Salik, parking, petrol: what do the running costs add up to?
Our five-year cost study left out tolls, parking and the swing in pump prices. This explainer prices each of them from the official tariffs, works through one Dubai commute, and shows where a driver can cut the bill.
Our five-year cost study counted loss of value, insurance, servicing and fuel, and left three things out on purpose: Salik, parking and fines. They depend on where you live and where you work far more than on the car. This piece prices the first two from the official tariffs published by Salik and Parkin, and looks again at fuel, because the pump price has moved a long way this year.
How Salik charges you
Salik is Dubai’s toll system. A tag on the windscreen (or your number plate) is read every time you drive under a gate, and the toll comes off your balance. Since variable pricing started on 31 January 2025, the price of a crossing depends on the hour and the day. The table is from the Salik press release filed with the Dubai Financial Market:
| When | Weekdays, AED | Sundays, AED |
|---|---|---|
| 6am to 10am and 4pm to 8pm | 6 per crossing | 4 per crossing |
| 10am to 4pm and 8pm to 1am | 4 per crossing | 4 per crossing |
| 1am to 6am | Free | Free |
The Sunday rate does not apply on public holidays or during events. Saturday is not listed separately in that table, so we read it as charged at the weekday rate. The tariff was still the same in Salik’s first-quarter 2026 results, which report peak trips at AED 6 and off-peak trips at AED 4.
One detail helps people who drive the length of Sheikh Zayed Road. Al Safa North and Al Safa South count as a single charge when you pass both in the same direction within one hour, according to Salik’s 2025 annual report.
What Salik costs a commuter
The bill comes down to two questions: how many gates sit between home and work, and what time you pass them. Here are three cases, using the Salik tariff and a month of 22 working days:
| Commute | Per working day, AED | Per month of 22 working days, AED |
|---|---|---|
| One gate each way, both at peak | 12 | 264 |
| Two gates each way, both at peak | 24 | 528 |
| One gate each way, both off-peak | 8 | 176 |
Weekend errands come on top. A Sunday trip across one gate and back is AED 8 at the Sunday rate.
The off-peak row does not fit most office hours. It does fit shift workers, or anyone who drives home after 8pm. Early starters have another option, since the gates stay free until 6am under the same tariff, so crossing at 5.45am instead of 6.15am saves the AED 6 on the morning leg.
How Dubai parking is priced
Public parking in Dubai is run by Parkin. In the standard and premium roadside and plots zones below, paid hours are 8am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday, and parking is free on Sundays and public holidays, according to Parkin’s general parking information. A few zones, such as the mosque zones, run 24 hours every day, so read the sign. Since 4 April 2025, premium zones charge more in the morning and evening peaks, which are 8am to 10am and 4pm to 8pm.
Hourly rates, including VAT, from the Parkin tariff tables:
| Zone | One hour off-peak, AED | One hour at peak, AED | Full day (14 hours), AED |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, standard roadside | 4.20 | 4.20 | no full-day rate listed |
| AP, premium roadside | 4.20 | 6.30 | no full-day rate listed |
| B, standard plots | 3.15 | 4.20 | 31.50 |
| BP, premium plots | 3.15 | 6.30 | 42 |
| D, standard plots | 2.10 | 4.20 | 21 |
Premium zones are the busy areas: Parkin names Downtown, Business Bay, Deira and Jumeirah among them. The letter on the parking sign tells you which table applies. Parkin’s multi-storey car parks cost AED 5 plus VAT an hour, and AED 40 plus VAT for a full day, on the same Parkin page.
When a parking subscription pays for itself
Someone who parks all day in a zone B plot, five days a week, pays AED 31.50 a day at the daily rate, or AED 693 over 22 working days. Parkin’s plots-only subscription, which covers designated plots in zones B and D, starts at AED 262.50 a month.
That subscription is cheaper than paying by the day once you park more than eight full days a month in zone B (AED 262.50 divided by AED 31.50, from the subscription and daily rate pages). In zone D, where a full day costs AED 21 at the published rate, the break-even moves to 13 days. If you also need roadside spaces, the roadside and plots subscription covers zones A to D from AED 525 a month.
The malls are a separate world. At Mall of the Emirates the first four hours are free from Monday to Friday, and at City Centre Deira the first three hours are free, then the charge climbs steeply, according to the Parkin page that lists both, which makes them fine for shopping and expensive for a working day.
