Milan taxi guide: fares, taxi ranks and when a pre-booked car wins

Milan taxis follow one official tariff set by the Comune di Milano and applied across the 49 municipalities of the Lombardy airport system. You pay what the meter shows, or a fixed fare on six set routes: €114 between Malpensa and any address in Milan and €128 between Bergamo Orio al Serio and Milan, tolls and supplements included. Rides from any of the three airports have a €16 minimum.

That makes the Milan taxi one of the more predictable in Europe, and for many trips it is the right choice. This guide decodes the tariff sheet, explains ranks and radio taxis, works through a few real fares, and sets out when a pre-booked Elly8.net car, from US$110 per vehicle at Linate and US$230 at Malpensa, is worth paying for instead.

How much is a taxi in Milan?

All of these figures come from the tariff sheet the city publishes on its taxi service page, last updated in July 2024 and still the version linked in 2026. The page states the principle plainly: the cost is set only by the taximeter or by the fixed rates for pre-established routes, and each passenger pays only the amount indicated.

Two consequences matter for visitors. Taxis do not surge: the tariff does not rise because a show has just ended. And the fixed airport fares are genuinely fixed, with the motorway toll, night or holiday supplement and pickup time all inside the price.

See Milan prices and reserve

The meter tariff, line by line

The standard tariff, Tariff 1, has three parts: a starting charge, a distance-and-time rate, and a higher rate once the meter passes a threshold.

Starting charge. €4.10 on weekdays from 6:00 to 21:00, €6.60 on holidays in the same hours, and €7.90 at night from 21:00 to 6:00.

Base rate. €1.32 per kilometre, or €34.48 an hour when the car is stopped or crawling. The meter clicks in €0.10 steps.

First progression. Once the meter reaches €17.35, the rate rises to €1.98 per kilometre, or €51.72 an hour.

Second progression. When the car cruises above 50 km/h for more than 60 seconds, the rate becomes €2.25 per kilometre, and it drops back automatically when the speed falls below 50 km/h.

Airport minimum. Any ride leaving Malpensa, Linate or Orio al Serio costs at least €16. That amount replaces any lower figure on the meter at the end of the ride.

Tolls. On metered rides, motorway tolls are not included and are paid separately. They are included only in the fixed fares.

There is also a shared tariff, Tariff C, which the passenger can ask for at the start of the ride when at least three people travel from the same starting point. It uses lower unit charges than the standard tariff. Ask before the meter starts; it cannot be applied afterwards.

Milan's fixed taxi fares

The rules attached to these fares are worth knowing. The fixed price applies only to a direct trip without stops or intermediate drops. If you ask the driver to change the route during the ride, the driver may switch to the meter. For a taxi booked by phone or app, the fixed fare includes up to five minutes of waiting at pickup; beyond that, the driver may add the metered cost of the drive from the rank to you, less the €4.10 starting charge.

Note what is not on the list. There is no fixed fare from Linate to the city. Linate is close, about 9 km (6 mi) from the centre, so it runs on the meter with the €16 airport minimum.

What typical Milan taxi rides cost

The meter charges for time as well as distance, so no estimate is exact. The figures below are simple arithmetic on the published tariff using routed distances, distance only, with no traffic time added. Treat them as a floor, not a quote.

• Linate to the Quadrilatero della Moda. About 9 km (6 mi). A €4.10 start plus nine kilometres at €1.32 comes to about €16, which is where the airport minimum sits anyway. In morning traffic the meter will run higher.
• Milano Centrale to the Darsena and the Navigli. About 7.6 km (4.7 mi) by our routed estimate. On a weekday afternoon, distance alone comes to about €14; at night, starting from €7.90, about €18.
• The Quadrilatero to Fiera Milano in Rho. About 12.3 km (7.6 mi) by our routed estimate. Distance alone passes the €17.35 threshold and lands somewhere above €20 on a weekday, before any queue on the approach roads.
• Malpensa to anywhere in Milan. €114, fixed. On this route, the meter does not matter.

If you need the car to wait, the tariff allows a stop of up to one hour during the ride, and the driver can ask you to leave a deposit equal to one hour of waiting at the base rate, €34.48. That is useful for a quick pickup at a hotel, less so for a three-hour meeting.

Finding a taxi: ranks, radio taxis and apps

Visitors get on best with Milan taxis by going to them rather than waiting for one to pass.

At the airports. Taxis wait at the official ranks outside arrivals. At Bergamo, the airport directs passengers to the arrivals exit at door 1 and the designated taxi area (Milan Bergamo Airport, taxi). At Malpensa, follow the taxi signs from the arrivals hall of your terminal.

At stations and squares. The main stations and squares have signed ranks, and hotel doormen can call a cab for you.

