Dubai metro and nol fares: the whole grid
A single journey on a Silver nol card costs AED 3 inside one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones and AED 7.50 beyond that. A Gold card is exactly double at every tier — AED 6, 10 and 15 — and buys a seat in the front cabin, nothing else. The Red ticket, the paper one sold to visitors, is the most expensive way to travel: AED 4, 6 and 8.50. Children of five and under travel free on every card type.
Single journey, by card and distance
| Card | Within 1 zone | 2 adjacent zones | More than 2 zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | AED 3 | AED 5 | AED 7.50 |
| Personal (Blue) | AED 3 | AED 5 | AED 7.50 |
| Gold | AED 6 | AED 10 | AED 15 |
| Red ticket | AED 4 | AED 6 | AED 8.50 |
Two things fall straight out of that table. Gold is a flat 100% surcharge, not a small premium: on a long trip it is AED 7.50 extra each way for a different carriage. And the Red ticket, which is what most visitors are sold at the gate, costs a third more than Silver on a one-zone hop — so a stay of more than about four journeys pays for a Silver card several times over.
Passes, cell by cell
RTA publishes every cell of the pass grid, which almost no guide reproduces in full:
| Duration | 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 |
| Duration | 1 zone | 2 zones | All zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | AED 100 | AED 160 | AED 220 |
| 30 days | AED 280 | AED 460 | AED 700 |
| 90 days | AED 660 | AED 1,100 | AED 1,660 |
| 365 days | AED 2,120 | AED 3,540 | AED 5,340 |
The all-zones seven-day Silver pass at AED 110 is the one worth doing the arithmetic on. It is our sum, not RTA’s: at AED 7.50 a journey it pays for itself on the fifteenth long trip, so a week of two long journeys a day — fourteen — just misses. Add one airport run and it wins.
Transfers
Changing between modes is charged as one journey if you are quick about it. RTA states that travelling between two different modes of transport must be done within 30 minutes: after checking out of the metro you have half an hour to check in on a bus, and if you make it, “your metro and bus trips will be charged as a single journey”. A maximum of three transfers is allowed regardless of distance.
Who pays less, and on which card
The discounts are tied to the card, not to the person, which is the part that catches people out:
- Students and seniors: 50% off — on a Personal (Blue) card only. The discount does not exist on Silver or Gold, so buying the convenient card loses it.
- People of Determination: free travel — again on a Personal card only.
- Children five and under: free on every card type.
A Personal card has to be applied for with proof of eligibility, which is why so many people entitled to half-price travel are paying full price on a Silver card bought from a machine.
An old RTA fare table is still online
RTA’s own Dubai Metro brochure is still published on rta.ae, and it is stamped “Updated September 2011”. It prints a different fare structure — four tiers including one for journeys of 3 km or less, which no longer appears anywhere on the current fares page — at roughly half today’s prices:
| Journey | Silver, 2011 brochure | Silver, current page |
|---|---|---|
| 3 km or less | AED 1.80 | No such tier |
| Within one zone | AED 2.30 | AED 3 |
| Two adjacent zones | AED 4.10 | AED 5 |
| More than two zones | AED 5.80 | AED 7.50 |
The brochure also prices the Red ticket as a flat AED 2 at every tier, against AED 4 to 8.50 now. It describes a two-line network and does not mention the Blue Line at all. Both documents sit on the same domain and both look official; the fares page is the maintained one, and the figures at the top of this page come from it. We are publishing the old grid only so that anyone who lands on that PDF can see immediately that it is fifteen years out of date.
The thing RTA does not publish usefully
Every fare above depends on knowing how many zones your journey crosses, and RTA does not publish a station-to-zone list you can read. The zone map exists as an image rather than as text, so there is no way to look up your station and get a number back. The practical effect is that the grid is exact and the input to it is a guess.
We are not filling that gap by drawing our own map: a hand-made mapping of seventy-odd stations would be our guess presented as a fact, and a single wrong station would be a wrong fare. If RTA publishes the zones in readable form, that table appears here.
If you are not taking the metro: taxi starting charges by hour, what a Salik gate costs, and mall parking rates and validation.
Fares and zone boundaries are transcribed from RTA. They are not advice on which product to buy, and RTA changes both without a notice period.
More in Getting around
See everything in Getting around.
Common questions
How much is a Dubai metro ticket?
On a Silver nol card, AED 3 inside one zone, AED 5 across two adjacent zones and AED 7.50 beyond that. The paper Red Ticket sold to visitors is dearer at every tier: AED 4, 6 and 8.50.
Is a Gold nol card worth it?
It costs exactly double at every tier — AED 6, 10 and 15 — and buys a seat in the front cabin and nothing else. On buses the Gold surcharge does not apply at all, so a Gold card buys nothing there.
Do children pay on the Dubai metro?
Children of five and under travel free on every card type. Students, UAE national senior citizens and residents get 50% off with a Personal card; people of determination travel free.
Which nol zone am I in?
We cannot tell you, and we will not guess. RTA publishes the full fare grid as readable text but publishes the station-to-zone map only as an image. A hand-made mapping of seventy-odd stations would be our guess presented as a fact.
Why do some sites quote lower Dubai metro fares?
Because RTA's own metro brochure, stamped “Updated September 2011”, is still online and prints Silver fares of 2.30, 4.10 and 5.80 in a four-band structure that no longer exists.