Let us answer it properly, because most pages hedge: no, there is no vignette in Germany, and no motorway toll for cars. You can drive the entire autobahn network from the Danish border to the Alps without paying anything for the road itself. No sticker, no plate registration, no barrier, no camera looking for a missing pass.
That makes Germany the odd one out in its own neighbourhood, which is exactly why the question gets asked: Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland all charge, each in a different way. If the whole concept is new, our plain-English explainer on what a vignette is covers the European picture in two minutes. This page covers what Germany itself actually requires, and it is a short list with three genuine surprises in it.
Driving a car, motorcycle or motorhome? German motorways cost you nothing
No vignette, no sticker, no registration, no toll booths on the autobahn or the federal Bundesstraßen. Unless your route touches one of the three specific roads below, or a city low-emission zone, your German road bill is fuel and parking.
Does Germany Have a Vignette? The Full Story
No, and unlike the Netherlands, Germany did not simply never try. It legislated a car toll, signed an operator contract, lost in court, and paid to unwind the whole thing. Knowing that story is the difference between guessing and knowing, because it also tells you nothing is coming back soon.
The Infrastrukturabgabe, universally called the Pkw-Maut, was passed on 8 June 2015. Foreign-registered cars would have paid on motorways only, with a 10-day pass from €2.50 to €25 and a two-month pass from €7 to €50. German-registered cars would have paid annually across the whole federal network, capped at €130 a year, and would then have received an equal rebate on their vehicle tax. That last clause was the whole problem: in practice only foreign drivers carried a net cost.
Austria sued Germany directly, and on 18 June 2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union, sitting as the Grand Chamber, ruled the charge unlawful in Case C-591/17. The judgment found breaches of Articles 18, 34, 56 and 92 of the TFEU because the economic burden fell, in fact, solely on vehicles registered in other member states.
Three details almost every summary gets wrong
The court did not object to the enforcement design. Roadside checks, stopping drivers, recovering the charge afterwards and fining people were all held to be non-discriminatory. It was the tax rebate that was fatal, not the policing.
Not a single vignette was ever sold. The law had been adopted but had not been applied when judgment was given.
The law is gone, not dormant. The Infrastrukturabgabengesetz was formally repealed with effect from 25 November 2023 and no longer exists on the federal law portal.
The bill did not stop at the judgment. The operator contract had been signed on 30 December 2018, six months before the ruling, and was terminated on the day of it. The arbitration that followed ended on 6 July 2023 with a consent award: the federal government paid €243 million in compensation, against an original claim of €560 million, and had already spent around €7.2 million on the proceedings. A parliamentary committee of inquiry produced a 725-page report in June 2021.
Is a new car toll coming? Not on any current evidence. The transport ministry's own register of legislative projects for this parliamentary term lists 35 items and not one of them is a car toll, and the 2025 coalition agreement contains no such commitment. Search results claiming otherwise are usually quoting the 2013 coalition agreement, which did promise one.
What Cars Actually Pay: Three Roads in the Whole Country
Here is the part that "Germany is free" gets slightly wrong. Three roads charge a car, and the law is the reason there are so few: private tolls are only permitted on bridges, tunnels and mountain passes, never on an ordinary stretch of autobahn.
We do not sell these crossings. The operators charge at the barrier or by account, and the figures below are their current published car rates.
| Crossing | Where | Car, one way | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warnowtunnel | Rostock, links the A19 to the Baltic coast and Warnemünde | €4.40 winter cash, €5.40 summer cash, €3.49 on a tunnel card | Seasonal pricing, which almost nothing else in Germany does. Open 24/7 |
| Herrentunnel | Lübeck, links Travemünde to the city centre and the A1 | €2.30 cash, €1.82 with a Quick-Box or RFID tag | Class is set by vehicle height measured at the front axle, plus axle count |
| Rossfeld Panoramastraße | Berchtesgaden, Bavarian Alps | €9.50 per car including all occupants | Not a private toll at all: a scenic mountain road run by a state building authority. Motorcycles €6.00, buses €60.00, and part of the route runs across Austrian territory |
Summer costs more than winter at the Warnowtunnel
The Warnowtunnel is one of the very few roads in Europe where the cash tariff rises for the holiday season: €5.40 from 1 May to 31 October against €4.40 from 1 November to 30 April. The €3.49 rate needs a tunnel card or RFID tag on a customer account, so a one-off holiday crossing pays the higher number.
