Most of Europe attaches the charge to the road: buy a vignette, or meter the kilometres. Denmark took the charge off the road entirely. All 74,936 km of Danish public road, motorways included, cost a car nothing to use. The money sits on two structures instead, and what you pay at those two structures has nothing to do with distance.
That leaves Denmark with four separate regimes, and the thing worth understanding first is that each one uses a different unit of account. Confusing them is where almost every mistake in Denmark comes from.
| Who is charged | The unit | What it comes to |
|---|---|---|
| Cars, motorhomes, car plus caravan, on any Danish road | Nothing at all | The whole 74,936 km network is free |
| The Great Belt and Øresund bridges | Per crossing, priced by measurement | 205 to 645 kr, and 182 to 520 kr, for a car |
| Goods lorries from 12 tonnes | Per kilometre driven, since 1 January 2025 | 0.13 to 1.10 kr per km by CO2 class |
| Diesel vehicles in four cities | Not money: an emissions standard | Entry is refused, not charged |
Every figure on this page is the operator's or the state's own published amount in Danish kroner, checked in August 2026. The krone is not the euro: it is pegged in ERM II at a central rate of 7.46038, so a euro figure you see quoted anywhere is an approximation and never the official amount.
The Great Belt (Storebælt): Priced by What the Plaza Measures
The Great Belt link, Storebæltsforbindelsen in Danish and usually shortened to Storebælt, is the 18 km crossing between Zealand and Funen, and effectively all road traffic between Copenhagen and the Jutland peninsula uses it. It is run by A/S Storebælt, part of Sund & Bælt.
The mechanism here is not a vehicle class read off your registration document. Your vehicle is measured as it passes the plaza, and the measurement decides the band. These are the operator's single-trip prices in force from 1 January 2026.
| Vehicle | Express price | Card or cash |
|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle, and cars up to 3 m | 109 kr | 125 kr |
| Car, 3 to 6 m | 205 kr | 235 kr |
| Car with trailer, up to 6 m in total | 205 kr | 235 kr |
| Car with caravan | 314 kr | 360 kr |
| Car over 6 m, under 2.7 m high | 314 kr | 360 kr |
| Car, van or bus over 6 m and over 2.7 m high | 613 kr | 645 kr |
| Lorry up to 10 m | 613 kr | 645 kr |
| Lorry 10 to 20 m | 969 kr | 1,020 kr |
Two boundaries stack, and they stack in order: first 6 metres of length, then 2.7 metres of height. A car is 205 kr, going over 6 metres makes it 314 kr, and being over 2.7 metres high as well makes it 613 kr. A tall van over 6 metres therefore pays three times the car price. The row most guides drop is the useful one: a car with a small trailer still pays the ordinary 205 kr, provided car and trailer together measure no more than 6 metres.
Your roof box counts, and Denmark says so in writing
Because the plaza measures rather than classifies, the operator states in terms that the measurement covers total height and total length including everything mounted in front of, behind or on top of the vehicle: a trailer, a bike rack, a roof box, running boards, even a tow bar, if it adds length or height. The price follows the measurement taken at the moment of crossing, not what your papers say. This is worth noting because the identical question is officially unanswered in Croatia, where no operator or ministry will state whether a roof box counts. Denmark answers it in writing, and the answer is yes.
Motorhomes Run a Separate Ladder, and an Agreement Decides It
Campers do not follow the car table at all, and this is where a driver can lose 300 kr per crossing without ever knowing it was avoidable.
Under 3,500 kg and up to 6 m: 205 kr
The ordinary car price at the express rate, or 235 kr by card or cash. Nothing to arrange in advance.
Under 3,500 kg and over 6 m: 314 kr, but only with an agreement
An autocamperaftale, applied for before you travel, is what unlocks this band. The card and cash column for it reads "not possible", so the price exists only with automatic payment.
Up to 10 m with no agreement: 613 kr
The default. A 7 m motorhome whose owner never applied pays 613 kr rather than 314 kr, so the agreement is worth roughly 300 kr a crossing. The operator advertises a saving of up to 330 kr per trip.
Over 3,500 kg and over 10 m: 969 kr
Past 10 metres the agreement stops helping altogether.
The Øresund: a Different Company and a Different Unit
The Øresund crossing, the bridge and tunnel that carry the road from Copenhagen to Malmö, is run by a Danish and Swedish joint consortium rather than by Sund & Bælt alone, and almost nothing transfers between the two bridges. The unit changes too: here the bands are set by measured length only, with no height rule and no weight rule anywhere in the tariff.
