Motorway tolls in France, Italy and Portugal: how they work

Checked on 2026-10-26

France, Italy and Portugal all charge for most of their motorways, but each country does it differently. In France you may take a ticket, pay a flat fee at a barrier, or drive under gantries with no barrier at all. Italy mostly works with tickets and a fee based on distance. In Portugal several motorways have no booths whatsoever and a foreign car has to be registered before it gets there. This guide explains the systems, how vehicle classes are decided (important if you drive a motorhome or a tall van) and what to do when you pass a toll point without paying. Driving through Spain as well? We cover it in our Spanish toll guide.

France: tickets, flat-rate barriers and free-flow

French motorways are run by concession companies (APRR, AREA, Sanef, SAPN, VINCI Autoroutes and others), and two classic systems coexist. In the closed system you take a ticket at the entry booth and pay at the exit, and the price depends on the distance driven. In the open system there is a single toll plaza, at the entry or exit of a stretch, with no ticket and a fixed amount. APRR describes it exactly that way on its tariff page, and publishes its 2026 prices, all classes, valid from 1 February 2026. Tariffs are revised every year, so check the operator’s page or its calculator rather than old figures from forums.

At the booths you can usually pay by bank card or cash, or use a télépéage tag. A French tag works on the whole French motorway network regardless of which company issued it, and on the T30 lanes you drive through at no more than 30 km/h while the barrier lifts. Tag issuers offer occasional-use plans too, with no commitment and no minimum number of trips.

Free-flow motorways: 72 hours to pay

The newer system is péage en flux libre: no booths, just gantries with cameras that read your plate and detect your vehicle type. According to the French transport ministry, it is used today on the A79 in the Allier department (operator Aliæ), on the A13–A14 axis between Paris and Normandy (Sanef, deployed progressively from 2024) and at the Boulay junction of the A4 (Sanef), and future motorway projects will use it too. The stretch starts and ends with signs: a round blue «PÉAGE» sign with the words «Flux libre».

With a properly fitted tag you do nothing. Without one, you have 72 hours after your trip to pay, by card on the operator’s official site (Sanef for A13/A14 and A4, Aliæ for A79) using your plate number, or at tobacconists and newsagents in the Nirio network. Registration is optional, but if you are not registered nobody sends you a bill: it is up to you. If you miss the deadline, the operator sends a payment notice to the registered keeper with the toll plus a flat fee of €90, reduced to €10 if you pay within 15 days; after two months it becomes an increased fixed fine of €375 (amounts set by decree no. 2020-1494). The ministry also warns about fake SMS and emails asking you to settle a toll: pay only on the official sites.

Vehicle classes in France

The class depends on total height, gross vehicle weight (PTAC, code F2 on the registration certificate) and number of axles:

Class	Criteria (autoroutes.fr)	Typical vehicles
1	Height up to 2 m and weight up to 3.5 t	Cars, MPVs, small vans, most 4x4s
2	Height over 2 m and under 3 m, weight up to 3.5 t	Large vans, most motorhomes, a class 1 car towing a caravan between 2 and 3 m high
3	Two axles, height 3 m or more or weight over 3.5 t	Motorhomes over 3 m high, small lorries over 3.5 t
4	Three or more axles, height 3 m or more or weight over 3.5 t	Class 3 vehicles with a trailer, any vehicle towing a caravan 3 m high or more
5	—	Motorcycles, sidecars, motor tricycles and quadricycles

So if you travel in a high-roof van or a motorhome, expect class 2 and check the class 2 column of the tariff tables. Class 2 vehicles adapted for people with reduced mobility can be charged as class 1: in that case do not use the non-stop tag lanes, call assistance on the intercom at the booth.

Italy: Classe A, Classe B and the «mancato pagamento»

On the 3,020 km network of Autostrade per l’Italia most stretches are closed systems: you take a ticket on entry, hand it in on exit and pay for the shortest route in kilometres. Some stretches are open systems with a fixed toll and no ticket, such as the A8 Milano – Laghi and the A12 Roma – Civitavecchia. The price is a per-km rate that is higher on mountain stretches (more viaducts and tunnels) than on lowland ones; the published rates include 22% VAT and were updated on 1 January 2026. When your route crosses several concession companies, the kilometres and rates of each are worked out separately and the total is then rounded to the nearest 10 cents.

