Driving in Berlin: Umweltzone Berlin

Berlin, Germany · Low emission zone

What applies

Berlin's Umweltzone covers the inner city inside the inner S-Bahn ring, and you may only drive in it with a green emissions sticker (grüne Plakette) on the windscreen. Foreign-registered vehicles need the sticker too. Driving or even parking inside without one, and without an exemption, is an administrative offence carrying a €100 fine.

Source: Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, read 2026-09-02
Full citation

Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt (Land Berlin)

Daily charge

There is no charge. Berlin's Umweltzone works through the sticker system: a vehicle either qualifies for a green sticker and may enter, or it may not enter at all. There is no day pass to buy.

When it operates

The Berlin pages read on 2026-09-02 do not state operating hours. The rule is written as a standing requirement to carry a green sticker when driving or parking in the zone, not as a timetable, but the absence of stated hours is not the same as a source confirming it applies 24/7, so nothing is claimed here.

Area covered

The inner city inside the inner S-Bahn ring — the area known as the "Großer Hundekopf".

Source: Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, read 2026-09-02
Full citation

Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt (Land Berlin)

Petrol standard

Berlin states the rule as a sticker requirement, not as a Euro standard: what decides access is holding a green sticker (pollutant group 4). The mapping from Euro standard to sticker sits in Annex 2 of the federal Kennzeichnungsverordnung (35. BImSchV), which was not read on 2026-09-02. Not restated from general knowledge.

Diesel standard

As for petrol: access is decided by the green sticker, and the Euro-standard-to-sticker mapping lives in the federal Kennzeichnungsverordnung, which was not read on 2026-09-02. The Berlin page does note that the system has not been updated since 2007, so even a Euro 6 vehicle receives only a green sticker.

Penalty if you do not comply
€100.00Source: Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, read 2026-09-02
Full citation

Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt (Land Berlin)

How to comply
  • Get a green sticker before you travel. Visitors from abroad need one for their vehicle just like German drivers.
  • Foreign-registered vehicles can order the sticker online from the Berlin vehicle registration authority, attaching scanned vehicle papers, provided the papers show what the authority needs to classify the vehicle.
  • The sticker must be displayed on the windscreen, and it is valid in every Umweltzone in Germany — not only Berlin's.
  • A foreign vehicle is classified by the European emission standard shown in its papers, and otherwise by its date of first registration.
  • Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids with a German E-Kennzeichen are exempt from the sticker requirement in Berlin. Foreign-registered electric vehicles can carry a blue E-sticker instead.
Source: Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, read 2026-09-02
Full citation

Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt (Land Berlin)

See the zone on a map

Sources

Next scheduled re-check: 2026-12-01.

Before you set off

Germany also has a national requirement

This is owed on the country's roads, not inside this scheme. What Germany asks, with the source

Other cities in Germany