Prices below are the operator's single-trip tariff including 25 per cent VAT, valid from 18 May 2026.
| Vehicle | With ØresundGO | Online ticket | At the barrier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle | 94 kr | 235 kr | 265 kr |
| Car, up to 6 m | 182 kr | 465 kr | 520 kr |
| Car with trailer up to 15 m; motorhome 6 to 10 m and not towing; van 6 to 9 m | 364 kr | 930 kr | 1,040 kr |
| Car with trailer over 15 m; motorhome over 10 m, or any motorhome over 6 m with a trailer; van over 9 m | 725 kr | 1,485 kr | 1,655 kr |
A single car crossing costs anywhere between 182 kr and 520 kr, close to triple, and nothing about the vehicle or the journey moves that number. The only variable is which contract you hold before you arrive.
ØresundGO is a discount contract, not a payment method
This is the detail that costs people 338 kr. Reaching the 182 kr price takes two agreements, not one: ØresundGO itself, at 370 kr a year, covering up to five different plates in a calendar year with a sixth paying full price, and a separate agreement with an approved automatic payment issuer. A German driver does not need a Nordic provider for the second one, since DKV, Tollticket and Toll4Europe are all approved. What does not work is arranging it through Brobizz at the last minute: plate payment there covers Danish and Swedish plates only, other countries are posted a physical tag that takes about five working days, and an agreement created that way can take 24 hours to go live.
Four more things differ from the Great Belt, and the first one catches almost everybody:
- The Øresund does not take euro. Kroner and Swedish kronor only, at a barrier staffed around the clock. The Great Belt does take euro cash. Never carry an assumption from one bridge to the other.
- There is no same-day return discount for private customers here, unlike the Great Belt's evening, weekend and holiday returns.
- The advertised online price is conditional. It includes a 10 per cent reduction that applies only if you subscribe to the operator's newsletter. Without that you are charged the barrier price.
- Personalised and vanity plates cannot be read at the Øresund toll station at all. Those drivers need a physical tag.
If you have been reading older German or English coverage, three product names in it are dead: BroPas became ØresundGO in 2023, the SmutTur same-day discount has been abolished, and the Helsingør ferry operator ForSea is now Øresundslinjen.
Why the bridge price is tied by treaty to a ferry fare
A detail almost nobody publishes, and it explains the pricing better than anything on the operator's own site. The 1991 inter-state agreement between Denmark and Sweden that authorised the bridge makes the level of ferry fares on the Helsingborg to Helsingør route the reference point for what cars and lorries pay to cross. The consortium says it therefore cannot set prices freely and must take the ferries into account so as not to distort competition in the region. The ferry is not simply the alternative to the bridge. It is the bridge's legal price anchor.
Crossing into Sweden is also not purely a toll question. Sweden has reintroduced checks on its internal borders and the crossing carries systematic police checks, so have identity documents to hand at the toll station rather than buried in a suitcase.
The Price Is Decided Before You Arrive, Not at the Barrier
This is the single most important thing to understand about both bridges, and it is why Brobizz, the Danish tolling tag brand, is the name most visitors meet first. Every band above has two or three prices attached to it, and which one you get is settled by paperwork completed days earlier.
The honest answer for a holiday driver, though, is that you do not need a tag for either Danish bridge. A number plate is enough on both, and if you have arranged nothing at all you can simply pay by card at the barrier. What a tag or a plate agreement changes is the price, and the two bridges handle it differently.
Crossing the Great Belt only
Nothing is required. Pay 235 kr by card, or 205 kr if you hold any active automatic payment method. Add the free Storebælt Privataftale if you want the evening or weekend return discounts, which do not arrive by themselves.
Crossing the Øresund only
The gap is far wider, so the contract matters far more: 182 kr with ØresundGO against 520 kr at the barrier. Arrange it well before you travel rather than at the plaza, since activation is not instant.
Driving Germany to Sweden across Denmark
You want one paid contract and one free one: ØresundGO at 370 kr a year, plus the Storebælt Privataftale, which costs nothing. A Swedish ØresundPAY plate account also earns the Danish express price, but an Øresund discount contract does not by itself do anything at the Great Belt.
Driving on a non-European plate
Check before relying on plate recognition. The Great Belt reads plates from a closed list of fourteen countries and Turkish plates are not on it, and the Øresund's approved issuer list has no Turkish member either. Paying by card at the barrier always works.
