San Francisco Public Transit Fares & Information

Jul 8

Fares & Transit Info

San Francisco, USA

San Francisco has two public transit operators that serve the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area: BART and Muni. Both BART and Muni services use the Clipper Card, but they each have their own individual fare methods as well.

Muni is the public transportation operator in San Francisco that operates the metro, bus and historic streetcar routes. Muni runs on a fixed price time based system where one fare payment will allow you unlimited travel within 90 minutes.

Time Based System

Muni operates on a time based system in San Francisco. You are allowed unlimited transfers within two hours of paying your first fare.

Muni System Map

Muni Tickets

There are 3 different ways you can purchase a fare on a MUNI vehicle in San Francisco.

Cash

Muni Mobile App

Clipper Card

Cash Fare •$2.75

You can pay a cash fare at any Muni metro station, bus or streetcar. Tickets at a muni metro station are purchased at the ticketing kiosks. You will not get any change back if paying a cash fare on a bus or streetcar.

Muni Mobile App •$2.50

The Muni Mobile smartphone app is available for both Android and iOS and allows you to pay your fare on your phone. The app accepts Google Pay, Apple Pay and manually entering a credit card. There are multiple fare options available including: single fare, 1 day pass, single ride cable car and 1,3, or 7 day passports. Passports offer unlimited travel on bus, metro, historic streetcars, subways and cable cars. After purchasing your fare, you only need to show your app's QR code to a fare inspector or fare collector in a ticket booth.

Clipper Card •$2.50

Clipper Card is a reloadable transit card used on multiple services in the San Francisco Bay Area. The cards can be purchased and reloaded from Clipper Card vending machines, usually located in Muni Metro and BART stations. The cards cost $3.00 in addition to the amount you wish to load onto the card. If you setup autoload for your card online, the $3.00 initial fee is waived. Clipper Cards can only be used for one person at a time. You only need to tap your Clipper Card when boarding MUNI, and $2.50 will be debited from your card. You can also load one of two transit passes onto your Clipper Card:

“A” Adult Fast Pass •$98.00

Get unlimited travel for one month on all MUNI services and BART stations in San Francisco.

“M” Adult Monthly Pass •$81.00

Get unlimited travel for one month on all MUNI services in San Francisco.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the train transportation system that serves San Francisco, the East Bay area and SFO. Fare prices on BART are distance based, the further you travel, the more you pay. For example:

SFO to Civic Center / UN Plaza - $9.65
Embarcadero to Daly City - $3.85

Distance System

BART operates on a distance based system in the Bay Area. The further you travel, the more you pay. BART stations that are in the city of San Francisco itself are all considered the same distance. For example, Glen Park to Powell St is the same as Glen Park to Embarcadero.

BART Fare Calculator

BART System Map

BART Tickets

There are multiple ways you can pay your a fare on BART depending on where you are going and how often.

Tickets

Clipper Card

BART to Airport App

BART Tickets

There are a few different types of BART tickets available for purchase from ticket kiosks in BART stations.

Blue Ticket

Blue tickets are the standard BART single fare ticket. Blue tickets are usually $0.50 more than using a Clipper Card. They are a good option if you only need to make one or two BART trips during your time in San Francisco.

High Value Blue Ticket

If you are looking to get a discounted fare for bulk purchases, BART offers a high value blue ticket in two prices:

$45.00 will get you $48.00 of ride value
$60.00 will get you $64.00 of ride value

Both of these options will save you 6.25% on your fare.

Green and Red Tickets

BART also offers discounted fares for Seniors (Green) as well as youth and persons with disabilities (Red). The discounts are 62.5% (seniors and persons with disabilities) or 50% (youth). You can get $24.00 of ride value for $9.00 or $12.00 respectively.

Clipper Card

Clipper Card also works on BART trains, however because BART is a distance based fare system, you use it slightly differently than on MUNI. You need to tap in when entering the station and tap out when exiting your destination station. This is how the appropriate fare is calculated. The cards can be purchased and reloaded from Clipper Card vending machines, usually located in Muni Metro and BART stations. The cards cost $3.00 in addition to the amount you wish to load onto the card. If you setup autoload for your card online, the $3.00 initial fee is waived. Clipper Cards can only be used for one person at a time.

BART to Airport App

BART also offers a mobile smartphone app that will allow you to purchase single or round trip fares from any BART station to the SFO or OAK airports. It’s odd that you can only buy fare going to or from an airport and not, between the stations of your choosing, but it may serve a need if you only need BART for Airport transportation. You can use the app to purchase fares for between two and seven riders, it is not available for just one person. After you buy your ticket, you show the booth operator your smartphone and they will let you in. If you are entering a BART station without a booth operator, you can call a phone number and read the operator on the phone your confirmation code from the app. Once they approve the code, they can remotely open a gate for you.