There are two numbers that matter with an Abu Dhabi traffic fine, and neither of them is the fine itself.
The first is 60. Pay inside 60 days of the violation date and Abu Dhabi Police knock 35 per cent off. The second is 7,000. Let your unpaid fines pass AED 7,000 and your car becomes eligible for impoundment, at which point the cost stops being a fine and starts being a release fee.
Everything else follows from those two. Here is how to check what you owe, how to pay the least legal amount for it, and what each violation actually costs once you count the points and the impound days.
How to Check Your Abu Dhabi Traffic Fines
Three channels, all free to check. You only pay for the fine, never for looking.
| Channel | What you need | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi Police app | Emirates ID, vehicle details or UAE Pass | Everything Abu Dhabi, including objections |
| TAMM app | UAE Pass | Paying with the 35 per cent discount, and black points |
| MOI UAE app | Emirates ID, mobile, vehicle details or UAE Pass | Checking and paying from another emirate |
You can also go direct to the Abu Dhabi Police e-services site. Its traffic fines section works from either your traffic file number or your plate number, and there are genuinely public lookups that need no login at all, including a fine inquiry by material code and an accident query by chassis number.
To check black points rather than fines, use TAMM: sign in with UAE Pass, open My Tamm, scroll to the My Vehicles widget and swipe across to black points.
WOW Expert Tip: Check by plate as well as by Emirates ID. Fines attach to the vehicle, so a car you sold months ago can still be generating violations against your record if the transfer was never completed properly – and you will only discover it when a registration renewal gets blocked.
The 35 Per Cent Discount, and How the Clock Works
Abu Dhabi Police run a standing early-payment scheme. It is not a one-off amnesty campaign, and it has been reported consistently since early 2025 under a couple of different programme names.
| When you pay | Discount |
|---|---|
| Within 60 days of the violation | 35 per cent off |
| Between 60 days and one year | 25 per cent off |
| After one year | Full amount |
Two things to know before you count on it.
Serious violations are excluded. The discount covers ordinary violations, not high-risk ones. If you have been caught doing something the law treats as dangerous rather than careless, assume you are paying full price.
The channel may matter. Reporting has been inconsistent on this point. One account said the discount runs exclusively through the TAMM app and is not available via bank apps, exchange houses or the MOI app; a later one listed the Abu Dhabi Police app and TAMM together. If the saving matters to you, pay through TAMM and you are covered either way.
How to Pay, Including in Instalments
Card payment works through the Abu Dhabi Police app and website, TAMM, the MOI UAE app, and in person at customer happiness centres. A digital receipt is issued either way, and it is worth keeping.
For larger balances there is a zero-interest instalment plan over 12 months, offered through five partner banks: First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank and Mashreq. This is the route worth knowing about if you are staring at a total that is heading towards the impoundment threshold.
Living in Dubai or the Northern Emirates does not stop you settling an Abu Dhabi fine. The MOI UAE app is a federal channel and handles Abu Dhabi violations on your Emirates ID.
What the Common Violations Actually Cost
A fine is rarely just a fine. Most serious violations carry three separate consequences, and people routinely budget for only the first.
| Violation | Fine | Black points | Impound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Running a red light | AED 1,000 | 12 | 30 days |
| Exceeding the limit by more than 80 km/h | AED 3,000 | 23 | 60 days |
| Reckless or dangerous driving | Varies | 23 | 60 days |
| Driving without a valid licence | Varies | – | 60 days |
| Phone use while driving | AED 400 to 800 | 4 | – |
| Expired vehicle registration | Varies | – | 7 days |
Two honest caveats on that table. The phone-use fine is quoted as AED 400 on the federal portal and AED 800 in police campaign reporting, with both agreeing on four black points – so check the amount against your own violation rather than trusting either figure. And there is no consolidated administrative fine schedule published anywhere since the new law took effect in March 2025, which means every published table in the UAE, including this one, is working from the pre-2025 schedule. The number attached to your fine in the app is the authoritative one.
The AED 50,000 red light myth
You will see it repeated everywhere, including in our own earlier coverage: running a red light in Abu Dhabi costs AED 50,000. It does not.
The fine is AED 1,000. The AED 50,000 is the vehicle release fee you pay to get your car back out of the impound yard, and it applies only if you let the 30-day impoundment run rather than dealing with it. Add the two together and the worst case is about AED 51,000, which is where the scary number comes from. The distinction matters because it tells you what to do: deal with the impoundment, and the 50,000 never enters the conversation.
The separate, genuinely severe penalties apply where someone is hurt. Under the current federal law, causing a death while running a red light carries imprisonment of not less than a year and a fine of not less than AED 100,000.
Black Points: The 24-Point Ceiling
Black points sit on your licence for 12 months from the date of the violation, then drop off. Reach 24 points inside a year and your licence is suspended.
Suspension is typically three to six months for a first offence, escalating on repeat. If you hold a probationary licence or are under 21, hitting 24 points costs you the licence outright, and a second time means cancellation with a one-year wait before you can re-sit the test.