At the Great Belt itself: green lanes are automatic payment, blue are card, yellow are cash, and the cash lanes take kroner and euro, though not the 500 euro note. If you end up in the wrong lane, do not reverse. The operator says to hold your lane, and the express price is still applied if your automatic payment is valid. Motorcyclists are barred from the green express lanes altogether.
The gap between 205 kr and 235 kr is about 13 per cent, and it cannot grow. A/S Storebælt's own binding terms describe it as the maximum discount permitted for automatic payment under the Eurovignette Directive. This is the operator's own characterisation of the legal ceiling.
On the business tariff the express column is identical to the card and cash column: 645 equals 645, 1,020 equals 1,020. The express price is reserved for light vehicles, so a haulier planning around a tag discount at the Great Belt will not find one.
246 kr for an out and back between 16:00 and 03:00 the same evening, and 346 kr for a weekend return between Friday 12:00 and Sunday 24:00, or a same-day public holiday return. These are return prices, not single fares, and each needs a Privataftale, payment by tag or plate, a car under 6 m or a motorcycle, and the same tag or plate used on both crossings.
Within a calendar month your first 14 single crossings are charged at the express price, crossings 15 to 50 cost nothing at all, and the express price resumes from crossing 51.
Driving through the plaza without paying costs 600 kr on top of the crossing price, and so does failing to pay an issued invoice on time. They are separate events with the same penalty.
Who Is Exempt from Denmark's Bridge Tolls?
Nobody, in the ordinary sense, and it is worth saying so plainly because the question is usually asked in hope. Neither bridge publishes an exemption for private drivers: there is no discount for electric vehicles, no tourist waiver and nothing that turns on nationality. Motorcycles are not exempt either, they are simply the cheapest band on both tariffs.
What exists instead are four things that get mistaken for exemptions:
Contract discounts, which anyone including a visitor can buy
A Storebælt Handicapaftale, the one genuine status-based agreement
Every other Danish crossing, which carries no toll to be exempt from
Narrow statutory carve-outs from the lorry charge: military, fire, police, road authorities
So the honest routes to paying less are the contracts, or a route that avoids both bridges. There is no status that gets an ordinary car across the Great Belt for nothing.
Every Other Danish Crossing Is Free
The list of free crossings is longer than the list of tolled ones and it keeps growing, which is why it is worth stating. Danish law creates exactly two tolled road crossings, both under the Sund & Bælt act, and the only third charge anywhere in the statute book is the future Fehmarnbelt one.
Free, as ordinary state roads: both Little Belt bridges, the Farø bridges, the Limfjord tunnel, Alssundbroen, Svendborgsundbroen, Guldborgsundtunnelen, Sallingsundbroen and Dronning Alexandrines Bro.
Two corrections are worth carrying, because stale pages still get them wrong:
- Dronning Margrethe II's Bro, the new Storstrøm bridge between Zealand and Falster, opened to road traffic on 23 March 2026 and carries no toll. The 1937 bridge beside it is closed to traffic.
- Kronprinsesse Marys Bro at Frederikssund is not a toll bridge. It opened in 2019 carrying Denmark's first free-flow toll, but the charge was abolished with effect from 2022 and the operating company was wound up. Pages still quoting 14 kr or 41 kr for it are four years out of date.
The Kilometre Charge: What Denmark Built Instead of a Vignette
The third regime is the one that changed most recently, and it is the reason the old one-line summary of Denmark, that its only road charges are the two bridges, has been wrong since 1 January 2025.
On that date Denmark left the Eurovignette agreement and repealed its own time-based road-use charge law, replacing both with a per-kilometre, CO2-differentiated toll on goods vehicles, across a defined network of about 10,900 km set out segment by segment in a statutory annex. Denmark is the one European country that moved against the vignette trend: it had a time-based charge and deliberately swapped it for a distance-based one.
Why this cannot touch your car, in one sentence
Liability needs both of two tests to be met: the vehicle must be used for goods transport, and its technically permissible maximum laden mass must be 12,000 kg or more. A private car fails both. A motorhome fails the first whatever it weighs, because it is not carrying goods. And for a combination only the towing vehicle is assessed: the Danish tax authority states expressly that a motor vehicle under 12,000 kg is not liable even where the whole combination exceeds it, which settles the car-and-caravan question in a single line.
