Which European countries need a motorway vignette?
The Czech motorway fund keeps a short list of the official e-vignette shops in Central Europe: Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Romania and Bulgaria, plus its own. Moldova runs a separate vignette for cars registered abroad. The table shows the shortest option and its price for an ordinary car, with each operator's shop. The prices were read from those shops on 23 September 2026 and are in the currency each shop quotes.
| Country | Shortest option (car) | Other durations | Format | Official shop | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | None shorter than a year: CHF 40, valid 1 Dec to 31 Jan (14 months) | None | E-vignette or sticker | via.admin.ch | Swiss vignette and fines |
| Austria | 1-day: 9.60 euros (digital only) | 10-day: 12.80 euros; 2-month and annual also sold | Digital; the 2026 sticker is the last one | shop.asfinag.at | Austria digital vignette |
| Czechia | 1-day: CZK 230 | 10-day CZK 300; 30-day CZK 480; annual CZK 2,570 | Electronic only | edalnice.gov.cz | Czech e-vignette |
| Slovakia | 1-day: 8.10 euros | 10-day 10.80 euros; 30-day 17.10 euros; 365-day 90 euros | Electronic | eznamka.sk | Slovakia e-vignette |
| Hungary | Daily: HUF 5,550 (category D1) | 10-day HUF 6,900; monthly HUF 11,170; annual national HUF 61,760 | Electronic | ematrica.nemzetiutdij.hu | Hungary e-matrica |
| Slovenia | Weekly (7 days); price not confirmed on the DARS pages we could open | Monthly, half-year, annual | Electronic | evinjeta.dars.si | Slovenia e-vignette |
| Romania | 1 day: 3.50 euros (18.40 lei) | 10 days 6 euros; 30 days 9.50 euros; 60 days 15 euros; 12 months 50 euros | Electronic (rovinieta) | erovinieta.ro | Romania rovinieta |
| Bulgaria | One-day: 4.09 euros | Weekend 5.11; weekly 7.67; monthly 15.34; quarterly 27.61; annual 49.60 euros | Electronic | bgtoll.bg | Bulgaria e-vignette |
| Moldova | 7 days: 4 euros (foreign-registered cars only) | 15 days 8; 30 days 16; 90 days 45; 180 days 85 euros | Electronic | evinieta.gov.md | Moldova vignette |
Sources for each row: BAZG; ASFINAG shop and ASFINAG help centre; Czech price list from 1 January 2026; eznamka.sk; Hungarian rates from 1 January 2026; DARS validity rules; e-Rovinieta portal; BG TOLL's 2026 price notice; Moldova's e-Vinieta shop.
A few details change which product you should buy:
- Switzerland has no short-stay product. BAZG says the Vignette Act makes no provision for one. The e-vignette is valid immediately after purchase, because Swiss law gives no withdrawal right for online purchases. FOCBS charges exactly CHF 40 with no fees. Third-party sellers may add surcharges.
- Austria runs a waiting period. A 2-month or annual digital vignette bought online as a private consumer is valid only from the 18th day after purchase. The 1-day and 10-day products are valid immediately. ASFINAG's sticker page says the 2026 sticker, valid from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2027, is the last one, and from 2027 only the digital version will be sold. ASFINAG's shop pages showed only the 1-day and 10-day prices on the day we checked, so the longer products have no price in the table.
- Austria also charges separate section tolls on the A 9 (Bosruck and Gleinalm), A 10 (Tauern and Katschberg), A 11 (Karawanken), A 13 (Brenner) and S 16 (Arlberg). A vignette does not cover these.
- Hungary counts its "weekly" product as 10 days: the start day plus 9 more. The daily product is valid from the moment of purchase until midnight. Category D1 covers passenger cars with up to 7 seats. A vehicle with 8 or more seats, or one registered as N1, is D2 and costs more.
- Slovenia splits cars by height. Class 2A covers vehicles up to 3,500 kg with up to 1.3 m above the front axle. Taller vans go into 2B. A weekly e-vignette runs for seven consecutive days from the start date you pick.
- Bulgaria: BG TOLL's e-vignette product page still showed older prices in leva when we checked. The euro list above comes from its January 2026 notice, which says 2026 prices are unchanged from 2025. The one-day vignette went on sale on 3 February 2026.
- Romania: the same portal also sells a separate bridge toll, listed at 19 lei per crossing for a car. The rovinieta does not include it.
- Moldova charges only vehicles not registered in Moldova. A car rented in Chișinău on Moldovan plates does not need one. If you drive a foreign car into Moldova, the first 180 days cost 85 euros. Each later period of up to 180 days costs 180 euros.
What happens if you drive without a vignette?
