Driving into London: what the Congestion Charge and ULEZ cost you

Two charges apply to driving in London and they are constantly confused, including by people who pay them. They cover different areas, run at different times, and are triggered by different things: the Congestion Charge by being in central London at all, the ULEZ by what comes out of your exhaust.

The Congestion Charge

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It rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026, from £15. That is the price if you pay in advance or on the day of travel. Leave it and you can still pay by midnight on the third day after travel, but the price is then £21.

The hours are 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday, and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. There is no charge at all between Christmas Day and the New Year’s Day bank holiday inclusive.

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The discounts you have to ask for

This is where people lose money. A Blue Badge holder gets a 100% discount from the Congestion Charge — but only after registering, at a cost of £10, for up to two vehicles. An unregistered badge holder who drives into the zone pays the full charge like anyone else, and the badge on the windscreen makes no difference.

Residents of the zone get 90%, again after a £10 registration and with Auto Pay set up. Electric cars get 25% and electric vans and heavier vehicles 50%, both introduced on 2 January 2026 and both available only through Auto Pay. Those electric discounts are already scheduled to halve in March 2030.

Auto Pay itself is free — there is no registration or renewal fee — which makes it the sensible default for anyone who drives into the zone more than occasionally.

The ULEZ, which is a different thing entirely

The Ultra Low Emission Zone charge is £12.50 a day, it covers every London borough up to but not including the M25, and it runs twenty-four hours a day every day of the year except Christmas Day. If your vehicle meets the standard you pay nothing; if it does not, you pay whether you drive at three in the afternoon or three in the morning.

The standards are Euro 4 for petrol cars, vans and minibuses, Euro 6 for diesels, and Euro 3 for motorcycles and mopeds. As a rough guide to registration dates, TfL points to 2005 for Euro 4 petrol cars, September 2015 for Euro 6 cars and light vans, and 2007 for Euro 3 motorcycles. A rough guide is not a compliance check, and the vehicle checker on TfL’s site is the only answer that counts.

Several exemptions carry hard end dates rather than running indefinitely. Vehicles in the "disabled" and "disabled passenger vehicle" tax classes are exempt until 24 October 2027, and wheelchair-accessible vehicles and the disability benefits grace period until 25 October 2027. Historic vehicles built before 1 January 1973 are exempt outright.

If you get a penalty

For both schemes the penalty charge is £180, reduced to £90 if paid within fourteen days and rising to £270 if it is still unpaid after twenty-eight. You have twenty-eight days from service of the notice to make formal representations.

Heavier vehicles face a third scheme. The Low Emission Zone applies to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and buses over five tonnes, runs around the clock across all boroughs, and its penalties are on an entirely different scale — up to £2,000, halved to £1,000 for prompt payment, at the top tier.