For anyone who does fall inside it, the shape of the scheme is worth knowing. Rates run from 0.86 to 1.10 kr per kilometre in the dirtiest CO2 class depending on weight band, down to a flat 0.13 kr for zero-emission vehicles, with a supplement of 0.07 to 0.55 kr on charged segments inside an environmental zone, though motorway and TEN-T segments are excluded and only zones already in existence on 1 August 2022 count. There are exactly two lawful options and both must be in place before you drive onto the network: an on-board unit under a contract with an approved provider, or a pre-bought electronic route ticket valid for one stated route for 24 hours. There are no points of sale.
Enforcement is fully digital, with no gantries to look for and no stopping, and liability is strict. The standard fine is 9,000 kr, doubled from 4,500 kr in July 2025. Unpaid final vehicle-related fines can also get a foreign lorry refused passage of the fixed links, which in practice means being turned back at the Great Belt, unless the debtor is resident in Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden.
Two dates circulate as though they were law and are not: extending the charge to vehicles from 3.5 tonnes in 2027, and to the whole road network in 2028. Both come from a political agreement of 2023, and the statute still reads 12,000 kg.
Environmental Zones: the Regime That Is Not About Money at All
The fourth regime is the one most likely to catch an ordinary visitor, and it is the one that is not a charge. Denmark runs miljøzoner in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg, and they do not price entry. They condition it.
If you drive a petrol car, a hybrid or an electric car you can skip this section entirely: every limb of the law applies only to compression-ignition engines. The zones are diesel-only, and there is nothing for a petrol driver to check, register or pay.
For diesel drivers, Denmark works unlike anywhere else in Europe, because there is no windscreen sticker. The system is register-based and camera-enforced, so a driver arriving with the German Umweltplakette or French Crit'Air reflex goes looking for a badge that does not exist and misses the duty that does.
A diesel car needs Euro 5 or a particulate filter, in force since 1 October 2023. A diesel van needs Euro 5 or a filter, meaning first registered from September 2016. Lorries and buses over 3.5 tonnes need Euro VI or a filter, meaning first registered from January 2015.
A foreign-registered diesel vehicle first registered before 1 January 2011 for cars and minibuses, before September 2016 for vans, or before January 2015 for lorries and buses, must be registered online at miljoezoner.dk at the latest on the day you drive into a zone. This is a separate offence from the emissions rule: you can meet Euro 5 comfortably and still be fined purely for not registering.
The duty falls away where the Danish authority can verify your vehicle from your own country's register. You find out which side of that line you sit on by entering your plate and country into the official lookup before travelling. If it does not clear you, register, even if the car genuinely is Euro 5.
A foreign-registered vehicle more than 30 years old is exempt from the requirements altogether: no emissions standard and no registration. A 1990 diesel classic owes nothing here, which reverses the advice that would otherwise follow from its registration date.
No Danish motorway lies inside an environmental zone
This defuses most of the worry about transiting. Driving through Denmark on the E45, E20 or E47 never takes you into a zone, though some exits abut one. In Copenhagen the airport and the Øresund motorway are outside the zone, so the airport run and the drive to the bridge are both clear. In Aarhus the zone is the area inside the Ringgade ring and the ring roads themselves are expressly outside it, and in Aalborg, Vesterbro and Strandvejen are kept open as transit routes.
Enforcement is automatic number-plate recognition, from fixed points in every zone and from mobile camera cars. The fine is 1,500 kr for a car, minibus or van and 12,500 kr for a lorry or bus, reduced to 1,000 kr where the offence was purely the missing registration and you document within 80 days that the vehicle actually complied. Two mechanics matter to a visitor. The fine falls on the owner rather than the driver, even where the owner was not driving, which on a hire car means the rental company is billed and passes it on to you. And repeated detections with the same vehicle in the same zone within seven days count as one offence, so exposure is capped at one fine per zone per week, but a fresh one lands every week until the vehicle complies.
One last caution: the exemption routes written into the rules, such as the six-entry allowance and the grace periods, require a residential address inside the zone and a Danish digital signature. A visitor cannot use any of them, and applying for a dispensation is no protection unless it has been granted before you drive in.
The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel: the Third Charge, With No Date and No Price
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Puttgarden and Rødbyhavn, built by the Danish state company Femern A/S and often called the Femern link for that reason, will be an 18 to 19 km immersed tunnel carrying a four-lane motorway and a twin-track railway, cutting the crossing to roughly ten minutes by car. It is being assembled from 89 elements, the third of which was immersed on 2 August 2026. When it opens it becomes the third statutory road charge in Danish law.
