Every figure here comes off the official fare table that took effect on 27 December 2025. For most visitors the cheapest way to pay for Singapore's buses and trains is the contactless card already in their pocket.
Prices and opening times checked with the operatorLast checked 2 Aug 2026
What it costs
The short answer, by trip length
Three ways to pay, and only one of them is usually cheapest.
You have three ways to pay for buses and trains in Singapore: tap a contactless bank card or phone, buy a stored-value EZ-Link card and top it up, or buy a Singapore Tourist Pass for unlimited rides.
Almost every guide lays those out side by side and leaves you to decide. We did the arithmetic instead, using the fare table that took effect on 27 December 2025. For a 3 to 7 day trip based anywhere reasonably central, tapping a contactless Visa or Mastercard is the cheapest option, and it is also the one with nothing to buy, nothing to top up and nothing to queue for. A typical sightseeing day works out at three or four charged journeys. The Tourist Pass only starts winning at five or six charged journeys a day, every day, which is a harder pace than it sounds.
Singapore Tourist Pass
Only worth it above five charged journeys a day, every day
- $17, $24, $29, $37 or $45 for one to five consecutive days, unlimited on basic buses, MRT and LRT.
- No deposit any more. The price is the whole cost, and the pass is non-returnable and non-refundable.
- Lowest daily rate in the range is the 5-Day at $9.00 a day, then the 4-Day at $9.25.
- No concession rates of any kind, so a five-year-old is charged the same $29 for three days as an adult.
- Excludes the Sentosa Express, the RWS8 bus, express buses and other premium and niche services.
- On expiry it becomes a normal EZ-Link card you keep and can use on your next trip.
EZ-Link / SimplyGo
Right for everyone else, including the contactless card already in your pocket
- Tap a foreign contactless Visa, Mastercard, Amex or NETS card or phone wallet: nothing to buy, nothing to top up.
- Foreign-issued Mastercard and Visa carry a Foreign Bank Card Admin Fee of $0.60 per day of use, not per ride.
- Non-SimplyGo EZ-Link card is $10 at 7-Eleven or Cheers, including $5 of travel value; the $5 card cost is never refundable.
- SimplyGo EZ-Link is the account-based version sold at ticket offices: same fares, but no fare or balance shown at the reader.
- Fares are distance-based, $1.28 to $2.57, so there is no expensive zone to escape by buying unlimited.
- You pay only for the journeys you actually make, at the same standard adult fare as the pass.
The Tourist Pass is still the right buy in specific cases, and those cases are below. But if you are buying it because you assume unlimited travel must be cheaper, you are probably paying a premium for the convenience of not thinking about it.
What to buy, by trip length and pace
| Your trip | What to buy |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 days, city centre only | Tap your own contactless card or phone. The 1-Day Pass at $17 needs nine charged journeys in one day to break even. Nobody sightsees that hard. |
| 3 days, normal pace | Tap your own card. Four journeys a day at the typical $1.90 fare comes to $22.80, or $24.60 on a foreign Visa or Mastercard once the $0.60 daily admin fee is added, against $29 for the 3-Day Pass. |
| 3 days, hard pace or long hops | 3-Day Pass at $29. If you are crossing the island most days, four long journeys a day already beats the pass price. |
| 4 to 5 days | Close call. The 4-Day Pass is $9.25 a day and the 5-Day is $9.00 a day, the cheapest daily rate on offer. Five charged journeys a day tips it in the pass's favour. |
| 6 to 7 days | Tap your own card if you average four journeys a day. Buy the 5-Day Pass and pay as you go for the rest only if you average five or more. |
| No contactless card, or your bank charges per foreign transaction | Buy the plain non-SimplyGo EZ-Link card at any 7-Eleven for $10, which includes $5 of travel value. One $5 card fee beats $0.60 a day once you are past about eight days. |
| Travelling with a child | Do not buy them a pass. It has no child price, so a five-year-old is charged the same $29 for three days as you are, and pays it for travel a child will never use up. |
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Three things people still get wrong about the pass
Advice still circulating online describes a product that is no longer sold in this shape.
