Heathrow Drop-Off Charges Explained: What You Pay and How to Avoid It
Written and maintained by the minicabit editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy by Amer Hasan.
Last updated 02/09/26.
At a glance
- Heathrow charges £7 each time a vehicle enters the terminal drop-off zone at Terminals 2, 3, 4 or 5.
- Payment must be made online or by phone by midnight on the next day after the visit.
- Heathrow’s Park & Ride car parks provide a free alternative, although passengers need to allow additional time to reach the terminal.
- Terminal 4 has different Park & Ride arrangements, with up to two hours free in Zone A.
- Pre-booking a fixed-price minicab can remove the need to manage the drop-off payment separately.
Whether you are dropping someone off yourself or arranging a journey to Heathrow, it is worth understanding where the charge applies and what the alternatives involve. This guide explains the rules at each terminal, how to pay, the free Park & Ride option and what happens if the charge is missed.
How the Heathrow drop-off charge works
The Terminal Drop-Off Charge is a £7 fee applied each time a vehicle enters one of the marked drop-off zones on the terminal forecourts. It is charged per entry rather than per minute, so leaving the zone and coming back in means paying twice.
Heathrow records vehicles using Automatic Number Plate Recognition. ANPR is a camera system that reads registration plates as vehicles pass, which is why there are no barriers, no ticket machines and nobody to pay. Your registration is logged the moment you cross into the zone.
The charge applies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and it applies to every kind of vehicle using the forecourt. Private cars, black cabs, private hire vehicles and ride-hailing cars all pay the same £7. There is no discount for electric vehicles.
Since 1 January 2026 a maximum stay of ten minutes has also applied in the drop-off zones, introduced alongside the increase from £6 to £7. Pick-ups and waiting are not permitted in these areas at all, and vehicles left unattended may be removed.
Heathrow drop-off charges by terminal
The charge is the same £7 at all four terminals. What differs is where the zone starts, and how good the free alternative is – Terminal 4’s changed materially in June 2026.
| Terminal | Charge | How to pay | Payment deadline | Free alternative | Shuttle frequency and transfer time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal 2 | £7 per entry | Online or automated phone line only | By midnight the day after | Park & Ride Terminals 2 & 3, Eastern Perimeter Road, TW6 2SB – first 29 minutes free | Every 15 minutes, 04:00-23:30; 10-20 minutes to the terminal |
| Terminal 3 | £7 per entry | Online or automated phone line only | By midnight the day after | Park & Ride Terminals 2 & 3, Eastern Perimeter Road, TW6 2SB – first 29 minutes free | Every 15 minutes, 04:00-23:30; 10-20 minutes to the terminal |
| Terminal 4 | £7 per entry | Online or automated phone line only | By midnight the day after | Park & Ride Terminal 4 Zone A, Scylla Road, TW6 3XL – up to two hours free | Every 5 minutes, 04:00-23:30; around 6-15 minutes to the terminal |
| Terminal 5 | £7 per entry | Online or automated phone line only | By midnight the day after | Park & Ride Terminal 5, Northern Perimeter Road, TW6 2RL – first 29 minutes free | Every 15 minutes, 04:00-23:30; 7-10 minutes to the terminal |
Source: heathrow.com Terminal Drop-Off Charge, Heathrow Park & Ride and Changes to Terminal 4 pages, accessed 24 August 2026. Heathrow does not publish road distances between the car parks and the terminals, so times are its own published shuttle transfer figures rather than a calculated distance. Charges reviewed annually.
Heathrow Terminal 2 drop off
The Terminal 2 drop-off area is reached from Constellation Way, following the up ramp to the forecourt. Each visit costs £7, payable online or by phone only.
Terminal 2 shares its Park & Ride car park with Terminal 3, on Eastern Perimeter Road, so the free alternative and the shuttle timings are the same for both.
Heathrow Terminal 3 drop off
The Terminal 3 drop-off zone is reached by following Cosmopolitan Way onto Camborne Road, where four drop-off lanes are available. A single visit costs £7.
Terminal 3’s forecourt has four drop-off lanes, which helps at peak departure times, but the shuttle transfer from the shared car park is among the longest at up to 20 minutes.
Heathrow Terminal 4 drop off
Terminal 4 drop-off continues as normal at Departures Level 4, at £7 per visit, reached via Stratford Road with three lanes at the top of the ramp. What changed in 2026 is everything around it.