Petrol: the price moves every month
The UAE Fuel Price Committee sets pump prices at the end of each month. The October 2026 prices on ADNOC Distribution’s fuel page, VAT included, are AED 4.40 a litre for Super 98, AED 4.28 for Special 95, AED 4.21 for E-Plus 91 and AED 4.80 for diesel.
In January 2026, Special 95 cost AED 2.42 a litre, according to WAM’s report of the committee’s decision. In August it was AED 3.49 on the same WAM page. Between January and October that is AED 1.86 more per litre, a rise of 77%, worked out from the WAM and ADNOC figures.
What that means per car depends on consumption. Here are three Toyotas, using the manufacturer’s official figures and Special 95 at both prices:
| Model | Official economy | Fuel per 1,000 km, January 2026, AED | Fuel per 1,000 km, October 2026, AED |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corolla hybrid | 30.3 km per litre | 80 | 141 |
| RAV4 hybrid, GXR | 24.8 km per litre | 98 | 173 |
| Land Cruiser hybrid | 10.9 km per litre | 222 | 393 |
Treat these as a floor. Official economy figures are measured on a test cycle, and a car stuck in traffic in August with the air conditioning on full will use more. The gap between the cars holds, though, and it grows with the pump price: the Land Cruiser hybrid costs about AED 250 more per 1,000 km than the Corolla hybrid at October’s price, against about AED 140 in January, using the ADNOC and WAM prices.
One commute, priced
To put the three together, take one example we picked: a RAV4 hybrid owner who drives 2,000 km a month, crosses one Salik gate each way at peak on 22 working days, and parks on a plots-only subscription.
| Item | Per month | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Salik, one gate each way at peak | AED 264 | Salik tariff |
| Parking, plots-only subscription | AED 262.50 | Parkin |
| Fuel, 2,000 km at October prices | AED 345 | ADNOC, Toyota |
| Total | about AED 872 | sum of the rows above |
At January’s pump price, the fuel line would have been about AED 195 and the total about AED 722, from the WAM price. The same driver paying daily for a zone B plot instead of subscribing would add about AED 430 a month, the gap between AED 693 and AED 262.50 on the Parkin pages.
None of this appears in a dealer’s monthly instalment, and none of it is in the five-year figures of our running-costs page either.
What this means if you are buying
Price your commute before you choose the car. Count the gates on your route at the hours you will drive, then check the zone letter on the parking signs near your office. In our example, Salik and parking came to AED 526.50 a month before any fuel (Salik, Parkin), and that part does not change with the car.
The car changes the fuel line. Our rule: if you drive more than a short city commute, give a big difference in official consumption real weight, because this year showed the litre price can move by AED 1.86 in nine months (WAM, ADNOC). A large SUV is still a reasonable choice if you use its space and its off-road ability. Just budget its fuel at a high month, not a cheap one.
To compare a thirsty car with a frugal one over five years, put them side by side in the comparison tool, check the RAV4 model page for used asking prices, and add your Salik and parking figures to the monthly budget in the budget tool.
How we measured
This is an explainer built on published tariffs, not on our listings data, so there is no sample size. All pages were read on 8 October 2026. Salik and parking prices are the official tariffs. Fuel prices are the ADNOC Distribution prices for October 2026 and the January and August 2026 prices reported by WAM. Fuel costs per 1,000 km are the litres implied by each manufacturer’s official economy figure, multiplied by the Special 95 price and rounded to the nearest dirham. The commute example uses inputs we chose (2,000 km, one gate each way, 22 working days); change them to yours. Our general rules on sources and rounding are on the methodology page.
Sources
- Salik, press release on variable pricing filed with the Dubai Financial Market, 29 November 2024
- Dubai Media Office, Salik first-quarter 2026 results
- Salik, 2025 annual report, operational review
- Parkin, variable parking tariff
- Parkin, general parking information and tariff tables
- Parkin, subscriptions
- ADNOC Distribution, fuel prices
- WAM, UAE Fuel Price Committee announces prices for August (the page also lists the January 2026 prices)
- Toyota UAE, Corolla hybrid
- Al-Futtaim Toyota, RAV4 hybrid 2026 specification sheet
- Al-Futtaim Toyota, Land Cruiser hybrid 2026 specification sheet
Drafted with AI from our own data, every figure checked against its source, approved by the editor.
The cars in this guide
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Toyota RAV4
No free photo of this model yet
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