If the last time you rode the Paris metro was before 2025, forget the carnet of ten tickets and the little cardboard ticket with the magnetic stripe: you can’t find them anywhere now. Since 5 November 2025 paper tickets are no longer sold in the metro, at stations or on buses, and the change came faster than the date suggests, because the carnet had already vanished from ticket offices in 2023.
In their place there’s a system simpler than it looks at first sight: two digital tickets at a single price for the whole network, which you load onto a Navigo card that costs two euros, onto a weekly or monthly pass, or straight onto your smartphone. What confuses newcomers most isn’t the technology but a rule that doesn’t exist in London or Rome: the ticket that opens the metro turnstiles isn’t the one that opens the bus doors.
Which ticket or pass is the right one for you, and how many days do you need to stay in Paris for a weekly pass to pay for itself?
Let’s go!
The paper ticket is gone
Until a few years ago a handful of coins at a machine was enough to walk away with a cardboard t+ ticket, good for one journey with its transfers. That system was ended deliberately, and Île-de-France Mobilités, the body that runs transport in the Paris region, says so openly: fewer queues at ticket offices, less paper produced and recycled every year. On 1 January 2025 the old t+ ticket was replaced by two digital tickets, and since 5 November 2025 it isn’t on sale anywhere at all, neither at the counters nor at the ticket machines in stations, on buses or on trams.
If you still have an old t+ ticket or a paper Origine-Destination ticket in your pocket, here’s some useful news: it’s still valid at the turnstiles until 14 December 2026, but no longer on buses and trams, and if you’d rather swap it for a new ticket you can do so at a RATP or SNCF counter until 14 January 2027, with a limit of five tickets a day.
In place of paper you now have three ways to pay for a journey: you load a digital ticket onto a Navigo card, you buy it on the Île-de-France Mobilités or Bonjour RATP app straight on your phone, or, on buses only and not yet in the metro, you hold your contactless credit card up to the validator. I’ll take them one by one, because the differences matter for what your trip ends up costing.
One ticket for metro, RER and Transilien; another for buses and trams
The biggest simplification of the 2025 reform is that fare zones have disappeared from the single ticket: until a few years ago a ticket bought to stay inside Paris wasn’t valid for a trip out to the suburbs, and fares changed with the distance. Not any more: a single ticket costs the same wherever you go in Île-de-France, from the station at your doorstep to the station in the farthest suburb. The dedicated airport connections are the exception, and they have a ticket of their own.
What hasn’t gone is the distinction by type of transport. The Ticket Metro-Train-RER costs 2.55 euros and is valid on the metro, the RER, Transilien and the Montmartre funicular, the latter with a new validation: it doesn’t count as a transfer from the metro. Between the metro, the RER and Transilien, transfers are free for 120 minutes from the first validation: you can change trains, go from the metro to the RER and back to the metro, and you pay for a single journey. The Ticket Bus-Tram costs 2.05 euros and is valid on the region’s whole bus and tram network, with 90 minutes of transfers between buses and between buses and trams.
What happens if you get off the metro and board a bus with the same ticket?
It doesn’t work: the two tickets are separate products, and going from the metro to a bus without a Navigo pass means validating and paying for both. It’s the most common surprise for people who come from a city where one ticket covers every kind of transport, and it’s worth knowing before you step onto the first bus thinking you’ve already paid.
Navigo Easy, the card made for people passing through
To load the two digital tickets you need something to put them on, and the most convenient one for a tourist is the Passe Navigo Easy: a card, either rigid plastic or cardboard, that costs 2 euros once only, carries neither your name nor a photo, and that you can lend to whoever is travelling with you. You reload it at station machines, at partner points of sale or from the app, and the rigid plastic version can hold up to four different tickets at once, the cardboard one up to two.
On Navigo Easy you can load the Metro-Train-RER and Bus-Tram single tickets, plus the Navigo Jour, the one-day pass at 12.30 euros valid on the whole network. What Navigo Easy can’t do is carry a Semaine or Mois pass: for those you need the Passe Navigo Découverte, the card with a photo that costs 5 euros, is sold at ticket counters and at authorised shops and lasts ten years even if you don’t reload it. You don’t need a professional passport photo for it: the automatic booths near the ticket offices of the big stations and of Charles de Gaulle airport take four photos for 5 euros in a few minutes.
The Navigo week always starts on a Monday
If you arrive in Paris on a Thursday, does a Navigo Semaine bought that day cover you for seven full days?
No, and it’s the mistake almost every visitor makes the first time they use this pass. The Navigo Semaine doesn’t count seven days from the moment you activate it: it always follows the calendar week, from Monday at 00:00 to Sunday at 23:59, whatever day you buy it or first use it. It costs 32.40 euros across all zones of the network, and if you activate it on a Thursday you pay the same full price while using it for only four days, until Sunday night. The same principle holds for the Navigo Mois, which costs 90.80 euros and follows the calendar month from the first to the last day, not thirty days from the purchase date.
The practical consequence is simple: the Navigo Semaine is only really worth it if your stay covers at least half of the calendar week in progress and you use it every remaining day, weekend included. If you arrive on a Monday and leave on the following Sunday, the pass covers your days very well because they all fall inside the same week from Monday to Sunday; if you arrive on a Tuesday and leave on the Thursday after, straddling two calendar weeks, the sums change and single tickets may cost you less.
How many journeys it takes to pay off a pass
The honest sum is the price of the pass divided by the price of a single Metro-Train-RER ticket, 2.55 euros, because that’s the one a tourist validates most often. The cost of the cards, 2 euros for the Navigo Easy and 5 for the Navigo Découverte, is left out of the sum.