Every opening date you have read for Femern is unofficial
There is no officially stated opening date. The operator said in May 2026 that the link will open in two stages, road first and railway later, that the Danish side is running roughly two years behind schedule, and that a new timetable will follow once the first elements are in place. The 2029 target was called into question in September 2025, and the transport ministry's own theme page still displays it, which is exactly why that figure keeps circulating. There is no tariff either: the Femern Act leaves the level to the transport minister, and the operator says it will be set immediately before the link opens. Until then the ferry does the job.
Does Denmark Have a Vignette?
No, and here the answer is unusually firm, because Denmark is not a country that merely never adopted one. It had a time-based road charge and abolished it. On 1 January 2025 it denounced the Eurovignette agreement and repealed its own vejbenyttelsesafgift law on the same day, and the governing statute states in terms that Eurovignettes have no validity in Denmark.
So there are two practical consequences. A Eurovignette bought elsewhere buys nothing here, even though they are still sold in other countries. And there is no Danish product to buy, look for, or be sold: any site offering you a Danish vignette is offering something the Danish parliament deliberately removed.
The countries you cross to reach Denmark are a different matter. Coming up through Germany the autobahn is free for cars, but a route that starts further south will have crossed vignette countries on the way, and each is bought separately.
Rules That Catch Foreign Drivers
Denmark's road charges are modest. Its penalties are not, and several rules differ from the neighbouring countries in ways that cost real money.
Speed Limits, and the Absence of Any Tolerance
The defaults are 50 km/h in built-up areas, 80 km/h outside them, 80 km/h on an expressway and 130 km/h on a motorway. Two corrections are worth having. Many Danish motorways are signed 110, which is a lowered limit rather than the norm, because 130 is a statutory ceiling that cannot be signed higher anywhere. And an expressway may be signed up to 100, not the 90 that is commonly published.
Denmark then builds in no tolerance whatsoever. The official fine bands begin at the limit plus one: 51 in a 50 zone, 131 on a 130 motorway.
A car up to 3.5 tonnes towing a caravan or trailer is capped at 80 km/h everywhere, motorway included. The widely republished "80 on the motorway, 70 elsewhere" is a fossil: the 70 was repealed with effect from 2020 and does not appear in the act.
This is the single most expensive assumption a German caravanner can bring into Denmark. The Danish vehicle agency answers it directly: a German Tempo 100 mark does not entitle you to 100 km/h in Denmark, and a Danish approval likewise does nothing in Germany. Norway is the only foreign scheme Denmark recognises. A foreign trailer can obtain the Danish approval at a Danish inspection centre, and it lifts you to 100 km/h on motorways only.
A motorhome up to 3.5 tonnes that is not towing is not caught by the special caps at all and may do up to 130 km/h on a motorway like any car. Over 3.5 tonnes it is 80 km/h everywhere, and a Danish Tempo 100 campingbil approval lifts that to 100 km/h on motorways only, still 80 elsewhere, and only where it is not coupled to a trailer.
Towing a non-registrable appliance, the kind of small utility trailer that needs no plate, caps the whole combination at 30 km/h. Towing a broken-down vehicle is capped at 30 km/h too, which is why you cannot lawfully tow a friend's car home on a Danish motorway: the motorway requires vehicles capable of at least 50 km/h.
What Speeding Actually Costs
Danish speeding fines come from the prosecution service's published table, in fixed kroner amounts by percentage over the limit. They never scale upward with earnings, though they can be halved downward for under-18s and for low earners who apply with documentation, so "fixed, not income-based" is true only in one direction.
Three features of the table are genuinely counter-intuitive:
A caravan puts you on the lorry scale
A car towing a registrable trailer or caravan is fined in the same column as lorries, on every road type. The entry band is 1,800 kr instead of 1,200 kr, and the gap widens with speed to 9,000 kr against 6,000 kr at 100 per cent over.
The same percentage costs more off the motorway
A 1,200 kr supplement applies when the excess is 30 per cent or more, but only on roads other than motorways and expressways signed 100 km/h. At 30 to 39 per cent over, a car pays 3,000 kr on a country road against 2,400 kr on a motorway.
140 km/h triggers a supplement on any road
From 140 km/h a high-speed supplement is added regardless of the posted limit, starting at 1,200 kr and rising in 10 km/h bands to 6,000 kr. That is exactly the speed a driver coming off an unrestricted autobahn drifts to on a Danish 130.
160 km/h costs the licence, whatever the limit
Conditional disqualification is mandatory at 160 km/h or more irrespective of the posted limit, plus a re-test. On a 130 motorway that is only 23 per cent over, and it still ends the trip.
