Shanghai · fares by rule

Shanghai taxi and transit fares

In short

What does a Shanghai taxi or rail ride actually cost?

Shanghai sets its taxi meter and rail fares by rule, not by the driver. A downtown cab starts at ¥14 for the first 3 km, then ¥2.7 per km, with 30% added between 23:00 and 05:00 and a government-guided ±5% band by time of day; municipal-area rail is distance-priced from a ¥4 minimum. If a fare looks wrong, call 12328 for a taxi complaint or 12345 for the city hotline.

Street-taxi guide

Applies to

Visitors taking downtown cruising (street or ranked) taxis and municipal-area rail inside the Shanghai administrative area.

Check before you rely on it

These are Shanghai-only regulated figures. District and accessible cabs are priced separately, the ordinary downtown subway's per-segment table is a different document, and every other Chinese city sets its own tariff — so do not carry these numbers elsewhere.

The point of a metered city is that you can check the driver's number against the rule. Below is the Shanghai meter, the rail distance mechanism, and the city channels to call — each with the official page it was read from.

A Roewe Ei5 electric taxi in Shanghai. — This is the car type the fare standard treats differently: Touran-type and Roewe Ei5 cabs start at ¥16 for the same first 3 km, against ¥14 for a standard downtown cab. A higher start here is the rule, not overcharging — which is why it is worth being able to recognise the car.
Photograph by Jengtingchen, CC BY-SA 4.0 — source and licence

Official rules · read August 8, 2026

The Shanghai meter, the rail mechanism, and the complaint channels

Four official Shanghai pages: the municipal taxi fare standard, the price authority's municipal-area rail notice, and the Transport Commission's hotline and complaint-desk pages. Each row states what it means for you, the figure verbatim, and where in the rule to check it.

What a Shanghai taxi meter actually charges, clause by clause
What it means for you	What the rule states	Where in the rule
The meter is fixed by rule: ¥14 for the first 3 km, then ¥2.7 per km	Shanghai's downtown standard sets the flag-down at ¥14 covering the first 3 km — the boarding price already includes mileage, so it is “¥14 for 3 km”, not “¥14 flat” — and a base rate of ¥2.7 per km beyond it. The driver does not choose this, and the numbers differ from Beijing (¥13 / ¥2.3 per km), which is exactly why this is a Shanghai-specific rule rather than a national one.	市区客运出租汽车 · 起租 / 超起租
Touran-type and Roewe Ei5 EV cabs start at ¥16 for the first 3 km	Larger Touran-type cabs and Roewe Ei5 electric cabs have a ¥16 flag-down for the same first 3 km rather than ¥14. The higher start is set by the standard, not the driver — so it is a legitimate car-type difference, not overcharging.	市区客运出租汽车 · 起租（大型 / 纯电车型）
A stuck taxi keeps billing — the low-speed / waiting rule, not the driver cheating	Below 12 km/h, or when you ask the cab to wait, the meter bills 1.5 km of the beyond-flag-down rate every 4 minutes. This is why a taxi crawling in Shanghai traffic still climbs, and it is the fact most likely to read as overcharging to a first-timer — it is the tariff, applied by speed.	加价部分 (3)
A ride between 23:00 and 05:00 is billed 30% more — the exact late-arrival window	From 23:00 to 05:00 the rate rises 30% (note Shanghai's night bump is +30%, higher than Beijing's +20%). That is the surcharge a late-night flight actually pays, so a higher after-midnight fare is a rule and not the driver improvising a night price.	加价部分 (2)
Past 15 km, the base rate climbs 50%	On the portion of a trip beyond 15 km the per-km rate goes up 50%. Cross-city and long airport runs are often that far, so this — stacked on any night surcharge — explains a higher-than-expected fare without anyone overcharging you.	加价部分 (1)
A holiday arrival pays a stated per-trip add-on: ¥10 at Spring Festival, ¥5 at National Day and May Day	During the Spring Festival holiday a ¥10 per-trip surcharge applies, and during the National Day holiday and the Labour Day (May 1) short holiday it is ¥5 per trip. The exact holiday dates are set by the State Council each year. It is a legitimate line on the fare, not padding added because you are a foreigner.	加价部分 (4)
The base fare rides a government-guided ±5% band, so it can move a few percent by time of day	The joint transport-and-price notice (沪交道运〔2021〕1119号, in force since 2022-01-15) moved the meter from a fixed price to a government-guided one on a +5% / 0 / −5% band. At peak (07:00–10:00 and 16:00–19:00 on non-holiday weekdays) the operator may add +5% or stay flat; off-peak (10:00–16:00) it may cut −5% or stay flat. So a legitimate fare can sit up to 5% above or below the headline numbers depending on the time and operator.	浮动运价 · 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号
These numbers are the downtown meter only — district and accessible cabs are priced separately	This is the downtown (市区) cruising-taxi standard. District (区域性) taxis are priced by each district government and wheelchair-accessible cabs are priced by the operator. So do not carry ¥14 / ¥2.7-per-km to every cab in the wider municipality — that is the boundary the standard itself draws.	适用边界

