How does the weekly cap work in London?

The weekly cap runs from Monday to Sunday, not as a rolling seven days, and it works on both contactless and adult-rate Oyster. On Oyster the adjustment is applied through TfL’s back office, so it can arrive as a refund you collect at a gate or ticket machine rather than showing instantly. This matters for visitors: if your trip starts midweek it straddles two weekly cap windows, so you may pay two part weeks and never reach either cap. A 7 Day Travelcard covers any seven consecutive days you choose, which can work out cheaper for a trip that crosses a Sunday.

London Tube Fare Calculator 2026 | Contactless & Oyster Daily Cap

How much will London cost?

Budget for London before you land

London's fare system is genuinely good value once you understand one thing: the cap. Tap in with the same contactless card or Oyster all day and TfL simply stops charging you once your fares reach a set ceiling. Every journey after that is free. You do not buy it, you do not opt in, and nobody at the barrier will tell you it has happened.

The trouble is that the ceiling depends on which zones you touch, and the weekly ceiling resets every Monday — which catches out almost every visitor who arrives midweek. This calculator does that arithmetic for your actual dates, including weekends and bank holidays being charged off-peak, and tells you plainly whether tapping or a Travelcard wins.

Three Tube journeys in a day is usually all it takes to hit the cap. From the fourth onwards, London travel is free.

The calculator

Estimate your travel costs

Adult contactless and Oyster fares for journeys that include Zone 1, with daily and weekly capping applied properly. An estimate for budgeting, not a quote. Nothing leaves your device.

Where you're travelling

Zones you'll travel in

Pick the furthest zone you'll reach. Not sure? Use the zone finder below.

When you're here

First day

Days of travel

The day you start matters. The contactless weekly cap runs Monday to Sunday, so a trip that crosses a Sunday is split across two cap windows.

Journeys per day

Tube, peak

Tube, off-peak

Bus or tram

Peak is 06:30–09:30 and 16:00–19:00, Monday to Friday, based on the time you touch in. Sightseeing days are usually all off-peak. Weekends and bank holidays are charged off-peak automatically.

Hopper transfers

The Hopper fare gives you unlimited bus and tram journeys within 60 minutes of first touching in, for one fare. Tell us roughly how your trips cluster and we'll charge one fare per hour-long group.

Airport transfers

Heathrow by

Transfers

Heathrow journeys via Zone 1 are charged at the peak rate whatever the time, and they extend your zones to 1–6 for that day, so they count towards the higher £16.30 cap rather than being added on top. Heathrow Express is a separate service outside all caps. Gatwick, Stansted and Luton are outside the TfL zones and aren't included here.

Who's travelling

Adults (16+)

Children under 11

Up to four under-11s travel free per fare-paying adult — any beyond that need their own child-rate fare. Children aged 11–15 pay a child rate but need an 11–15 Zip Oyster photocard or a Visitor Oyster set to child rate. Neither is costed here.

Total for your trip

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Per adult

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Saved by capping

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Days you hit the cap

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Journeys to reach it

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Day by day against the cap

Under the cap — you pay per journey Cap reached — the rest of the day is free No service — nothing runs that day

Adult fares as at 1 March 2026 · caps frozen to March 2027 · an estimate, not a quote · nothing saved to a server

An estimate for planning, not a quote. Fares depend on the exact stations and route you use, and TfL's own single fare finder is the definitive check for a specific journey.

Quick lookup

Which zone is my hotel in?

The single thing that decides your cap. Type a station and we'll tell you the zone, then set the calculator to match.

Station or area

Covers the stations visitors ask about most. For anything else, TfL publishes the full zone map.

Zone — Start typing a station name above.

The rules that matter

How London capping actually works

Five things decide what you pay. Everything else is detail.

The daily cap

The most you can be charged in one day for the zones you've used. Hit it and everything else that day is free.

Runs 04:30 to 04:29 the next morning
Same figure peak or off-peak for Zones 1–6
Automatic — no purchase, no opt-in
Identical on contactless and Oyster

The weekly cap

Daily spend also rolls into a weekly ceiling equal to the price of a 7 Day Travelcard for those zones.

Monday to Sunday — not a rolling seven days
Arrive on a Thursday and you straddle two windows
Works on contactless and adult-rate Oyster
On Oyster it may arrive as a back-office adjustment
A Travelcard can start on any day instead

This is the single most expensive thing visitors get wrong.

Peak and off-peak

Peak is Monday to Friday, 06:30–09:30 and 16:00–19:00, excluding public holidays.

Judged on the time you touch in, not when you board
Weekends, bank holidays and Night Tube are always off-peak
Coming into Zone 1 during the evening peak is off-peak
Heathrow journeys are always charged peak

Buses and the Hopper

Buses are a flat fare wherever you go, and touch in only — never touch out.

The Hopper fare gives unlimited transfers within one hour
Bus fares count towards your Tube cap if you use both
A lower bus-only cap applies on bus-only days
Buses never take cash — card, phone or Oyster only

Same card, every tap

Capping only works if TfL can link your journeys together, which means one card or device for everything.

Touch in and out on rail, or you'll pay a maximum fare
Don't switch between phone and card mid-trip
Keep other contactless cards away from the reader
One card per person — you can't share a tap

Avoiding Zone 1

Journeys that skip Zone 1 are noticeably cheaper, but only if you prove it at the interchange.

Touch the pink reader when you change trains
Skip it and you're charged as though you went through the centre
Pink readers include Stratford, Canada Water, Whitechapel, Highbury & Islington, Clapham Junction, Richmond and Wimbledon

Outer-zone caps are lower than the Zone 1 caps this calculator uses.

Reference

London fares, 2026

Adult pay as you go prices on contactless and Oyster, as revised on 1 March 2026.