Worked through, a common case looks like this. 69 km/h in a 50 zone is 38 per cent over: 1,800 kr, plus the 1,200 kr ordinary-road supplement, plus a penalty clip which brings in the 1,000 kr victims' fund levy, for 4,000 kr. And 160 km/h on a 130 motorway is 1,800 kr plus a 2,400 kr high-speed supplement plus the levy: 5,200 kr and the right to drive. Temporary roadworks limits double the fine. Multiple offences add up with no discount at all.
Penalty clips are earned above 30 per cent over, and three clips within three years cost the licence conditionally, with three years of probation on top. In the first three years of a first licence it takes only two, and the sanction there differs in kind: a kørselsforbud, meaning the right to drive is withdrawn until special instruction and a control driving test have been completed. The officer at the roadside cannot tell you whether a clip costs you your licence, because the notice is issued before the system is checked. Expect that by post.
Enforcement Against Foreign Drivers Is Physical
Danish police can hold your car until you pay
Most countries answer this question with "the fine follows you home". Denmark's answer is more direct. Where both the driver and the vehicle are foreign, the police may detain the vehicle until the fine is paid or security is given, and after two months the car itself may be realised to cover the debt. A Nordic carve-out spares residents of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden from that fines power, though even they can have a car held over unpaid stopping and parking charges, so a Swedish driver and a German driver at the same roadside stop are treated differently. Note also that the condition is cumulative: a German-resident driver in a Danish hire car is not caught by it. The escape hatch runs the other way for once, because a foreign driver may settle in cash at the roadside, which a Danish driver may not. Carrying enough cash is genuinely the difference between driving on and losing the car for the afternoon.
The alcohol limit is 0.50 as standard. Since 1 July 2025 drivers in their first three years of holding a first licence are on 0.20, which the bill itself describes as a de facto zero. That novice limit applies only to ordinary category B cars and is based on how long you have held the licence rather than on your age, so a first-time licence holder at 55 is caught and a young motorcyclist is not. Above 1.20 the licence goes unconditionally, and above 2.00 the car itself is confiscated, with confiscation reaching borrowed, hired and leased vehicles subject to a proportionality test for the owner.
One structural point about disqualification: Denmark cannot punch a hole in a licence it did not issue, so it withdraws the right to drive rather than the document. Driving during that period is a separate offence in its own right.
Equipment and Habits That Differ From the Neighbours
No hi-vis vest, first-aid kit or spare bulbs are required
None of them appears in Danish law. What is required is that you use a warning triangle where your vehicle creates danger or obstruction, at least 50 m back or 100 m on a motorway. Curiously, no rule requires you to carry one, and hazard lights do not replace it.
Denmark has no rescue lane
The German Rettungsgasse duty does not exist here and the word is not in the act. What applies instead is keeping the road clear for a signalling emergency vehicle, and keeping the hard shoulder free. Driving on the hard shoulder costs 2,000 kr and a clip.
Winter tyres are not mandatory, but that is no longer the whole answer
There is no winter-tyre season and no M+S requirement. Since 1 July 2025, though, driving on "obviously unsuitable tyres" is an offence, so summer tyres on a snow-covered road can now be prosecuted. Studded tyres are allowed only from 1 November to 15 April, and only on every wheel.
Daytime lights: your daytime running lamps are enough
Lights must always be on, but dedicated daytime running lamps satisfy the daylight rule. Dipped beam becomes obligatory once lighting-up time begins.
Two habits are worth rehearsing before you arrive. When you turn right in Denmark you must not obstruct cyclists going straight on, and in a country this dense with cycle traffic that rule decides a great many junctions; where the cycle track is two-way, bicycles arrive from both directions on the side you are turning into. And the parking disc runs the opposite way to every other one you have used: you set it forward, to the end of the quarter-hour in which you parked. Arrive at 10:07 and you set 10:15, not 10:00 and not 10:07. A foreign disc is lawful, but only in a foreign-registered car, so the German Parkscheibe in your glovebox is fine on German plates and an offence in a Danish hire car.
Ferries: the Alternative, and the Bridge's Legal Price Anchor
Two Scandlines routes bring most drivers up from Germany: Rødby to Puttgarden, about 45 minutes, and Gedser to Rostock, about two hours. No reservation is needed on the Rødby route, but turning up at the harbour costs meaningfully more than booking online. Danish speed limits apply from the moment you roll off the ramp.