Read off: Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission (上海市交通委员会) — 本市出租汽车运价结构和收费标准 (Shanghai cruising-taxi fare structure and charge standard) (page dated 2023-05-15; float band under joint notice 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号; read August 8, 2026)

How Shanghai rail fares are calculated, from the price authority
What it means for you	What the rule states	Where in the rule
Shanghai rail is distance-priced: fare = per-km rate × distance, with a ¥4 minimum	The price authority's own notice states 每人次票价 = 每人公里费率 × 乘坐里程 — the fare is the per-km rate multiplied by the distance ridden — and if that comes to at or below the boarding minimum, the ¥4 boarding minimum applies. So you can predict a fare from how far you are going, and no ride on this mechanism is below ¥4.	沪发改价调〔2024〕54号 · 二、3 & 二、4
The published per-km rates: ¥0.45 for 160 km/h+ lines, ¥0.37 for slower lines	The base per-passenger-km rate is ¥0.45 for municipal-area lines designed for 160 km/h or above, and ¥0.37 for lines below 160 km/h. Fares are billed in whole yuan, rounding a remainder of 0.5 or less down and above 0.5 up — so a total that differs slightly from a hand calculation is the rounding rule, not padding.	沪发改价调〔2024〕54号 · 二、2
This mechanism covers municipal-area (市域线) lines opened from 2024 on — not the ordinary downtown subway	The notice applies to 市域线 — suburban and express rail lines (for example the Airport Link) opened from 2024 onward — and itself points to the existing rail-fare system for the ordinary downtown subway network (市区线). So this per-km mechanism is the confirmed distance-pricing fact for Shanghai rail, but the general subway's per-segment table is a separate document (see the “could not confirm” section below).	沪发改价调〔2024〕54号 · 文号 / 适用范围

Read off: Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission (上海市发展和改革委员会), the price authority — 关于上海市轨道交通市域线票价机制有关事项的通知 (Notice on the fare mechanism for Shanghai municipal-area rail lines) (notice dated 2024-11-15, 沪发改价调〔2024〕54号; read August 8, 2026)

Who to call if a Shanghai taxi refuses you or overcharges
What it means for you	What the rule states	Where in the rule
A taxi refusal or overcharge goes to 12328	On its own industry-hotline page the Shanghai Transport Commission names 12328 as the national transport-service supervision line, dialed locally in Shanghai. That is where a refused, overcharged, or lost-bag taxi complaint lands.	行业热线
12345 is the general Shanghai citizen service hotline	The same page names 12345 as the Shanghai citizen service hotline. Route your call by problem type: 12328 for a taxi service complaint, 12345 for a general city-service question — rather than collapsing both into one number.	行业热线

