Even though subways in many places in the world have had things such as rechargeable cards and smartphone-as-ticket options for many years, the whole Paris métro and transportation system has been VERY behind the times with all these new “technologies”.
Until recently, most tourists have had to wait in line at a vending machine to get their little cardboard métro ticket that, yes, were ‘oh so Parisian’ but were a pain when they stopped working because they were demagnetized or when you did not really know whether a ticket was used or not.
Sadly, as of September 2023, all cardboard tickets were removed from sale (you can still use them if you found some in one of your old travel bags).
A few years ago, the RATP started to replace the traditional cardboard tickets with a rechargeable, credit-card size pass : the Navigo Easy Pass (we say “Navigo” or “Pass Navigo” for short).
This white and blue card holds your digital tickets, and you just need to put it down on the designed reader area at the gate or bus to validate a ticket.
Few things to keep in mind:
- the pass is anonymous, so if you lose the card or if it’s destroyed, you will lose ALL the tickets on it – there is no way to ‘claim them back’
- you are required to have one Navigo per person travelling – so even if you have 10 tickets on one pass, you and your significant other cannot use the same card at the same time (and even if the automatic gate will allow you to do it, if you get controlled, you will have to pay the same fine as if travelling without a valid ticket)
It is fully transferable because it is anonymous. So, as long as you don’t travel with them, you can give your pass to someone for the day or longer.
The Navigo Easy Card is €2 to purchase (empty) and then you can recharge it from all the RATP machines at the métro/train station, some stores and – welcome to the 21st century! – directly from your phone.
The “Bonjour RATP” app
As someone involved in the mobile app and website design world for decades, I can say that the French are traditionally not known for their easy-to-use websites or apps. I have to admit however that the “Bonjour RATP” app is pretty slick (available for Android and iOS).
The only thing where they absolutely failed at is in naming the app. It took me several trips to finally remember the name of the app “Bonjour RATP”. If the app is installed on your phone, and you search for “bus”, “metro” or “Paris”, the app will not show up! Yes, every tourist in the world is supposed to know what “RATP” stands for. Please do better, Paris…
From the app, you can do many things:
- plan your trips (including live traffic updates and, for the Paris Olympics, a special mode that will show you all the restricted zones on the map)
- See all the schedules for all 5 Paris zones (métro, bus, tram, RER…)
- Geolocate and rent all the different on-demand bike rentals (like Vélib’, Dott, Lime…)
- Book Marcel VTCs (Uber-style taxis)
- Set up alerts for any traffic issues that might arise on your favorite métro/bus lines
- and most importantly, buy tickets virtually!
Rechargeable pass, phone or watch – The 21st century way to use the Paris Métro, bus, RER…
Android users have been able to use their phones as virtual tickets for a few years now, but only last month did the RATP start supporting the iPhone and Apple Watch (thank you, Olympic Games!)
In the tickets section of the Bonjour RATP App you will see 3 separate sections: Phone, Watch, Navigo Pass (I believe Android does not have a watch option yet).
Keep in mind that because the pass is anonymous, you’ll have to purchase tickets for each device/card specifically. You cannot transfer tickets that are on your Phone to your Pass and vice versa. I’ve seen somewhere that they will offer this option at some point, but for the moment, each device/card is essentially a separate entity.
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Buying Phone/Watch Paris metro tickets
Pretty straightforward. The app is already associated with your phone (and your watch associated to your phone) so you just need to go to the Phone or Watch tab and tap on “Buy a ticket”.
At the time of this article, this is what you can buy:
- “Occasional” trip tickets: OrlyBus (€10,30) and RoissyBus (€14,50)
- Navigo regular passes: Monthly (€86,40), Weekly (€30,75), 1 Day (starting at €8,65 based on the zones covered) or Under 26 years-old Week-end Pass (regular day and weekly passes will not available for purchase between July 20 and Sept 8)
- Paris 2024 Olympic Games passes (only valid from July 20 to Sept 8)
Note that as of July 10, you cannot buy individual or a 10-pack of t+ tickets for Phone or Watch (because of the Olympic Games, they recently disabled that)
Buying Navigo Pass Paris metro tickets
If you select the Navigo Pass tab in the app, you will be asked to place the card near your phone (follow the diagram in the instructions) and the app will ‘read’ the content of the pass. You will see how many and what type of tickets are on the pass and you’ll also be able to purchase more.