With digital vignettes, the check is made against the number plate: Czech police and customs scan plates from patrol cars and control gates, and Bulgaria runs 295 fixed cameras and 105 control cars. Missing a vignette usually leads to one of two charges. Some countries offer a fixed "substitute" or "compensatory" charge that you can pay to close the case. Others go straight to a fine.
| Country | What it costs | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | Fine of CHF 200 (NSAG Article 14); if unpaid within 30 days, the case goes to administrative criminal proceedings | Nationalstrassenabgabegesetz |
| Austria | Substitute toll, or a fine of up to 3,000 euros; pay a notice left on the car within 2 weeks, a posted one within 4 weeks | ASFINAG help centre |
| Czechia | Fine of up to CZK 20,000 | edalnice.gov.cz |
| Hungary | Surcharge of HUF 27,790 if paid within 60 days, HUF 95,730 after that | Nemzeti Útdíj |
| Slovenia | Fine of 300 euros | DARS FAQ |
| Bulgaria | Compensatory fee of 46.50 euros; if you refuse it, a fine of 153.39 euros (255.65 euros if the plate is unreadable) | BG TOLL |
| Moldova | Fine of 2,250 to 9,000 lei, and you still owe the vignette | e-Vinieta FAQ |
Slovakia and Romania are not in this table because their operator pages we opened do not state the amount. See our Slovakia and Romania guides.
Across the table, the Hungarian surcharge within 60 days (HUF 27,790) costs about four times a 10-day e-vignette (HUF 6,900). The Czech maximum fine (CZK 20,000) is almost 87 times the 1-day price. Buying the vignette always costs far less than the penalty.
How much do vignettes cost for a Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Ljubljana trip?
Take a common loop: collect a car in Munich, drive to Vienna, stay three nights, drive to Budapest, stay three nights, then drive on to Ljubljana. That adds up to about seven days on the road, with motorway use on the travel days. Germany is not on the Czech fund's list of vignette countries. For German driving rules, see our Munich autobahn guide.
| Country | Days you use the motorway | Cheapest product that covers it | Price | Why not the alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Day 1 (Munich to Vienna) and day 4 (Vienna to the Hungarian border) | One 10-day digital vignette | 12.80 euros | Two 1-day vignettes cost 19.20 euros |
| Hungary | Day 4 (border to Budapest) and day 7 (Budapest to the Slovenian border) | One 10-day e-vignette (start day plus 9) | HUF 6,900 | Two daily vignettes cost HUF 11,100 |
| Slovenia | Day 7 onwards, including any day trips from Ljubljana | Weekly e-vignette, class 2A | Check the DARS shop; price not confirmed on the pages we could open | A monthly vignette is only worth it for a longer stay |
Three rules decide the choice. First, an Austrian or Hungarian 10-day product covers both travel days if they fall within 10 days. Here they are 3 days apart, so one purchase is enough. Second, ASFINAG's 18-day waiting period does not apply to the 10-day product, so you can buy it the evening before you leave Munich. Third, the penalty is what you avoid. Skipping the Hungarian vignette on these two days risks a HUF 27,790 surcharge to save HUF 6,900.
If the trip stretches past 10 days between your first and last day on Austrian motorways, the choice changes. Buy a second 10-day vignette rather than a 2-month one bought online, which would not be valid until the 18th day. For the Budapest to Ljubljana leg, set the Hungarian e-vignette's end date so that your exit day is still covered.
Rental cars: who buys the vignette?
None of the operator pages we checked says a rental car comes with a vignette. A digital vignette is tied to the number plate and its country code; Hungary's surcharge page lists a wrong country code as one reason drivers are fined despite having paid. So what matters is where the car is registered and what the rental company has already bought for that plate. Ask at the desk which countries the car is covered for, then check the plate yourself before leaving:
- ASFINAG's validity checker is at evidenz.asfinag.at.
- BG TOLL, edalnice.gov.cz and eznamka.sk each have a "vignette check" on their sites.
- In Moldova the question does not arise for a locally registered car, as the vignette applies only to vehicles not registered in Moldova.
Cross-border permission is a separate question from the vignette. Our country guides cover what we could verify for renters in Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
Countries that charge by distance instead
Several countries on common European road trips charge tolls per trip, at booths or by camera, rather than selling a vignette. The rules and payment methods differ in each one, so we cover them in separate guides:
- Western Europe: France (péage), Italy (autostrada), Portugal (electronic tolls) and Ireland's M50.
- Central and Northern Europe: Poland, Norway (AutoPASS) and Denmark's bridges.
- The Balkans and Türkiye: Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Istanbul's HGS.
On a route that mixes both systems, such as Ljubljana to the Croatian coast, you need the vignette only for the vignette country. After the border, you pay by distance. For border paperwork further south, see our guides to Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo.