Sofia public transport: tickets, validation and journey examples

A ride on Sofia's metro, bus, tram or trolleybus costs €0.80 in 2026. Pay for three or more separate rides in a day with the same contactless bank card and the day is capped at €2.00. A transfer inside 30 minutes is part of one ride. Just tap the blue reader every time you board.

The prices are in euro because Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, and Sofia Urban Mobility Centre recalculated its tariff on the same day. Anything quoting leva fares is older than that.

In short

• One ride with a transfer window: the 30 plus fare, €0.80, bank card accepted.
• Three or more rides on one day, same card: €2.00 in total. Bus, tram and trolleybus taps count for sure. The operator never says that metro-gate taps count, so I assume they do.
• Use the same card, or the same phone or watch, all day.
• Night buses: the airport's page and the operator's tariff announcement tie the €2.00 day fare to daytime lines, so plan a €1.00 night pass on top. A 24-hour pass (€3.00) includes them.
• Tap again at every transfer, or the ticket is not valid in the next vehicle.
• No ticket when an inspector asks: €20.00 on the spot.

Which ticket for which trip

Pick the row that matches your day. Prices are the euro tariff in force since 1 January 2026, read on the operators' own pages on 12 November 2026.

Sources for the table: Sofia Metro's ticket page for the prices, the 30 plus page and the daily pass page for the cap.

Board, tap, get off

This is the whole routine on a bus, tram or trolleybus.

1. Board. Look for the blue reader as you step in.
2. Tap. Hold the contactless card, phone or watch on the blue reader. The operator says: "Every time you enter a vehicle, validate your transportation document" (how and why to validate).
3. Change vehicles. Tap again in the next vehicle. The 30 plus ticket "must be revalidated in each subsequent vehicle", and the last tap has to come before the 30 minutes run out. A trip that has started inside the window can then finish without a time limit.
4. Get off. The operator's pages ask for a tap on boarding and at each transfer and mention no tap on exit, though they never say "no tap-out" in so many words. The metro works the same way, with the tap at the entry gate. The control page says passengers must hold a valid document when boarding and when getting off, so keep the ticket valid until you step out.

At the metro the same tap happens at the entry barrier. Hold the card on the reader, wait for the confirmation, then walk through. A metro single ticket is valid for one trip without a transfer (Sofia Metro). That page says it is valid for 60 minutes from issue, at the station that issued it. The metro's rules page says up to 30 minutes after issue. The two disagree, so enter soon after buying.

Paying on arrival. Tap a contactless card at the metro gate, or use the cashier or a machine at the station. The airport guide has the full run from the terminal.

Cyrillic you will meet: билет (bilet, ticket), каса (kasa, cash desk), спирка (spirka, stop). Three words, and most ticket signs make sense.

Three priced days

These examples are my arithmetic from the published fares. They assume one adult with a contactless card, one 30 plus fare per journey, and daytime rides only.

The cap needs "more than two" separate 30 plus tickets on the same card. Once that happens, the operator says, a daily pass of €2.00 for the entire network is aggregated, and "at midnight your bank should be ready with the travel calculation". Expect the final amount on your statement after midnight, not at each tap.

Stick to one card, or one phone or watch, for the whole day. The Urban Mobility Centre's card questions page says the validators "read each media as a separate bank card". So a plastic card and the same card in your phone wallet count as two. Pick one and tap only with it. The same page allows one passenger per bank card in a vehicle and asks you to show the inspector the device you tapped with.

My reading of the sightseeing day is that a transfer inside the window is not a new ticket. The operator does not spell that out. It also does not say in one sentence that metro-gate taps count toward the cap, although the same 30 plus ticket works on the metro by bank card. If the total on your statement is higher than I show, that is the first thing to check.

Three days, daytime only. Three capped days cost at most €6.00. The 72-hour pass costs €7.60 and is loaded onto a Sofia City Card (€1.50) or an Ultralight (€0.40) bought at a point of sale (Urban Mobility Centre). So for a daytime-only stay, tapping is the cheaper choice by at least €1.60.

When the pass wins. The 72-hour and 24-hour passes include night transport. So the pass makes sense if you plan late nights on night buses, or if you do not want to rely on a bank card. The airport's night pass is €1.00 according to our airport guide, so a capped day plus one night ride (€3.00) costs the same as the 24-hour pass.

Night buses N1 to N4. The airport's page says N4 runs every night from midnight to 04:00. Visit Sofia lists four lines. N1 runs Lyulin 1,2 to Mladost 4 and N2 Studentski grad to Obelya. N3 runs Levski G to Ovcha Kupel 2. N4 runs Druzhba 2 to Gotse Delchev and serves the airport. The airport's page gives the night pass as €1.00 for all night routes on that date. Pay by tapping a contactless bank card on the blue reader in the bus. A valid 24-hour or 72-hour pass already covers them.

Whether a night ride counts toward the €2.00 day cap is not confirmed. The airport's page speaks of daytime public transport. The operator's tariff announcement in Bulgarian calls the €2.00 pass the card "for all daytime lines" (картата за всички дневни линии). Its bank-card page, though, says "entire network". Budget the €1.00 night pass on top and be pleasantly surprised if it is not charged. Check times on the operator's site before a late night.

No bank card, or the reader will not take it

The 30 plus is the ticket the Metro page lists as payable by bank card, at a vehicle validator or a metro entry barrier. Its 60 plus, 24-hour and 72-hour tickets are listed only for loading onto a Sofia City Card or Ultralight. The airport's page adds that the night pass can be paid by card on the bus. If your card will not tap, you have these options.

• Metro single ticket (€0.80): from the cashier or a ticket machine at the station. The airport's page says the machines take Bulgarian banknotes and coins and one takes cards. It does not say whether euro cash works, so keep a card as the fallback.
• Daily pass, bought directly (€2.00): the daily pass page says it is unlimited and sold at points of sale, at metro cash desks and in the Mpass app. It also appears by itself after more than two 30 plus taps on one bank card. I could not check whether a visitor can set up Mpass, so do not count on the app.
• Ultralight (€0.40) or Sofia City Card (€1.50): a card you load with 30 plus, 60 plus or day passes. Short-term tickets can be loaded at points of sale, at metro cash desks and online. The pages do not say whether the airport station sells them.
• Ticket from the driver: the operator's page says drivers sell a ticket valid only in that vehicle, with no transfers. It still quotes BGN 2.00 from 2023 and I found no euro update, so I cannot give you a price. Treat it as a last resort.
• Sofia2Go: the operator's app adds a virtual Sofia City Card via Google Wallet. On 30 June 2026 it said iOS was not available yet, and I could not check whether that has changed. Visitors should not depend on it.

Phone wallets work like cards at the reader. The validators count your phone and your plastic card as two separate cards, so keep to one of them all day. Your own bank may add a foreign-card fee, and I found no operator statement on that.

Inspectors and fines

Passengers must hold a valid document when boarding and when getting off, and must show it to the inspector, according to the operator's control page. Without one, you buy a single ticket from the inspector for €20.00. Refuse it, and you must leave at the next stop and receive a written violation, with a fine of €25.56 set in the rules. You can pay the €20.00 within seven days of the statement and avoid penal proceedings. I read these figures on the page on 12 November 2026, and the page does not show when it was last edited.

Luggage rule on the metro: with a valid ticket, up to two carry-on items travel free, and a baby carriage with a child is free (metro rules). The airport guide covers the run with bags.

Children and concessions

Children do not just tap and go. The official child passes are free, but you have to get them, and they need paperwork (Urban Mobility Centre).

The page says a child from another Bulgarian town can ask their own municipality for the pass, which will also be valid in Sofia. It says nothing about children visiting from abroad. So I cannot tell a visiting family what to expect. Ask at a point of sale before you rely on a free ride.

The operator's children page also lists a monthly child pass at €7.50 for all lines. It is not for a short stay.

Adult concessions, such as €12.70 a month for people under 26 or €5 for people over 68, are monthly passes on personal documents (tariff announcement). They are not a short-stay discount. I found no discounted tourist ticket.

A valid ticket is not step-free access

Paying correctly tells you nothing about whether you can get on. These are two questions.

• Surface transport. The Urban Mobility Centre's accessibility page lists lines run by low-floor vehicles, including bus 84, the airport bus. It also lists lines that are only partly low-floor and have no ramps. That page carries a May 2024 date, so check your line before you plan around it.
• Metro. A wheelchair for a passenger with a disability travels free (metro rules). I found no official station-by-station list of working lifts. BTA reported on 22 June 2026 that participants in an inspection at Serdika found no tactile guide lines to the turnstiles. The operator's director replied that the metro has enough ramps, escalators and working lifts.

If you need a lift or a low floor, ask the operator before the trip and keep a taxi as the plan B. Our airport guide says the same for the airport route.

Skip this

Skip the 72-hour pass if you travel by day and have a card that taps. Skip the driver's ticket unless you have no other option.

Not booked a bed yet? Where to stay in Sofia shows how far each area is from a metro station, which decides how many taps a day you will make. For what to fill the days with, things to do in Sofia plans a first visit, most of it on foot in the centre.