A lot of what is written about the Singapore Tourist Pass describes a version of it that is no longer sold. Three points are worth getting straight before you spend anything.
There is no deposit to pay or reclaim
The price you see is the whole cost. The pass is non-returnable and non-refundable, so there is nothing to hand back and no trip to a ticket office before your flight. When the pass expires it becomes a normal EZ-Link card that you keep, top up if you want, and use again on your next trip.
The range runs to five days
The standard pass is $17, $24, $29, $37 and $45 for one through five consecutive days. The 4-Day at $9.25 a day and the 5-Day at $9.00 a day carry the lowest cost per day the pass offers, which makes any rule of thumb about a three-day limit worthless.
Three variants are sold, and two of them are souvenirs
Alongside the standard pass there is a Mr. Merlion round charm at $22 for one day or $34 for three, and a Singapore Tourist Pass with a Changi Recommends bundle at $19, $28, $48, $52 and $60. The bundle is non-refundable and its contents change, so treat both as souvenir purchases rather than transport decisions.
The three payment methods, precisely
SimplyGo is a company and a payment system, and EZ-Link now means two different products.
The names are confusing because SimplyGo is both a company and a payment system, and EZ-Link now describes two different products that behave differently at the gate. Here is what each one actually is.
What each way of paying actually is
| Way of paying | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Contactless bank card or phone wallet | American Express, Mastercard, NETS and Visa cards carrying the EMVCo contactless indicator work in transit, foreign-issued cards included, as do Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay. No registration, no top-up, no card to buy. A Foreign Bank Card Admin Fee of $0.60 applies per day of use for foreign-issued Mastercard and Visa. Maestro and Cirrus debit cards and NETSPay are not accepted. Tap in and tap out with the same physical object, so do not tap in with the card and out with the phone. |
| EZ-Link card, non-SimplyGo | The old-style stored-value card. $10 at 7-Eleven or Cheers, which includes $5 of travel value. It shows your fare and remaining balance on the reader every time you tap, holds up to $500, lasts five years from the date of encoding, and works at a wide list of shops and food outlets as well as on transit. |
| SimplyGo EZ-Link card | The account-based version, sold at SimplyGo Ticket Offices and Passenger Service Centres. Same fares, but the reader shows no fare and no balance. You check both in the SimplyGo app or at a station kiosk, and SimplyGo recommends keeping at least $5 on it so it is not rejected at the gate. Top-up minimums are $10 by app or ePayment and $2 by cash at a kiosk. It cannot pay road or car park charges and is accepted at fewer shops. |
| Singapore Tourist Pass | Unlimited rides on basic buses, MRT and LRT for one to five consecutive days, at $17, $24, $29, $37 or $45. No concession rates exist, so a child is charged the same as an adult. It excludes the Sentosa Express, RWS8, express buses and other premium and niche bus services. |
| Cash | Buses only, exact fare, no change given, and the fare is higher. The cheapest adult cash bus fare is $2.10 against $1.28 by card. Trains take no cash at the gate at all. |
The fares you are actually being charged
Distance-based, identical on bus and train, and capped lower than you would expect.
Singapore charges by total distance travelled, not per vehicle boarded, and the same table covers buses and trains. These are the adult card fares in force since 27 December 2025.
Adult card fares by distance, basic bus and train, effective 27 December 2025
The Public Transport Council's own fare table and transfer rules still carried these fares on 2 August 2026.
Prices checked 2 Aug 2026
The practical range for a visitor is narrow. Almost every journey between hotel districts, hawker centres and the big sights falls between $1.28 and about $2.00. Even the longest possible trip on the network is $2.57. That ceiling is why the pass is a harder sell than it looks: there is no expensive zone to escape.
The transfer rule that breaks the pass maths
One fare covers the whole journey, however many buses and trains it takes.
