edge. Danube and Jumeirah Golf Estates are drawn on the 1 and 2 boundary, and when either is the start or the end of a trip the cheaper of the two zones applies. A line change never adds a zone by itself, so Creek to Business Bay through BurJuman stays inside Zone 6 for a single zone fare. The zone system is set out in full here.
Zone 5 covers Deira, Al Qusais and both airport stations. Zone 6 runs from Bur Dubai through Zabeel and Downtown to Business Bay. Zone 2 stretches from Al Safa to Jebel Ali and holds Mall of the Emirates, the Marina, DMCC and all 11 tram stops. Zone 1 is the far south west corner around Jebel Ali Industrial, Dubai Investment Park and Expo City. Zones 3, 4 and 7 appear on the fare map but carry buses only, so no metro fare ever involves them.
Transfers count as one journey
A metro trip, a tram ride and a bus leg can add up to a single fare. RTA treats them as one journey when each transfer happens within 30 minutes of the previous check out, the trip includes no more than 3 transfers, and the whole thing finishes inside 180 minutes.
That rule is what makes the tram links at DMCC and Sobha Realty painless. A Gold card is not charged the premium twice for the same zone on a tram to metro transfer either. Miss the 30 minute window and the next leg starts a fresh journey with a fresh fare, which is the usual reason a day costs more than expected.
The clock starts at the check out, not at the check in, so a long wait for a connecting bus is what usually breaks the chain. A metro leg followed by a bus leg 25 minutes later is one fare; the same pair 35 minutes apart is two. The rule applies across metro, tram and bus in any order, which is why a Marina to Deira trip with a tram leg at the start still prices as one journey on the zones it touches.
The daily fare cap and the caveat attached to it
A daily ceiling of AED 20 on Silver and Blue cards and AED 40 on Gold has been quoted since RTA's tariff revision of November 2014. It is not restated on the current RTA fares page, so we show it as a 2014 figure rather than a confirmed 2026 one.
The same 2014 source carries the short trip rule, under which a journey of less than 3 km across adjacent zones is charged as one zone. Neither rule appears in RTA's current wording. Plan around the published single fares and treat a lower deduction as a bonus rather than a promise.
Passes behave differently from a cap. A travel pass covers unlimited rides inside the zones it was bought for, and any leg outside those zones is charged at the normal single fare on top. That is a published rule rather than a 2014 one, which makes a pass the reliable way to fix a daily ceiling on cost.
Passes and the cheapest way to ride every day
Above roughly two trips a day, a travel pass wins. A 30 day pass costs AED 140 for one zone, AED 230 for two zones and AED 350 for all zones on a Silver card. Against a AED 5 two zone fare, the two zone pass pays for itself at 46 trips, which is about 11 working days there and back.
One catch: an anonymous Silver or Gold card can hold the 7 day pass only. The 30, 90 and 365 day passes need a registered or Blue Personal card. The pass calculator works out the break even point for your own pattern, and the day pass page covers the Red Ticket options for a single busy day.
| Pass length | 1 zone | 2 zones | All zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | AED 50 | AED 80 | AED 110 |
| 30 days | AED 140 | AED 230 | AED 350 |
| 90 days | AED 330 | AED 550 | AED 830 |
| 365 days | AED 1,060 | AED 1,770 | AED 2,670 |
Silver and Blue prices from RTA nol Fares and service 648. Gold Class is double, concessions are half.
Worked examples on real routes
Airport Terminal 3 to Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall touches Zone 5 and Zone 6, two adjacent zones, so it costs AED 5 on a Silver card and AED 5 again on the way back. On a Red Ticket that same trip is AED 6, and in Gold Class it is AED 10.
centrepoint to Expo 2020 runs through zones 5, 6, 2 and 1, so it lands in the top tier at AED 7.50. Dubai Marina to Mall of the Emirates never leaves Zone 2 and costs AED 3. Any tram ride is a Zone 2 trip at AED 3, because all 11 tram stops sit in the same zone. Price your own pair of stations here.
Return trips carry no discount. A two zone commute costs AED 5 each way, so 22 working days there and back come to 44 legs, just under the 46 that a AED 230 monthly pass has to cover before it pays for itself. Add a weekend trip or two and the pass moves ahead.
What the fare table does not tell you
The published tiers are clean, but the zone boundaries behind them are not. RTA does not publish a station to zone table, so every zone on this site is read from the shading on the official rail network map of December 2025. Union, BurJuman and Al Ghubaiba sit close enough to the creek boundary that older sources list them in two zones at once, and a tap at the gate is the only way to settle it.
The daily cap is the bigger gap. Anyone planning a heavy day on the assumption of a AED 20 ceiling is relying on a figure last confirmed in 2014. Load enough credit for the full unaided total, and keep at least AED 7.50 on the card at all times or the gate will not let you in.
Keep reading
NOL Card Balance Check Online 2026: RTA Dubai
Check your NOL card balance with the 10 digit tag ID, then open the official RTA page. Minimum balance AED 7.50, every method, updated August 2026.
NOL Fare Calculator 2026: Dubai Metro, Bus, Tram
Work out any Dubai Metro, bus or tram fare by zone and card type: Silver AED 3 to 7.50, Gold double, Red Ticket, concessions. Updated August 2026.
NOL Card and Dubai Metro Questions and Answers
Straight answers on NOL balance checks, tag IDs, fares, zones, passes, refunds, lost cards, expiry and how our calculators are tested against RTA.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a Dubai Metro ticket in 2026?
AED 3 inside one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones and AED 7.50 for anything longer, on a Silver or Blue NOL card. A Red Ticket costs AED 4 to AED 8.50 for the same journeys.
How much is the metro from Dubai airport to Dubai Mall?
AED 5 on a Silver card. Airport Terminal 3 is in Zone 5 and Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall is in Zone 6, two adjacent zones. The ride takes about 26 minutes on the Red Line with no change.
Is Gold Class worth double the fare?
It costs AED 6 to AED 15 against AED 3 to AED 7.50 standard. The extra buys a near certain seat in the front cabin during peak hours on the Red Line, and very little at 14:00 on a Tuesday when the standard cabins are half empty.
Does the Dubai Metro still have a daily fare cap?
The last official statement of a cap was RTA's 2014 tariff revision, at AED 20 for Silver and Blue and AED 40 for Gold. RTA's current fares page does not repeat it, so we label it as a 2014 figure rather than a confirmed one.
How much credit do I need to pass the gate?
AED 7.50 on a Silver, Gold or Blue card. A Blue Personal card can open the gate down to AED 3.50 in some cases, but the safe figure to keep loaded is AED 7.50.
Do I pay twice if I change from metro to tram?
No, as long as you tap onto the tram within 30 minutes of tapping out of the metro. The two legs count as one journey, priced on the total zones touched, with up to 3 transfers inside 180 minutes.
Are metro and bus fares the same in Dubai?
The zone table is shared, so a two zone bus trip costs the same AED 5 as the metro. Route 110 to Expo is a flat AED 2, and a Gold card gets no premium cabin on a bus so it pays the standard fare there.