UAE Parking SMS in 2026: The Number, Format and Free Hours for Every Emirate

Paid street parking in the UAE is charged by SMS, and each emirate uses a different short code and message format. Here is the whole thing on one screen:

If you would rather not memorise formats, our UAE parking SMS calculator builds the exact message for your emirate, shows the number to send it to, estimates the cost, and tells you whether parking is free right now. The rest of this guide explains each emirate in full and covers the free hours that stop you paying when you do not need to.

Instead of a coin meter, the UAE lets you buy a parking session by text. You send your plate details and the number of hours to the emirate's short code, and you get back a confirmation that acts as a virtual permit for that time. A small transaction fee is added on most networks (30 fils in Dubai, 38 fils in Sharjah, nothing in Abu Dhabi).

Two habits save you money and fines:

• Reply E to extend. You get a reminder SMS shortly before your session ends; replying with the extend code buys more time without walking back to the car.
• Check the board, not your memory. The zone type (Abu Dhabi) or zone code (Dubai) is printed on the sign next to the bay and changes the price and even whether payment is needed at all.

The single most common mistake is paying when parking is actually free — every emirate has free windows, listed below. The second is sending the wrong format, which either fails or charges the wrong zone. Both are what the calculator is there to prevent.

Abu Dhabi's Mawaqif system takes SMS payments on 3009. The message is plate code, plate number, zone type and hours, so a locally registered car sends AUH5 00000 S 1.

Standard vs premium — the zone type matters

The letter in the message sets the price:

• S = Standard zone, AED 2/hour.
• P = Premium zone, AED 3/hour — the busier, higher-turnover streets.

The board next to the bay tells you which zone you are in; sending S in a premium zone underpays and can still earn a fine. Mawaqif does not add an SMS fee.

Free hours in Abu Dhabi

Standard Mawaqif parking is free on Sundays and public holidays. If you hold a Mawaqif resident permit, you also park free inside your own designated zone from 9pm to 8am. Outside those windows the standard and premium tariffs apply during operating hours.

Dubai's RTA takes parking SMS on 7275, which spells PARK. The format is plate number, zone code and hours: A00000 444A 2.

The zone code is everything

Unlike Abu Dhabi's simple S/P, Dubai charges by a zone code — the 3-digit number plus a letter on the blue and orange signboard beside you. Enter the wrong one and you pay for a different street. Tariffs by zone:

• Economy zones: AED 2/hour.
• Standard on-street: AED 4/hour.
• Multi-storey: AED 5/hour.
• Premium / peak zones: up to AED 10/hour.

A 30-fils fee is added per SMS. Confirmation usually arrives within a few minutes.

Free hours in Dubai

Paid parking runs Saturday to Thursday, 8am to 10pm. It is free from 10pm to 8am every night, all day on Fridays, and on public holidays. A handful of premium or privately operated car parks charge for longer hours, so glance at the board, but the standard RTA on-street rule is free overnight and on Fridays.

Sharjah pays on 5566 in the format SHJ 1234 2 at a flat AED 2/hour (AED 2.38 with the 38-fils fee). From July 2026 the municipality unified paid hours to 8am to midnight, daily.

The trap that catches people is the zone colour:

• Standard (yellow/green) zones are free on Fridays and public holidays.
• Blue zones charge every single day — including Fridays, Sundays and public holidays — with no free window from 8am to midnight.

So the weekend is not automatically free in Sharjah. Read the sign colour before you assume you can skip payment.

The northern emirates use the same idea with their own prefix:

• Ajman: AJM <plate> <hours>, around AED 2/hour. Ajman charges in two windows on weekdays (roughly 8am–1pm and 5pm–10pm), leaves the middle of the day free, and is free on Fridays and public holidays. The MPDA app also allows part-hour payments that SMS cannot.
• Ras Al Khaimah: RAK <plate> <hours>.
• Umm Al Quwain: UAQ <plate> <hours>.

Because the exact short codes and hours vary by municipality and are updated periodically, confirm the number on the local meter or the municipality app before relying on it. Fujairah has limited paid on-street parking.

Public holidays are set by government announcement and are not always obvious in advance, so when in doubt, the calculator checks the current Gulf day and time for you and flags whether you are inside a free window right now.

SMS parking is largely a UAE habit; the other Gulf states work differently, so do not assume the same trick abroad.

• Saudi Arabia (Riyadh): app-first. The Riyadh Parking app pays with Mada or Apple Pay; there is no general parking SMS.
• Qatar (Doha): mostly pay-machines under the Karwa/Mawaqif system (card, coins or Nol card), with limited SMS to 922229 in some zones.
• Oman (Muscat): the municipality removed meters and now takes SMS on 90091 with your plate details.
• Kuwait & Bahrain: little formal paid on-street parking; most parking is free or lot-based.

Wherever you are, confirm the local number on the meter or the municipality app — the codes above are UAE-specific.

An unpaid or expired parking session can be fined by the relevant authority — RTA in Dubai, the Integrated Transport Centre/Mawaqif in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah Municipality, and so on. The fine is separate from the small parking fee and is attached to your vehicle record.

That matters beyond the money: unpaid parking and traffic fines can block your vehicle registration (Mulkiya) renewal until they are cleared, and fines can keep following a car you have already sold if the transfer was not done cleanly. If that is your situation, see our guides on fines still on a sold car, Mulkiya renewal, and disputing a Dubai fine and black points. Paying the 38-fils SMS on time is a lot cheaper than any of that.

• Save the short code as a contact (Abu Dhabi 3009, Dubai 7275, Sharjah 5566) so you are not hunting for it in a hot car park.
• Match the plate details to your registration exactly — the plate code and number as printed, not a guess.
• Read the sign for the zone type/code and colour before sending; it sets the price and whether payment is even required.
• Use the reminder. Reply E to extend rather than risk an expired session.
• Do not pay in a free window. Overnight in Dubai, Sundays in Abu Dhabi, Fridays in standard Sharjah zones — check first with the calculator.

Rough costs so you can sanity-check the meter before you send:

The calculator does this maths for your exact emirate, zone and hours, and flags when the session would actually be free so you do not pay for nothing.

SMS is the fastest one-off method, but each emirate also has an app that does things SMS cannot:

• Abu Dhabi — the Darbi app pays Mawaqif, allows part-hour sessions, and stores your plate so you are not retyping it.
• Dubai — the RTA app (and S'hail) pays parking, remembers your zones, and pushes expiry reminders.
• Sharjah — the Sharjah parking app covers the same zones as SMS with saved vehicles.

The apps are worth it if you park often: they cut the SMS fee on some networks, let you pay for less than a full hour, and warn you before a session ends. For a rare visitor, SMS is simpler — which is exactly what the tool above builds for you.

The fastest way to get this right every time is the UAE parking SMS calculator: choose your emirate, enter your plate and hours, and it gives you the exact message, the number to text, the cost, and a live free-or-paid check for the current time.

And if a parking or traffic fine is holding up something bigger — your registration renewal, a licence conversion, a car transfer — that is where Wathim comes in. We check and clear fines so your paperwork goes through. Contact us or start at the UAE services hub.