This is the part almost every comparison misses, and it is the reason the pass loses more often than people expect. You are charged once for a journey, however many vehicles that journey involves.
- One fare covers
- Up to 5 transfers, with no more than 2 hours between your first boarding and your last
- Bus to bus
- 45-minute transfer window
- Train to bus
- 45-minute transfer window
- Train to train
- 15-minute transfer window
- Conditions
- The next bus must be a different service number, and you cannot exit and re-enter the same train station
- Fare basis
- Total distance travelled, same table for bus and train
So a day that feels like six rides is often three charged journeys. Bus to the MRT, train across town, bus to the door is one fare, and the return is a second. When you count rides to justify a pass, you are counting the wrong thing. Count how many separate times you start a journey after a gap of more than 45 minutes, which on a normal sightseeing day is three or four.
Break-even: how many journeys before the pass wins
Pass price ÷ days ÷ your typical fare. That number is the pace you have to hold.
Divide the pass price by the number of days to get its daily allowance, then divide that by your typical fare. The result is how many charged journeys per day you need before the pass has paid for itself. We have run it at three fares: $1.28 for a short hop inside one district, $1.90 for a typical cross-town journey of 10 to 11 km, and $2.57 for the maximum fare on the network.
Charged journeys per day needed for the Tourist Pass to beat pay-as-you-go
| Pass | Cost per day | At $1.28 a journey | At $1.90 a journey | At $2.57 a journey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Day, $17 | $17.00 | 14 | 9 | 7 |
| 2-Day, $24 | $12.00 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| 3-Day, $29 | $9.67 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| 4-Day, $37 | $9.25 | 8 | 5 | 4 |
| 5-Day, $45 | $9.00 | 8 | 5 | 4 |
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Below the threshold you are donating money.
Two worked trips
Same three days, two different paces, two different answers.
Three days, normal pace
Staying near Bugis or Chinatown, four charged journeys a day at $1.90. Fares come to $22.80. On a foreign Visa or Mastercard you add $0.60 a day, so $24.60 total. On a fresh non-SimplyGo EZ-Link card you add the $5 non-refundable card cost, so $27.80. The 3-Day Pass is $29. Tapping your own card is the cheapest by a clear margin, and it saves you the ticket office queue on arrival.
Three days, hard pace
Six charged journeys a day. Fares come to $34.20, or $36.00 on a foreign Visa or Mastercard with the daily admin fee added. The 3-Day Pass at $29 wins by $7. Six charged journeys means genuinely six separate starts, so think Gardens by the Bay in the morning, Jurong in the afternoon, Little India for dinner and a late trip out again.
Seven days, four journeys a day
Fares are $53.20, or $57.40 on a foreign Visa or Mastercard. The best pass combination is the 5-Day Pass at $45 plus two pay-as-you-go days at $16.40, which is $61.40. Keep tapping your own card. Push that to five journeys a day and it flips: $70.70 tapping versus $65.20 for the pass plus two days.
Where to buy at Changi, and the hours that matter
Buy at the airport, but know the hours before you plan around it.
If you have decided on a pass or a card, buy it at the airport, but know the hours before you plan around it.
Between 8am and 9pm: the SimplyGo Ticket Office at Terminal 2
It sells and services passes daily from 8am to 9pm.
5am to midnight: the automated kiosks
Automated Singapore Tourist Pass kiosks sit at Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, and at Bugis, HarbourFront and Orchard MRT stations. They run 5am to midnight and sell the full one to five day range.
Outside those hours: retail, and only the 3-Day Pass
Cheers convenience stores in the departure and arrival halls of all four terminals are open 24 hours, as are Prosegur money changers in Terminals 1, 2 and 4 and Travelex counters in Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Every one of them stocks the 3-Day Pass alone. If you land at 2am wanting a 1-Day or a 5-Day, you are waiting for the kiosks at 5am, so tap your own card for the ride to the hotel.