Read off: Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission (上海市交通委员会) — 行业热线 (Industry hotlines) (page dated 2016-06-02; read August 8, 2026)

The named complaint desk, with address and hours
What it means for you	What the rule states	Where in the rule
There is a named, physical complaint desk with a direct line	The Shanghai Transport Commission's Administrative Service Centre handles complaints in person at 4F, Bus Building, 525 Jianguo East Road (postcode 200025), reachable by phone at 23228523 — a Shanghai landline, i.e. +86 21 2322 8523. It is a stated official channel that complements the 12328 and 12345 hotlines.	投诉受理 · 受理机构 / 电话
Its stated hours are Monday–Friday, 09:00–11:30 and 13:30–16:30	The desk is open Monday to Friday, 09:00–11:30 and 13:30–16:30, excluding statutory holidays — quoted verbatim from the page, so you have exact hours rather than a vague “business hours”. Only the address, hours, and number written on the official page are carried here.	投诉受理 · 受理时间

Read off: Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission (上海市交通委员会) — 投诉处理 (Complaint handling — Administrative Service Centre) (page dated 2020-07-27; read August 8, 2026)

These are Shanghai's own regulated figures, read off official pages: the Shanghai transport commission's downtown cruising-taxi fare standard (with the ±5% float band set by joint notice 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号), the price authority's 市域线 rail-fare notice (沪发改价调〔2024〕54号), and two Shanghai transport-commission complaint pages. They hold inside the Shanghai administrative area only. The taxi meter is the downtown (市区) cruising-taxi standard — district (区域性) taxis and accessible cabs are priced separately. The ¥4-minimum, ¥0.37/¥0.45-per-km rail mechanism is for municipal-area (市域线) suburban and express lines opened from 2024 on, not the ordinary downtown subway network, whose per-segment distance table this pass could not confirm off an original price-authority notice — since 2026-08-22 that gap is filled from a different official surface: the Shanghai municipal government's own English portal publishes the downtown table (¥3 up to 6 km, then ¥1 per additional 10 km), and it is carried on /transport/china-metro-qr-codes rather than duplicated here. That portal page is the city government publishing the fare, not the price authority's own notice, so the underlying pricing document for the downtown network is still not the source behind it. No hours or cross-province dialing prefix are asserted for 12328 or 12345 beyond what the pages state. And every other Chinese city sets its own tariff and rail table — do not carry ¥14 / ¥2.7-per-km or these rail rates to Beijing, Guangzhou, or elsewhere.

Worked from the published tariff

What 10 km actually comes to: about ¥31 to ¥35

The table above gives you the ingredients; this is them multiplied out. Every figure below is one of the clauses already on this page, so no new source and no new number enters here. Shanghai's honest answer is a range rather than a figure, for two published reasons: the meter rides a ±5% guided band, and the flag-down depends on which car stops for you.

