Most people hear about the Dart Charge the hard way, when a penalty notice lands on the doormat. The Dartford Crossing has no barriers and no toll booths. Cameras read your number plate as you drive over the Thames on the M25, and you then have until midnight the following day to pay. Miss that window and the bill grows.

The Dart Charge calculator above gives you the exact figure before you set off, whether you are crossing once for a day out or twice a day to get to work. Pick your vehicle, say how you pay, press Calculate cost, and it does the sums. This guide covers what sits behind those numbers: the Dartford Crossing charges for 2026, who pays what, when the crossing is free, how pre-pay compares with pay as you go, how the local resident discount works, and what happens if you forget.

To show why it is worth five minutes, take a car driver who commutes over the crossing on weekdays and comes back the same way. That is 10 charged crossings a week. Over 48 working weeks, one-off or pay as you go payments add up to £1,680. The same trips on a pre-pay account cost £1,344. A Dartford or Thurrock resident with the £25 annual pass pays £25. Same road, same journeys, and a gap of more than £1,600 a year.

How Much Is the Dart Charge in 2026?

The prices below are the Dartford Crossing charges for 2026, in other words the current Dart Charge price list. They have not changed since 1 September 2025, when the car rate went up by £1, from £2.50 to £3.50 a crossing, and they were still the official figures when we checked in October 2026. One-off payments and pay as you go accounts cost exactly the same. A pre-pay account gets a discount of up to 20%.

Price per crossing between 6am and 10pm. Source: GOV.UK charges page.

• The charge applies from 6am to 10pm every day, weekends and bank holidays included.
• It is charged per crossing, so a daytime return trip is two charges.
• Class A is motorcycles, mopeds and quad bikes. They never pay.
• Class B is cars (trailers included), motorhomes, and minibuses with up to nine seats counting the driver’s.
• Class C is a vehicle with two axles in the van, bus, coach and other goods vehicle group.
• Class D is anything with more than two axles. Axles that can be raised or lowered still count, and trailer axles only count on articulated vehicles.

How to Use This Dart Charge Calculator

The calculator looks lively, but there are only a few choices to make, and you can skip any you do not need. Here is what every part does, in the order you meet them.

1. Choose Single trip or Regular crossings

The two tabs at the top answer different questions. Single trip prices one journey, or a few identical ones: a day out in Essex, a delivery run, a week of the same school-holiday drive. Regular crossings gives a yearly figure for people who cross all the time, such as commuters, couriers, and anyone wondering whether a pre-pay account is worth opening. When you switch tabs the panel slides across, and your vehicle and payment choices stay put.

2. Pick your vehicle

Four tiles, each with its price per crossing underneath: Motorbike (free), Car (£3.50), Van, 2 axles (£4.20) and 3+ axles (£8.40). The class label in the corner of the card (A, B, C or D) changes as you tap, and the short line under the tiles tells you exactly who belongs in each one.

• Motorhomes and minibuses with up to nine seats, driver included, go under Car. So does a car towing a trailer or caravan.
• Van, 2 axles covers vans, other two-axle goods vehicles, buses and coaches.
• 3+ axles is for anything with more than two axles.

3. Single trip: describe the journey

• Journey is One way or Return. A return trip is two crossings.
• How many trips uses the plus and minus buttons, from 1 to 99, for a journey you repeat. Enter 5 return trips and the calculator counts 10 crossings.
• Going, crossing at is 6am–10pm (the charge applies) or 10pm–6am (free). Choose the time you will actually be on the crossing, not the time you leave home.
• Coming back at stays greyed out until you choose Return. Each direction is judged on its own, so going over at 9am and coming back at 11pm costs one charge, not two.

Pick 10pm–6am and the bridge scene on the right turns to night, with a moon and stars. It is a small touch, but it shows at a glance that the crossing is free.

4. Regular crossings: say how often you cross

Under Count your crossings, choose Weekly, Monthly or Yearly, whichever number you know best.

• Weekly asks for charged crossings a week and the weeks you travel in a year (up to 52). A weekday commute there and back is 10 a week, and 48 weeks leaves room for holidays.
• Monthly asks for charged crossings a month and the months you travel in a year (up to 12).
• Yearly is a single box for total crossings a year, up to 4,000. It is handy if you can read the figure off an account statement.