Single fares including Zone 1
Zones	Peak	Off-peak
Zone 1	£3.10	£3.00
Zones 1–2	£3.60	£3.10
Zones 1–3	£3.90	£3.30
Zones 1–4	£4.80	£3.60
Zones 1–5	£5.30	£3.80
Zones 1–6	£5.90	£4.00

Single fares avoiding Zone 1
Zones	Peak	Off-peak
Within Zone 2	£2.30	£2.20
Zones 2–3	£2.50	£2.30
Zones 2–4	£3.20	£2.40
Zones 2–5	£3.40	£2.50
Zones 2–6	£3.80	£2.60

Daily and weekly caps
Zones used	Daily	Weekly
Zone 1 only	£8.90	£44.70
Zones 1–2	£8.90	£44.70
Zones 1–3	£10.50	£52.50
Zones 1–4	£12.80	£64.20
Zones 1–5	£15.30	£76.40
Zones 1–6	£16.30	£81.60

Buses, trams and Heathrow
Fare	Price
Bus or tram single	£1.75
Bus and tram daily cap	£5.25
Bus and tram weekly cap	£24.70
Heathrow, Piccadilly line	£5.90
Heathrow, Elizabeth line	£15.50

Daily and weekly caps are frozen until at least March 2027. Bus and tram fares rise to £1.85 a single and £5.55 a day on 1 November 2026 — the calculator applies whichever band covers your travel dates. Caps cover the Tube, DLR, Elizabeth line, Overground and most National Rail in the zones, including Heathrow on the Piccadilly and Elizabeth lines; only Heathrow Express and Southeastern high-speed services sit outside them. Up to four children under 11 travel free per fare-paying adult.

Worth knowing

Six ways visitors overpay in London

None of these need an app, a pass or any planning — just knowing they exist.

Buying paper tickets

A paper single costs roughly double the contactless fare for the same journey, and it doesn't count towards any cap. There is no situation in which it's the cheaper option.

Touching in just before 09:30

Peak is decided the moment you touch in. Waiting two minutes on the platform can move an entire journey into the off-peak bracket, and on Zones 1–4 that's over a pound.

Taking the Tube one stop

Leicester Square to Covent Garden is the famous one — about four minutes on foot versus a full fare underground. Much of Zone 1 is genuinely walkable.

Mixing phone and card

Touch in with your watch and out with your card and TfL sees two incomplete journeys, charges two maximum fares, and your capping breaks. One device, all week.

Missing the pink readers

If your route avoids Zone 1, touching the pink reader at the interchange is the difference between an outer-zone fare and a central one. Nobody tells you at the gate.

Buying a Travelcard by default

Capping never charges more than the equivalent Travelcard, and you only pay for the days you actually travel. The exception is a trip that crosses a Sunday. Check before you commit — that's what the calculator above is for.

Good to know

Fare questions we get asked

The practical answers, without the jargon.

What is the London daily cap?

The daily cap is the most you can be charged for pay as you go travel in one day. Once your fares add up to the cap for the zones you have used, every journey after that is free. You do not buy it or opt in, and you do not need a Travelcard. The daily cap runs from 04:30 to 04:29 the next morning, so travel just after midnight still counts towards the previous day. For journeys including Zone 1 the cap is the same whether you travel at peak or off-peak times.

Is contactless or Oyster cheaper?

The fares and the daily and weekly caps are identical on both. Contactless is simpler because there is no card to buy and no topping up, and the weekly cap is applied automatically. Choose Oyster if you need a concession such as a Zip photocard, or if you want a National Railcard discount applied to your pay as you go fares, because contactless cannot apply Railcard discounts.

How does the weekly cap work?

The weekly cap runs from Monday to Sunday, not as a rolling seven days, and it works on both contactless and adult-rate Oyster. On Oyster the adjustment is applied through TfL’s back office, so it can arrive as a refund you collect at a gate or ticket machine rather than showing on the card straight away.

This matters for visitors: if your trip starts midweek it straddles two weekly cap windows, so you may pay two part weeks and never reach either cap. A 7 Day Travelcard covers any seven consecutive days you choose, which can work out cheaper for a trip that crosses a Sunday.

When are peak fares charged?

Peak fares apply Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, from 06:30 to 09:30 and from 16:00 to 19:00. What counts is the time you touch in at the start of your journey, not when you board or touch out. Weekends, bank holidays and Night Tube journeys are always charged off-peak, and journeys from outside Zone 1 into Zone 1 during the evening peak are charged off-peak too.

Do children pay on the Underground?

Up to four children under 11 travel free on the Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line when accompanied by a fare-paying adult, and free on buses and trams at any time. You may need to use the wide gate and ask staff to let them through. Children aged 11 to 15 pay a reduced child rate but need an 11–15 Zip Oyster photocard or a Visitor Oyster card set to child rate, so arrange that before you travel.

Is a Travelcard cheaper than contactless?

For most visitors, no. Pay as you go with automatic daily and weekly capping never charges more than the equivalent Travelcard for the same travel, and you only pay on the days you actually travel. A 7 Day Travelcard is worth considering when your trip crosses a Sunday, because you can start it on any day, whereas the weekly cap always resets on a Monday. A Zones 1–6 Travelcard also covers Heathrow on the Piccadilly and Elizabeth lines, though not Heathrow Express.

Does the daily cap include buses?

Yes. If you use both buses and the Tube in one day, your bus fares count towards the Tube and rail cap for the zones you travelled in. If you only use buses and trams that day, a lower bus and tram only cap applies instead. Buses also have the Hopper fare, which gives you unlimited bus and tram transfers within one hour of touching in, as long as you keep using the same card or device.