For Sweden, the Helsingør to Helsingborg ferry is the 4 km alternative to the Øresund bridge, running around the clock and, in daytime, roughly every 20 minutes for cars and every 15 for lorries. That 20 minutes is the frequency, not the crossing time: the operator publishes no journey duration, whatever most guides state. On the 2026 tariff, fares start around 199 kr one way for the car and everyone in it on the non-refundable Lavpris ticket, with the fully flexible Standard at 460 kr and trailers charged separately at 390 kr up to 5 m and 460 kr over. Pricing is dynamic and seasonal, so the cheap tickets have to be booked well ahead.
The ferry classifies your vehicle by weight, the bridge by length
A rule you cannot carry across. On the ferry the split between a car and a lorry is 3,500 kg of permitted total weight, and for a combination it is the towing vehicle's weight that decides, with length setting only the band. On the bridges, weight appears nowhere: the Great Belt measures length and height, the Øresund measures length alone. So a heavy 5-metre pickup pays the car price on the bridge and the lorry price on the ferry. A motorhome built purely for habitation counts as a car on the ferry whatever it weighs.
Bornholm is the one Danish island you might expect to need Sweden for, and it does not. A direct car ferry runs Køge to Rønne in about five and a half hours, once a day each way, avoiding both the Øresund toll and the Swedish border check.
Driving On From Denmark
Denmark sits in a toll-free corner of Europe. Germany to the south charges cars nothing on the autobahn, as our Germany page explains, and Sweden to the north has no vignette either. The charges begin one country further along.
South towards the Alps
Through Germany the autobahn stays free until you reach a vignette country. Austria requires one from the first motorway kilometre, sold by the state operator ASFINAG, and Switzerland uses a single annual vignette with nothing shorter available. Neither can be sorted at the border in a hurry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do road charges work in Denmark?
In four separate regimes with four different units. Ordinary roads are free for cars: all 74,936 km of them. The two fixed links, the Great Belt and the Øresund bridges, charge per crossing, priced by how your vehicle is measured. Goods lorries from 12 tonnes pay per kilometre. And four cities run diesel zones, which do not charge at all but condition entry on an emissions standard.
Are there toll roads in Denmark?
No. Not one Danish road is tolled, motorways included, and there are 74,936 km of them. The only road charges are at the two fixed links, the Great Belt and the Øresund bridges, which charge per crossing rather than per kilometre, plus a separate per-kilometre charge that applies only to goods lorries from 12 tonnes.
Do I need a vignette to drive in Denmark?
No, and none can be bought. Denmark repealed its own time-based road-use charge and left the Eurovignette agreement on 1 January 2025, replacing them with a per-kilometre toll that applies only to goods vehicles from 12 tonnes. For a car, a motorhome or a car with a caravan, Danish roads are free.
Is my Eurovignette valid in Denmark?
No. The statute says in terms that Eurovignettes have no validity in Denmark from 1 January 2025. They can still be bought in some other countries, which is precisely why the misunderstanding persists, but they buy nothing on a Danish road.
What does the Great Belt Bridge cost for a car?
205 kr at the express price, or 235 kr paying by card or cash, for an ordinary car between 3 and 6 metres, on the tariff in force from 1 January 2026. Over 6 metres it becomes 314 kr, and over 6 metres and over 2.7 metres high it becomes 613 kr.
What does the Øresund Bridge cost, and how do I get the cheap price?
182 kr with an ØresundGO contract, 465 kr on an online ticket, or 520 kr at the barrier, for a car up to 6 metres. The cheap price needs two agreements, not one: ØresundGO at 370 kr a year plus a separate agreement with an approved automatic payment issuer, both arranged before you travel.
Does my roof box change what I pay on the bridge?
Yes, on the Great Belt. Your vehicle is measured automatically at the plaza and the operator states that the measurement includes anything mounted in front, behind or on top, naming a roof box specifically, along with bike racks, running boards and tow bars. If it pushes you over 6 metres of length or 2.7 metres of height, you pay the higher band.
I am driving a motorhome. What will the Great Belt cost me?
It depends on length and on whether you arranged an agreement. Under 3,500 kg and up to 6 metres is the ordinary 205 kr. Over 6 metres it is 314 kr but only with an autocamperaftale, and without one the default is 613 kr. So the agreement is worth roughly 300 kr per crossing, and above 10 metres it stops helping.
Do I need a Brobizz to cross the Danish bridges?
No. A number plate is enough on both bridges, and if you have arranged nothing you can pay by card at the barrier. What a tag or plate agreement buys is the cheaper price level, which matters far more on the Øresund, where the spread is 182 kr against 520 kr, than on the Great Belt, where it is 205 kr against 235 kr.