Count each direction as one crossing, and only the ones between 6am and 10pm, because night crossings cost nothing. The hint under the boxes gives a rule of thumb for each option.

5. Choose how you pay

There are four buttons: One-off, Pay as you go, Pre-pay and Resident. A line of text under them explains whichever one you pick. One-off and pay as you go are priced the same, so the comparison shows them as one row. Only choose Resident if you live in the Dartford or Thurrock council areas. In Single trip mode a resident pass shows £0 for the journey, because you pay for the pass once a year rather than per crossing, and the result says “£0 + pass” to remind you.

6. The disability switch

Turn on Vehicle gets free road tax because of a disability only if that is true of the vehicle you are driving. The result then shows no charge and an Exempt tag. The Motorbike tile works the same way, since motorcycles are always free.

7. Press Calculate cost

Your chosen vehicle drives across the bridge, passes under the number plate camera with a flash, and the result card slides up with the amount counting up to the final figure. On a phone the page scrolls down to the result for you. On a laptop it takes you back to the top of the tool, so your choices and the answer sit side by side. Press Reset at any time to put everything back to the starting settings.

Reading your result

Change a setting after you have calculated and the result card dims with a “Press Calculate to update” label, so you never read a stale number by accident. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere, and there is nothing to sign up for.

Dart Charge for Vans, Motorhomes and Other Vehicles

Choosing the right class is the step people most often get wrong, so it is worth a minute.

• Motorhomes are Class B, the same as a car. GOV.UK names them in the car row.
• Minibuses with up to nine seats, counting the driver’s seat, are Class B. Bigger buses and coaches are charged by axle count: Class C for two axles, Class D for more.
• Trailers and caravans do not change the class. GOV.UK includes trailers in the car row, so towing a caravan does not add a second charge.
• Vans are the awkward one. GOV.UK lists them in the same table as buses, coaches and other goods vehicles, under the class for two axles. That is Class C, so the Dart Charge van rate is £4.20 one-off or £3.60 on pre-pay, which is 70p more than a car at the one-off rate.

You may come across websites saying that vans under 3.5 tonnes pay the car rate. We could not find that rule anywhere on GOV.UK’s charges page, so the calculator follows the official table and treats vans as Class C. If you drive a small car-derived van and want to be certain, enter your registration into the official payment service first. It looks the vehicle up, so the amount it shows is the one that counts.

To see what the class difference means over a year, here is a regular commute of ten crossings a week for 48 weeks, which is 480 crossings.

Cost per year at 480 charged crossings.

Is the Dart Charge £3.50 Each Way?

Yes. The £3.50 car rate is charged on every crossing between 6am and 10pm, in either direction, so a daytime return trip costs £7. It makes no difference whether you take the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge or one of the tunnels. Each crossing is its own charge.

What counts is the time you are on the crossing. Here is how a few trips work out for a car paying one-off:

Car, one-off payment. The same trips on pre-pay cost 20% less.

Is the Dartford Crossing Free at Night?

Yes. Between 10pm and 6am the crossing is free for every vehicle. The charge runs from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, and that includes weekends and bank holidays, so there is no cheap Sunday.

Two groups never pay, at any hour: riders of motorcycles, mopeds and quad bikes, and drivers whose vehicle gets free UK vehicle tax because of a disability. The disability check happens automatically when you cross, so there is nothing to register. Because the rule is based on free vehicle tax, check your tax class rather than assuming a Blue Badge is enough.

If you can choose, a crossing after 10pm saves the whole charge. Just do not drive tired to save £3.50.

Dart Charge Pay As You Go vs Pre-Pay

There are three ways to pay the Dart Charge, and the price you get depends on which one you use.

With a one-off payment you pay online, by phone on 0300 300 0120 (8am to 8pm every day) or in cash at a Payzone store, by midnight the day after you cross. You can also pay ahead for future crossings, and that payment stays valid for 12 months.

Pay as you go means a Dart Charge account with a payment card on it. The charge comes off the card at midnight the day after each crossing. You pay the standard price, but you cannot forget.

Pre-pay is an account you put money into. Each crossing is taken from the balance at the lower price, so keep an eye on the balance and make sure a payment does not fail.