City ticket office hours
| Ticket office | Hours |
|---|---|
| Ang Mo Kio, Chinatown, HarbourFront, Orchard, Woodlands | Daily 8am to 9pm |
| City Hall | Daily 9am to 9pm |
| Bugis | Daily 10am to 9pm |
| Raffles Place | Weekdays 8am to 9pm, Saturday 8am to 5pm, closed Sundays and public holidays |
| Farrer Park, Jurong East | Daily noon to 8pm |
| Maxwell, Somerset | Daily 10am to 6pm, closed on public holidays |
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Travelling with children
The pass has no child price, so a five-year-old is charged what an adult is.
This is where the pass costs families real money. There are no concession rates on the Singapore Tourist Pass, so a five-year-old is charged the same $29 for three days as their parents, for unlimited travel no five-year-old is going to use up. Pay their fares as you go instead: four journeys a day at $1.90 is $22.80 over three days, and a small child costs nothing at all.
- A child on the Tourist Pass
- Full adult price; no concession rate exists on any version of it
- Children under 0.9m tall
- Travel free with no card at all, accompanied by a fare-paying commuter
- A child tapping a bank card or an EZ-Link card
- Charged the standard adult fare, the same as you
- Concession fares
- Never available on a contactless bank card or on either EZ-Link card
What the pass does not cover, and other things worth knowing
Unlimited covers basic bus, MRT and LRT. Several rides you will want are outside it.
- Covered
- Unlimited rides on basic bus services, MRT and LRT
- Not covered
- Sentosa Express monorail, RWS8 bus, express bus services, other premium and niche bus routes
- A pass day
- First tap to the end of public transport service that day, typically around midnight — never a full 24 hours
- Multi-day passes
- Consecutive days only
- Stored value at purchase
- None; travel is never deducted from the EZ-Link purse while the pass is valid
- Concession fares
- Never available on a bank card or on either EZ-Link card; standard adult fare only
Add value only if you will spend it in shops
The pass carries no stored value when you buy it. You can add value to its EZ-Link purse for shop payments, and the system will not deduct travel from that purse while the pass is still valid.
Let the pass expire
When the pass expires the card reverts to a normal EZ-Link card, which you keep.
Refund the balance before you fly
Any remaining value can be refunded immediately at any ticket office before you fly.
Once you have left, it is gone
Remaining value cannot be refunded to an overseas account after you have left Singapore.
On the billing side, contactless fares are batched rather than charged one by one. Mastercard accumulates up to five days of travel or $15 spent, whichever comes first, while Visa, American Express and NETS accumulate daily. Either way the amount reaches your bank about three business days later. Your statement will not match your rides one for one, and that is normal.
Five mistakes that cost money
None of these are exotic. We see all five constantly.
None of these are exotic. We see all five constantly.
The five expensive mistakes
| Mistake | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Buying a 1-Day Pass | At $17 it needs nine journeys to break even, or seven if every one is a maximum-distance haul. It is the worst-value product in the range. |
| Counting rides instead of journeys | Transfers within 45 minutes are one fare. Six rides is usually three fares, which halves the case for a pass. |
| Paying cash on a bus | $2.10 minimum against $1.28 by card, no change given, and you have to know the fare before you board. |
| Buying a pass for a child | The pass has no child price, so you pay $29 for a five-year-old who will make the same three or four journeys a day you do. A child under 0.9m tall travels free with no card at all. |
| Tapping in with a card and out with the phone | The system reads it as two incomplete trips. Use the same physical object at both ends of a journey. |
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Below the threshold you are donating money.
What a local knows
A Tourist Pass day ends when public transport stops for the night, not 24 hours after you tap in. So if you land at 10.30pm and buy a 3-Day Pass at the Cheers in the arrivals hall because it is the only thing open, do not tap it on the way to your hotel. You will have spent a third of a $29 pass on one ride and the pass will expire two nights early, because days must be consecutive. Pay that first ride on your own card and start the pass at breakfast. The same trap catches people at the other end of the trip: a pass activated on the morning of your last full day is dead by midnight, so a late flight means paying for the ride to Changi separately anyway.