Classes depend on the number of axles and, for two-axle vehicles, on the height measured at the front axle:

Classe A: two axles, height at the front axle up to 1.3 m. This is the class of most cars.
Classe B: two axles, height at the front axle above 1.3 m. Many vans and motorhomes fall here.
Separate classes apply to vehicles with three, four, and five or more axles (for example a car or motorhome towing a trailer).

At the exit booth, signs tell you which lanes take what. A yellow sign with a «T» is for toll tags only; blue is for cards (Viacard, credit and debit cards, with no PIN and no fee); white is for cash, with an operator or at a self-service machine. Pick your lane early in the approach. Besides Telepass, Autostrade per l’Italia accepts tags from As24, Axxes, DKV, TollTickets and UnipolMove, and the operator points out that an EETS device can pay in several European countries.

If your card is declined or the machine fails, you receive a Rapporto di Mancato Pagamento Pedaggio, a receipt with the vehicle data, transit data and the amount due. You can pay it online without extra costs within 15 days of its issue date; after that, assessment costs are added, and unpaid amounts are recovered by force and can be passed to the traffic police. Keep that receipt.

Portugal: electronic-only tolls and foreign plates

Portugal has two kinds of toll. Some motorways have traditional barriers, where you take a ticket and pay by cash or card at the exit. Others use an exclusively electronic system: gantries with no booth, a panel near each one showing the fee, and specific signs at the start of the stretch. With a foreign-registered vehicle you must have an active means of payment before using those roads. The post-payment option at post offices is, by law, only for Portuguese plates.

The options listed by Infraestruturas de Portugal on its PT Tolls portal for foreign vehicles:

EasyToll: links a Mastercard, Visa or Maestro card to your plate, online or at one of the EasyToll stations. Valid for 30 days, with a €0.32 administrative fee per trip.
Tollcard: a prepaid card of €5, €10, €20 or €40, activated by text message, valid for one year, also with €0.32 per trip. Sold online by CTT, in CTT shops and at motorway service areas.
Via Verde Go Toll (online only) and Go Toll & Beyond (with a device): Via Verde subscriptions charged only in the months you use them.
Interoperable device: a tag issued in another country under the EU interoperability directive (2019/520). The portal keeps a list of authorised foreign issuers; ask your issuer to confirm that Portugal is activated before you go.

EasyToll and Tollcard do not cover the two Lisbon bridges managed by Lusoponte (25 de Abril and Vasco da Gama), and on traditional barriers they must be used in the electronic lanes. The fees above are the ones shown on the portal today; check them before travelling.

If you already drove on an electronic-only motorway without a means of payment, the PT Tolls portal links to each operator’s site (Ascendi, Globalvia, Vialivre, Via Verde), where you can look up the plate and pay. Do not wait: non-payment is an offence punished with a fine of at least five times the toll, and never less than €25.

Tolls removed in 2025

Law no. 37/2024, in force since 1 January 2025, abolished tolls on the A4 Transmontana and Marão tunnel, the A13 and A13-1 (Pinhal Interior), the A22 (Algarve), the A23 (Beira Interior), the A24 (Interior Norte), the A25 (Beiras Litoral e Alta), and the A28 between Esposende and Antas and between Neiva and Darque. The rest of the electronic network still charges: the portal’s toll-point maps include, for example, the A41 and A42 around Porto, the A29 and the A8 and A19 in the west. You will still need a payment method on many routes, and the portal’s toll simulator gives the total for a given trip.

Quick checklist before you go

Know your class: measure the height of your van or motorhome (including roof boxes and bikes on top) and check the weight on the registration document.
France: watch for «Flux libre» signs and pay within 72 hours if you have no tag.
Italy: if a booth fails, keep the mancato pagamento receipt and pay within 15 days.
Portugal: register EasyToll or buy a Tollcard before the first electronic-only stretch.
Interoperable tag: ask your issuer which countries it covers.

Sources

How Optitrips helps

Optitrips shows the toll cost of your route, calculated with HERE along the real path, and on paid plans it can offer a toll-free alternative so you can compare the money saved with the time lost. It also suggests a departure time by comparing travel times around the hour you want to leave, splits long trips into days with rest and meal stops, and lets you save a camper or van profile. It does not register you for EasyToll or pay free-flow tolls for you, and the class charged at the booth is the one the operator detects, so keep the official pages above at hand. The app is Android only and in closed beta. Join the beta