How much does pre-pay save?

Saving per crossing. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number.

On price alone, pre-pay always wins. The catch is that the money has to be in the account. Pay as you go costs more per crossing but removes any worry about balances. One thing to know before you choose: you cannot switch an account from one to the other. GOV.UK says you have to close it and open a new one.

A rough guide:

• Crossing a few times a year: pay one-off and set a phone reminder.
• Crossing regularly and hate admin: pay as you go.
• Crossing every week or more: pre-pay. The 70p saving on a car crossing comes to £336 over 480 crossings.
• Living in Dartford or Thurrock: look at the resident discount first, covered next.

Dart Charge Resident Discount

If you live inside the council boundaries of Dartford or Thurrock you can apply for the local resident discount. It works as an annual fee instead of a price per crossing.

The upgrade is for people on the £12.50 plan who run out of crossings. Whatever happens, the most you pay in a year is £25.

You need a Dart Charge account and you pay in advance. Have your V5C vehicle log book ready, plus any two proofs of address from this list: a recent bank or credit card statement, a gas, electricity or water bill, your latest council tax bill, a Universal Credit, tenancy or housing association document, or a photocard driving licence. You must send your documents again every two years. If your number plate changes, update your account and send in the new V5C within six weeks, or the discount is removed and you go back to the standard price. The discount is also removed if the annual fee is not paid.

For a car, the £12.50 plan is cheaper than paying one-off from your fourth crossing of the year, and cheaper than pre-pay from your fifth. The scheme runs from a V5C and proof of address, so if the vehicle is registered to a business, ask Dart Charge whether you qualify before relying on the resident figures.

What Regular Crossings Really Cost

Here are five common patterns for a car, worked out with the Dartford Crossing cost calculator in Regular crossings mode, using the Yearly option.

• 24 crossings: one return trip a month.
• 52 crossings: one return trip a fortnight.
• 96 crossings: a return trip every weekend for 48 weekends.
• 240 crossings: return trips three days a week for 40 weeks.
• 480 crossings: a weekday commute there and back for 48 weeks.

Crossings are counted per year. *Resident prices only apply if you live in Dartford or Thurrock.

Moving from one-off to pre-pay is worth doing. The resident pass is in a different league: £25 against £1,680. If you live in range and cross more than a handful of times a year, it is the first thing to apply for. Work out your own numbers in the calculator, because your pattern is probably not one of these five.

Dart Charge Fine Amount

Miss the deadline and Dart Charge sends a Penalty Charge Notice to the registered keeper of the vehicle. The fine is £70, but it drops to £35 if you pay within 14 days and rises to £105 if it is still unpaid after 28 days. The original crossing charge is still due on top.

If the vehicle is leased, the notice goes to the leasing company, which can pass the cost on to you, sometimes with an admin fee. You can pay or challenge a fine online. You can also challenge by post using the slip on the notice, but you cannot challenge by phone. The fines line, for paying only, is 0300 1313 120 (8am to 8pm every day).

Simple Ways to Pay Less

• Open a pre-pay account if you cross every week. It saves 70p a car crossing, 60p for a van and £1.20 for a vehicle with 3+ axles.
• Check the resident discount if your home is in Dartford or Thurrock. Nothing else comes close on price.
• Shift a trip outside 6am to 10pm when it suits your plans. Night crossings are free.
• Bundle errands into fewer trips. Every crossing is a separate charge.
• Use pay as you go if you tend to forget. A £3.50 crossing becomes a £70 problem very quickly.
• Run the numbers in the calculator before you decide. The comparison bars show the three prices side by side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tap a question to see the answer.

Add This Dart Charge Calculator to Your Website

Run a motoring blog, a haulage business site, a travel page or a local community site? You can show this Dart Charge calculator for UK drivers on your own website for free. Copy the code below and paste it where you want the tool to appear.

Where to paste it:

• WordPress: add a Custom HTML block.
• Blogger: switch the post to HTML view.
• Wix, Squarespace and similar builders: use an Embed or Code block.

The height is set to 820 pixels, which suits most pages. If the calculator looks cut off on your layout, raise the number. Because the tool loads from this page, your visitors always see the latest rates and you never have to update anything.