Austria vignette 2026 — prices & rules

For cars up to 3.5 t, Austria offers 1-day, 10-day, 2-month and annual motorway vignettes. The 1-day and 10-day products suit most short transit trips; the 2-month and annual products need extra care online because consumer purchases in the ASFINAG toll shop can start only after the withdrawal period.

€200.00 if caught — not a fine, but an offer to settle.

ASFINAG is essentially saying: "We caught you without a valid vignette. Pay €200.00 now and we consider the matter settled." It is not a fine — it is an opportunity to resolve the situation before it becomes an administrative procedure.

Most drivers only ever see step 1. Once the offence is established, ASFINAG will not negotiate — and the €200.00 offer disappears once the case reaches the authorities.

For cars, no. The Federal Road Toll Act (Bundesstraßen-Mautgesetz, BStMG) requires the time-based toll to be properly paid before you use a toll road — the sticker attached to the windscreen, or the plate registered for the digital vignette. Buying afterwards does not repair a trip you have already made, and no rule lets you enter first and settle later.

One written tolerance does exist in Austrian toll law, and it does not apply to cars: vehicles over 3.5 t on the distance-based GO toll are given the opportunity to pay the toll within five hours and 100 kilometres — at a GO sales outlet, for example — and only owe the toll fine if they fail to do so.

What stands in for a grace period on the car side is the substitute toll, and the law fixes exactly how long you have to pay it:

§ 19(1) BStMG caps the substitute toll by law, and ASFINAG currently sets €200.00 for cars and camper vans and €100.00 for motorcycles. Miss the deadline and the case moves to an administrative offence under § 20 BStMG, punishable by €300.00–€3,000.00 — at the top of that range, more than ten times the substitute toll.

Where Austria is genuinely generous is at the other end. The annual vignette is not a calendar-year product: the 2026 vignette is valid from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2027, fourteen months in total. If you drive in Austria in January, last year's annual vignette still covers you until the end of that month.

Two things carry no tolerance at all on the sticker side: it may be attached only once — removed and re-stuck, it is invalid — and foils, suction cups or adhesive tape are not accepted as a way of fixing it. On a motorcycle it must go on a clean, non-replaceable part; on a pannier or luggage case it does not count.

If you buy a digital 2-month or annual vignette online as a consumer, it will not be valid the next day.

ASFINAG states explicitly that this rule applies only to digital 2-month and annual vignettes purchased online by consumers in its own toll shop. Digital 1-day and 10-day vignettes can start immediately, and the 18-day delay does not apply if you buy through an authorised distributor, at a toll station or at a vending machine.

Three ways to avoid this trap:

Roads requiring the vignette

All ASFINAG motorways (Autobahnen, A-prefix) and expressways (Schnellstraßen, S-prefix) require a valid vignette — with the specific exceptions listed below. The network covers the entire Austrian high-speed road infrastructure.

Three short cross-border approach sections are exempt from the vignette requirement:

On these sections you can enter Austria without a vignette; the vignette obligation starts at the first junction beyond the border.

Roads with a section toll instead of a vignette

ASFINAG operates six Alpine segments as section tolls (Streckenmaut). On these stretches, a separate per-direction ticket is required — the vignette alone is not valid on the section itself, and the section toll ticket does not replace a vignette for the rest of the motorway network. If your route uses both a section toll stretch and regular motorway, you need both.

For the A11 Karawanken tunnel, ASFINAG sells only the southbound direction in its shop; the northbound return toll is collected by the Slovenian operator DARS. Section tolls can be paid at the booth or in advance as a digital ticket; with a valid digital ticket you can use the green lane where available.

Free roads — no vignette, no toll

All Bundesstraßen (B-prefix federal roads) and Landesstraßen (L-prefix state and regional roads) are completely free to use. This covers the full non-motorway network: valley routes, Alpine passes not upgraded to expressway standard, and most through-village connections. A driver wishing to cross Austria without any toll can do so entirely on B and L roads — at significantly lower speeds and longer journey times.

Most campervans need a vignette. Some don’t — here’s how to check.

The deciding factor is field F.2 (technically permissible maximum laden mass / TPMLM) on your registration document — not the actual loaded weight, not the vehicle size, not how it looks.

Rule change: since 1 December 2023, the decisive value is the TPMLM rather than the MPW. Vehicles registered before that date with a TPMLM above 3.5 t but an MPW below 3.5 t benefit from a transitional provision until 31 January 2029. Check field F.2 in all cases.

If you continue toward the Adriatic, Slovenia applies the same weight thresholds with its own rules — see motorhome rules and classes for Slovenia.

ASFINAG confirms that the 2026 sticker vignette is the last of its kind. In 2026, both the classic sticker and the digital vignette remain available, but from 2027 Austria switches permanently to a digital-only vignette system.

For drivers who still prefer the sticker, this means 2026 is the last year to buy one. From 2027 the digital vignette is the only option, so it is worth getting used to the digital purchase flow now — including the 18-day rule for 2-month and annual products bought online.

If you choose the sticker, it must be glued directly to the inside of the windscreen — along the top edge or behind the rear-view mirror — otherwise it counts as invalid. Note also that tariffs from earlier years (2021–2025) no longer apply: ASFINAG indexes the prices annually.

Driving through more than one country on this trip? The Europe vignette route planner works out, country by country, which vignettes your whole route needs.