Both tunnels exist because Germany allows private companies to build and refinance a specific crossing through a toll. The Warnowtunnel, opened in September 2003, was the country's first privately financed road project; the Herrentunnel was the second, a public-private partnership with the city of Lübeck built for around €175 million. Because a toll is already charged there, both are carved out of the national truck toll: lorries pay the tunnel operator, not Toll Collect.
What Is Free, Including the Things People Assume Are Not
The Hamburg Elbtunnel is free
The A7 tunnel under the Elbe, one of Europe's busiest, charges nothing. It is an ordinary autobahn section. The assumption that a big tunnel must be tolled comes from Austria and Norway, not from Germany.
No city charges an entry fee
There is no congestion charge and no access fee in any German city. The only vehicle-based city rules are the low-emission zones below, which are about emissions class, not payment.
Every other bridge, tunnel and mountain road on the public network is free, and there are no toll booths on the autobahn anywhere in the country.
Car Ferries That Work Like Roads
A few crossings are ferries rather than roads, and they charge like ferries. The two most likely to appear in a route plan:
| Ferry | Route | Car fare |
|---|---|---|
| Elbe ferry Glückstadt to Wischhafen | Shortcut around Hamburg on the lower Elbe | €9.00 for a car up to 4.50 m, plus €3.40 per adult |
| Lake Constance ferry Konstanz to Meersburg | Cuts the long drive around the lake | €13.20 single, €25.40 return for a car up to 4 m, driver included |
Note the difference in what the price includes: the Elbe ferry charges the vehicle and each passenger separately, the Lake Constance ferry includes the driver. North Frisian island ferries price by vehicle length through the operator's calculator, so there is no flat figure to quote.
The Umweltplakette: The One Sticker You Might Need
This is where a "free" German road trip actually costs someone money, and it is entirely avoidable. Germany runs low-emission zones, the Umweltzone, in city centres, and entering one requires the Umweltplakette emissions sticker on the windscreen. It applies to foreign-registered cars exactly as it does to German ones.
35 zones are currently in force, and all 35 require the green sticker. The three-colour system (red, yellow, green) still exists in law, but no active zone accepts anything below green any more. Berlin inside the S-Bahn ring, Munich inside the Mittlerer Ring, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Leipzig and a joint Ruhr zone covering 13 cities are the big ones.
23 zones have been abolished, most of them recently and 19 of them in Baden-Württemberg alone: Mainz in October 2025, Freiburg in April 2025, Mannheim in 2024, Hannover in 2024. Any list you find from 2019 is wrong. And Hamburg, Germany's second city, has never had one at all.
A one-off charge for the life of the vehicle. No federal fee is fixed, so each issuer sets its own: Berlin charges €5 over the counter and €6 online including postage, while Baden-Württemberg's transport ministry puts the usual national range at €6 to €15. There is no expiry date and no renewal: you only replace it if the registration plate changes, because the plate number is written on the sticker by hand.
There is no city-specific version. A single green sticker is valid in every German low-emission zone.
How a Foreign Driver Gets One
The part most guides miss: you do not have to be in Germany, and the car does not have to be present.
Order it before you travel
Berlin's vehicle registration authority runs an online shop with an English-language page and posts stickers abroad. Allow around three weeks. Inside Germany, any TÜV, DEKRA, GTÜ, KÜS or FSP station, a registration office or an authorised garage issues it over the counter.
Send the vehicle papers, not the vehicle
The issuer classifies the car from the registration document alone. For a foreign vehicle, scanned papers or a manufacturer's certificate are enough. Nothing is inspected.
Know how your car will be graded
If the papers show a Euro standard, that decides it. If they do not, the date of first registration does: a diesel first registered from 1 January 2006 gets green, 2001 to 2005 yellow, 1997 to 2000 red. A petrol car registered after 31 December 1992 gets green.
