Salik toll calculator for Dubai

How much is Salik now?

Since 1 June 2026 a Salik crossing costs AED 6.30 at peak times, AED 4.20 at low-peak times, and nothing between 1am and 6am. The tolls themselves are still AED 6 and AED 4; the extra 30 and 20 fils are 5% VAT, which Salik now adds to each crossing.

Which price you pay depends on three things only: the time you pass the gate, the day of the week, and whether it is Ramadan. It does not depend on which of the 10 gates you use or on how many times you have already crossed that day. Salik publishes no daily maximum.

The calculator above works like a trip plan. Add each gate you pass, the time you usually pass it, and how many times a month you do it on Mondays to Saturdays and on Sundays. It prices every crossing by its time band and adds up the month, with VAT shown on its own line. Two gate pairs that Salik charges only once are listed as single options so you do not count them twice.

Salik rates and timings

These tables are built from Salik’s published rate table. The first column is the Monday-to-Saturday band; the Sunday column shows what the same hour costs on a Sunday.

Normal timings (outside Ramadan)

Time	Mon–Sat band	Mon–Sat before VAT	Mon–Sat with VAT	Sunday with VAT
06:00 to 10:00	peak	AED 6.00	AED 6.30	AED 4.20
10:00 to 16:00	low-peak	AED 4.00	AED 4.20	AED 4.20
16:00 to 20:00	peak	AED 6.00	AED 6.30	AED 4.20
20:00 to 01:00	low-peak	AED 4.00	AED 4.20	AED 4.20
01:00 to 06:00	free	AED 0.00	AED 0.00	AED 0.00

On a weekday, the expensive hours are the two commuter windows, 6am to 10am and 4pm to 8pm. The middle of the day and the evening until 1am cost AED 4.20. On Sundays the peak price does not apply at all: Salik’s table still names the same peak hours, but prices them at AED 4 before VAT, the same as low-peak.

Ramadan timings

Time	Mon–Sat band	Mon–Sat before VAT	Mon–Sat with VAT	Sunday with VAT
07:00 to 09:00	low-peak	AED 4.00	AED 4.20	AED 4.20
09:00 to 17:00	peak	AED 6.00	AED 6.30	AED 4.20
17:00 to 02:00	low-peak	AED 4.00	AED 4.20	AED 4.20
02:00 to 07:00	free	AED 0.00	AED 0.00	AED 0.00

In Ramadan there is a single peak, 9am to 5pm, and the free window moves one hour later to 2am to 7am. A 6:30am crossing that costs AED 6.30 for most of the year is free in Ramadan. Ramadan’s dates change every year, so the Ramadan table applies only during the holy month itself.

Boundaries. We treat each band as starting on its first minute and ending just before the next one starts. A crossing at exactly 10:00 on a weekday is low-peak (AED 4.20), at exactly 16:00 it is peak (AED 6.30), and at exactly 01:00 it is free. Salik’s table does not spell out the exact minute of a change, so this is our reading of it.

VAT on Salik from 1 June 2026

Salik’s rate page and VAT FAQ state that 5% VAT applies to every toll transaction from 1 June 2026. What that means in practice:

• Added on top, per crossing. The published tolls are “AED 6 + VAT” and “AED 4 + VAT”, so each charged crossing is AED 6.30 or AED 4.20. Free crossings stay free.
• Not on recharges. No VAT is charged when you top up; it is added when a crossing is charged.
• Not on violations. Fines for a low balance or an unregistered vehicle carry no VAT.
• Old balances. Credit added before VAT started is treated as already including VAT, so an old balance pays the new AED 6.30 and AED 4.20 like any other credit.
• The tag. The AED 102.50 starter pack includes VAT on the tag portion.

For a regular commuter the change is exactly 5% of the month. Example 1 below costs AED 296.00 before VAT and AED 310.80 with it, a difference of AED 14.80.

The 10 Salik gates

There are 10 toll gates. The last two, Business Bay Crossing and Al Safa South, were switched on by the RTA on 24 November 2024. Every gate charges the same price at the same time.

