Romania's vignette, the rovinietă, is mandatory on all national roads, not only motorways. This is the single biggest difference from Austria, Switzerland or Czechia, where a vignette buys you motorway access and the ordinary roads stay free. In Romania the requirement covers motorways, expressways, European routes and main national roads alike, everywhere outside city limits.
It is fully digital. There is no sticker: buy online and your plate is registered directly. New to the whole system? Our plain-English explainer on what a vignette is covers the concept in two minutes.
Whether you are driving from Bulgaria to Bucharest, crossing from Hungary at Nădlac, or transiting towards Türkiye, cameras and police checks verify the plate on every major road and at every border. Buy before you cross to avoid fines that start at around €100, doubled by law in September 2025.
The rovinietă does not cover bridges
Danube bridges and the Fetești to Cernavodă crossing on the A2 are charged separately. This catches thousands of travellers out every year, particularly on the way to the Black Sea coast. Full detail below, and the A2 bridge can be bought here alongside your vignette.
Do I Need a Vignette for Romania?
Yes, for every motor vehicle except motorcycles. What makes Romania unusual is the road coverage rather than the vehicle rules.
Which Roads Are Covered
The A roads: A1, A2, A3, A4 and the rest of the autostradă network.
E60, E70, E81, E85 and every other international E route crossing the country.
The DN network: DN1, DN2, DN7 and hundreds of others, including the secondary roads that link most cities.
County roads (DJ), communal roads (DC), and the stretches of national road that run inside city limits, between the entry and exit signs.
In practice you are on a vignette road the moment you leave the border post. Bulgaria to Bucharest on the E70 and DN6, Hungary to Brașov on the E60 and DN1, or Bucharest to the coast on the A2: all of them need a valid rovinietă from the first kilometre.
Which Vehicles Need One
Romania classifies vehicles by weight, axles and purpose. Cars sit in category A, light commercial vehicles in B, heavier goods vehicles in C through F, and passenger transport in G and H by seat count.
Cars, SUVs, vans, minivans, motorhomes and campervans. A towed trailer or caravan is covered by the car's own vignette, with nothing extra to buy.
Goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes have their own category and their own, higher, rate.
Split by weight and axle count, from 3.5 tonnes upwards. The price table shows each band.
Split at 23 seats: minibuses and coaches are priced separately from goods vehicles.
Completely exempt, whatever the engine size, including trikes and sidecars. Nothing to buy and nothing to register.
A Eurovignette is not a rovinietă
Romania is not part of the Eurovignette scheme used in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg. If you hold a Eurovignette for transit through Western Europe, you still need a separate Romanian vignette the moment you enter the country.
Electric vehicles pay too
Unlike several EU countries, Romania offers no vignette exemption for electric or hydrogen vehicles. Every motor vehicle except a motorcycle needs a rovinietă, whatever it runs on.
Who Is Exempt from the Rovinietă?
Romania's exemption list, set by Government Ordinance 15/2002, is short and precise:
- Motorcycles. Two- and three-wheeled vehicles sit outside the system entirely: nothing to buy, nothing to register.
- State and emergency vehicles. The army, interior ministry, intelligence service, ambulance and disaster-response fleets travel free so that operations are never delayed.
- Drivers with disabilities. Romanian law exempts registered disabled persons, along with their companions or personal assistants, for one car per eligible person. The exemption runs through the Romanian social-assistance authorities, so a foreign disability badge does not carry it across the border.
Everyone else pays: hire cars, foreign plates, electric and hydrogen vehicles included. The categories above are the whole list.
Romania Vignette Prices and Validity Options
Romania reworked its validity periods, adding short and medium options and retiring the old 7-day and 90-day products for cars. The rates below come live from our catalogue, so what you see is what you pay.
Freight 0-3.5t
Bus 9-23 seats
Bus > 23 seats
Truck 3.5-7.5t
Truck 7.5-12t
Truck ≥ 12t and ≤ 3 axles
Truck ≥ 12t and ≥ 4 axles
Prices shown are the total amount payable, including the road toll and the registration fee. Official rates are set in Romanian lei and shown here in euro.
Car Prices Nearly Doubled on 1 September 2025
Law 141/2025 raised the car rovinietă sharply from 1 September 2025: the yearly pass now costs almost twice what it did, the first big increase in years, while the heavier vehicle categories kept their old rates. The fine for driving without one doubled in the same law. The table above already shows the current tariff, so treat older price lists in forums and guides with care: much of what Google surfaces still quotes the pre-September figures.
Which Validity Period Should You Choose?
Daily
Quick transit, or a single day on Romanian roads. Runs to 23:59 Romanian time on the calendar day you select.
10 Days
The most popular choice for transit drivers between Western Europe and Türkiye or the Black Sea, and for short holidays with a return leg.
Monthly
Extended stays, business trips, or several visits within the month.
2 Months
Long visits, seasonal work, and full summer stays on the coast.
Yearly
Best value once you cross Romania more than four or five times a year.