Questions people actually ask
Is the Singapore Tourist Pass worth it in 2026?
Only if you will make five or more separate charged journeys a day, every day of the pass. At a typical fare of $1.90, the 3-Day Pass at $29 needs six journeys a day to beat pay-as-you-go, and the 1-Day Pass at $17 needs nine. Three or four journeys a day is normal for sightseeing, and at that rate tapping your own contactless card is cheaper.
Does the Singapore Tourist Pass still have a $10 deposit?
No. The deposit has been dropped. The prices of $17, $24, $29, $37 and $45 for one to five days are the full cost, and the pass is non-returnable and non-refundable. There is no trip back to a ticket office to reclaim anything before your flight.
Can I just tap my own credit card on the MRT in Singapore?
Yes. Foreign-issued American Express, Mastercard, NETS and Visa contactless cards work at fare gates and on buses, as do Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay. No registration or app is needed. Foreign Mastercard and Visa carry a Foreign Bank Card Admin Fee of $0.60 per day of use. Maestro and Cirrus debit cards are not accepted.
Is the classic EZ-Link card still sold, or has SimplyGo replaced it?
Both exist. The non-SimplyGo stored-value EZ-Link card is still sold at 7-Eleven and Cheers for $10 including $5 of travel value, and it is still accepted on all public buses, MRT and LRT. The SimplyGo EZ-Link card is the account-based version sold at ticket offices. The practical difference is the fare gate: the old card shows your fare and balance on the reader, the SimplyGo card shows neither, so you check the app or a station kiosk instead.
How many days does a 3-Day Tourist Pass actually cover?
Three consecutive days, each running from your first tap to the end of public transport service that day, which is typically around midnight. It is not 72 hours. Starting it late at night on arrival wastes most of a day.
Does the Tourist Pass cover the Sentosa Express?
No. The pass covers basic bus services, MRT and LRT only. The Sentosa Express monorail, the RWS8 bus, express buses and other premium and niche bus services are all excluded.
Should I buy a Tourist Pass for my child?
No. There are no concession rates on the Singapore Tourist Pass, so a child is charged the same $29 for three days as an adult. Children under 0.9m tall travel free with no card at all, accompanied by a fare-paying commuter. For an older child, tap them through on a card and pay the fares as you go: at four journeys a day and a typical $1.90 fare that is $22.80 over three days, against $29 for the pass.
Should I pay cash on the bus if I have no card?
Only as a last resort. The cheapest adult cash bus fare is $2.10 against $1.28 by card, no change is given, and trains take no cash at the gate at all. A contactless bank card or a $10 EZ-Link card pays for itself within a few rides.
Have fares gone up since December 2025?
No. The current adult card fares, from $1.28 up to $2.57, took effect on 27 December 2025 and the Public Transport Council's published fare table and transfer rules still carried them as at 2 August 2026. If you are travelling well after that, check the Council's own fare table before you do the sums, because every break-even figure here is built on those fares.
Read next
Where these prices and times come from
Every price, opening time and closure here comes from the operator's own website, not from a booking site. Follow any link to check it yourself.
- Singapore Tourist Pass FAQ, Q13 checked 2026-08-02
- Types of Singapore Tourist Passes checked 2026-08-02
- SimplyGo FAQs, EZ-Link cards and charms checked 2026-08-02
- SimplyGo FAQs, SimplyGo EZ-Link cards and charms checked 2026-08-02
- SimplyGo FAQs, Contactless Bank cards checked 2026-08-02
- LTA / Public Transport Council fare table, effective 27 December 2025 checked 2026-08-02
- Public Transport Council, distance fares and transfer rules checked 2026-08-02
- SimplyGo, Child Concession Card checked 2026-08-02
- Singapore Tourist Pass, Where to buy checked 2026-08-02