How much does a Dubai taxi charge per kilometre?

A regular Dubai Taxi car charges AED 2.45 per kilometre, and the rate is the same whether you hail it on the road or book it in an app; Dubai Taxi lists Bolt, S'hail and Careem for booking. The figure comes from Dubai Taxi, the company that runs the red-roof taxis, on its own service pages. RTA, the transport authority, publishes a fare table for metered taxis with starting fares, minimum fares and surcharges, but no distance rate.

The rate by taxi

The airport taxi is the only one that costs more per kilometre as well as at the start. The gap is AED 0.17 a kilometre, so over 30 km it adds AED 5.10. Most of the airport premium is where the meter starts, not the distance rate: a car from the airport opens at AED 20, against AED 5 for a car hailed in the city by day.

The families and ladies taxi, with a female driver, is the cheapest per kilometre of the regular services. Who can ride it and where to find one is on its own page.

Turning the rate into a fare

Dubai Taxi lists two numbers for each service: where the meter starts and what each kilometre adds. It does not say whether the first kilometre is already inside the starting fare, so the figures below add the whole distance on top. That is the higher of the two readings.

The starting fares in the first two rows are RTA’s, and Dubai Taxi’s page lists the same ones. On the road the meter opens at AED 5 by day and AED 5.5 at night; in an app it opens at AED 9 off-peak and AED 13 at rush hour. So booking in an app changes where the meter starts, not what each kilometre costs.

On a short trip the rate does not matter, because the minimum fare takes over. Hailed on the road, a trip costs at least AED 12, which the meter reaches after 2.9 km by day. Booked in an app off-peak, the minimum of AED 13 is reached after 1.6 km.

Waiting time comes on top at AED 0.5 a minute, a trip through Sharjah adds AED 20, and Salik gates add their tolls. What gets added to a taxi fare covers each one.

Car or van at the airport

Dubai Taxi’s airport page lists AED 20 for a car and AED 25 for a van, with one rate per kilometre for both. That matches RTA’s fare table. Dubai Airports’ own taxi page gives a single figure for every airport taxi, AED 25. Since the van costs more only at the start, the difference stays AED 5 however far you go. The airport-to-city options set the taxi against the Metro and the bus.

People of Determination taxi

Dubai Taxi runs a separate taxi for passengers with disabilities. It is booked in advance through Dubai Taxi's call centre or the Bolt app, or taken from the rank at Dubai's airports and Port Rashid. If you are arranging help inside the terminal as well, who books wheelchair assistance at DXB covers that side.

Where this page stops

If the taxi you get is not a Dubai Taxi car, the rate on this page is not confirmed for it. Dubai Taxi publishes rates for its own fleet, and RTA’s table, which applies to every metered taxi, gives no distance rate.

It does not cover Uber or other luxury-vehicle apps. RTA puts their charges at least 30% above regular taxi fares without a per-kilometre figure — whether Uber costs more than a taxi sets that out.

And it gives no fare to a named destination. That needs a route distance, which no official page publishes, and the route also decides how many Salik gates you pass.

Where these figures come from

The per-kilometre rates come from Dubai Taxi’s service pages for its regular taxi, airport taxi and People of Determination taxi; the families and ladies rate is on RTA’s female taxi page and on Dubai Taxi’s own page for that service. The starting fares, minimum fares, waiting charge and Sharjah surcharge come from RTA’s fare table, and the single airport figure from Dubai Airports. We read each page directly.