The Terminal 4 multi-storey car park closed permanently on 23 June 2026 as part of a redevelopment. All Terminal 4 passenger parking moved to Zone A of the Terminal 4 Park & Ride car park, where up to two hours are free – considerably more generous than the 29 minutes available elsewhere. Shuttle buses between Zone A and the terminal run every five minutes.
One point of confusion is worth clearing up. Collecting someone at Terminal 4 is now charged separately and on a rising scale: the Arrivals-level Priority Pick-Up area costs £7 for up to ten minutes, £14 for 11 to 29 minutes and £25 for 30 to 60 minutes, up to a daily maximum of £200. That is a pick-up charge and is not the same thing as the £7 drop-off charge.
Heathrow Terminal 5 drop off
The Terminal 5 drop-off zone is reached from Wayfarer Road, which splits into two drop-off lanes at the top of the ramp. A single visit costs £7.
Terminal 5 has its own Park & Ride car park on Northern Perimeter Road and the shortest shuttle transfer of any terminal, at 7 to 10 minutes, which makes the free option more workable here than anywhere except Terminal 4.
Heathrow free drop off, and what it costs you in time
There is a genuinely free drop-off option at Heathrow: the Park & Ride car parks, where the first 29 minutes are free and a shuttle bus takes passengers to the terminal door. Park & Ride is Heathrow’s on-airport budget car park network, renamed from Long Stay, so road signs around the airport may still say Long Stay.
The arithmetic is worth doing. Shuttles run every 15 minutes between 04:00 and 23:30, and the transfer takes 10 to 20 minutes at Terminals 2 and 3, 7 to 10 minutes at Terminal 5, and roughly 6 to 15 minutes at Terminal 4, where buses run every five minutes. Add the wait for a bus and the walk from the parking bay with cases, and a free drop-off realistically costs 20 to 40 minutes rather than the two minutes a forecourt stop takes.
There are two further catches. Outside shuttle hours, between 23:30 and 04:00, a transfer has to be requested by phone rather than simply turning up at the stop. And the free period is short: stay beyond 29 minutes and the drive-up rate applies, at £9.40 for 30 minutes to 1 hour 59. Terminal 4’s Zone A is the exception, with two hours free.
So the free option saves £7 and costs time. For a 6am departure with luggage and children, that is a worse trade than it first appears.
How to pay the Heathrow drop-off charge
There are three ways to pay: online, through Heathrow’s automated telephone service on 0330 008 5600, or automatically through an autopay account. You cannot pay at an airport ticket machine or anywhere in the drop-off zone itself.
Payment can be made in advance, on the day, or by midnight on the day after your visit. Card only – no cash or cheque. If you pre-pay for several visits, any unused funds expire 12 months from the date of purchase.
Drivers who use the airport regularly, including Private Hire Operators, can register a free business account that supports autopay and keeps a record of every visit for reconciliation.
A temporary £1 hold may appear on your card afterwards. Heathrow describes this as a pre-authorisation used to check the card is valid, not a charge, and the funds are released.
What happens if you do not pay
Non-payment by midnight on the next day after the visit results in an £80 Parking Charge, reduced to £40 if it is paid within 14 days. Because the system is barrierless and automatic, there is no prompt at the airport – the first you will know about it is the notice arriving.
This is the most common way people end up out of pocket at Heathrow. The charge is easy to forget once you have driven away, and the deadline is short.
Refunds and queries are handled by APCOA, which operates the scheme on Heathrow’s behalf, by webchat, by email or on 0333 200 7459.
Blue Badge holders, exemptions and discounts
Blue Badge holders can claim a 100 percent discount, but it is a discount that has to be applied for rather than an automatic exemption. Applications go through a Blue Badge Account, which stores the badge details so they do not need re-uploading for every visit.
Approval can take up to five days, and Heathrow asks for account applications at least seven days before the next visit, or 14 days if applying by phone. The discount is claimed against the registration of whichever vehicle does the dropping off, including a taxi, so tell the driver at the start of the journey to make sure the charge is not added to the fare.
Emergency service and military vehicles are exempt automatically. A 100 per cent discount applies to recovery vehicles, two-wheeled motorbikes, and buses and coaches, and to vehicles booked into Heathrow Valet Parking. All of these are applied automatically. Electric vehicles receive nothing.
Blue Badge holders also get the first two hours free in the Park & Ride car parks, using the call point on entry and again on exit.
How the drop-off charge compares with Heathrow parking charges
£7 is small next to Heathrow’s parking charges, which is worth knowing if you are weighing up whether to park and walk in with someone. Paying on the day, Park & Ride starts at £46.80 for the first 24 hours and £37.40 for each further 24-hour period, while the near-terminal Terminal Parking car parks start from £98.00 a day.
