Register the car before you drive, or pay within five working days.
Portugal's ex-SCUT motorways have no booths at all. Skip it and the fine is 7.5 times the toll, never less than €25, per passage.
Skip Portugal's electronic tolls and each passage costs 7.5 times the toll, never less than €25. The motorways have no booths at all, and a foreign plate with nothing registered against it simply accrues a debt.
The rental desk usually says nothing, then charges the card months later with fees attached. Since 1 January 2025, though, Law 37/2024 has scrapped the tolls on most of the old SCUT roads: the A22 in the Algarve, the A23, A24, A25, A13, parts of the A28, and the A4 over the Marão.
So check whether your road still charges at all before you pay a rental desk for a toll device. I'd do that first, because the Algarve's A22 is now free.
Register the Plate at pttolls.com Before You Drive
Infraestruturas de Portugal runs the fix, and its site now answers at pttolls.com (portugaltolls.com redirects there).
Product
What it costs
How it works
EASYToll
€1, plus €0.32 a journey
Links your bank card to the plate, valid 30 days
TOLLcard
€5, €10, €20 or €40, plus €0.32 a journey
Prepaid
Go Toll (Via Verde)
€0.77 a month, plus €0.32 a journey
The monthly charge applies only in months you drive
All three add the same €0.32 a journey, so only the fixed part differs. My pick for a holiday of up to 30 days is EASYToll: €1, nothing to top up, and no prepaid balance left over. If you drive in Portugal often, I'd take Go Toll, because the €0.77 is charged only in months you use it.
Pay Within Five Working Days, or Owe €25 a Passage
None of the three covers the two Lisbon bridges. Skip all three and the transport regulator's rule applies: pay within five working days at an authorised point, or the fine is 7.5 times the toll and never less than €25, per passage.
A week in the Algarve can turn a €14 motorway bill into three figures: 7.5 times €14 is €105. I would not risk it for the sake of a €1 registration.
If you remember one thing: register the plate before your first tolled kilometre, or pay within five working days. Every rule on this page comes from the official sources listed at the bottom.
Where to leave the car, from our sister site. Each card is the short version; the full guide has every car park, the tow pound and the charging points.
ParkingInEurope
Lisbon
The kerb is charged only on weekdays until 19:00, a garage in Chiado stops at €13.05 a day, and the car park by the Benfica stadium at €2.60.
Best bet
€2.60 a day at Colégio Militar, on the blue metro line to Baixa-Chiado. In the old centre, EMEL's Calçada do Combro garage caps at €13.05.
Watch out
Red streets: two hours maximum, and paying again does not reset it. The ZER bars cars older than 2000 in the Baixa on working days 07:00–21:00.
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