Darb is Abu Dhabi’s road toll system. If you drive in the emirate, you need an account – and that is true even if you never pay a fil, because registration is mandatory for every vehicle including the ones that are exempt from charges.
Most drivers still think of it as a rush-hour thing: cross a bridge at 8am, pay AED 4, forget about it by lunchtime. That stopped being the whole picture on 4 May 2026, when two new gates opened at Ghantoot and Al Qurm. Unlike the four bridge gates, those two charge around the clock. Sunday afternoon, midnight, a public holiday: AED 4 either way.
Here is the whole system, from opening an account to the fines that catch people who never got round to it.
What Darb Actually Is
Darb is Abu Dhabi’s answer to Dubai’s Salik, run by Q Mobility under Abu Dhabi Mobility. It exists to thin out peak-hour traffic on the bridges onto Abu Dhabi island and push more people onto public transport.
There is no tag and no windscreen sticker. This is the part people coming from Dubai get wrong. Darb reads your number plate with cameras as you pass under the gantry and deducts the fee from a prepaid wallet linked to that plate. Nothing goes on your windscreen and there is nothing to install.
Because it is plate-based, the system does not care whose car it is or where you are going. It cares whether that plate has a funded Darb account behind it.
Do You Need to Register? Almost Certainly Yes
Registration is required for every vehicle driven on Abu Dhabi roads. Not just Abu Dhabi plates – Dubai, Sharjah and other emirate plates need a Darb account too, as do GCC-registered vehicles. Even vehicles that qualify for a full exemption have to be registered so the system knows to wave them through.
What it costs to open an account
AED 100 to register, of which AED 50 lands straight in your wallet as usable credit. So the real cost of getting set up is AED 50.
How to register
- Open the Darb app, the Darb portal at darb.qmobility.ae, or go through TAMM.
- Enter your Emirates ID number, traffic file number, number plate and mobile number.
- Set a password and confirm the OTP sent to your phone.
- Select your vehicle status and pay the AED 100 online.
You can hold more than one vehicle on a single account, which is the sensible setup for a household with two cars.
What You Pay
AED 4 per crossing. That is the entire pricing structure and it is the same at every gate.
Each pass under a gantry is charged separately, so driving onto the island in the morning and back off in the evening is two crossings and AED 8, not AED 4. Cross the same gate twice inside one peak window and you pay twice.
The important change is what is no longer there. Until 1 September 2025 there was an AED 16 daily ceiling and a monthly ceiling starting at AED 200 for your first vehicle. Abu Dhabi Mobility removed both. There is now no maximum limit on what a private vehicle can be charged in a day or a month.
WOW Expert Tip: If you last worked out your monthly toll budget before September 2025, redo it. A twice-daily commuter who used to cap out at AED 200 a month can now run well past AED 350 in a heavy month, with nothing to stop the meter.
When You Pay: The Two-Speed System
This is where the confusion sits. Abu Dhabi now runs two kinds of gate on two different clocks.
| Gate type | When it charges | When it is free |
|---|---|---|
| The four bridge gates Sheikh Zayed, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, Al Maqtaa, Mussafah | 07:00 to 09:00 and 15:00 to 19:00, every day except Sunday | Sundays, official holidays, and all off-peak hours |
| The two new gates Ghantoot, Al Qurm | 24 hours a day, seven days a week | Never |
Note the evening window on the bridges. It used to be 17:00 to 19:00 and moved forward to 15:00 in September 2025, which puts the school run squarely inside a charging period. If your mental model still says “I am fine before five”, it is costing you.
Off-peak on the bridges means 09:00 to 15:00 and 19:00 through to 07:00 the next morning. Sundays are free all day. Official public holidays are free all day.
Where the Six Gates Are
The original four sit on the bridges connecting Abu Dhabi island to the mainland: Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Bridge, Al Maqtaa Bridge and Mussafah Bridge.
Al Qurm Toll Gate is on Wahat Al Karama Street, at the entrance and exit of Sheikh Zayed Street.
Ghantoot Toll Gate is on Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Street in Ghantoot, near the Dubai border – which makes it the one that matters if you commute between the two emirates.
The free routes around the new gates
Abu Dhabi Mobility published alternatives alongside both gates. To avoid Al Qurm, use Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Street or Arabian Gulf Street. To avoid Ghantoot, use Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Street. Whether the detour is worth AED 4 depends on your traffic tolerance, but the option exists and is officially sanctioned.
Topping Up and Checking Your Balance
The Darb wallet is prepaid, so it needs money in it before you cross, not after. Top up by credit or debit card through the Darb app or the Darb portal.
You can check your balance four ways: in the Darb app, on TAMM, through the Abu Dhabi Mobility website, or by calling the Q Mobility contact centre on 8003009.
WOW Expert Tip: Switch on auto top-up rather than relying on memory. With the caps gone and two gates now running 24/7, a wallet that empties on a Thursday night is a genuinely expensive mistake – and the same wallet also pays for Free Flow parking, so it drains faster than it used to.
Darb and Salik Are Not the Same Thing
They are separate systems with separate accounts and separate balances. Your Dubai Salik tag does nothing in Abu Dhabi, and a funded Darb wallet will not get you through a Salik gate on Sheikh Zayed Road.
