German low-emission zone check: may I drive in?
Independent, non-governmental site: not an authority’s service, no sticker sales.
Pick the city, your vehicle and the date of your trip. The answer appears at once, with sticker, diesel ban and source.
May I drive into Berlin?
Yes, you may enter
Berlin zone: a green sticker is enough.
| Zone | Berlin |
| State | Berlin |
| Green only since | 1 January 2010 |
| Status | active |
Sources: Federal Environment Agency list · berlin.de
A German low-emission zone, or Umweltzone, is an area that motor vehicles may only enter with a particular sticker or an exemption. The legal basis is section 40 of the Federal Immission Control Act and the Labelling Ordinance, the 35th BImSchV. According to the German Environment Agency list of 26 August 2026, Germany has 35 active zones, and all of them are at stage three: only vehicles with the green sticker, or covered by an exemption, may enter. A further 23 zones have been lifted, most recently Mainz on 1 October 2025. A petrol car with a regulated catalytic converter, a diesel from Euro 4 or from Euro 3 with a particle filter, and any electric car qualify for green. Since 1 October 2026 vehicles with an e-plate need no sticker at all. In Stuttgart and Munich green alone is not enough, because older diesels are also kept out. Driving without the right sticker costs €100, with no penalty point. The check above works all of this out for the date you choose and names the source of every rule.
By Radif Partners · Method and sources · About
How the check works
The check answers one question: may this vehicle enter this city on this day? It needs three inputs. First, the city: it is matched to the zone it belongs to in the list, and Ruhr cities to the joint zone. Second, the vehicle: the sticker it has, or the fuel and Euro norm from which the emission group follows. Third, the date, because zones have stages, start dates and sometimes an end date. From these inputs follows one of six answers: no zone, zone lifted, zone not yet in force, entry allowed, entry banned, or exempt. If the city has a diesel ban, that is shown too, with area and date.
The rules come from texts anyone can read: the 35th BImSchV and its annexes, the German Environment Agency list, state and city websites and the Fine Catalogue Ordinance. How we read them and where the check has limits is described in our method.
Which sticker does my car get?
| Vehicle | Group | Sticker |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol with regulated catalyst (Euro 1 or later) | 4 | green |
| Diesel Euro 4, 5 or 6 | 4 | green |
| Diesel Euro 3 with particle reduction system | 4 | green |
| Diesel Euro 3 | 3 | yellow |
| Diesel Euro 2 | 2 | red |
| Electric, fuel cell | 4 | green; none needed with an e-plate |
What is binding is the emission key number in field 14.1 of the registration certificate; how to read it is explained on the key number page. Everything about green is on the green sticker page, and buying and prices on the Feinstaubplakette page. Owners of older diesels should look at the particle filter page, and drivers from other countries at the foreign vehicles page.
Where the zones are
Most zones are in North Rhine-Westphalia, including the large joint zone in the Ruhr area, plus Cologne and Düsseldorf. In Hesse, Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Offenbach, Wiesbaden, Marburg and Limburg have zones, in Bavaria Munich, Augsburg and Regensburg. In Baden-Württemberg, after many liftings, only Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Pforzheim remain. Add to that Berlin, Bremen, Leipzig, Halle, Magdeburg and Osnabrück. The full list by state is on the all zones page, and the states individually on the North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg pages.
Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saarland, Thuringia and, since October 2025, Rhineland-Palatinate have no zone. Which cities have lifted theirs, such as Hanover, Mainz and Freiburg, is on the lifted zones page. If you are visiting several cities, test the whole journey with the route check.
Exemptions: who may drive in without a sticker
Annex 3 of the ordinance exempts eleven groups from the sticker, everywhere and without an application. They include motorcycles and other two- and three-wheelers, classic cars with H or 07 plates, vehicles carrying people with the disability marks aG, H or Bl (disabled drivers), ambulances, vehicles with special rights and, since October 2026, vehicles with an e-plate (electric cars). Everyone else can only obtain an individual permit from the city; how is explained on the exemption permit page. There are separate pages for trucks and buses and motorhomes, which have no exemption of their own.
