🇫🇷Paris Metro Guide 2026: Fares After the Reform, and Buying by Phone

The Paris metro is run by RATP and shares one ticketing system with the RER, buses and trams. The 2025 reform unified fares across the whole Île-de-France region, so you no longer have to work out which of the old zones 1–5 you're crossing. The rules are far simpler than most older guides suggest.

Île-de-France vs. central Paris

Two things worth separating.

Île-de-France is the wider region, and it covers Disneyland Paris, Versailles, Fontainebleau, and both airports.

Central Paris is where the Metro runs — 14 lines, roughly the old zones 1–2. The RER covers the whole region on five lines, lettered A to E.

How to buy: the app is the easy answer

Download one of the two official apps — Île-de-France Mobilités or Bonjour RATP. Either is fine; both are official.

Once you've bought a fare, turn on NFC and tap your phone at the gate. There's no separate physical ticket to keep track of.

The fares

Ticket	Price	Notes
Metro/RER single	€2.55	Two hours of transfers across metro, RER and some trains; reaches Disneyland and Versailles, but not the airports
Bus/tram single	€2.05	90 minutes of transfers between buses and trams (no return on the same line)
Airport single	€14	Covers RER B to CDG and Metro 14 to Orly, two hours of transfers
Navigo day pass	€12.30	Calendar day, not 24 hours; excludes airports; reaches Disneyland and Versailles
Navigo weekly	€32.40	Monday to Sunday, not any seven days; includes RER B to and from CDG
Paris Visite Pass	from €30.60 (1 day)	Effectively a day pass plus airport travel, but rarely good value

Children aged 4–10 pay half on single tickets and under-4s travel free. Day and weekly passes have no child rate.

Which one is actually worth it

Only city sights, no airport runs: singles or a day pass.

Arriving Thursday or earlier and staying more than three days: the weekly Navigo is the best value — but watch the validity. It runs Monday to Sunday, not seven days from purchase. Start it mid-week and it still expires at 23:59 on Sunday. You can also only buy the current week's pass up to midnight on Thursday; from Friday you can only buy next week's.

One trap worth knowing: if you already have an airport single on your phone, you can't also load a metro/RER single, and vice versa. The system can't tell which one to charge. Decide the order of your day before you buy.

If you don't want to buy on your phone

Paper tickets were withdrawn completely at the end of 2025. Without a phone you need a physical card:

Navigo Easy (€2 card fee) — anonymous, available from ticket machines. Takes singles, day passes, airport fares and visitor passes, but not the weekly pass.

Navigo Découverte (€5 card fee) — named card, only from a staffed counter. You must supply a 25×30 mm passport photo and sign it. Takes day and weekly passes, but no single tickets. If you're checked without the photo and signature you can be fined, and a lost card isn't replaced.

FAQ

Can one ticket cover a metro-to-bus transfer?

No. Metro-Train-RER and Bus-Tram are separate fares.

Can I just tap a bank card at the gate?

As of March 2026, no.

Is there a student discount?

Not for visitors — only Paris residents can apply for long-term reduced fares. When buying, don't select the "reduced" category by mistake; that's for children aged 4–10 and passengers with disabilities.

Riding tips

• To find the right platform, go by the terminus shown on the train, not by compass direction.
• Some older carriages don't open automatically — you turn a handle or press a button to get out.
• Follow Sortie for the exit.

For getting in from the airports, see CDG Airport to City Center and Orly Airport to City Center. For neighbourhoods, see where to stay in Paris.

Back to the Paris travel guide for the full trip.