The daily vignette is a calendar day, not 24 hours
Buy one at 22:00 and it expires two hours later at midnight. Buy it at 08:00 and you get sixteen hours. Everything runs on Romanian time, so account for the difference if you are buying from further west.
Heavier categories do not all carry the same set of periods: goods vehicles and buses keep a weekly option instead of the ten-day and two-month ones. The table above shows exactly what exists for your category.
Vignettes cannot be backdated. Validity starts at purchase or on the future date you select, and every period gives the same road access: there are no premium or restricted tiers.
Bridge Tolls Are Charged Separately
Your rovinietă covers the road up to the bridge and the road after it. The bridge itself is separate infrastructure with its own charge.
Fetești to Cernavodă on the A2
This is the one that matters most, because it is the main route from Bucharest to Constanța, Mamaia and the rest of the Black Sea coast. If you are driving to the seaside, you cross it.
You can buy it here, together with your vignette, instead of queueing at the booth:
Car
Freight 0-3.5t
Bus 9-23 seats
Bus > 23 seats
Truck 7.5-12t
Truck 3.5-7.5t
Truck ≥ 12t and ≤ 3 axles
Truck ≥ 12t and ≥ 4 axles
Multi-trip options are priced per vehicle category and work out cheaper than paying each crossing individually.
One rule most drivers never hear about: the crossing can be paid in advance or up to midnight of the following day, so forgetting at the booth is recoverable. Missing that window, however, turns a small toll into a fine.
Danube Crossings to and from Bulgaria
Ruse to Giurgiu (Friendship Bridge)
The busiest Romania to Bulgaria crossing, on E85.
Toll: about €3 for a car in each direction, charged at the departure booth: 15 lei on the Romanian side, the Bulgarian side's own charge coming back. Since June 2026 the Romanian toll can also be paid electronically in advance through the eTGP system, so the booth queue is now optional.
Traffic: expect 30 to 60 minute waits in peak summer, over Easter and at weekends.
Vidin to Calafat (New Europe Bridge)
The western crossing, quieter and usually faster.
Toll: roughly €6, cash or card at the booth.
Traffic: the better choice heading to or from Serbia and western Romania, or simply to dodge the summer queues.
The Giurgeni to Vadu Oii bridge over the Danube in the east, used for the Danube Delta, is also charged at the booth rather than through your vignette.
Crossing into Romania
From Bulgaria
The Danube crossings need two separate payments, and confusing them is the classic mistake.
Buy your rovinietă before leaving Bulgaria
Do it while you still have signal and time, not at the barrier.
Pay the Danube bridge toll
About €3 for a car at Ruse to Giurgiu, at the booth or, since June 2026, electronically via eTGP before you reach the bridge.
Clear Romanian customs
Cameras start reading plates within the first kilometre after the checkpoint.
The bridge toll is not the vignette
Paying at the bridge booth buys you the crossing, nothing more. The rovinietă buys you the Romanian road network. You need both, and neither substitutes for the other.
Coming up from the south? The Bulgarian e-vignette works the same plate-linked way, and Bulgaria tolls its ordinary national roads too, so plan both countries before setting off.
From Hungary
Nădlac II on the E68 feeds straight onto the A1. There is no free zone: within about 500 metres of the customs post you are on the motorway with active cameras. Buy while you are still in Hungary, ideally half an hour before the border so the registration has settled.
Your Hungarian e-matrica does not cover Romania. Driving Austria to Hungary to Romania to Bulgaria means four separate vignettes, one per country.
From Moldova
Albița in the south and Sculeni near Iași are the main crossings. Buying online in advance avoids the exchange-rate hit at border kiosks and the risk of running short of Romanian lei for bridge tolls and fuel. Border processing slows noticeably on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, so it is worth having the vignette settled before you arrive. Heading the other way, Moldova's own vinieta works on the same plate-linked principle.
From Ukraine
Siret to Porubne on the E85 is the primary crossing from Chernivtsi and Lviv. Waits can be long during holidays and the summer, which is time you can use: buy on your phone in the queue and the vignette will be live by the time you clear customs.
Driving on to Türkiye?
The usual run is Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria. Each has its own scheme and none covers another, so budget for four vignettes and buy them all before you leave rather than hunting for kiosks at four borders. Past Bulgaria, Türkiye switches to the HGS toll tag, and our guide to driving in Türkiye covers that final leg.
Fines and Enforcement
Romania's enforcement network has grown past a hundred fixed cameras, backed by 14 mobile monitoring vans, reading plates continuously and checking them against the vignette database in real time. They are concentrated on the A1 from the Nădlac border to Bucharest, the A2 to the coast, and the E70 and E85 corridors. Alongside them are mobile police units with handheld scanners, verification at border checkpoints and dedicated inspection points. Many of the same corridors carry speed enforcement too: our guide to speed limits in Romania covers those rules.
Cars
500 to 1,000 lei, roughly €100 to €200, doubled from the old range in September 2025. Romanian contravention law lets you settle at half the minimum if you pay within 15 days.
