Salik: what a toll gate crossing costs
Crossing a Salik gate costs AED 6 at peak — Monday to Saturday, 06:00–10:00 and 16:00–20:00 — and AED 4 at every other time. Sunday is a flat AED 4 all day. Between 01:00 and 06:00 every day, gates are free. Salik moved to this variable pricing on 31 January 2025; before that every crossing was one rate.
The rates
| When | Days | Charge |
|---|---|---|
| Peak — 06:00–10:00 | Monday to Saturday | AED 6 |
| Peak — 16:00–20:00 | Monday to Saturday | AED 6 |
| All other hours | Monday to Saturday | AED 4 |
| All day | Sunday | AED 4 |
| 01:00–06:00 | Every day | Free |
The free window is the detail worth knowing and the one least often mentioned. A drive that crosses three gates costs AED 18 at 08:00 on a Tuesday — three RTA charges of AED 6, added by us — and nothing at all at 05:30.
The parts of Salik with no published figure
The per-crossing rate is the well-documented half of this system. The half that catches people out is not documented at all:
- What a hire car company adds. Salik is charged to the vehicle, so a crossing made in a rental is passed on to you — but no hire company publishes a standard handling fee, and the authority does not regulate one. Ask before you sign, because this is where a AED 4 toll becomes something else.
- How a toll reaches a metered taxi fare. The crossing is charged to the taxi; neither RTA nor the operators publish how it is added to your fare.
- The penalty for an insufficient balance. Salik publishes that an account must carry credit. The consequence of crossing without it is not published as a figure on the pages a visitor reaches.
- Whether a gate is on your route. There is no published route planner that prices a journey's tolls in advance. The gate list exists; turning it into a cost for a specific drive is left to the driver.
One published claim to be careful with: an RTA press release dated 19 January 2024 states that Salik tolls have “remained moderately priced and unchanged since the system’s implementation”. Variable pricing took effect on 31 January 2025, so that sentence is now false and is still on RTA’s own site — one of several documents in the same condition.
Ramadan
The authority states plainly that “during Ramadan, peak hours are changeable”. It does not publish the Ramadan timings in advance on that page, so during Ramadan the peak windows above should not be relied on — check before you drive.
What the difference actually costs
The table above is the whole rule, but the size of the gap only becomes obvious when you apply it to a real commute. The figures below are our arithmetic on the published rates, not a number the authority states — a driver crossing two gates each way, Monday to Thursday:
| Pattern | Per crossing | Per day | Over four days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out 08:00, back 18:00 — both in peak | AED 6 | AED 24 | AED 96 |
| Out 10:30, back 21:00 — both off-peak | AED 4 | AED 16 | AED 64 |
| Out 05:30, back 21:00 — out is free | Free / AED 4 | AED 8 | AED 32 |
Same route, same car, same four days: AED 96 or AED 32, decided entirely by what time you leave. That is the practical reason the free window between 01:00 and 06:00 is worth knowing, and it is why variable pricing exists at all.
What is not published
Three things people look for are not on the official page, and we will not fill them in from elsewhere:
- The list of gates. The number and names of Salik gates are not stated there.
- A daily cap. No maximum daily charge is published. Assume every crossing is charged separately unless the authority says otherwise.
- The fine amount. The page says only that if you pass a gate without sufficient balance and do not top up within five days, “a fine will be levied” — without stating how much. Figures circulating on other sites are not from this source.
If a Salik crossing happens during a taxi journey, it is added to your fare on top of the starting charge — see Dubai taxi fares.
More in Getting around
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Common questions
How much is Salik in Dubai?
AED 6 at peak — Monday to Saturday, 06:00–10:00 and 16:00–20:00 — and AED 4 at every other time. Sunday is a flat AED 4 all day.
Is Salik free at any time?
Yes. Gates are free between 01:00 and 06:00 every day.
When did Salik prices change?
Variable pricing took effect on 31 January 2025. Before that every crossing was a single rate, which is why older pages quote one number.
Does Salik apply to taxis and rental cars?
Salik is charged to the vehicle, so a crossing made in a taxi or a hire car is passed on to you. Neither RTA nor the hire companies publish a standard handling fee, so we do not quote one.
How many Salik gates are there in Dubai?
The count changes as gates are added; check RTA's own gate list before assuming a route is toll-free. Note that an RTA press release from January 2024 still claims tolls have “remained… unchanged”, which the 2025 change made false.