Paris Transport Tickets and Passes

The Paris network has two rail families and one surface family that matter most to a visitor. Metro handles dense central journeys with frequent stops. RER and Transilien trains cover longer distances and regional destinations. Buses, trams, Tzen, Noctilien night buses, and Filéo use the surface-ticket family; the Montmartre funicular belongs to the rail ticket. Use the official Île-de-France Mobilités or Bonjour RATP planner for the travel date because engineering works, closed entrances, and service changes can alter the practical route.

The 2026 single-ticket structure separates those mode families. A Metro-Train-RER ticket costs €2.55 full price and covers Metro, RER, suburban trains, and the funicular under its transfer rules. A Bus-Tram ticket costs €2.05 and covers the named surface modes under a different transfer window. Airport stations and Orlyval sit outside those ordinary city fares. This distinction is more useful than memorising old t+ ticket advice, which no longer describes the current products.

For a central sightseeing day, use the Metro for the longer jump between clusters and walk within each cluster. Choose a bus when a surface journey avoids a difficult station transfer or when seeing the street route matters. RER becomes useful when the destination lies beyond a central Metro trip, but the destination and ticket validity still need checking before boarding. A short bus leg followed by Metro is two ticket decisions, not one continuing journey, because surface and rail products use separate transfer rules.

A Metro-Train-RER ticket covers one rail-mode journey for up to two hours without exiting the network. It permits covered transfers across Metro, RER, suburban train, and the Montmartre funicular. A Bus-Tram ticket covers bus, tram, Tzen, Noctilien, and Filéo for 1 hour 30 minutes, with permitted transfers inside that family. Return trips and interruptions on the same bus, tram, or Tzen line are not allowed. One ticket does not become valid for the other mode family merely because both services belong to the Paris network.

Navigo Easy costs €2 and can hold ordinary tickets, an airport ticket, Navigo Day, and Paris Visite. It is anonymous and can be lent between journeys, but each passenger needs a separate pass while travelling. Products do not all coexist on one medium: an airport ticket cannot be loaded onto a card already containing t+ or Metro-Train-RER tickets, although a Bus-Tram ticket may coexist. Compatible tickets can also be held on a phone through the official IDFM or Bonjour RATP system. Check the support table before purchase instead of assuming every product works on every phone or card.

Navigo Day costs €12.30 for zones 1–5 and excludes CDG, Orly, Orlyval, and direct special airport services. Paris Visite costs €30.60, €45.40, €63.80, or €78 for 1, 2, 3, or 5 consecutive days and includes airport travel and Orlyval. Navigo Week all zones costs €32.40 and follows a fixed Monday-to-Sunday calendar, not seven days from activation. Its all-zone coverage can include RER B to CDG and Metro 14 to Orly, while Orlyval and some direct airport buses remain exceptions.

Buy a pass only after counting the journeys and matching the dates. Five separate Metro-Train-RER journeys cost €12.75, so a €12.30 Navigo Day is €0.45 lower when those are five separately paid rail journeys. Four cost €10.20, so the day pass costs more. Six separate €2.05 Bus-Tram journeys total €12.30; seven total €14.35. Count paid journeys, not every boarding, because a permitted transfer may already belong to the first ticket.

Treat airport travel as a fare boundary, then decide how the arrival connects with the city route. The €14 Paris Region <> Airports ticket covers a two-hour journey on Metro, RER, Île-de-France trains, and Orlyval without exiting the network; it does not cover buses or trams. Navigo Day does not cover CDG or Orly, while Paris Visite and an eligible all-zone Navigo Week can include airport rail travel under their own rules.

RER B is the principal rail connection for CDG, and Metro 14 serves Orly. The separate airport-transfer guide carries terminal, operating-window, late-arrival, and surface-alternative detail. For ticket choice here, the important step is to price the airport leg separately from ordinary city journeys and check the official date-specific planner before travel. After reaching the chosen Paris station, continue according to the ticket’s permitted rail transfer or exit and begin a separately ticketed surface journey.

Metro is the central-city workhorse. Use it for the longer jump between sightseeing clusters, then walk between nearby places. A transfer to another Metro line can be faster than returning to the surface, but station corridors and stairs can make the shortest map route harder in practice. The ordinary Metro-Train-RER ticket remains valid only while the journey stays inside its rail-mode conditions and the traveller has not exited the network.

RER is useful for longer cross-city movement and regional destinations. Check the train’s destination as well as the line letter, especially when branches divide outside central Paris. Versailles and other regional trips need their own destination and ticket check; a central Paris fare should not be assumed to cover every train. This guide does not promise a step-free interchange. Use the accessible journey planner when lifts, stairs, or long transfers affect the route.

Buses trade speed for a street-level journey. Traffic can make them slower, but a direct bus may avoid a difficult Metro transfer. Trams are mainly useful away from the central sightseeing core. Noctilien is the late-night surface family, and line-specific schedules matter. These services use the Bus-Tram ticket rules, not the Metro-Train-RER rules. A permitted surface transfer can remain inside the 90-minute validity, but changing from a bus to the Metro requires the rail product.

Validation is part of the route. Validate the ticket medium where required and keep it available through the journey. On a phone, buy the exact product in an official app and confirm that the device supports it before reaching the gate. On Navigo Easy, remember that one card cannot carry two people through the same journey. A physical pass can be lent between separate journeys, not shared while two passengers travel together.

For one adult without a reduced fare, compare the day’s separately paid journeys with the pass price. Four rail journeys cost €10.20 and five cost €12.75. Six surface journeys total €12.30 and seven cost €14.35. Navigo Day therefore begins to beat separately paid full-price tickets at five rail journeys or seven separately paid surface journeys, assuming the transfers really count as separate fares and the day contains no airport access. Paris Visite costs substantially more for one city day; its value depends on its broader coverage and the actual consecutive dates, not on a generic claim that unlimited travel is simpler.

Build the day by geography before buying. A Latin Quarter morning and Montmartre afternoon may need only the paid rail jumps between clusters. A route with repeated returns across the city can justify a day pass sooner. The calculation changes when several boardings are covered by one permitted transfer, so count products charged rather than vehicles entered.

Do not use old t+ ticket advice for the 2026 fare system. Do not assume the €2.55 rail ticket and €2.05 surface ticket are interchangeable. A Bus-Tram ticket does not open the Metro or RER, and a Metro-Train-RER ticket does not cover an ordinary bus or tram. Exiting the rail network ends that journey even when time remains on the ticket.

Do not buy Navigo Day expecting CDG, Orly, or Orlyval to be included. Do not assume Navigo Week starts when it is activated: it follows Monday through Sunday. Do not choose Paris Visite solely because it is unlimited; compare its €30.60 one-day price with the journeys and airport coverage actually needed. A light city day often costs less with individual tickets, while a day with five separately paid rail journeys crosses the current Navigo Day break-even point.

Do not load products without checking whether they can coexist on the same Navigo Easy card or phone. An airport ticket cannot share a medium that already contains t+ or Metro-Train-RER tickets, although a Bus-Tram ticket may coexist. Every traveller needs a separate validated pass during a shared journey, even though an anonymous Easy card can be lent between different journeys.

Do not count every boarding as a new fare when a permitted transfer is already included, and do not assume a transfer between the surface and rail families is included. Keep the ticket medium until the journey ends. For works, accessibility, late-night routes, or a regional destination, enter the actual origin, destination, date, and time in the official planner rather than relying on a generic network map.