Driving in Kraków: Strefa Czystego Transportu w Krakowie

Kraków, Poland · Low emission zone

In force in Kraków right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 11:04 · Europe/Warsaw

The zone is always on; whether it reaches you depends on the engine and its emission class, which this timetable does not check. An electric, hydrogen or natural-gas vehicle is unaffected at every hour.

A vehicle that fails the test can still pay its way in until 31 December 2028 — the only Polish zone in this corpus where that is possible. The resolution prices that by the hour and states no window; the enabling provision it was made under allows paid entry only between 09:00 and 17:00. That unresolved difference is in the hours note and is not encoded here.

The prices change on 1 January 2027 and again on 1 January 2028, not on any weekday.

The zone edge decides whether any of this applies, and we hold no polygon for it, so this warning is city-wide. Here that is closer to the truth than usual: the zone covers the roads the Mayor manages inside a ring that runs along the city boundary and the surrounding motorways, so most of Kraków is inside it.

Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.

What applies

Kraków has run a clean transport zone since 1 January 2026, and it is by far the largest in Poland: instead of a handful of central streets it covers every road managed by the Mayor inside a ring drawn from the city boundary and the motorways and trunk roads that skirt it, so most of the city is inside it.

The national act bans everything but electric, hydrogen and natural-gas vehicles, and the council's own exemptions decide the rest. For a car or van up to 3.5 tonnes the test is Euro 4 or a 2005 build year on petrol, and Euro 6 or a 2014 build year on diesel; above 3.5 tonnes it is Euro IV or 2005 on petrol and Euro VI or 2012 on diesel.

Motorcycles are outside the ban, and so are special, historic and certain state vehicles. Unlike Warsaw, Katowice and Szczecin, Kraków took the enabling act's payment option: until the end of 2028 a vehicle that fails the test may still drive in if it pays, at 2.50 zł an hour, 5.00 zł for the rest of the day in 2026, or a monthly pass that rises from 100 zł in 2026 to 250 zł in 2027 and 500 zł in 2028.

Entitlement is read from the central vehicle register, and several exemptions have to be registered first; a windscreen sticker costs 5 zł. The fine comes from the misdemeanours code and is up to 500 zloty.

Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25 z dnia 12 czerwca 2025 roku w sprawie ustanowienia Strefy Czystego Transportu w Krakowie, as promulgated by the Wojewoda Małopolski in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829. The journal's HTML edition carries the front of the act — the recitals through § 4; §§ 5–13 and the four annexes are in the promulgated PDF at the same address

Daily charge
5.00 PLNSource: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, § 6 ust. 2 pkt 5, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829. Kraków is the first Polish city in this corpus to take the payment option art. 39 ust. 5 of the electromobility act offers, and the figure is the price of a full day in 2026: the resolution charges 2.50 zł an hour, and says that paying for two consecutive hours on a given day buys 5.00 zł worth of cover from the first paid hour to the end of that day. The day rate is dated and it steps: in 2027 the same arrangement costs 15.00 zł and needs six consecutive hours, and for 2028 the resolution sets no day rate at all — only the hourly charge and the monthly pass. A monthly pass costs 100 zł in 2026, 250 zł in 2027 and 500 zł in 2028. The whole payment arrangement ends on 31 December 2028. This source is the promulgated PDF — the journal's HTML edition stops at § 4 — and it is watched from cycle 110 on six strings. ⚠ The entry point here is `check-strings.mjs`, NOT `read-source.mjs`: this host serves an incomplete certificate chain, `chainAwareFetch` repairs it, and only `check-strings` hands that repaired fetch to the robots gate - so `read-source` answers DISALLOWED and the document sweep answers `fetch failed`, while the host itself returns HTTP 200 and 44 406 readable characters (V-039, D-194)

When it operates

Always. The promulgated text was searched on 14 September 2026 for godzin, the stem of the word Polish law uses for a clock time, and every one of its seven occurrences is in the fee schedule of § 6 — an hourly price, and the number of consecutive paid hours that buys the rest of the day — never a time of day at which the ban starts or stops.

The zone is in effect at every hour of every day, and whether it reaches a particular driver is decided by the engine and its emission class. One caution about the paid-entry route: the power the council used, art. 39 ust.