For a two-minute goodbye at the curb, the forecourt is by far the cheapest way to bring a car to the terminal. If you are comparing the cost of driving with the cost of being driven, the taxi price calculator gives an indicative fare for hundreds of route pairs before you compare live quotes.
The minicabit option that removes the decision entirely
A pre-booked, fixed-price cab with minicabit takes the passenger to the terminal door and the drop-off charge is handled by the Private Hire Operator within the fare, rather than landing on somebody’s card the following day.
minicabit is a comparison platform, not a Cab operator. Its comparison technology lets you instantly compare quotes from 1,000+ licensed Private Hire Operators and select on price, vehicle type or customer rating. Heathrow taxi prices start from £16 depending on where you are being collected, with Standard, Executive and Luxury cars, MPVs and Minibuses for groups and luggage, and Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicles bookable as a tier.
Price source: live /heathrow-airport-taxi page, minicabit.com. Prices last updated 1 August 2026, averaged between June and July 2026.
The practical difference on the morning is the absence of things to manage: no parking app, no midnight-the-next-day deadline, no ten-minute clock on the forecourt and no walk from a car park with cases. Enter your journey and cab pickup date to get a taxi quote, fixed at booking, with free cancellation before the booking’s cancellation cut-off time.
Most major UK airports now charge for forecourt access and the amounts differ from one to the next, so the same reasoning applies to airport transfers elsewhere in the country.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Heathrow drop-off charge?
Heathrow charges £7 each time a vehicle enters a terminal drop-off zone at Terminal 2, 3, 4 or 5. The fee is per entry rather than per minute, so re-entering the zone means paying again. It applies 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and to every vehicle type including taxis, Private Hire Vehicles and electric cars.
Can you pay the Heathrow drop-off charge at the airport?
No. There is no way to pay at Heathrow itself – no ticket machines, no barriers and no payment point in the drop-off zone. Payment is made online, through the automated telephone service on 0330 008 5600, or automatically if you have set up an autopay account. Card payments only.
How long do you get in the Heathrow drop-off zone?
A maximum stay of ten minutes applies in the terminal drop-off zones, introduced in January 2026. Waiting and picking up are not permitted in these areas at all, and vehicles must never be left unattended – unattended vehicles may be towed or removed by the police.
Is there a free drop-off at Heathrow?
Yes. The Park & Ride car parks, previously called Long Stay, are free for the first 29 minutes, and a free shuttle bus runs to the terminal. Terminal 4’s Zone A allows up to two hours free. Shuttles run between 04:00 and 23:30; outside those hours a transfer must be requested by phone.
What happens if you do not pay the Heathrow drop-off charge?
Non-payment by midnight on the next day after the visit results in an £80 Parking Charge, reduced to £40 if paid within 14 days. Payment is due by midnight on the day after your visit, and it can also be made in advance or on the day itself. Refunds and disputes are handled by APCOA, which runs the scheme for Heathrow.
Do taxis and private hire vehicles pay the Heathrow drop-off charge?
Yes. Black cabs and private hire vehicles pay the same £7 charge each time they enter a terminal drop-off zone. Where a journey is pre-booked at a fixed price, the charge is normally handled by the Private Hire Operator as part of the fare rather than being added at the curb.
Are electric vehicles exempt from the Heathrow drop-off charge?
No. Heathrow states plainly that there are no exemptions or discounts for electric vehicles. Automatic exemptions cover emergency service and military vehicles, and 100 per cent discounts cover recovery vehicles, two-wheeled motorbikes, buses and coaches, and vehicles booked into Heathrow Valet Parking.
How do Blue Badge holders claim the discount?
Blue Badge holders apply for a 100 percent discount through a Blue Badge Account, which stores the badge details for future visits. Approval can take up to five days and Heathrow asks for applications at least seven days ahead, or 14 days by phone. The discount is claimed against the registration of the vehicle doing the dropping off.
About minicabit
minicabit is the UK’s largest cab comparison service, helping passengers instantly compare quotes from 1,000+ licensed Private Hire Operators across more than 550 UK towns and cities. Its comparison technology searches Cab operators based near both the pickup and destination, giving customers a wider choice of competitive, fixed prices and vehicle options.
For airport pickups, bookings include 45 minutes of free waiting time and Meet and Greet, with the driver waiting inside Arrivals with a name board and tracking the passenger’s flight.
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Last reviewed on 02/09/2026 by Amer Hasan, [MD] of minicabit. Drop-off charges and travel information on this page are checked for accuracy at each review.