Put the numbers together and the arithmetic is unforgiving. Running one red light is 12 points, half your annual allowance from a single moment of impatience. One speeding violation above 80 km/h over the limit is 23, which leaves you one point from suspension for the rest of the year.
Impoundment and the AED 7,000 Trigger
Cars get impounded for two different reasons and it is worth separating them.
For the violation itself. Serious offences carry an automatic impound period: 30 days for a red light, 60 days for reckless driving or driving unlicensed, 7 days for expired registration.
For the balance owed. Separately, accumulated unpaid fines above AED 7,000 make your vehicle eligible for impoundment regardless of what any individual violation was. This is the one that catches people who have been quietly ignoring small fines for a year.
Release fees run from roughly AED 5,000 to AED 50,000 depending on the offence, and they are payable on top of clearing every outstanding fine in full. The instalment plan above exists largely so this does not happen to people.
WOW Expert Tip: If your balance is anywhere near AED 7,000, the instalment plan is not a convenience, it is a defensive move. Clearing the balance through one of the five partner banks removes the impoundment trigger, and it costs nothing in interest to do.
How to Dispute a Fine You Think Is Wrong
Abu Dhabi Police take objections through their complaints portal at cas.adpolice.gov.ae, under the service “Objection to a traffic violation”.
You will need your name and contact details, Emirates ID number, the fine number and type, and the vehicle plate category, source and number. State your grounds in writing, attach any supporting images, and give a preferred callback time. Police then either cancel the fine or come back to you for more. There is a separate e-service to transfer a violation to court if you want judicial determination rather than a police review.
One thing we will not tell you is the deadline, because there does not appear to be a published one. Several sites quote 30 days; we could not find that figure in the law, on any government page or in any credible reporting, and both Gulf News and Khaleej Times state explicitly that no deadline is specified. File early anyway – the 60-day discount clock is running whether your objection is heard or not.
What Changed Under the 2024 Law
Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024 replaced the old federal traffic law and came into force on 29 March 2025. If you are reading a guide that still cites the 2017 law or Abu Dhabi Law No. 5 of 2020 as the governing instrument for offences, it predates the change.
The headline shift is on the criminal side rather than the administrative one. Hit and run causing injury now carries imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of AED 50,000 to AED 100,000, or either. Driving under the influence, causing death and fleeing the scene all sit in the criminal tier with jail exposure, not the fine schedule.
Abu Dhabi Law No. 5 of 2020 has not disappeared entirely. It still governs local vehicle impoundment and release fees, which is why the AED 50,000 release figure survives alongside a AED 1,000 federal fine for the same offence.
Parking Fines Are a Different System
Everything above covers traffic violations issued by Abu Dhabi Police. Mawaqif parking fines run on a completely separate scheme with its own portal, its own discount and its own deadline – 25 per cent off within 60 days, filed and paid through TAMM or the Darb app rather than the police portal.
If the fine you are chasing came from a parking bay rather than a camera, our guide to checking, paying and appealing a Mawaqif fine is the one you want. For staying out of trouble in the first place, the Abu Dhabi parking guide decodes every curb colour, and the Darb toll guide covers the road charges that are not fines at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Free through three apps: the Abu Dhabi Police app using Emirates ID, vehicle details or UAE Pass; the TAMM app using UAE Pass; or the MOI UAE app. You can also check on the Abu Dhabi Police e-services site using your traffic file number or plate number. Checking costs nothing.
Pay within 60 days of the violation for 35 per cent off, or between 60 days and one year for 25 per cent off. After a year you pay the full amount. Serious or high-risk violations are excluded. Paying through the TAMM app is the safest route to secure the discount.
No. The fine is AED 1,000, plus 12 black points and a 30-day vehicle impoundment. The AED 50,000 figure is the vehicle release fee for recovering an impounded car, not the fine. Worst case the two together come to about AED 51,000, which is where the confusion comes from.
24 points accumulated within one year. Points expire 12 months after the violation date. A first suspension typically runs three to six months. For probationary licences and drivers under 21, reaching 24 points means losing the licence outright.
Either for a specific serious violation, such as 30 days for a red light or 60 days for reckless driving, or because your accumulated unpaid fines have passed AED 7,000. Release fees run from around AED 5,000 to AED 50,000 and are payable on top of clearing every outstanding fine.
Yes. A zero-interest plan over 12 months is available through five partner banks: First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank and Mashreq. It is worth using if your balance is approaching the AED 7,000 impoundment threshold.
Yes. The MOI UAE app is a federal channel and handles Abu Dhabi violations against your Emirates ID from anywhere in the country.
Through the Abu Dhabi Police complaints portal at cas.adpolice.gov.ae, using the Objection to a traffic violation service. You need your Emirates ID, the fine number and type, and the vehicle plate details, plus written grounds and any supporting images. No filing deadline appears to be published, but file early because the discount clock keeps running.
Penalties, points and impound periods checked against Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024, the UAE government portal, Abu Dhabi Police e-services and reporting from Gulf News, Khaleej Times and The National. Last checked 13 September 2026. No consolidated administrative fine schedule has been published since the 2024 law took effect, so always treat the amount shown against your own violation as authoritative. We update this page when the schedule or the discount structure changes.