5 of the electromobility act, allows entry on payment only w godzinach 9-17, and the resolution repeats no hours of its own. So the fee is priced by the hour with no stated window while the enabling provision has one, and we do not resolve that here — a driver relying on paying their way in outside 09:00–17:00 should ask the city first.

Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, § 1, § 3 and § 6, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829, read together with art. 39 ust. 5 of the electromobility act. The watched strings below are on the journal's HTML edition, which carries § 1 and § 3

Area covered

Most of the city. The resolution covers all roads managed by the Mayor of Kraków that lie inside a ring it names segment by segment in annex 1 — thirty-three of them, running along Al. 29 Listopada, the city boundary, railway line 95, ul.

Sandora Petöfiego, ul. Zesławicka, ul. Karola Łowińskiego, ul.

Ujastek, Al. Solidarności, ul. Ujastek Mogilski, the S7 and A4 trunk roads round the south of the city, ul.

Kąpielowa, ul. Zakopiańska, ul. Mirowska, voivodeship road 780 past Rondo Unii Europejskiej, the A4 past Balice airport, ul.

Pasternik, ul. Jasnogórska, national road 52, ul. Noblistów Polskich, ul.

Tadeusza Pilarskiego, ul. Zygmunta Glogera, ul. Zielone Wzgórze and ul.

Witkowicka. The boundary roads themselves are outside the zone. Four corridors are then carved out so that park-and-ride sites stay reachable without entering: the approach to P+R Górka Narodowa along Al.

29 Listopada and ul. Papierni Prądnickich, a stretch of ul. Zbigniewa Herberta with a turning loop on ul.

Podmokła, a stretch of ul. Wielicka with the slip roads to ul. Mała Góra and ul.

Kosocicka, and the approach to P+R Mydlniki Wapiennik along ul. Balicka and ul. Piotra Brzezińskiego.

Ul. Olszanicka between the A4 and the city boundary is explicitly inside. Entrances and exits are signed D-54 and D-55, and traffic management outside the zone has to leave a way to turn round without entering.

Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, załącznik nr 1 (Granice Strefy Czystego Transportu w Krakowie) and § 4, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829. The boundary annex is in the promulgated PDF; the journal's HTML edition stops at § 4

We have not checked for a map yet
The council publishes the edge as prose — thirty-three named road segments in annex 1 of the promulgated act — and turning that into a polygon ourselves would be our drawing rather than the council's boundary. § 9 of the same resolution says the text is published together with a plan orientacyjny showing the course of the boundary, on the city's BIP and on ztp.krakow.pl and zdmk.krakow.pl, so an official map does exist somewhere; we have not found it yet and will not claim it is unpublished. What was measured on 14 September 2026 is only that those channels are open to us — bip.krakow.pl serves a 73-byte robots.txt disallowing only PetalBot and AhrefsBot, and both ztp.krakow.pl and zdmk.krakow.pl disallow only WordPress admin paths — and that the ZDMK page sitemap holds no clean transport zone page. The warning stays city-wide meanwhile, which here is nearly right: the zone covers the roads the Mayor manages inside a ring drawn along the city boundary and the surrounding trunk roads, so most of Kraków is inside it.
Petrol standard

Euro 4, or first built in 2005 or later, for a spark-ignition vehicle of up to 3.5 tonnes. Above 3.5 tonnes — a bus, a lorry or a tractor unit — the resolution asks Euro IV or, again, a 2005 build year. Unlike Warsaw, Katowice and Szczecin, Kraków sets no ladder: there is one figure and no date on which it tightens, and it is the same for a resident and a visitor.

What residents get instead is an exemption in kind — a vehicle a Kraków resident already held before the resolution took effect is outside the ban whatever its engine, provided it is registered with the city.

Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, § 5 pkt 4 lit. a and § 5 pkt 5 lit. a, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829. These are in the promulgated PDF; the journal's HTML edition stops at § 4

Diesel standard

Euro 6, or first built in 2014 or later, for a compression-ignition vehicle of up to 3.5 tonnes — the strictest diesel test of any Polish clean transport zone in this corpus, where Warsaw and Katowice ask Euro 5 and Szczecin Euro 4. Above 3.5 tonnes the resolution asks Euro VI or a 2012 build year, which is one year more generous than the car rule.