Commercial vehicles
Higher by category, climbing into the thousands of lei for the heaviest classes, and enforced just as automatically.
Romania works with EU debt collection agencies, so an unpaid fine does not stay behind at the border. It can follow you home with collection fees attached, and EU member states share violation data.
Romania has no grace period
Hungary gives you 60 minutes after the first camera detection. Romania does not. Once a camera or an officer logs the passage, the fine stands regardless of what you buy afterwards. The vignette has to be active before you drive.
Where Can You Buy a Rovinietă?
Every authorised channel writes the same record into the same national database at the same state-set price, so the real difference is convenience and timing.
Checkout in English in under three minutes, confirmation by email, and the A2 bridge toll can go into the same order, which no petrol station will offer you.
The same purchase from your phone, on iOS and Android. Ideal in the border queue at Nădlac or before the Danube bridges: buy, activate, and drive on covered.
CNAIR's e-rovinieta portal and app sell online in Romanian and English, alongside the SMS short-code option for Romanian subscribers.
Large fuel chains sell at the counter. It works, but queues run long in summer, terminals go down, and some points take Romanian lei in cash only.
How to Buy Your Romania Vignette Online
Select your vehicle category
Cars, SUVs and motorhomes are the car category. Goods vehicles, buses and coaches each have their own, priced by weight, axles or seat count.
Choose your validity period
Daily, ten days, monthly, two months or the full year, depending on category.
Enter your licence plate
Exactly as printed on the vehicle: capital letters and digits only, no spaces or hyphens. Watch O against 0 and I against 1. A German plate reading "B-AB 1234" is entered as BAB1234.
Have the VIN ready for longer periods
For the monthly and longer rovinietă, Romania registers the VIN (chassis number) alongside the plate, so keep the registration document to hand.
Choose your start date
Start now, or schedule it for the day you actually cross. All times are Romanian time.
Pay by credit card
Your confirmation arrives by email within a few minutes, with a PDF receipt for your phone.
Nothing is posted to you and nothing goes on the windscreen. Police and cameras check the plate against the national database.
How to Check That Your Rovinietă Is Valid
Because the system is plate-based, any vehicle can be verified in seconds. It is worth doing after every purchase and before every trip.
Run your plate through the official check
CNAIR's e-rovinieta site has a free validity check: enter the registration number and it returns the start and end dates on record.
Check the end date against your return leg
The daily rovinietă expires at 23:59 on its calendar day, and a ten-day pass bought on the way out can run out a day before you drive back.
Checking a rental car? Verify the plate, not the paperwork
Many rental agreements do not include a rovinietă. Thirty seconds with the checker beats a fine that lands on whoever was driving.
Keep your confirmation to hand
The email confirmation and PDF receipt settle any dispute on the spot if a roadside check lags behind a very recent purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a vignette if I am only passing through Romania?
Yes. The rovinietă applies whether you stop or simply transit, and cameras cover the transit routes as thoroughly as anywhere else. The daily vignette exists for exactly this.
Which roads need a vignette in Romania?
Effectively all national roads: motorways, expressways, European routes and the DN network. County roads, communal roads and national road sections inside city limits are free.
Do motorcycles need a vignette in Romania?
No. Motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles are completely exempt, whatever the engine size.
Does the rovinietă cover bridge tolls?
No. The Fetești to Cernavodă crossing on the A2 and the Danube bridges to Bulgaria are charged separately. The A2 bridge can be bought here alongside your vignette; the Danube bridges are paid at the booth.
Do I need a separate vignette for a trailer?
Not for a car. A towed trailer or caravan is covered by the car's own vignette. Commercial combinations follow their own classification.
Does Romania offer a grace period like Hungary?
No. Hungary allows 60 minutes after the first detection; Romania does not. The vignette must be active before you enter a national road.
How quickly does the vignette activate?
Your plate is registered within a few minutes of the payment clearing. Wait for the confirmation email before joining a national road.
Are electric vehicles exempt in Romania?
No. There is no EV exemption or discount. Every motor vehicle apart from motorcycles needs a rovinietă.
Do I need to print the vignette?
No. The system is entirely electronic and checks your plate. Keeping the PDF on your phone is still sensible in case of a system error or a spot check.
Is a rovinietă required for a hire car?
Yes, and many rental agreements do not include one. Check with the rental company rather than assuming, because the fine lands on whoever was driving.
Can I buy a rovinietă for a foreign-registered vehicle?
Yes. The system accepts any country's plates, and foreign-registered cars follow exactly the same rules and prices as Romanian ones. Enter the plate exactly as printed, without spaces or hyphens.
What happens if I drive without a rovinietă?
Cameras or police log the passage and a fine of 500 to 1,000 lei follows for a car, doubled by the September 2025 law. There is no grace period, and EU data-sharing means the fine reaches foreign addresses too.
Can I buy at the border instead?
Petrol stations and kiosks near the crossings do sell them, but queues run long in summer, machines are frequently out of service, and some take Romanian lei in cash only. Buying online before you travel avoids all three.
