New in 2024: The 1-day vignette for Austria

The Austrian government announced last week that a new toll vignette will become available for using the motorways in Austria. The new vignette will be valid for 24 hours and will be cheaper than the 10-day vignette. The government is thus responding to the European Union, which believes that daily rates should be part of the offer.

It is a welcome addition to the existing vignettes for 10 days, two months and an entire year. The car vignette is required for all vehicles to be able to use the road network in Austria. It was also announced that the 10-day vignette will become slightly more expensive.

The vignette is a convenient option for many road users. If your holiday is longer than ten days and you do not use your car for the rest of the time to drive on roads with a toll requirement, the one-day vignette will save you a few euros.

1-day vignette: convenient when you are passing through

This also applies to travellers who do not have Austria as their final destination, but are on their way to popular holiday destinations in Northeast Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. For many destinations in those regions it is almost unavoidable to drive through Austria, and toll charges are an important cost item. If the planned trip lasts longer than 10 days, two one-day vignettes are a cheaper option than the two-month vignette.

Available from 2024

The new vignette, which will be introduced from 1 January 2024, offers a solution for many travellers, but it is not useful for everyone. For example, if you go on holiday in Austria for a week and only plan to use your car to drive in and out of the country during the 10 days, the vignette for 10 days is still cheaper than two separate one-day vignettes.

The one-day vignette will therefore be available as an extra option from New Year's Day and can be obtained in the same way as the existing vignettes for Austria, via our website.

What is the price of the vignette for Austria?

Which road vignette do I require in Austria?

Since 1997 it is required in Austria to have a toll vignette for almost all motorways (A-roads) and expressways (S-roads). During the first twenty years you could buy a toll sticker to stick on your windscreen, but the system has now been almost completely digitised. So since 2018, the sticker on your windscreen is no longer required, as you can sort it all online.

Nowadays you only have to enter your license plate and pay for the toll vignette of your choice, to register your vehicle. Go to our website for all car vignettes for Austria and find the best vignette for your needs, which you can purchase at any time without having to wait. This way you avoid the fine of € 120 for each day that you are illegally on Austrian roads and you do not have to worry about a thing when travelling.

Why do you have to pay toll charges in Austria?

Austria is largely located in the Alps and therefore has beautiful hilly landscapes and breathtaking high mountain peaks. The disadvantage of this is that the construction and maintenance of roads costs a lot of money. The harsh weather conditions in winter mean that roads are damaged much more often and therefore need to be repaired more often than the flat roads found in the temperate climate in the Netherlands, for example.

The revenue of the vignette sales is used to keep the roads in a good condition.

The costs for this are partly paid by car users from their own country and by tourists who spend their money in Austria. However, not all users of Austria's motorways stay in the country, even though they do use the facilities of a good road network. Vehicles that are passing through Austria are therefore also required to make a contribution to the quality of the road network in the shape of a car vignette.

The costs of driving through Austria by car will not go away for the time being due to the never-ending need for maintenance, but with the one-day vignette that can be used from 1 January 2024, there will be more and more opportunities to save on that part of your car journey that crosses the Alpine country.