As with petrol there is no ladder and no later step, and no separate tier for residents: a Kraków resident's older diesel is admitted through the pre-ownership exemption rather than through a milder standard.

Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, § 5 pkt 4 lit. b and § 5 pkt 5 lit. b, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829. These are in the promulgated PDF; the journal's HTML edition stops at § 4

Penalty if you do not comply
500.00 PLNSource: Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej — Kodeks wykroczeń, art. 96c, in the consolidated text announced by the Marshal of the Sejm on 21 May 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 734) and published by the Government Legislation Centre on eli.gov.pl, whose own metadata for that item records inForce = IN_FORCE. The figure is the statutory maximum, not a fixed ticket: the provision reads "Kto nie przestrzega zakazu wjazdu do strefy czystego transportu podlega karze grzywny do 500 złotych". The penalty is national and identical in every Polish clean transport zone; the Kraków resolution sets no fine of its own. This source is a PDF — the consolidated code has no HTML edition on the register — and the monitor reads a PDF's own text (D-163), so art. 96c is watched here on the sentence that sets the fine; the register's metadata for the same item is watched separately, because only that carries the inForce field

How to comply
  • If the vehicle is electric, hydrogen or natural-gas powered, there is nothing to do: the national act exempts those three by name, whatever their age.
  • If it is a motorcycle, a vehicle classed as "other" in the registration rules, a special vehicle or a historic one, it is outside the ban as well — and so are the vehicles of courts, prosecutors, ministries, voivodeship offices, joined administration and the fleet serving the President's Chancellery.
  • Otherwise the test up to 3.5 tonnes is Euro 4 or a 2005 build year for petrol, Euro 6 or a 2014 build year for diesel. Above 3.5 tonnes it is Euro IV or 2005 for petrol and Euro VI or 2012 for diesel. There is no later step: these are the figures the resolution sets, with no date on which they tighten.
  • Kraków checks entitlement against the central vehicle register, so for most Polish-registered vehicles there is nothing to apply for. Registration with the city IS required for the resident, healthcare-visit and parking-card exemptions, for motorcycles, special, historic and state vehicles, for any vehicle whose Euro class is not in the central register, and for every foreign-registered vehicle claiming an exemption — which in practice means a visitor from abroad must register before driving in.
  • A foreign registration is handled explicitly rather than left to chance: the annex asks for the owner's and driver's names, identity-document numbers, the country of registration, the plate, the make, model and year, the registration document, and optionally the Euro class if a CE certificate of conformity or EC type-approval can be produced. The city has up to fourteen days to verify a registration, and silence after that counts as acceptance.
  • A vehicle a Kraków resident already held before the resolution took effect — owned, co-owned, leased, on a security transfer, a company car used privately, a long-term rental or held under a partnership agreement — is exempt indefinitely. A visitor cannot use that, and neither can someone who acquired the vehicle afterwards.
  • If the vehicle fails the test there is still a lawful way in until 31 December 2028, unlike in Warsaw, Katowice or Szczecin: pay. In 2026 that is 2.50 zł an hour, or 5.00 zł to cover the rest of the day once two consecutive hours have been paid for, or 100 zł for a monthly pass. In 2027 the day rate becomes 15.00 zł after six consecutive hours and the pass 250 zł; in 2028 there is no day rate and the pass is 500 zł. Payment is made before entering, through the city's fee register, and buying through a mobile-payment operator takes 2% off.
  • A windscreen sticker costs 5 zł and is applied for once the vehicle's entitlement has been verified, at points or by the electronic route the Mayor designates, or by post for an application made on a disability parking card.
  • Someone attending a publicly funded healthcare appointment inside the zone is exempt for the day of the appointment, but only at a facility that has an agreement with the Mayor, and only if the visit is confirmed afterwards by that facility. An unconfirmed visit is treated as an unpaid entry.
Source: Rada Miasta Krakowa, read 2026-09-14
Full citation

Rada Miasta Krakowa — Uchwała Nr XXXII/619/25, §§ 5–8 and załączniki nr 2–4, as promulgated in Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Małopolskiego 2025 poz. 3829, together with art. 39 ust. 1–2 of the electromobility act for the three fuels and the national exemptions. These paragraphs are in the promulgated PDF; the journal's HTML edition stops at § 4

Sources

Next scheduled re-check: 2026-12-31.

Before you set off

Other cities in Poland