A 10 km Shanghai daytime ride, calculated from the published tariff
Step	Why it is that figure	Running total	Where in the rule
The first 3 km are already inside the flag-down	The downtown standard sets the flag-down at ¥14 covering the first 3 km — it is “¥14 for 3 km”, not “¥14 flat” — so per-kilometre charging starts at kilometre four.	¥14.00	市区客运出租汽车 · 起租
The remaining 7 km at the base rate	¥2.7 per km beyond the flag-down mileage: ¥2.7 × 7 = ¥18.90.	+ ¥18.90 → ¥32.90	市区客运出租汽车 · 超起租
The guided-price band turns that into a range, not a number	Since 2022-01-15 the meter runs on a government-guided price with up to +5% at peak and down to −5% off-peak, so the lawful total around ¥32.90 is about ¥31.26 to ¥34.55. Two cabs charging a few percent apart for the same ride are both charging correctly.	about ¥31 to ¥35	浮动运价 · 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号
A larger or electric cab starts higher, so the same ride costs more	Touran-type cabs and Roewe Ei5 electric cabs flag down at ¥16 for the same first 3 km, which makes the same 10 km ¥16 + ¥18.90 = ¥34.90 before the ±5% band. The car that stops for you is part of the price, and legitimately so.	¥34.90 at the headline rate	市区客运出租汽车 · 起租（大型 / 纯电车型）
Not in this example: traffic and waiting	Below 12 km/h, or when you ask the cab to wait, the meter bills 1.5 km of the beyond-flag-down rate every 4 minutes. On a 10 km downtown ride in Shanghai traffic that is the single biggest reason the real total exceeds the arithmetic.	excluded	加价部分 (3)
Not in this example: the night rate and the holiday add-ons	From 23:00 to 05:00 the rate rises 30% — higher than Beijing's 20%. A ¥10 per-trip surcharge applies during the Spring Festival holiday and ¥5 during the National Day and May Day holidays. Both are published rules above, and both would move this total.	excluded	加价部分 (2) and (4)
Not reached at 10 km: the long-haul uplift	The 50% uplift applies to the portion of a trip beyond 15 km, so a 10 km ride stays inside the base rate. Recorded so the exclusion list is complete.	not triggered	加价部分 (1)

This is the published Shanghai tariff computed, not a fare anyone was charged. Every figure in it — ¥14, the first 3 km, ¥2.7 per km, the ¥16 flag-down for larger and electric cabs and the ±5% guided band — is already on this page with its clause reference, and no new source was opened to build it, so the page's information-checked date has not moved. It assumes a downtown ride in daytime traffic that keeps moving, with no waiting and no holiday surcharge. Two things this page will not do to make the example tidier: it does not apply Beijing's ¥1 per-trip fuel surcharge or Beijing's round-to-whole-yuan rule, because neither is published in the Shanghai standard this page reads, and it does not compute a Shanghai metro comparison, because the rail layer here is the 2024 市域线 per-kilometre mechanism rather than a downtown subway fare table. Treat the range as the band a lawful 10 km downtown fare sits in, not as the figure the meter will read.

What this page could not confirm

Where these numbers stop

The fact clusters above were each read off their official owner this pass. These are the things this page deliberately does not state, because the sources do not.

The ordinary downtown subway's per-segment fares. The confirmed rail figure here is the price authority's municipal-area (市域线) per-km mechanism. The ordinary downtown subway network's per-segment distance table (the band-by-band fare) was not read off an original price-authority notice this pass, so this page does not quote those segment numbers — only that Shanghai rail is distance-priced.
Hotline hours. The Transport Commission pages name 12328 and 12345 but do not state their opening hours, so this page does not claim one. The stated Monday–Friday hours belong to the in-person complaint desk, not to the phone lines.
District and accessible-cab prices. Only the downtown (市区) cruising-taxi meter is regulated by these numbers; district (区域性) taxis are priced by each district government and accessible cabs by the operator, so there is no single figure to quote for them.
Any other city. Every Chinese city sets its own taxi tariff and rail table; nothing here transfers to Beijing, Guangzhou, or elsewhere.

National layer

The fares here are Shanghai's; a ride-hail passenger's rights are national

This page carries the numbers that hold only inside Shanghai. What every licensed ride-hailing platform in the Chinese mainland owes a passenger — receipts, the fare shown before you ride, and how a dispute is handled — is set by national regulation, not by any one city. That sits, article by article, on the national ride-hailing page.

Read the national ride-hailing regulation

From the authority itself

Shown by the city, not by us

Embedded from the publisher’s own channel rather than a re-upload. Search results for any Chinese landmark are dominated by channels that took someone else’s footage; the videos here were checked back to the body that made them.

3 Shanghai Bus Rides That Cost Just CNY 2

The city showing what a CNY 2 bus ride actually buys you. It sits next to this page's regulated taxi meter for a reason: the cheapest way across Shanghai is often not the one a visitor thinks to use, and seeing the ride removes the hesitation that keeps people in taxis.

