Darb Abu Dhabi Toll in 2026: Fees, Timings, Registration and Fines

Darb is Abu Dhabi's road toll. Every charged crossing costs AED 4, but whether you are charged depends on which gate you use:

• Bridge (legacy) gates charge only during peak hours — 7–9am and 3–7pm, Monday to Saturday. They are free off-peak, all day Sunday, and on public holidays.
• New gates (Al Qurm and Ghantoot) operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, charging AED 4 at all times, including Sundays and holidays.

Unlike Dubai's Salik, Darb has no physical tag — it reads your plate — and there is no longer any daily or monthly cap (the AED 16 daily and monthly caps were abolished on 1 September 2025). You must register your vehicle with a Darb account or face a fine. For the Dubai equivalent, see our Salik guide.

Darb is barrier-free and tag-free: cameras read your number plate as you pass a gate and the AED 4 is deducted from your registered prepaid Darb account. There is no windscreen sticker to buy, but there is one thing you must do that Salik does not strictly enforce the same way — register the vehicle. Drive through a Darb gate on an unregistered plate and the system still logs the crossing, then fines you for not having an account.

• Plate-based, prepaid account per vehicle.
• Every charged crossing is AED 4, deducted automatically.
• No caps since September 2025 — the meter runs on every crossing.

The single most confusing thing about Darb is that not all gates follow the same schedule.

So the old rule of thumb — "Abu Dhabi tolls are free at night and on Sundays" — is only true for the bridge gates. On the newer highway gates you pay AED 4 at 3am on a Sunday just the same. Check which gate is on your route before assuming a free trip.

Registration is mandatory if you drive through any Darb gate, and it is cheap — the cost mostly becomes your opening balance.

1. Create a Darb account on the Darb app or the Integrated Transport Centre channels.
2. Add your vehicle with the plate, registration and Emirates ID.
3. Pay the AED 100 registration fee — AED 50 of it is credited to your account as a starting balance.
4. Keep the balance topped up so crossings deduct cleanly.

Register before you first use a tolled route. If you buy a car in Abu Dhabi, set this up alongside your registration and insurance so nothing is missed.

Darb fines an unregistered vehicle that uses its gates, and the penalty escalates fast if ignored:

The lesson is simple: register the vehicle before you use a Darb gate. Like other traffic dues, unpaid Darb charges and fines can hold up services on the vehicle until settled.

If you move between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, you need both systems — they do not share an account.

See the Salik guide for the Dubai side and the UAE parking SMS guide for the other cost of driving in either emirate.

Abu Dhabi scrapped the AED 16 daily and the monthly caps in September 2025, so frequent drivers now pay per crossing with no ceiling. A worked case on the bridge gates:

• 2 charged crossings a day (one tolled gate each way in peak) = AED 8/day.
• 22 working days = about AED 176 a month.
• Under the old cap a heavy user paid at most AED 200/month for a first car; now a route that crosses the newer 24/7 gates adds more on top with no limit.

The takeaway: on the bridge gates, travelling outside 7–9am and 3–7pm is free; on the Al Qurm and Ghantoot gates you pay every time, so those crossings are the ones that add up.

Several vehicle classes and groups are exempt from Darb tolls:

• Vehicle types: motorcycles, taxis, school buses, public-transport buses, emergency vehicles, and large buses (over 26 passengers).
• Eligible groups: People of Determination, retirees, senior Emirati citizens and low-income citizens can register one personal vehicle for a full exemption through the AD Mobility portal.

The exemption is applied for, not automatic. If you fall into one of these groups, register the vehicle before relying on it, or the crossings are charged as normal.

As with Salik, rental companies pre-register their fleet for Darb and bill the tolls to you at return, often with an administration fee of up to 20%. If you are renting for a trip that uses the Abu Dhabi–Dubai corridor, ask how the company handles both Darb and Salik and whether a per-crossing fee applies, so the return bill is not a surprise.

Darb is straightforward once the vehicle is registered and funded. What is not straightforward is when a toll or traffic fine blocks your registration, or when moving a car between Abu Dhabi and Dubai raises questions on both systems at once.

Wathim handles UAE vehicle and residency paperwork end to end, including clearing fines that hold up a renewal. Contact us, or read the related guides: Salik (Dubai) toll, Mulkiya renewal, fines on a sold car, and the UAE parking SMS guide. Start at the UAE services hub.