For the Navigo Jour, 12.30 euros, break-even comes at four journeys and a fraction: you need five trips by metro or RER on the same day for the pass to cost less than single tickets. A full day of sightseeing, with the trip out, a return to the hotel for a lunch break and an evening stop, passes that number easily.
For the Navigo Semaine, 32.40 euros for the whole calendar week, break-even comes at just under thirteen journeys: two trips a day for seven days are enough for the pass to pay for itself, and every journey beyond that threshold is a clear saving. Work it out on a real trip: a couple visiting Paris from Monday to Sunday with three or four trips a day each would pay, on single tickets, between 53.55 and 71.40 euros each; with the Navigo Semaine each spends 32.40, so they save between 21 and 39 euros each in that week alone, not counting the time you don’t spend validating a new ticket at every change.
If you’re staying for less, the simplest route is still the same: pay as you go on Navigo Easy. Under five trips a day, or under two trips a day across a whole week, single tickets stay the cheapest way to get around, and the 2-euro card that holds them comes home with you for your next trip.
From the first metro to the last
The metro network opens early and closes early compared with many other European capitals. The first train leaves the terminus stations around 5:30 am every day, weekdays and holidays alike. The last train changes with the day of the week instead: from Sunday to Thursday it reaches the terminus around 1:15 am, while on Friday, Saturday and the eves of public holidays service runs an hour longer, until 2:15 am. At intermediate stations, not at the terminus, the last train generally passes 15-25 minutes before that time, so if your evening runs late it’s worth working out your margin.
After the last train the network doesn’t stop altogether: the Noctilien night bus network keeps linking the city’s main points and its busiest stations until morning, at a much lower frequency than during the day. The Metro-Train-RER ticket isn’t valid on Noctilien: you validate the Bus-Tram ticket, as on any other bus on the network.
Paying directly by credit card, not yet in the metro
For the past few months there’s been a lot of talk about contactless bank-card payment on Paris transport, and it’s true, but with a difference worth clearing up before you count on this option. Today, checked on 9 October 2026, paying directly with a credit or debit card works on the buses of the network, though not on all of them: Île-de-France Mobilités planned to equip the buses of Paris and the inner suburbs by the end of August 2026 and those of the outer suburbs by summer 2028. In the metro it doesn’t work yet: the first turnstile with this option is expected on line 1 from July 2027, followed by lines 4, 14, 15 and 18 by the end of 2027, with the full network planned for 2030.
Another difference is the price: a journey paid for by credit card costs more than the equivalent digital ticket, with a stated surcharge of 50 to 80 cents per journey, and every validation is charged on its own, without the free transfers that a Ticket Metro-Train-RER or Bus-Tram gives you inside its validity window. For a tourist passing through who mostly travels by metro today, Navigo Easy stays the simplest and cheapest choice; the contactless card can come in handy on a bus, for a one-off ride, without stopping to buy a separate ticket.
Practical information
Figures checked on 9 October 2026. The official sites ratp.fr and iledefrance-mobilites.fr reject every automated request with a Cloudflare error, even from a browser; the figures below are cross-checked against several independent sources that agree, among them the RATP communication portal bonjour-ratp.fr and the entries “Ticket t+”, “Navigo card” and “Public transport fares in the Île-de-France” on English Wikipedia, which in turn cite the official source. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you leave.
Ticket Metro-Train-RER. 2.55 euros, single price across the whole Île-de-France network. Includes 120 minutes of transfers between metro, RER and Transilien; it’s also valid on the Montmartre funicular, with a new validation: it doesn’t count as a transfer from the metro. Not valid on the dedicated airport connections. Ticket Bus-Tram. 2.05 euros, single price. Includes 90 minutes of transfers between buses and trams, but doesn’t open the metro turnstiles. Navigo Easy. Reloadable card, 2 euros once only, with no name or photo. Loads single tickets and the Navigo Jour; doesn’t load the Navigo Semaine or Mois. Navigo Découverte. Card with a photo, 5 euros, lasts ten years even without reloads, sold at ticket counters and at authorised shops. Needed to load the Navigo Semaine and Navigo Mois. Navigo Jour. Costs 12.30 euros and is valid for one day across the whole network. Navigo Semaine. 32.40 euros (concession 16.20), always follows the calendar week from Monday to Sunday, whatever day you buy it. Navigo Mois. 90.80 euros (concession 45.40), follows the calendar month from the first to the last day. Contactless credit card payment. It works on buses, not yet in the metro. The surcharge is 50-80 cents per journey compared with the equivalent digital ticket. Free travel. Children under 4 travel free across the whole network, provided they don’t take up a seat; from age 4 until they turn 10 a single ticket costs half price. Network hours. First train from the terminus stations around 5:30 am every day. Last train around 1:15 am from Sunday to Thursday, around 2:15 am on Friday, Saturday and the eves of public holidays; at intermediate stations the last train passes 15-25 minutes earlier.
Before you go down to the station
If you’re coming back to Paris after some time away, the most useful thing you can do before you leave is forget the paper ticket and get used to the idea of two different tickets, one for the tracks and one for the street. For a full week with at least two trips a day, the sums favour a Navigo Semaine bought as soon as you arrive, if your stay falls inside the same calendar week; for a shorter stop, or for a long weekend straddling two weeks, a Navigo Easy loaded pay-as-you-go stays the simplest solution, and it’s the card you take home ready for your next trip.
You’ll find the current price list on the official page of Île-de-France Mobilités devoted to tickets and fares.
Photographs: the Guimard entrance at Porte Dauphine by Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0; the interior of a line 1 train by DiscoA340, CC BY-SA 4.0; the Navigo validator by Lyon-St-Clair, CC BY-SA 4.0. All via Wikimedia Commons.
