Motorway vignette Switzerland 2025 - must knows 

What is the Swiss motorway vignette?

The motorway vignette is a road tax sticker or electronic product for your car. The vignette is obligatory for driving on the national road network (the “Nationalstrassennetz”). This network consists of motorways/highways but includes a few smaller roads as well.

The vignette is a requirement for both Swiss citizens and tourists.

Price and purchase options of the Swiss motorway vignette

What the vignette costs

The price of the Swiss motorway vignette is CHF 40, excluding any shipping costs for the sticker. It’s a prepaid toll for an entire year.

Separate tolls for specific routes are very rare in Switzerland. The vignette allows you to drive on nearly all roads.

Where to purchase your vignette

Options to get your vignette:

1. Buy your vignette online. With a vignette bought online in advance, you can cross the border using the fast lane. If you bought the sticker, you can take your time to apply it properly. In most cases, environmental badges for Germany (Umweltplaketten) and France (Crit’Air), as well as the vignette for Austria, can be purchased too.
2. Buy it at gas stations near the Swiss border in Austria, France, Germany, and Italy.
3. Buy it at the Swiss border: pick the lane for cars without a vignette.

The Swiss e-vignette

An electronic vignette is available too. It’s an alternative to the sticker. The price is the same and there are no other differences.

The e-vignette is linked to the license plate of the vehicle. It can’t be copied or sold to someone else. It can’t be exchanged for a sticker. The e-vignette is for sale online.

Where and how long the motorway vignette is valid

The validity period

The Swiss motorway vignette is valid for 14 months. Validity starts on December 1 of the previous year and ends after January 31 of the next year. There are no daily, weekly, or monthly vignettes.

For example: the 2025 vignette is valid from 1 December 2024 through 31 January 2026. If you need a vignette for a trip in December, it’s best to buy a vignette for the next year.

The validity area

The Swiss motorway vignette covers nearly all Swiss motorways and highways. Consult a map through the links here.

How to recognize roads for which the vignette is required

The roads for which you need a vignette are indicated by green signs with white numbers.

Another way to recognize such roads is their numbers, which have the letter A as a prefix. The A3 is the motorway connecting Basel to Zurich, for example. Many of these roads have an E-number as well, which is the European motorway numbering system.

Additional tolls on top of the vignette

In a few exceptional cases, you’ll have to pay an additional amount. This goes for:

• car trains;
• 2 tunnels between Switzerland and Italy: the San Bernardino tunnel and the Munt la Schera tunnel at Livigno;
• some car ferries, such as the one between Horgen and Meilen on Lake Zurich, and the one between Gersau and Beckenried on Lake Lucerne;
• a few private roads and smaller roads, such as the one from Kandersteg into the Gastern Valley.

Which vehicles need a motorway vignette

One vignette for each vehicle

You need to buy a motorway vignette for cars, motorcycles, motorhomes, campervans, trailers, and caravans. So driving with a car plus a caravan requires two vignettes.

The Swiss motorway vignette is for vehicles with a weight of up to 3500 kg. Heavier vehicles need to pay a heavy vehicle charge instead.

The motorway vignette for rental cars

If you rent a car in Switzerland, the vignette is mostly included. If you rent a car elsewhere in Europe, a vignette is not included in most cases.

When I use the motorway vignette myself

Annika and I take public transport in Switzerland, but sometimes we travel to and from Switzerland by car. In such cases, we buy a vignette. Without one, we’d have to avoid the Swiss motorways to reach our destination, which would be too time-consuming and stressful.

When we travel to Switzerland by train, we don’t buy the vignette, nor do we rent a car.

How to apply and remove the vignette sticker

How to correctly apply the sticker to your vehicle

You’ll find instructions on the backside of the vignette.

• Car: stick the vignette on the inside of your windshield. Put it either in the lower left corner, the upper left corner, or in the middle near the rearview mirror. Pick a place where it does not obstruct your view and where it’s clearly visible from the outside.
• Motorcycle: put it in the lower left corner of the inside of the windscreen.
• Caravan: put it on the front window, similar to a car.
• Trailer: place it on a non-removable and visible part of the vehicle.

Once attached, the vignette can’t be moved. So carefully select and clean the place where you want to stick it.

Only correctly applied vignettes are valid. They must be stuck directly onto the vehicle. Using tape, leaving it on the dashboard, or any other alternative way makes it invalid. Removed vignettes are no longer valid.

How to remove the vignette from your vehicle

Use a scraper with a thin sharp blade to remove the sticker from the window. Then clean with cleaning benzene. If you don’t have this, try WD-40 or alcohol.

Note that the Swiss vignette sticker is not transferable to another person or car (the e-vignette is, provided that the new/other car has the same number plate) once it’s affixed. Also, the sticker consists of various loosely connected pieces that will fall apart once removed from the windshield. So you can only pass on vignettes that have not been used yet.

You often need more than just a vignette

In most cases, you need more than a vignette if you’re spending your holidays in Switzerland. Many areas, including all mountain tops, can not be reached by car. A rail pass provides free or discounted trips by cable car, boat, train, funiculars, etc. Without a pass, you would pay the full fare, which can be pretty expensive.

The Swiss Half Fare Card is a popular pass for drivers, but there are more options.

Driving in Switzerland without the vignette

The fine for driving without a vignette

The fine for driving on a Swiss motorway without a vignette is CHF 200, plus the costs of a vignette. If you drive with a sticker vignette that is not applied correctly or damaged, that too is considered driving without a vignette.

Which roads you can use without the vignette

You’re allowed to drive without the vignette if you avoid the motorways and use smaller regional or local roads only. In most cases, the inconvenience of doing so is not worth the money you’ll save. But for short trips into Switzerland, a vignette might not be necessary.

Downsides of using regional roads only

Avoiding the motorways takes extra time. Driving with extra focus is required because you will instead be using regional roads. Those roads cross villages, have traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and there will be other traffic such as bikes and agricultural vehicles.

For example: if you drive from one end of Lake Lucerne to the other (Lucerne to Flüelen), it takes 35 minutes via the motorway south of the lake and 70 minutes via smaller roads north of the lake. The northern road is more scenic, but the time difference is considerable.

Stick’Air for the low-emission zone in Geneva

The town center of Geneva is a low-emission zone. You need a so-called ‘Stick’Air’ if you want to enter the area by car. This sticker must be applied to your windscreen. It comes in 5 categories: 1 is for the cleanest vehicles, 5 is for the most polluting ones.