Turkey: Motorway Tolls
How paying works on the toll roads, what it costs, and what to arrange before you go.
LAST VERIFIED 2026-09-13Turkey is the country where doing nothing is most expensive. The motorways and the Bosphorus crossings are cashless, charged electronically through HGS, and a foreign-registered vehicle is expected to hold an account with enough balance before it uses the road. If you pass without one there is a 15-day window to open an account or settle through the tax administration's portal. Leave it 45 days and the penalty is four times the original toll. In practice most visitors drive a hire car with a tag already fitted, which makes this a single question to ask at the desk: is the HGS account active, and how is the balance billed back to me? Confirm it rather than assuming, because the consequences of it not being set up land on you.
Toll system
Motorways ("otoyol") and some bridges charge tolls, collected electronically via an HGS tag (no cash booths on most routes) — rental cars usually come with a tag pre-fitted and the cost billed afterward, but confirm with your rental company.
How to pay
Turkey is effectively cashless on its toll roads: motorways and the major bridges are charged electronically through HGS, with no cash booths on most routes. A foreign-registered vehicle is expected to hold an HGS account carrying enough balance to cover the crossing before using the road. If you pass without one, you have 15 days to open an account and top it up, or to pay the crossing through the tax administration's online portal under its foreign-plated vehicle payments section. Hire cars usually come with a tag already fitted and the cost billed on afterwards — confirm that with the rental company rather than assuming it.
What it costs
Crossing charges vary by road, bridge and vehicle class. HGS tags are sold through the post office (PTT) at roughly 140 TL for the sticker type and 200 TL for the card type, with balance topped up at post offices, PTT machines, the e-government portal, the operator's app, or partner banks. The penalty matters here: leaving a crossing unpaid for 45 days brings an administrative fine of four times the toll. Figures are indicative and can change — confirm before travelling.