Are any other Danish bridges or tunnels tolled?
No. Danish law creates exactly two tolled road crossings. Both Little Belt bridges, the Farø bridges, the Limfjord tunnel, Alssundbroen, Svendborgsundbroen, Guldborgsundtunnelen, Sallingsundbroen and Dronning Alexandrines Bro are all free, as is the new Dronning Margrethe II's Bro, which opened on 23 March 2026. Kronprinsesse Marys Bro lost its toll in 2022.
When will the Fehmarnbelt tunnel open, and what will it cost?
Nobody has said. There is no official opening date: the operator confirmed in May 2026 that the Danish side is roughly two years behind schedule and that a new timetable will follow. The widely quoted 2029 was called into question in September 2025 and survives mainly on a stale ministry page. No tariff exists either, since the Femern Act leaves the level to the transport minister and the operator says it will be set immediately before opening.
Do I need an environmental sticker for Copenhagen?
No, because none exists. Denmark's environmental zones have no windscreen sticker at all. They apply only to diesel vehicles, they run on an emissions standard plus, for some older foreign-registered vehicles, an online registration at miljoezoner.dk, and they are enforced by camera. Petrol, hybrid and electric drivers are entirely outside the scheme.
Does the environmental zone affect me if I am only driving through Denmark?
No. No Danish motorway lies inside an environmental zone, so a transit on the E45, E20 or E47 never enters one. In Copenhagen the airport and the Øresund motorway are outside the zone as well, so the drive to the bridge is clear.
What happens if I ignore the environmental zone rules?
Cameras catch it and the fine is 1,500 kr for a car, minibus or van, or 12,500 kr for a lorry or bus. It falls on the owner rather than the driver, so on a hire car the rental company is billed and passes it on. Repeat detections in the same zone within seven days count as one offence, so it is capped at one fine per zone per week, but a new one lands every week until the vehicle complies.
Does the Danish lorry toll apply to my motorhome or my car with a caravan?
No, in every configuration. Two tests must both be met: the vehicle must be used for goods transport, and its technically permissible maximum laden mass must be 12,000 kg or more. A motorhome fails the goods-transport test whatever it weighs, and for a combination only the towing vehicle is assessed, so a car towing a caravan is never dragged in by the combined weight.
How fast can I tow a caravan in Denmark?
80 km/h on every road type, motorway included, for a car up to 3.5 tonnes towing a caravan or trailer. The "70 km/h on other roads" figure that still circulates was repealed with effect from 2020. A Danish Tempo 100 approval lifts you to 100 km/h on motorways only.
Does my German Tempo 100 plate work in Denmark?
No. The Danish vehicle agency says so directly: the trailer must carry a Danish Tempo 100 mark, and a Danish approval likewise does nothing in Germany. Norway is the only foreign scheme Denmark recognises. A foreign trailer can be inspected at a Danish centre to obtain the Danish approval, and the certificate must be carried while driving on it.
How strict are Danish speed cameras and fines?
There is no tolerance at all: the bands start at the limit plus one. A caravan puts you on the lorry fine column, a supplement is added from 140 km/h on any road, and 160 km/h costs the licence whatever the posted limit is, which on a 130 motorway is only 23 per cent over. Roadworks limits double the fine.
Can Danish police really keep my car over an unpaid fine?
Yes, where both the driver and the vehicle are foreign. The vehicle may be detained until the fine is paid or security given, and after two months it may be realised to cover the debt. Residents of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are carved out of the fines power, though not for stopping and parking charges. A foreign driver may settle in cash at the roadside, which a Danish driver may not, and that is usually the way out.
Do I need to book the Rødby to Puttgarden ferry in advance?
No booking is required on that route: you can arrive at the port and buy a ticket. It costs meaningfully more, though. The operator's own figures are 829 kr at the harbour against from 619 kr online, booking 30 or more days ahead is advertised as saving up to half, and the Low Price and Flex tickets are sold online only. Check in at least 15 minutes before departure. The crossing takes about 45 minutes, against roughly two hours on Rostock to Gedser.
Should I take the Øresund bridge or the Helsingør to Helsingborg ferry into Sweden?
On price they are closer than they look, and by design: the 1991 state treaty makes the ferry fare on that route the reference point for the bridge toll, so the two track each other. The bridge is 182 kr with a contract and 520 kr without; the ferry starts around 199 kr on a non-refundable ticket and 460 kr fully flexible. Watch the classification, though, because the ferry splits cars from lorries at 3,500 kg while the bridge only measures length.