Salik toll gates

Gate	Road	Note
Al Barsha	Sheikh Zayed Road	–
Al Safa North	Sheikh Zayed Road	Charged once with Al Safa South in the same direction within an hour
Al Safa South	Sheikh Zayed Road	Opened 24 November 2024
Jebel Ali	Sheikh Zayed Road	–
Business Bay Crossing	Al Khail Road	Opened 24 November 2024
Al Garhoud Bridge	Sheikh Rashid Road	Crosses Dubai Creek
Al Maktoum Bridge	Umm Hurair Road	Crosses Dubai Creek. No longer free on Sundays or at night since 31 January 2025
Airport Tunnel	Beirut Street	Charged as well as Al Mamzar on the same trip
Al Mamzar North	Al Ittihad Road	Charged once with Al Mamzar South within an hour
Al Mamzar South	Al Ittihad Road	–

Salik’s toll locations page has a map with each gate’s exact position.

Two gates, one charge

Each gate is charged separately, with two exceptions that save money on common routes:

• Al Mamzar North and Al Mamzar South. Pass both within one hour and you pay once. Salik’s FAQ applies this whichever way you are driving.
• Al Safa North and Al Safa South. Pass both in the same direction within one hour and you pay once. Drive through one and come back through the other, in the opposite direction, and you pay twice.

In both cases the single charge is priced at the time you passed the first gate. Passing Al Mamzar and then the Airport Tunnel is two charges; the exception covers only the matching pair.

In the calculator, choose “Al Safa North + South” or “Al Mamzar North + South” from the gate list when your route takes you through both. That counts the pair as one charge.

Worked examples

All of these are calculated by the same code as the calculator and are covered by its tests.

1. A weekday commute through Al Barsha

You cross Al Barsha at 7:30am and again at 6pm, 22 working days a month, and make the same two crossings on 4 Sundays.

Example 1: a commute through Al Barsha

Normal timings5% VAT included52 crossings

Your crossings this month
Al Barsha, 07:30 · Mon–Sat22 crossings × AED 6.30 (AED 6.00 + AED 0.30 VAT) · peak	AED 138.60
Al Barsha, 07:30 · Sunday4 crossings × AED 4.20 (AED 4.00 + AED 0.20 VAT) · low-peak	AED 16.80
Al Barsha, 18:00 · Mon–Sat22 crossings × AED 6.30 (AED 6.00 + AED 0.30 VAT) · peak	AED 138.60
Al Barsha, 18:00 · Sunday4 crossings × AED 4.20 (AED 4.00 + AED 0.20 VAT) · low-peak	AED 16.80
Breakdown
Tolls before VAT	AED 296.00
VAT at 5%	AED 14.80
Month total, VAT included	AED 310.80

Before 1 June 2026 the same month would have cost AED 296.00. Public holidays and major events are priced as Salik announces; this estimate uses Monday to Saturday rates for them. No daily cap is published.

The working: 44 peak crossings × AED 6.30 = AED 277.20, and 8 Sunday crossings × AED 4.20 = AED 33.60. Total AED 310.80 a month. Before 1 June 2026 the same month was 44 × 6 + 8 × 4 = AED 296.00.

2. Al Safa North then Al Safa South

On a Monday you pass Al Safa North at 9:50am and Al Safa South at 10:20am, heading the same way. The two are within an hour and in the same direction, so Salik charges once, at the time of the first gate. 9:50am is peak, so the trip costs AED 6.30, even though the second gate was passed in the low-peak band.

If you had passed Al Safa North going one way and come back through Al Safa South half an hour later, the trip would cost AED 10.50: one peak charge and one low-peak charge.

3. A commute in Ramadan

You cross Al Maktoum Bridge at 8am and 6pm, 22 working days in a Ramadan month.

Example 3: a Ramadan commute over Al Maktoum Bridge

Ramadan timings5% VAT included44 crossings

Your crossings this month
Al Maktoum Bridge, 08:00 · Mon–Sat22 crossings × AED 4.20 (AED 4.00 + AED 0.20 VAT) · low-peak	AED 92.40
Al Maktoum Bridge, 18:00 · Mon–Sat22 crossings × AED 4.20 (AED 4.00 + AED 0.20 VAT) · low-peak	AED 92.40
Breakdown
Tolls before VAT	AED 176.00
VAT at 5%	AED 8.80
Month total, VAT included	AED 184.80

Before 1 June 2026 the same month would have cost AED 176.00. Public holidays and major events are priced as Salik announces; this estimate uses Monday to Saturday rates for them. No daily cap is published.

Both times fall outside the Ramadan peak of 9am to 5pm, so all 44 crossings are AED 4.20: AED 184.80. Outside Ramadan the same pattern would be 44 peak crossings, AED 277.20.

