If you’re visiting London and plan to hop on the Tube more than once or twice a day, you don’t need to buy a Travelcard, load a fixed amount onto an Oyster card, or do any maths before you travel. A contactless bank card or phone will automatically cap what you pay each day, no matter how many journeys you make. Here’s exactly what that cap is in 2026, how it works, and where it can still catch you out.

What Is the Daily Price Cap?

Every time you tap in and out of the Tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth line or most National Rail services in London using contactless or Oyster, Transport for London (TfL) adds up your fares in real time. Once your total for the day reaches the cap for the zones you’ve travelled in, every further journey that day is free — you simply keep tapping in and out as normal. There’s nothing to activate and no registration required; it applies automatically to whichever card or device you use consistently.

How Much Is the Cap in 2026?

According to Transport for London’s official 2026 adult fares table, the daily caps for the zones most visitors use are:

Zones	Daily cap (peak or off-peak)
Zone 1 only	£8.90
Zones 1–2	£8.90
Zones 1–3	£10.50
Zones 1–4	£12.80
Zones 1–5	£15.30
Zones 1–6	£16.30

Almost every landmark covered on Chronicle Trails — the Tower of London, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum — sits inside Zones 1–2, so most visitors doing a day of central sightseeing are working against the £8.90 cap. Unusually, these caps are identical whether you travel at peak or off-peak times, which isn’t true of individual single fares.

Contactless vs Oyster: Does It Matter for the Cap?

No — the daily and weekly caps are identical on both. The only practical difference for a visitor is convenience: a contactless bank card or phone works immediately with no setup, while an Oyster card has to be bought and topped up in advance, and any unused credit has to be refunded before you leave. For a short trip, contactless is almost always the simpler choice; Oyster mainly makes sense if your card doesn’t support contactless payments abroad, or you’d rather not use a personal bank card on public transport.

What Individual Tube Fares Actually Cost

Since 1 March 2026, single contactless and Oyster fares on the Tube and TfL rail rose by around 6%, though the daily and weekly caps themselves were frozen. According to the Greater London Authority’s official fares document, an adult single journey within Zone 1 now costs £3.10 at peak times and £3.00 off-peak; a Zones 1–6 peak single costs £5.90. Peak times are Monday to Friday, 06:30–09:30 and 16:00–19:00, excluding public holidays — everything else counts as off-peak. Buying single paper tickets with cash is far more expensive at a flat £7.00 regardless of distance, and is worth avoiding entirely if you have a contactless card.

A Worked Example: A Day of Sightseeing in Zones 1–2

Say you start the day at the Tower of London, take the Tube to the Palace of Westminster, then on to the British Museum, and finish with an evening Tube ride back to your hotel — four journeys, all within Zones 1–2. Paying individually at roughly £2.30–£2.70 per single fare, that could add up to over £10. But because the Zones 1–2 daily cap is £8.90, TfL automatically stops charging you once you hit that total — your third or fourth journey of the day effectively becomes free, without you doing anything differently.

Buses and the Cap

Bus and tram fares are a flat £1.75 per journey, with a separate “Hopper” fare that gives unlimited bus and tram journeys within 60 minutes of your first tap. If you use a train (Tube, DLR, Overground or Elizabeth line) at any point in the day, your bus and tram fares count toward that day’s train cap rather than being charged separately — so mixing bus and Tube journeys doesn’t cost you extra once you’ve hit the cap. If you only ever use buses and trams in a day, a lower bus-only cap of £5.25 applies instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the daily cap for Zones 1-2 in 2026?

The Zones 1–2 daily cap is £8.90, according to Transport for London’s official 2026 adult fares table. This is the same figure whether you travel at peak or off-peak times, and it covers almost all of central London, including most of the landmarks and museums visitors come to see.

Is the daily cap the same on contactless and Oyster?

Yes. The daily and weekly caps are identical on both contactless and Oyster — using contactless simply saves you the hassle of buying and topping up a separate Oyster card before you travel.

Does the daily cap include buses?

Yes, if you also use a train (Tube, DLR, Overground or Elizabeth line) that day — your bus and tram fares count toward the train cap for the zones you travelled in, rather than being charged on top. If you only use buses and trams all day, a separate, lower cap of £5.25 applies instead.

What time does the daily cap reset?

The daily cap runs from 04:30 each morning until 04:29 the following day, rather than resetting at midnight. Travel taken after midnight but before 04:30 still counts toward the previous day’s cap, which matters if you’re planning a very late night out.

Do I need to register my contactless card to benefit from the cap?

No — the cap applies automatically as long as you tap in and out with the same card or device throughout the day. Registering your card with TfL is optional and mainly useful if you want to check your journey history and fares online afterwards.

What happens if I use two different cards or cards in the same day?

Each card or device is capped separately, so switching between two different contactless cards, or between contactless and Oyster, during the same day means you could be charged toward two separate caps instead of one. Stick to a single card or device for the whole day to make sure you actually benefit from the cap.

Fares and caps are reviewed annually, so always check tfl.gov.uk/fares for the current numbers before you travel. For more on getting around the city, see our Blog hub, or plan what to see with our Travel Guides to London’s landmarks.