By phone. The Malpensa airport operator lists the Radiotaxi dispatch numbers +39 02 4040 and +39 02 8585 for booking, including wheelchair-accessible taxis (Milan Malpensa Airport, by taxi). A booked taxi starts the meter from where it sets off, so the fare already shows something when it reaches you.

By app. Taxi dispatch apps and the rideshare apps can request a licensed taxi too. Read what the app quotes: a metered taxi and a premium car-hire vehicle are priced differently. Our guide to Uber in Milan explains the difference.

Payment and receipts. Ask whether card payment works before you set off if you have no euros. For any dispute, the city tells passengers to obtain a receipt showing the taxi number, date and time, route and amount paid, and then contact its Sharing and Public Transport Office.

When the taxi is the right choice

We say this plainly: for a lot of Milan trips, a taxi is the sensible answer.

• Two people, two bags, Malpensa to a central hotel. €114 per ride, fixed and all-in, is good value, and the rank is right outside.
• Short hops inside the city. Brera to Porta Nuova, the Duomo to a dinner in Porta Romana, a station to a hotel: the meter will be modest.
• Linate on a quiet afternoon. A short metered ride near the €16 minimum, or the M4 metro for €2.20 if you travel light (YesMilano, M4 to Linate).
• One traveller from Malpensa to a station hotel. The Malpensa Express at €15 for an adult is cheaper still.

When a pre-booked car wins

The taxi system is fair; the limits are capacity, queues and planning. A pre-booked Elly8.net car is worth more than the taxi fare in these cases:

• Families and groups. A standard taxi is a car. A Business SUV takes six passengers and six large bags, an Executive Sprinter twelve passengers and twelve bags. Splitting a family across two taxis costs two fares.
• Child seats. Ask when you book, give the ages, and the partner fits them before pickup.
• Long-haul arrivals. After a wave of transatlantic landings, rank queues build. With a fixed-fare Milan airport transfer, the chauffeur waits inside arrivals with a name board (meet and greet), and waiting after a tracked landing is complimentary.
• Multi-stop days. Fixed taxi fares stop applying when you add a stop. A car by the hour from US$90 in a Business Sedan, 3-hour minimum, holds the car between showrooms, meetings and dinner.
• Trade fair weeks. At Fiera Milano closing time, the ranks overload. See conference and trade show transportation.
• A fixed budget in your own currency. Every Elly8.net fare is fixed, all-in and charged in US dollars weeks ahead.

Elly8.net prices include the chauffeur, vehicle, taxes, standard gratuity and airport meet and greet; tolls, parking and waiting beyond the included time are billed at cost. Rides in Milan are operated by licensed, commercially insured local chauffeur partners vetted through the Limousine Worldwide network; Elly8.net takes the booking, fixes the price and runs the 24/7 desk. The longer comparison is on chauffeur vs taxi.

Fair days, match nights and the lakes

Three kinds of Milan trip put the taxi system under real pressure.

Fiera Milano in Rho. On a big fair day, the halls empty at the same hour. The fixed fares from Malpensa (€94) and Linate (€68) help on arrival day, but the return to the city at closing time is where ranks empty. A car held by the hour, waiting near your hall entrance, avoids that queue.

San Siro and Monza. Football, concerts and the Italian Grand Prix in early September all end with a crowd heading for the same exits. Agree a pickup point with your chauffeur before the event; our sports event transportation page explains how those exits are planned.

Lake Como and beyond. A metered taxi outside the fixed routes becomes expensive quickly once the second progression and motorway tolls apply. For the lakes, a fixed transfer to our Lake Como car service or a full day with a driver is the clearer budget.

Milano Centrale and the train-to-car question

High-speed trains from Rome, Florence and Venice arrive at Centrale, and the taxi rank there can be long at the evening peak. If you are arriving with luggage and a schedule, a train station transfer means the chauffeur meets you at an agreed point in the station rather than you joining the back of a queue. For the bigger picture of getting between stations, hotels and the lakes, read our Milan transfer guide.

Booking a fixed-price car instead

1. Pickup and drop-off. Enter the airport with your flight number, or the station with your train, and the address.
2. Vehicle. Choose a Business Sedan, Business SUV, First Class Sedan, First Class SUV or Executive Sprinter from the Milan car service prices.
3. Reserve. Pay by card in US$ for a published fare, or use the web booker for any other address. Confirmation arrives by email.

Cancellation is free more than 72 hours before pickup, 10% at 72 hours or less, 50% at 48 hours or less, and 100% at 24 hours or less or for a no-show. Arriving at Malpensa for the first time? Our Malpensa transfer guide explains both terminals and the meeting.

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