Driving in Portugal 2026: Rules, Tolls, Fines and Costs

In Portugal you drive on the right. The speed limit for cars is 50 km/h in towns, 90 km/h on other roads, 100 km/h on expressways and 120 km/h on motorways, and the alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l. Most motorways charge tolls and many have no booths at all, so cars rented in Portugal come with an electronic toll device: the five companies we checked charge €1.80 to €2.36 a day for it, each with its own cap. Fuel averaged €2.05 a litre for petrol and €2.27 for diesel on 6 November 2026. Licences from the EU, the UK, the US, Canada and Brazil are valid for up to 185 days. Below are the fines, the toll rules for rental cars and calculators for your own trip.

Portugal driving rules at a glance

Sources: Código da Estrada (consolidated, Diário da República), DGEG fuel prices, US State Department (112). Checked on 8 November 2026.

Speed limits in Portugal

The limits come from article 27 of the Código da Estrada, the Portuguese Highway Code. They apply unless a sign says otherwise, and local signs can set lower or higher limits on a stretch of road. The last change to the Code was in April 2025 and only concerned motorcycle parking, so the limits and fines below did not change in 2025 or 2026. Higher fines have been announced in the Portuguese press in 2026, but nothing had been published in the official gazette by 8 November 2026.

Having held your licence for less than a year does not lower your speed limit in Portugal, whatever older guides say: the current Code has no such rule. What changes for new drivers is the alcohol limit.

Speeding fines

Fines depend on how far you were over the limit, and the bands are tighter in towns than outside them. Serious and very serious speeding offences can also lead to a driving ban (inibição de conduzir) on top of the fine.

Speed cameras and average speed checks

The national camera network, SINCRO, has 123 sites according to the road safety authority ANSR. 100 of them measure your speed at one point and 23 measure your average speed between two points, for example on the A1 near Mealhada and Santarém, the IC19 in Sintra and the EN10 at Vila Franca de Xira. Every site is signed in advance, and ANSR publishes the full list on radaresavista.pt. Radar detectors and jammers are illegal: €500 to €2,500, and the device is confiscated.

Alcohol limit

The general limit is 0.5 g/l of alcohol in the blood. It is 0.2 g/l for drivers in their probationary period, professional drivers, taxi and ride hailing drivers, and for school transport and emergency vehicles. If you passed your test recently, the safest plan is not to drink at all before driving.

Phones, seat belts and children

You may not hold or keep handling a phone while the car is moving. A hands-free system or a single earpiece is allowed. The fine is €250 to €1,250 and it counts as a serious offence. Everyone in the car must wear a seat belt (€120 to €600).

Children under 12 who are shorter than 135 cm need an approved child seat that fits their size and weight, and they must sit in the back. A child under 3 may sit in front only in a rear facing seat with the passenger airbag switched off, and a child of 3 or older only if the car has no rear seat or no rear seat belts. The fine is €120 to €600 per child. Book child seats together with the car.

Roundabouts

Roundabouts are everywhere in Portugal, often with two or three lanes, and article 14-A of the Code says how to use them:

• Give way to traffic already on the roundabout, whatever lane it is in.
• For the first exit, take the right lane.
• For any later exit, you may use an inner lane, but move to the right lane only after you have passed the exit before yours.
• Lorries, cyclists and animal-drawn vehicles may stay in the right lane all the way round, but must let you out when you exit.

Getting it wrong costs €60 to €300.

What you must carry

Every car must carry a reflective vest and a warning triangle of an approved type. If you stop on the carriageway or hard shoulder, put the triangle at least 30 m behind the car so it is visible from 100 m, and wear the vest while you do it. A missing item costs €60 to €300 each; not using them costs €120 to €600. The Code does not say where the vest must be kept, but inside the car, not in the boot, is where you can reach it safely. In daylight, dipped headlights are compulsory in signed tunnels, on reversible lanes and whenever visibility is poor, for example in fog or heavy rain.

Can I drive in Portugal with my licence?