Published by Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism (上海市文化和旅游局) — its own YouTube channel, id UCeUYeurNe9Cw_EzvpDwyrBQ on its own channel, which describes itself as “Welcome to the official MeetinShanghai channel! (Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism)” Channel attribution verified 2026-08-23.

This is the city authority's own promotional video, embedded from its own channel — it is not a source for anything on this page. Every figure, deadline and rule here comes from the official documents cited beside it, and those stand whatever a video shows.

Flying Across Shanghai in One Uncut 40KM Drone Shot

Forty kilometres of Shanghai in one unbroken shot, which is the fastest way to understand why a cross-city fare here is not a cross-town fare. The distance bands on this page stop being abstract once you have seen the ground they cover.

Three cities, three tariffs

A fare you learned in one Chinese city is not a benchmark for the next

City	What only this city does	Set by
Beijing	In a jam the meter keeps running by time: below 12 km/h it bills 2 km of rate every 5 minutes at peak, 1 km off-peak.	Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport fare standard
Shanghai	Touran-type and Roewe Ei5 electric cabs start at ¥16 for the same first 3 km — a regulated car-type difference, not overcharging.	Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transport standard, guided-price band 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号
Guangzhou	Low speed is billed by the hour rather than as added distance: below 10 km/h the meter charges a base ¥44 per hour.	穗发改规字〔2024〕9号 (development-and-reform commission + transport bureau)

Three cities, three separate municipal instruments — this table exists to show that they do not agree, not to average them. Every other Chinese city sets its own tariff under its own notice, so none of these numbers travels. Each row links to the page that carries that city's rule with its own official source.

In short

Shanghai fare questions travellers actually ask

What 10 km costs, why two cabs can charge differently for the same ride, and why the page gives you a range instead of a number.

Are taxis expensive in Shanghai? What does a 10 km ride cost?

Calculated from the city's published tariff, a 10 km daytime downtown ride in an ordinary cab comes to ¥32.90 at the headline rate: ¥14 covers the first 3 km, and the remaining 7 km are ¥2.7 each (¥18.90). Because the meter has run on a government-guided price with a ±5% band since 2022-01-15 under 沪交道运〔2021〕1119号, the lawful total is a range rather than a number — roughly ¥31 to ¥35. A larger Touran-type or Roewe Ei5 electric cab flags down at ¥16 instead of ¥14, which makes the same ride ¥34.90 before the band. None of that includes waiting time, the 23:00–05:00 night rate of +30%, or the holiday per-trip add-ons.

Why did two Shanghai taxis charge different amounts for the same ride?

Two published reasons, before you consider traffic. First, the fare is a government-guided price on a +5% / 0 / −5% band: at peak (07:00–10:00 and 16:00–19:00 on non-holiday weekdays) an operator may add up to 5% or stay flat, and off-peak (10:00–16:00) it may cut up to 5% or stay flat. Second, the flag-down depends on the car — ¥14 for an ordinary downtown cab, ¥16 for a larger Touran-type or a Roewe Ei5 electric one, both covering the same first 3 km. On a 10 km ride those two rules alone span about ¥31 to ¥37. Add the low-speed rule, which bills 1.5 km of the rate every 4 minutes below 12 km/h, and the same route at two times of day is simply two different fares.

Is ¥32.90 what the Shanghai meter will actually read for 10 km?

No, and the page would rather say so than give you a tidy number. ¥32.90 is arithmetic over the published flag-down and per-kilometre rates, nothing more: it assumes traffic that keeps moving, no waiting, no night rate and no holiday surcharge, and it sits inside a ±5% guided band that makes the lawful total about ¥31 to ¥35 before any of those apply. Shanghai also publishes no rounding rule and no per-trip fuel surcharge in the standard read here, so this page does not borrow Beijing's. Use the calculation to tell whether a quoted fare is in the right neighbourhood, and the complaint channels above if it is not.