Stick it on the inside of the windscreen
It is designed to self-destruct if peeled off, so it cannot be moved to another car. Fit it once, in the right car.
Who Is Exempt from the Umweltplakette?
A short but genuinely useful list, because two of these surprise people.
- Motorcycles, trikes and quads registered as two- or three-wheelers need no sticker at all and are not affected by the zones. The rules only cover vehicle classes M and N.
- Motorhomes, vans, buses and lorries get no special treatment: they follow exactly the same four emissions groups and the same three colours as cars. A camper is not exempt because it is a camper.
- A statutory national list also exempts work machines, agricultural and forestry tractors, marked ambulances and doctors' cars, and holders of a disabled badge with the aG, H or Bl markings.
- Electric cars are not automatically outside the system. They qualify for the green sticker, but the zones check for the sticker, not the drivetrain.
€100, and no allowance for a car that would have qualified
Driving inside a zone without a valid sticker costs €100. The offence in the federal catalogue is taking part in traffic inside a signed zone, and there are no licence points. What there is no allowance for is a clean car with no sticker: the fine is for the missing sticker, not for the emissions. Rental cars registered in Germany almost always carry one already.
Diesel Driving Bans: Only Three Cities Now
Separate from the sticker, a handful of cities banned older diesels outright during the 2018 to 2019 air-quality crisis. Most of those bans are gone, and the current map is much smaller than the internet suggests.
- Stuttgart still bans diesel Euro 4 and older across the whole low-emission zone, and Euro 5 and older inside the smaller central zone covering the Talkessel, Bad Cannstatt, Feuerbach and Zuffenhausen.
- Munich restricts diesel Euro 4 and older inside its zone, including the Mittlerer Ring. Read the sign, not the headline: it exempts deliveries and residents up to Euro 5, and there are further exemptions for taxis, emergency and funeral vehicles, care services, shift workers and several named destinations. "Euro 4 diesels are banned from Munich" is not what the rule actually says.
- Darmstadt keeps two street-level restrictions rather than a zonal ban: diesel Euro 1 to 5 and petrol Euro 0 to 2 on the eastern Hügelstraße and part of Heinrichstraße, where buses and lorries of Euro I to V are barred as well.
- Hamburg lifted its bans in September 2023, and Berlin has none: its own clean-air plan records that limit values have been met since 2020.
Federal law has also made new bans much harder: they are generally only considered where nitrogen dioxide exceeded 50 micrograms per cubic metre as an annual mean, and Euro 6 vehicles are exempt by statute.
The Truck Toll: Why 3.5 Tonnes Is the Number That Matters
Germany's only network-wide road charge is the Lkw-Maut, and its threshold moved recently enough that a lot of published advice is out of date.
It is 3.5 tonnes, not 7.5
Since 1 July 2024 the toll applies to vehicles used for carrying goods with a technically permissible mass over 3.5 tonnes, on all motorways and all federal Bundesstraßen, including inside towns and including autobahn service areas. The old 7.5-tonne threshold is history, and so is the trick of down-rating a vehicle on paper: since December 2023 the figure that counts is the technically permissible mass from field F.1 of the registration document, not the declared one.
Does It Apply to You?
For almost every reader of this page, no, and the reason is precise enough to be worth stating.
The toll requires two things at once: over 3.5 tonnes and used for the carriage of goods. A motorhome on holiday fails the second test, so a 5-tonne camper owes nothing. Its speed limit does change at 3.5 tonnes though, to 80 km/h on the autobahn.
A trailer never creates liability on its own. Only the motor vehicle's own mass above 3.5 tonnes does.
Coaches and buses are the first entry on the statutory exemption list.
The Handwerkerausnahme covers vehicles under 7.5 tonnes carrying the tools, equipment or machines the driver needs to practise a trade, or delivering goods they made, provided it is not commercial carriage for someone else. It is judged per journey, not granted to the vehicle, and the driver must carry a trade or business registration document plus delivery notes, in German or with a German translation.