4. Single crossings at a glance

• Tuesday 7:30am at any gate: AED 6.30
• Sunday 7:30am: AED 4.20
• Wednesday 2am: AED 0.00
• A Ramadan Thursday at 8am: AED 4.20

Where timing saves money

Because the price depends only on the minute you pass the gate, small changes in when you drive add up over a month. Using the rates above, with VAT:

• Crossing at 9:55am instead of 10:05am costs AED 6.30 instead of AED 4.20. Over 22 working days that is AED 46.20 a month for ten minutes.
• Leaving work after 8pm instead of at 7:30pm moves the evening crossing from AED 6.30 to AED 4.20, the same AED 46.20 a month.
• Two crossings that are a pair. If your route already passes Al Safa North and Al Safa South in the same direction, or both Al Mamzar gates, you pay once. Choosing a route through a pair rather than through two unrelated gates can halve the toll for that leg.
• Sunday trips cost AED 4.20 at any paid hour, so a Sunday errand at 8am costs a third less than the same trip on a Saturday.

Enter both versions of a crossing in the calculator, one as a second row, to see the difference for your own pattern.

Sundays, public holidays and big events

Sunday has its own price list: AED 4.20 from 6am to 1am and free from 1am to 6am. But the Sunday column on Salik’s rate table is headed “except for public holidays and public events”, and its FAQ says variable tolling may apply on public holidays and major events, with specific rates and timings “announced closer to the respective dates”.

So a public holiday is not automatically free, and it is not automatically priced like a Sunday. Salik announces holiday pricing for each occasion. The calculator has no holiday option for this reason. For a month with a holiday, count that day under Monday to Saturday, which gives the higher figure, and check Salik’s announcement for the occasion.

Fines, low balance and the tag

Salik deducts each toll from your prepaid balance. If the balance cannot cover a crossing, you have a short window to top up before a fine is issued.

Salik violations

Violation	Fine
Balance too low and not topped up within 5 working days	AED 50.00
Vehicle not registered with Salik within 10 working days, first time	AED 100.00
Unregistered vehicle, second time	AED 200.00
Unregistered vehicle, third time and after	AED 400.00
Tampering with a Salik tag	AED 10,000.00
Damaging gates or other Salik property	AED 10,000.00

A vehicle gets at most one violation a day, and fines carry no VAT. A Salik tag costs AED 102.50 including VAT: AED 52.50 for the tag and AED 50.00 of toll balance, with AED 20.00 extra for online delivery.

Who pays: exemptions

Salik’s published material has fewer exemptions than people expect:

• Electric vehicles pay the same tolls as any other car.
• Al Maktoum Bridge is no longer free on Sundays or overnight. That exception ended when variable pricing started on 31 January 2025; the bridge now follows the same table as every other gate.
• No daily cap. There is no maximum you stop paying at.

We have not listed exemptions for particular kinds of vehicle because we could not confirm any on salik.ae. If you think your vehicle is exempt, ask Salik or the RTA.

Salik covers Dubai only. Abu Dhabi’s Darb toll system is separate, and nothing on this page applies to it.

Common mistakes in other guides

Salik pricing has changed twice since January 2025, and many pages have not caught up. The errors we found most often:

• Peak starting at 8am. Some news explainers give 8am as the start of the morning peak. Salik’s table says 6am. 8am is when Dubai’s paid parking peak starts, which may be the source of the mix-up.
• A daily cap. At least one online calculator applies a daily maximum. Salik publishes none.
• Prices without VAT. Anything written before June 2026 gives AED 6 and AED 4. Those are now the before-VAT figures; you pay AED 6.30 and AED 4.20.
• “There is no free time.” Salik’s own FAQ says this, in answer to an older question about free gates. Its rate table shows AED 0 from 1am to 6am, and that table is the schedule the tolls follow.

How to use this estimate

Your Salik statement is the final word. To compare, look up a month of trips in the Salik app or on its website, group them by gate and time, and enter the counts in the calculator. If your result is higher than the statement, check for Al Safa and Al Mamzar pairs you entered as two gates. If it is lower, look for crossings in the peak windows you had forgotten, or a public holiday priced differently.

Rates, timings, gate rules and fines on this page were checked against salik.ae on 30 October 2026. Hivly is independent and is not connected with Salik or the RTA. The source list, the notes on conflicting official wording, and the change log are below.