NOL Fare Calculator
Work out any Dubai Metro, tram or bus fare before you travel. A Silver NOL card pays AED 3 within one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones and AED 7.50 beyond that, and this calculator counts the zones for you from the official RTA zone map rather than guessing at distance.
- Zones read from the official RTA map
- Every card priced, including Gold Class and concessions
- Daily cap and pass break even worked out for you
- Checked against RTA fares on every build
How to use the nol fare calculator
- Pick metro, tram or busMetro and tram ask for two stations. Bus asks how many zones the route touches.
- Choose your stationsAll 55 metro stations and 11 tram stops are listed with their zone number beside the name.
- Select your card and journey typeSilver, Blue Personal, Gold, Red Ticket, Red Ticket Gold or a 50% concession, one way or return.
- Read the fare and the comparisonYou get the fare, the zones touched, the journey time, and what every other card would pay for the same trip.
How Dubai Metro fares are calculated
RTA charges by the number of fare zones a journey touches, not by distance or by the number of stops. Dubai is divided into seven zones; four of them hold rail stations. A trip inside one zone costs AED 3 on a Silver or Blue card, a trip across two adjacent zones AED 5, and anything touching more than two zones AED 7.50. That is why Mall of the Emirates to Ibn Battuta, seven stops apart, costs the same AED 3 as one stop from Union to Al Rigga: both sit inside a single zone.
The zone count is what the calculator works out first, using the same station data as the route planner. It finds the fastest route between your two stations, lists the zones along that path and counts the distinct ones. Two stations at opposite ends of the same zone still count as one zone. Airport Terminal 3 to Burj Khalifa crosses from Zone 5 into Zone 6, so it is a two zone trip at AED 5.
NOL fares by card type in 2026
Silver and Blue Personal cards pay the standard fare. A Gold card doubles it on the metro and tram in exchange for the front cabin, but pays the Silver rate on buses. A Red Ticket costs more per trip because it carries no stored balance. Students, seniors over 60 and Social Affairs beneficiaries pay half the Silver fare on a Blue card, and People of Determination travel free.
| Card | Within 1 zone | 2 adjacent zones | More than 2 zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver / Blue Personal | AED 3 | AED 5 | AED 7.50 |
| Gold (Gold Class) | AED 6 | AED 10 | AED 15 |
| Red Ticket | AED 4 | AED 6 | AED 8.50 |
| Red Ticket Gold | AED 8 | AED 12 | AED 17 |
| Concession (50%) | AED 1.50 | AED 2.50 | AED 3.75 |
Based on RTA nol Fares, fetched August 2026.
Why one journey can cover metro, tram and bus
A change of mode does not always mean a second fare. RTA treats connected legs as one journey when each transfer starts within 30 minutes of the previous check out, with at most 3 transfers and 180 minutes from first tap to last. The fare is then charged once, for all the zones the combined journey touched.
Miss the 30 minute window and the next leg starts a fresh journey at a fresh fare, which is one of the common surprises covered in the Dubai Metro fares guide. A metro trip from Zone 5 to Zone 6 followed by a bus inside Zone 6 costs AED 5 as one journey, or AED 5 plus AED 3 as two.
The daily cap, and why it carries a caveat
RTA's tariff revision put a daily ceiling on NOL spending: AED 20 on a Silver or Blue card and AED 40 on Gold. Four long trips in a day would otherwise cost AED 7.50 each, so the cap saves real money for commuters crossing the city twice.
This figure comes from the 2014 tariff announcement and is not restated on RTA's current fares page. The calculator applies it and labels it, because reporting an unconfirmed number as fact would be worse than showing the caveat. A travel pass removes the question entirely for regular commuters.
The formula behind this calculator
Fare equals the RTA tier rate for the number of distinct zones the journey touches, multiplied by the card factor, doubled for a return. Zones come from the shading on RTA's rail network map published December 2025, station by station, stored as a data file rather than typed into the page. Two stations sit on a zone edge, Danube and Jumeirah Golf Estates; when either is your origin or destination the calculator takes the zone that gives the lower fare, which is how a gate behaves in practice.
Journey time is not estimated. Each pair of neighbouring stations carries the gap between their last train times in RTA's own timetable, serial REG_20251215, so a full Red Line run from centrepoint to Expo 2020 comes out at the same 79 minutes RTA prints. Interchanges add a labelled allowance for the walk and the wait, the one figure here that is an estimate rather than a published number.
Every output is checked against a fixed set of 3 tier rates and a suite of test cases that runs on every build, including worked examples that match published route fares such as Airport Terminal 3 to Burj Khalifa at AED 5 on Silver and AED 10 in Gold Class.
Sources: RTA nol Fares, the RTA rail network map published December 2025 and the RTA metro and tram timetable. How we test these numbers.
What this page does not do
- Fares are calculated from published RTA rates and can change; the gate display is always the final word.
- The daily cap and the under 3 km rule date from the 2014 tariff revision and are labelled where they appear.
- Interchange walking and waiting time is an estimate; every other minute figure comes from the RTA timetable.
- Intercity routes to other emirates, Hatta express buses and marine transport use separate fares that this calculator does not cover.
Estimates only, not official RTA confirmation. Check the gate display or rta.ae before you rely on a figure. Read the disclaimer.
Related tools and guides
Dubai Metro Route Planner: Fare, Time, Interchange
Plan any trip across 55 metro and 11 tram stations: route, stops, minutes from the RTA timetable, where to change, and the fare for every card.
Dubai Metro Zones Explained: How Fares Are Counted
Dubai has 7 fare zones but only Zones 1, 2, 5 and 6 have metro stations. How zones crossed set the fare, with Mall of the Emirates to Dubai Mall.
NOL Monthly Pass 2026: Prices, Zones, Break Even
Every NOL pass price from 7 to 365 days and 1 zone to all zones, Silver AED 140 to 2,670, Gold and concession rates, plus a break even calculator.
NOL Fare Calculator questions
How much is a Dubai Metro ticket?
On a Silver or Blue NOL card, AED 3 within one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones and AED 7.50 for anything longer. Gold Class doubles those. A Red Ticket costs AED 4 to AED 8.50.
How many zones does my trip cross?
Enter both stations above and the calculator counts the distinct zones on the fastest route. Only zones 1, 2, 5 and 6 contain rail stations, so most metro trips touch one, two or three of them.
Is the bus fare the same as the metro fare?
Yes, buses use the same zone table. The exception is route 110 at a flat AED 2 and the Hatta express at AED 25, neither of which accepts travel passes.
What is the most I can spend in a day?
AED 20 on a Silver or Blue card and AED 40 on Gold, according to RTA's 2014 tariff revision. The figure is not repeated on the current RTA fares page, so we show it with that caveat.
Why was I charged more than the calculator said?
The usual cause is a missed check out, which charges the maximum fare for the line, or a transfer that fell outside the 30 minute window and became a second journey. Gold Class cards also pay double automatically, even in a standard cabin.
Do children pay on the Dubai Metro?
Children aged 5 and under travel free and need no card. From age 5 a student Blue card gives 50% off, so AED 1.50 to AED 3.75 a trip.
Does a return trip cost less than two singles?
No. RTA has no return discount, so a return is exactly twice the single fare. Passes are where the saving is: at roughly 44 trips a month a 2 zone pass at AED 230 starts to compete with paying per trip.