Fully electric and hydrogen heavy vehicles pay nothing at all until 30 June 2031, and battery vehicles up to 4.25 tonnes are exempt with no end date. A widely repeated claim that they started paying a reduced rate in January 2026 is wrong: that scheme was repealed before it ever took effect.
Also exempt: emergency services and armed forces, road maintenance and winter-service vehicles, showmen and circus vehicles, charities carrying humanitarian aid, and agricultural or forestry vehicles.
How the Charge Is Built
The rate is not one number. It is the sum of four separate per-kilometre components, which is why two identical-looking lorries can pay very different amounts:
5.2 cents per kilometre in the 3.5 to 7.5 tonne band, rising to 15.5 cents above 18 tonnes with four or more axles.
Set by Euro class, from 1.1 cents for a Euro VI vehicle to 18.7 cents for the dirtiest.
A flat 1.2 to 1.6 cents, and counter-intuitively the lowest rate goes to the heaviest class.
Added on 1 December 2023 and calculated on a basis of €200 per tonne of CO₂, double the EU reference figure. What a haulier actually pays is a cent-per-kilometre rate, ranging from 16.2 cents down to zero for the cleanest class.
A Euro VI vehicle in the smallest liable band therefore pays about 15.1 cents per kilometre all in. Across the system the average works out at roughly 33 cents per kilometre, over a tolled network of about 51,000 kilometres, and the toll raised around €13 billion in 2024.
Two things catch operators out. A toll section is charged in full even if you only drive part of it. And the toll itself carries no VAT, because it is a public-law fee, but when a haulier passes it on to a customer it becomes part of the taxable freight price.
Enforcement Is Automatic and the Windows Are Long
Around 300 control gantries on motorways and roughly 600 control columns on federal roads run more than 20 million automatic checks a year, alongside about 320 mobile control vehicles working 24 hours a day. Cameras read the plate, sensors measure the vehicle and a short-range radio link interrogates the on-board unit.
The penalties are heavy and the deadlines are unusually long: the statutory maximum for non-payment is €20,000, unpaid toll can be assessed retroactively for four years, and the offence itself can be prosecuted for three years, against six months for an ordinary traffic offence. If the distance driven cannot be established, the authority assumes 500 kilometres per trip at the worst-case rate. Officers can also collect the toll at the roadside and stop a foreign vehicle from continuing until a security deposit covering the expected fine is paid.
Autobahn Rules That Actually Catch Foreign Drivers
No toll does not mean no rules. These are the ones that produce fines and bans for visitors, and two of them are far harsher than people expect.
The Rettungsgasse Carries an Automatic Driving Ban
When traffic on a motorway, or on any out-of-town road with two or more lanes per direction, slows to walking pace or stops, drivers must open the Rettungsgasse, an emergency corridor between the leftmost lane and the lane immediately to its right. Not when a siren appears: as soon as traffic stops.
Every tier carries a one-month driving ban
Failing to form the corridor costs €200 to €320 and two licence points, and a one-month driving ban applies even at the base tier. Driving down the corridor yourself costs €240 to €320 on the same terms. Austria builds its corridor exactly the same way, so the habit transfers across that border unchanged.
Lane Discipline Is Stricter Than the Slogan
The famous rule is usually quoted wrongly. German law says drive as far right as practicable, not "the left lane is for overtaking only", and there is a specific exception for dense traffic. What is genuinely banned is undertaking, which costs €100 and a point outside built-up areas. Three exceptions let the right lane legitimately move faster: when queues have formed in all lanes, when the left lane is stopped or crawling and you pass slightly faster, and on an exit lane when through traffic is stopped. Note also that the free choice of lane you may be used to in town does not exist on the autobahn. Using the hard shoulder to make progress is its own offence at €75 and a point.
The 130 Advisory, and What It Really Costs to Ignore
Large parts of the network still have no general speed limit, only the Richtgeschwindigkeit, a 130 km/h recommendation that has been in force since 1978. Posted limits and lit overhead gantries are binding and are enforced, and a gantry sign overrides everything, including the recommendation. A bill for a general 130 limit was introduced in April 2026 but is not law.