Once you purchase (via credit card or Apple Pay/Google Pay), you will be asked to do the same and place the card near your phone so that the tickets can be loaded on the card.
It’s pretty slick and works very well in my experience. Again, because it is anonymous, you can recharge multiple Navigo passes from one phone, each family member does not need their own app installed.
As of July 10, 2024, this is what you can buy via the app to load onto a Navigo Pass:
- “Occasional” trip tickets: OrlyBus (€10,30) and RoissyBus (€14,50), 10 t+ tickets (€17,35) or single t+ ticket (€2,15)
- Navigo regular passes: 1 Day (starting at €8,65 based on the zones covered) or Under 26 years-old Week-end Pass (monthly and weekly passes will not available for purchase between July 20 and Sept 8 – although as of July 10 they are not available either)
- Paris 2024 Olympic Games passes (only valid from July 20 to Sept 8)
For iPhone users, a very cool feature is the support for “Express Transit” feature (you can set it up in your “Wallet””” app) which means you do not need to unlock your phone to validate your ticket and, most importantly, even if your phone is out of batteries, it will still work at the ticket gate!
For Android users, I believe that the ticket can also be validated if there is no battery left, but you might want to check if that is supported by your particular phone model.
The 2024 Paris Olympic & the special Paris 2024 passes
A few years ago, the French government had announced that public transportation would be free during the 2024 Olympic Games… That quickly changed into: “it won’t be free” to then “we’ll charge tourists twice the normal price” :-(
Valid only from July 20 to September 8, 2024, the new “Paris 2024” passes will be available.
These passes come in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 contiguous days flavors and allow you unlimited rides on the whole Île-de-France transport system in zones 1 through 5 (so you can reach all the different sports venues).
That includes
- métro
- RER
- bus
- tram / express tram
- train
- Orlyval
- OrlyBus
- RoissyBus
All those passes can already be purchased in advance within the Bonjour RATP app and will be activated on the first day of use (the current day going towards the duration of the travel card) and be valid until midnight of the last day.
NOTE: the Paris 2024 Transport Public app (the app dedicated to the Olympics) also offers the ticket online purchasing system that the Bonjour RATP app offers.
These passes start at €16 for the 1 day to €70 for a week. There are references to a 14-day pass, but those are only available for sale online (where they ship you a preloaded card).
Be careful that these passes will not be valid before and after the expiration dates, but you can purchase the passes today so that as soon as you land in Paris, you can start using them without waiting in line.
NOTE: any t+ tickets you have already purchased (from your previous trip, for example) can be used during the Olympic Games.
So, if you already have the Navigo Pass, and intend to come to Paris this summer, you can ‘preload’ it with 1/2 price tickets for a few more days… That’s what I just did 🙂
Limitations To be Aware of
- A Navigo Easy pass/phone can store up to 30 t+ tickets on it.
- A Navigo Easy pass/phone cannot contain both full price and reduced price t+ tickets at the same time.
- A Navigo Easy pass/phone can contain up to two Navigo Day Passes for different dates.
Make sure to not uninstall the app if you still have tickets available on your phone/watch… otherwise you will lose them
Supported Devices
To recharge a physical Navigo pass, most phones will work.
To use your phone/watch as a ticket, you will need the following:
- For iPhone users, you will need at least an iPhone 7 ou SE 2020 running iOS 17.5.
- For Apple Watch users, you will need at least an Apple Watch 6 ou SE 2 running watchOS 10.5
- For Android phone users, you will need to have Android 8 or higher installed on an NFC enabled phone. Note that according to the RATP website, the following phones are NOT compatible: Google Pixel Slate, Nocturne, Pixel, Pixel 2, Pixel 2XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a xl, Pixel 4, Pixel C, Pixel Slate, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P.
- For Android watch users, you will need a Samsung Galaxy Watch (gen 4, 5 ou 6).
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