An EU or EEA licence is valid until it expires. Licences from countries that signed the 1949 Geneva or 1968 Vienna road traffic convention, or have an agreement with Portugal, can be used for up to 185 days after you enter the country, as long as you do not take up residence. The transport authority IMT lists the US, Canada and the UK among them, and Brazil as a Portuguese speaking convention country. Licences from countries with neither a convention nor an agreement are not valid.

The minimum age to drive is 18, but rental companies set their own minimums, usually 19 or 21, and charge a young driver fee up to 24.

Tolls: how they work in a rental car

Portugal has two kinds of toll motorway. On roads like the A1 (Lisbon to Porto) and the A2 (Lisbon to the Algarve) there are toll barriers: you take a ticket and pay at a booth, or drive through an electronic lane with a toll device. On others there are no booths, only gantries with cameras, and you need an electronic way to pay. Since 1 January 2025 Law 37/2024 has removed tolls from several former “SCUT” concessions: the A4 Transmontana and Marão Tunnel, the A13 and A13-1 Pinhal Interior, the A22 in the Algarve, the A23, A24, A25 and two sections of the A28.

A car rented in Portugal makes this easy. All five companies we checked fit a Via Verde device in their Portuguese cars, citing Portuguese law, and charge the tolls to your card after the rental. At toll barriers you use the lanes reserved for electronic payment instead of stopping at the booth. In 2026 a car pays €25.05 from Lisbon to Porto and €23.80 from Lisbon to Faro. The Lisbon bridges charge only when you drive into the city: €2.25 on the 25 de Abril bridge and €3.40 on the Vasco da Gama bridge, according to Lusoponte. Our guide to tolls in Portugal and the Portugal toll calculator cover other routes.

Sources: Infraestruturas de Portugal (pttolls.com), Brisa 2026 toll table, Via Verde toll calculator, Law 37/2024. Read on 8 November 2026.

Rental car rules that affect your trip

The table shows the terms of five companies that rent cars across Portugal, read in their own 2026 documents. Sixt and Hertz block automated reading of their terms, so they are not in it.

Our guide to cheap car rental in Portugal compares prices by city and airport. Two things are worth knowing before you book. First, most companies charge the toll device fee per rental day, not per toll (Guerin only for days you use it), so on a long rental the cap matters more than the daily price. Second, all five allow trips to Spain only with their paid cross-border option, so arrange it before you cross if you plan a day in Seville or Galicia. Crossing without it costs extra under their terms, for example €15 a day at Goldcar and €16.50 a day at Europcar.

Fuel prices in Portugal

Fuel stations report their pump prices to Portugal’s Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG). Averaging the prices of about 3,000 stations, last updated on 6 November 2026, gives €2.049 a litre for petrol 95 and €2.271 for diesel, so diesel is the more expensive fuel at the moment.

Source: DGEG, precoscombustiveis.dgeg.gov.pt, simple average of 3,034 station prices for petrol 95 and 2,871 for diesel. Read on 8 November 2026.

Not every station takes every card: the fuel authority ENSE says sellers are not obliged to accept cards. Carry some cash for small rural stations. Our fuel cost calculator works out the cost of a single journey.

Parking

Many historic centres in Lisbon, Porto, Sintra and the Algarve towns have narrow streets and few parking spaces. It is usually easier to leave the car in a car park at the edge and walk in. Each town sets its own paid parking zones, hours and prices, and some charge at weekends too: see our guide to parking in Portugal for the city rules.

What a road trip costs

A rental car in Portugal averaged €16.84 a day over the year on Discover Cars, from €9.97 in November to €28.64 in August. Add fuel, tolls and the toll device fee, and you can estimate the cost of a road trip around Portugal.

If you are stopped or have an accident

If the police notify you of a traffic offence, you must pay a deposit equal to the minimum fine at once or within 48 hours, the US State Department notes that police take cards on a portable machine. If you do not, the police can provisionally keep your licence or the car documents and issue temporary replacement documents. The deposit is refunded if no penalty is imposed in the end. After an accident, switch on the hazard lights, put on the vest before you step onto the road, set up the triangle, call 112 if anyone is hurt or the road is blocked, and then call the assistance number on the rental agreement.

Before you set off

FAQ: driving in Portugal