The real consequence of exceeding 130 is not a fine, it is civil. The Federal Court of Justice decided this in 1992 and it still governs: a driver who was doing more than 130 km/h cannot rely on the "unavoidable event" defence under the road traffic act unless they can show the crash would have been just as severe at 130. In practice that means a share of the liability even when the other driver caused the collision. On an unlimited stretch, driving fast is legal, and driving fast gets expensive the moment anything goes wrong.
Stopping, Reversing, and the Fuel Myth
Stopping is banned on the autobahn including on the hard shoulder, at €30, and parking at €70 with a point. Reversing or turning round is banned outright and costs up to €200 plus a one-month ban on the through carriageway. Pedestrians may not walk on it at all.
Running out of fuel is not a German offence
It is one of the most repeated claims about German motorways and it is not in the law. There is no fuel-specific offence in the fine catalogue at all. What you can actually be fined for is the consequence: stopping, parking, or failing to secure a broken-down vehicle and endangering someone, which costs €60 and a point.
Breakdowns and Equipment
Switch the hazard lights on immediately, then place the warning triangle at about 100 metres in fast traffic. The road operator's own sequence is: hazard lights, park safely, put the high-visibility vest on, get behind the crash barrier, then call 112. There are around 17,000 emergency call pillars on the network, each with a precise location identifier.
The vest must be carried, not worn
German law requires one high-visibility vest to be carried in the vehicle. It does not require you to wear it, and it does not require one per passenger. That is the opposite emphasis to Austria, where wearing it is compulsory in defined situations, so drivers crossing that border should carry enough for everyone who might get out.
Cars up to 3.5 tonnes must carry one warning triangle; over 3.5 tonnes a triangle and a separate warning lamp. Motorcycles are exempt from both.
Speeding Fines, Points and Foreign Drivers
The federal catalogue sets standard rates. For cars, the current table has been unchanged since November 2021.
| Over the limit by | In town | Outside town | Driving ban |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 10 km/h | €30 | €20 | none |
| 11 to 15 | €50 | €40 | none |
| 16 to 20 | €70 | €60 | none |
| 21 to 25 | €115 | €100 | none, 1 point |
| 26 to 30 | €180 | €150 | none, 1 point |
| 31 to 40 | €260 | €200 | 1 month in town |
| 41 to 50 | €400 | €320 | 1 month, both |
| 51 to 60 | €560 | €480 | 2 months in town, 1 outside |
| 61 to 70 | €700 | €600 | 3 months in town, 2 outside |
| over 70 | €800 | €700 | 3 months |
A few things worth knowing that rarely appear together. The driving ban starts at 31 km/h over in town and 41 outside, not at 26 as is often written. The first licence point falls at 21 km/h over, and a fine alone never creates a point: the offence must also be on the statutory list and carry at least €60. Anything up to €55 is a warning fee rather than a formal fine. Two offences of 26 km/h or more within a year of the first becoming final also produce a one-month ban. And a measurement tolerance is genuinely deducted in Germany: 3 km/h up to a measured 100 km/h, 3 per cent above it.
The German points system runs to eight: four or five points bring a warning letter, six or seven a formal caution, and at eight the licence is withdrawn automatically.
What actually reaches a foreign driver
German police can demand a security deposit at the roadside from a driver with no German address, and can seize the vehicle if it is refused. Fines are enforced across the EU above €70 including costs. Austria is the exception: a 1988 bilateral treaty enforces from €25, authority to authority. But a German driving ban applies only in Germany, and there is still no EU-wide mutual recognition of disqualifications: a directive agreed in October 2025 will not apply until November 2029.
Our guide to speed limits in Germany covers the road-type limits, the trailer rules and the wet-weather signs in detail.
Leaving Germany Is Where the Costs Start
Germany is the free hub of a paying neighbourhood, and this is the part of the trip that actually needs preparation. Every one of these systems has to be sorted before you cross, and none can be bought retroactively.