Diesel bans: when green is not enough
In Stuttgart, diesels up to Euro 4 have been barred from the city since 2019, and diesels up to Euro 5 from the small low-emission zone since July 2020. In Munich, diesels up to Euro 4 have been barred from the zone inside the Mittlerer Ring since February 2023, with broad exemptions for residents and deliveries. Route bans are known for Darmstadt, but we could not confirm that they still apply. The details are on the diesel bans page.
What an offence costs, and what comes next
Driving in a zone without the right sticker or an exemption costs €100 under entry 153 of the fine catalogue; there are no penalty points. Some official pages still quote 80 euros, the earlier amount (fines). In the medium term there will be fewer zones: many cities are lifting theirs because limits are being met. At the same time Directive (EU) 2024/2881 tightens the limits from 2030; what that means is covered in the outlook 2030. The Umweltplakette page sets out the basics in one text.
About this site
This site is independent and non-governmental. It sells no stickers and refers you to no garage; stickers are issued by registration offices and approved emission-test bodies such as TÜV, DEKRA and authorised garages. The publisher is Radif Partners. Report errors through the contact page; we correct them and date the change.
Frequently asked questions
Is my sticker valid throughout Germany?
Yes. The sticker is the same nationwide and valid in every low-emission zone, wherever it was issued. It is tied to the plate number written on it and has no expiry date. A new plate needs a new sticker; moving to another city does not. Which colour is enough in which zone is shown by the check for every place.
How up to date is the information here?
The list of zones comes from the German Environment Agency, as of 26 August 2026; we read the rules, amounts and sources on the official websites on 29 October 2026. Where a city and the Agency give different dates, the city page says so. Anything no official source confirms is marked as not confirmed rather than guessed.
Does the check store what I enter?
No. The check runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to a server. When you change your entries, the page writes them into the address bar so that you can bookmark or share the result. You need no account, no sign-up and no e-mail address.
What if my town is not in the list?
Then, according to the German Environment Agency list, it has no low-emission zone and you need no sticker there. The list includes every municipality belonging to an active or lifted zone, plus larger cities without a zone such as Hamburg, Dresden and Nuremberg. If a new zone has been set up and is missing here, write to us and we will check the source.
Do I need a sticker as a tourist in a rental car?
The rental car needs it, not you. Cars from German rental stations almost always carry the green sticker already; check the windscreen when you collect the car. If it is missing and you drive into a zone, the fine is addressed to the driver. For a car rented abroad, the rules for foreign vehicles apply.
Which city has the largest low-emission zone?
The largest continuous zone is the Ruhr one: 13 cities from Duisburg to Dortmund over about 850 square kilometres, according to the city of Essen. Among single cities, Stuttgart stands out because its whole area is a zone, and Leipzig, where the zone covers about 62 percent of the city. Berlin’s zone inside the S-Bahn ring covers about 88 square kilometres.
Can I embed the check on my own website?
Yes. The widget page explains how to place the check in a frame on another website, for example for a hotel, a club or an event in a city with a zone. The widget shows the same rules and sources as this site, collects no data and carries a notice that it is an independent, non-governmental check.
Sources
- German Environment Agency (UBA), low-emission zones in Germany: list and map (last change 26 Aug 2026)
- German Environment Agency (UBA), low-emission zones in Germany (as of 10 Dec 2025)
- 35th BImSchV, the Labelling Ordinance (last amended 25 Sep 2026)
- 35th BImSchV, Annex 2: assignment to emission groups
- 35th BImSchV, Annex 3: vehicles exempt from the sticker
- 35th BImSchV, section 4: who issues the stickers
- 35th BImSchV, section 5: proof by the emission key number
- 35th BImSchV, section 6: vehicles registered abroad
- Federal Immission Control Act, section 40: traffic restrictions
- Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 278: second amendment of the 35th BImSchV (e-plates)
- Federal Environment Ministry, environmental sticker and zones: simplified table
- Fine Catalogue Ordinance, annex, no. 153 (signs 270.1, 270.2)
- Driving Licence Ordinance, annex 13: penalty points table
- Directive (EU) 2024/2881 on ambient air quality (limits from 2030)
Written by Radif Partners
Publisher of an independent reference on German low-emission zones that traces every zone back to the Federal Environment Agency register and the clean-air plan behind it
Updated on · Editorial policy · Contact
Zone list as of 2026, read on