If you commute between the emirates you need both, topped up independently. The practical difference: Salik uses a windscreen tag, Darb reads your plate. The practical similarity: both will fine you for running an empty balance.
Rental Cars, Visitors and Out-of-Emirate Plates
Renting a car? The rental company holds the Darb account for its own fleet, pays the tolls, then bills you afterwards – usually with an administration fee on top of the AED 4. Read the toll clause in your rental agreement before you drive off, because the admin fee per crossing varies a lot between companies and can dwarf the toll itself.
Driving your own car in from another emirate? You need your own Darb account. A Dubai or Sharjah plate is not exempt, and the system will start logging unregistered crossings the moment you pass a gate.
Visiting from another GCC country? Same rule. Register the plate before you drive into the emirate.
There is one wrinkle worth knowing: for vehicles registered outside Abu Dhabi, running an insufficient balance triggers a AED 50 fine per transaction once a five working day grace period has passed. That is a heavier penalty than the toll it replaces, and it is easy to trip if you only drive into the capital occasionally.
The Fines
Penalties for skipping registration escalate per crossing, so the cost of ignoring this compounds quickly:
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Unregistered vehicle, first offence | AED 100 |
| Unregistered vehicle, second offence | AED 200 |
| Unregistered vehicle, third and after | AED 400 each |
| Insufficient balance, vehicles registered outside Abu Dhabi | AED 50 per transaction |
| Tampering with a number plate to dodge the toll | AED 10,000 |
| Damaging a toll gate or payment machine | AED 10,000 |
Grace periods apply before the meter starts: 10 working days on unregistered vehicles, 5 working days on insufficient balance. Accumulated violations are capped at AED 10,000 for any single violation and AED 25,000 across a calendar year counted from your first offence.
Fines are paid through the Darb app, the portal or TAMM. If you believe one was issued in error, Q Mobility runs a formal grievance process through the same channels – worth using rather than simply paying, particularly if a plate was misread or the car had already been sold.
Who Is Exempt
Two categories, and the difference matters because one needs paperwork and one does not.
Automatic, no application needed: public transport buses, school buses, ambulances, police vehicles, civil defence units and motorcycles.
Apply through the Darb website or app: senior citizens, People of Determination, retired citizens and low-income citizens. It is one vehicle per eligible person, not a blanket exemption for every car in the household.
Remember that exempt vehicles still have to be registered. The exemption is applied to a registered plate – it is not a reason to skip signing up.
Ramadan and Public Holidays
Peak windows on the bridge gates shift during Ramadan to match adjusted working hours, and Abu Dhabi Mobility confirms the exact timings each year shortly before the month begins. Do not assume last year’s windows still apply, and be sceptical of the figures floating around on car-rental blogs – check the Darb app in the week before Ramadan starts.
Official public holidays are free on the bridge gates. The Ghantoot and Al Qurm gates are not. 24/7 means 24/7, holidays included.
Frequently Asked Questions
Darb is Abu Dhabi’s road toll system, operated by Q Mobility under Abu Dhabi Mobility. Cameras read your number plate as you pass a toll gate and the fee is deducted from a prepaid wallet linked to that plate. There is no windscreen tag or sticker.
AED 100, of which AED 50 is credited to your wallet as usable balance. Registration is done through the Darb app, the Darb portal or TAMM using your Emirates ID, traffic file number, number plate and mobile number.
AED 4 per crossing at every gate. Each pass is charged separately, so a round trip through the same gate during charging hours costs AED 8. Daily and monthly caps were removed on 1 September 2025, so there is no longer any maximum limit on what a private vehicle can be charged.
The four bridge gates charge from 07:00 to 09:00 and 15:00 to 19:00 every day except Sunday, and are free outside those windows, on Sundays and on official holidays. The Ghantoot and Al Qurm gates are different: they charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
On the four bridge gates, yes – Sundays are free all day, as are official public holidays. The two gates added in May 2026 at Ghantoot and Al Qurm charge every day including Sundays and holidays.
Yes. Registration is required for every vehicle driven on Abu Dhabi roads, including plates from Dubai, Sharjah, the other emirates and GCC countries. Your Dubai Salik tag does not work in Abu Dhabi – Darb and Salik are separate systems with separate accounts.
No. Darb uses number plate recognition cameras, so there is nothing to fit to your car. This is the main difference from Dubai’s Salik, which does use a windscreen tag.
The rental company holds the Darb account and pays the toll, then bills you afterwards, usually adding an administration fee per crossing. Check the toll clause in your rental agreement before driving, because those admin fees vary widely and can be larger than the AED 4 toll.
Fines escalate per crossing: AED 100 for the first offence, AED 200 for the second, then AED 400 for each one after that. A grace period of 10 working days applies before fines start being issued.
Four ways: the Darb app, TAMM, the Abu Dhabi Mobility website, or by calling the Q Mobility contact centre on 8003009. Top-ups are made by credit or debit card through the app or portal, and auto top-up can be switched on.
Toll rates, timings, fines and exemptions verified against Abu Dhabi Mobility, Q Mobility and the Abu Dhabi Media Office. Last checked 10 September 2026. We update this page whenever the tariff or gate network changes.
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