South and east: vignette countries
Austria requires a vignette from the first motorway kilometre and charges separate tolls on its alpine routes; our Austria guide explains the official system and the 18-day online trap. Switzerland sells one annual vignette and nothing shorter, and Czechia a plate-linked digital one. Both are sold here, registered to your plate in minutes.
The practical budgeting rule for a German road trip: zero for German roads, then one line per border. The expensive mistakes on a trip that starts in Germany are almost never made in Germany. They are made entering Austria or Czechia without a vignette, where the on-the-spot charges run into the hundreds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a vignette to drive in Germany?
No. Germany has no vignette and no motorway toll for cars, motorcycles or motorhomes, whatever the plate country. The autobahn and the federal Bundesstraßen are free to use.
Are there any toll roads for cars in Germany?
Three. The Warnowtunnel in Rostock, the Herrentunnel in Lübeck, and the Rossfeld Panoramastraße in the Bavarian Alps. Everything else on the public network, including the Hamburg Elbtunnel, is free.
Was there ever a German car toll?
Almost. The Pkw-Maut was passed in 2015 but never charged anyone: the EU Court of Justice ruled it discriminatory in June 2019 because German residents would have been reimbursed through their vehicle tax. The law was formally repealed in November 2023, and the government paid €243 million to settle with the operator.
Is Germany planning a new car toll?
Nothing is on the table. The transport ministry's register of legislative projects for this term contains no car toll, and the 2025 coalition agreement makes no such commitment. Articles claiming otherwise are usually quoting the 2013 coalition agreement.
What is the Umweltplakette and do foreign cars need it?
It is the emissions sticker for Germany's low-emission zones, and yes, foreign-registered cars need it exactly like German ones. It is a one-off purchase, typically €5 to €15 depending on the issuer, has no expiry, and a single sticker is valid in every German zone.
How many low-emission zones does Germany have?
Thirty-five are currently in force, and all of them require the green sticker. Twenty-three have been abolished, most of them recently, so older lists overstate the number badly. Hamburg has never had one.
Can I buy the emissions sticker from abroad?
Yes. Berlin's registration authority runs an online shop with an English page and posts stickers internationally; allow about three weeks. The car does not need to be present anywhere: the sticker is issued from the vehicle papers alone.
Do motorcycles need the German emissions sticker?
No. Motorcycles, trikes and quads registered as two- or three-wheelers are outside the system entirely and are not affected by low-emission zones.
Which German cities still ban older diesels?
Stuttgart, Munich and Darmstadt. Hamburg lifted its restrictions in September 2023 and Berlin has none. New bans are also much harder to impose now, and Euro 6 vehicles are exempt by law.
Does my motorhome over 3.5 tonnes pay the truck toll?
No. The toll needs the vehicle to be over 3.5 tonnes and used for carrying goods, so a private motorhome is outside it whatever it weighs. Its autobahn speed limit does drop to 80 km/h above 3.5 tonnes.
When did the German truck toll change to 3.5 tonnes?
On 1 July 2024, down from 7.5 tonnes. The figure that counts is the technically permissible mass in field F.1 of the registration document, so down-rating a vehicle on paper no longer avoids it.
Is there really no speed limit on the autobahn?
On many stretches there is no general limit, only a 130 km/h recommendation. Posted and overhead-gantry limits are binding and enforced. Exceeding 130 is legal on unrestricted sections but costs you the "unavoidable event" defence if you are involved in a crash.
What happens if I get a speeding ticket as a foreign driver?
German police can demand a deposit at the roadside if you have no German address. Fines are enforced across the EU from €70 including costs, and from just €25 between Germany and Austria under a bilateral treaty. A German driving ban applies only inside Germany.
I am driving from Germany to Italy or Croatia. Where do the costs start?
At the Austrian border, with the vignette plus separate tolls on the alpine routes, then Italian booth tolls or a Slovenian vignette on the Croatian route. Every system is independent; the country pages linked above let you sort each one before you set off.
Do I need anything at all before driving into Germany?
Nothing for the roads. The only thing worth buying in advance is the green emissions sticker, and only if your route includes a city centre. Otherwise arrive, drive, and pay for fuel and parking.
