Buy a one-day or ten-day vignette online, or any vignette at a counter. Never the two-month or annual one online if you leave within a fortnight.
The 2026 prices are €9.60 for a day, €12.80 for ten days, €32.00 for two months and €106.80 for a year. The digital vignette is tied to your number plate. A fine for driving without one starts at €200.
Austria is the vignette most people meet first, and the one with the most ways to get it slightly wrong. Prices are for a car up to 3.5 tonnes, checked on 30 September 2026. The other countries are on the tolls and vignettes overview.
Austria: where the vignette is valid immediately
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At a counter: valid immediatelyPetrol stations, tobacconists and motoring club counters sell the digital vignette, valid immediately, and the 2026 sticker until the end of the year.
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Online, 1 day or 10 days: valid immediately€9.60 for a day, €12.80 for ten days, from ASFINAG's own shop.
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Online, 2 months or a year: valid after 18 days€32.00 or €106.80, and it only starts on the 18th day after you buy it.
The 18-day trap
This one catches people who did everything right. Buy the two-month or annual digital vignette online and it is not valid for 18 days: fourteen days of EU distance-selling withdrawal rights plus three days that ASFINAG allows for the post. The Austrian consumer ministry says the waiting period cannot be waived on an online purchase. The one-day and ten-day vignettes are the exception, valid at once even online (re-checked on oesterreich.gv.at on 30 September 2026).
Leaving within a fortnight? Don't buy the annual one online. I'd take the ten-day vignette, or buy at a petrol station counter before the border.
The 2026 sticker and the move to digital
2026 is Austria's last sticker year. The 2026 sticker is fire-red, on sale since 20 November 2025. From 2027 the digital vignette is the only version, tied to your number plate.
Roads the vignette does not cover
The vignette does not cover every Austrian road. The Brenner (A13) and Tauern (A10) motorways and several tunnels charge a separate section toll on top. Pay at the barrier, or buy it in advance as a digital section toll in ASFINAG's own shop.
What happens without one
The replacement toll for a car is €200, payable within four weeks, and it rose from €120 on 1 January 2026. Ignore it and the demand letter is €365; contest that and the penalty notice runs from €300 to €3,000. It is camera-enforced against the plate. In a hire car the notice reaches the rental company, which pays it, charges you, and adds an administration fee of its own. All the countries side by side: what being caught costs.
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
Salzburg
Free all day Sunday, three hours on Saturday, and every central garage is 2.05 metres.
Best bet
Park & Ride, €15.00 a day, and the ticket includes the bus into town — at Messezentrum, Salzburg Süd, the Designer Outlet or the airport. At Salzburg Süd, parking alone is €6.00 for 24 hours.
Watch out
Every central garage is 2.05–2.10 m. With a ski box or roof box on the car you will not get into the Mönchsberg, and you find out at the barrier. P+R Alpenstraße Süd clears 5 m.
Ninety kilometres of motorway at 100 km/h, then a ski bus that costs nothing.
Best bet
P+R Olympiaworld, €21.00 a day — and that one ticket covers up to five people on every IVB bus and tram in the core zone, 06:00–24:00. A carload of skiers cannot beat it.
Watch out
100 km/h, not 130, on about 90 km of the A12 from the German border to Zirl. Permanent, year-round, six fixed radar units. This is the drive in from Munich.
Twenty-three districts, one short-stay zone, two hours maximum.
Best bet
Park & Ride, €4.60 for 24 hours, at Erdberg (U3), Hütteldorf (U4), Spittelau (U4/U6) or Perfektastraße (U6). No transport ticket needed for the day rate.
Watch out
The Kurzparkzone covers all 23 districts, Mon–Fri 09:00–22:00, two hours maximum. No ticket or a wrongly filled one: €50.
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