Free parking in Berlin with a map of zones and park and ride

Berlin's districts charge for street parking zone by zone and only during the hours posted on each ticket machine, so the street, the day and the time decide whether a bay costs anything.

Photo: Berlin Am Tierpark lub 2025-10-29 by Lukas Beck (CC BY 4.0)

Berlin has 104 paid parking zones in eight of its twelve districts, and most of them sit inside or close to the S-Bahn ring. Elsewhere a car can stand at the kerb without a ticket, as long as it keeps clear of loading bays, no-stopping stretches and residents' bays. Lichtenberg, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Reinickendorf and Treptow-Köpenick have no paid zones at all. The map of zones keeps growing, though: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg opened new zones at Friedenstraße and in the Alexandrinenviertel in 2026, as the district's list of parking zones (in German) shows, and the Senate's own data adds two more by Checkpoint Charlie and Anhalter Bahnhof. Streets that older blogs describe as free may now have a ticket machine, so drivers should trust the machine on the pavement over any list.

• Free: any street outside the 104 paid zones, unless a sign says otherwise
• Ticket: none
• When: every day, around the clock
• Station: outer districts such as Lichtenberg are on the S-Bahn and the U5
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

Photo: Halensee Damschkestraße Parkscheinautomat by Fridolin freudenfett (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Every paid zone in Berlin stops charging on Sundays except one. Mitte zone 29, the Spandauer Vorstadt around Hackescher Markt and Oranienburger Straße, charges every day from 9:00 to midnight, and Mitte's table of parking hours (in German) lists it as Monday to Sunday, the only such zone in the Senate's zone data. Its streets start a short walk north of Museum Island, which makes it the classic Sunday mistake for drivers heading to the museums. Public holidays that fall on a working day count as Sundays, so 25 December and 1 January are free in the other zones, while 24 and 31 December follow the normal hours. Neukölln's four zones charge Monday to Friday only and leave Saturdays free as well. In zone 29, a missing ticket on a Sunday brings a fine, as on a weekday.

• Free: Sundays and public holidays in every paid zone except Mitte zone 29
• Ticket: none on those days outside zone 29
• When: the next weekday holidays are 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027
• Station: zone 29 begins at S Hackescher Markt and U8 Weinmeisterstraße
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

Photo: Wittenbergplatz by Reinhold Möller Ermell (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Berlin's park and ride sites sit beside outer S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations, and none of the 49 sites in the Senate's survey charges a fee. The table further down lists the 20 most useful for visitors, among them Springpfuhl, the largest with 410 spaces, and small car parks at Wittenau and Rudow. Space is the catch: in the 2024 count most sites were more than 90% full between 8:00 and 14:00 on weekdays, while Pankow-Heinersdorf and Springpfuhl still had room. A local sign can set a maximum stay, and the Senate's park and ride page (in German) holds the survey and its updates. Every site is pinned on the map at the top, and the Berlin tourist map shows the sights at the other end of the line.

• Free: all 20 sites listed on this page, with no fee in the Senate's data
• Ticket: a public transport ticket for the ride into the centre (an AB ticket from most sites)
• When: arrive before 8:00 on weekdays; Friedrichshagen is closed to parking on Sundays and Parchimer Allee P1 on Fridays
• Station: S-Bahn or U-Bahn at every site; Wannsee in the south-west and Hönow in the east are the far ends
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

Photo: Parkscheinautomat Schmiljanstraße Berlin by IgorCalzone1 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Paid hours differ by zone, and the evening cut-off is what most drivers get wrong. The historic centre of Mitte, City West around Kurfürstendamm and most of Kreuzberg charge Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 22:00. Prenzlauer Berg and parts of Friedrichshain, including the streets behind the East Side Gallery, keep charging until midnight. Outer Mitte, Wedding, Moabit, Wilmersdorf and Schöneberg mostly stop at 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays, and Neukölln stops at 20:00 with weekends free. Spandau old town ends at 17:00 on weekdays and 14:00 on Saturdays, with charging until 17:00 on Advent Saturdays. A broken machine is handled differently by district: Mitte accepts a parking disc set to the arrival time, while Neukölln expects drivers to use another machine or an app.

• Free: after the posted end time, and all weekend in Neukölln's zones
• Ticket: none outside the hours shown on the machine
• When: most central zones from 22:00, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain from midnight, outer zones from 20:00 (18:00 on Saturdays)
• Station: U2 Eberswalder Straße for Prenzlauer Berg, U1 Warschauer Straße for Friedrichshain, U7 Hermannplatz for Neukölln
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

Photo: Flughafen BER Terminal 1 bei Nacht (31. Oktober 2020) entzerrt by Kinan.salti (CC BY-SA 4.0)

At BER, the only free parking is the short-term kerb on the departures and arrivals levels in front of Terminal 1. Number-plate cameras log each car on entry, so drivers take no ticket and the barrier opens on its own within ten minutes. BER's pick-up and drop-off page limits the free stop to three uses in each eight-hour window, counted from midnight, 8:00 and 16:00. After ten minutes a fee applies, paid by card at the barrier. Vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, trailers and motorcycles stay off these levels, and motorcycles have their own area in front of P6. For Terminal 2, the airport points drivers to the short-term spaces on the arrivals level or to the paid car parks P7 and P8. From 1 December 2026 every BER car park takes digital payment only.

• Free: first 10 minutes, up to three times per 8-hour window
• Ticket: none, number-plate recognition
• When: every day; card or digital payment only from 1 Dec 2026 once the free period ends
• Station: Flughafen BER, S9, S45, FEX and regional trains
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

Photo: Wheelchair parking sign by Leonhard Lenz (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Holders of the blue EU parking card for disabled people, or the orange card that is valid only in Germany, park free of charge in Berlin's paid zones, according to Berlin's service page on the parking card (in German). The card belongs to the person rather than the car, so it counts only when the holder travels in the vehicle, and it sits behind the windscreen. Inside the Umweltzone, cars carrying a person whose German disability pass is marked aG, H or Bl are exempt from the green sticker rule. At BER, a German disability pass together with the card gives one free hour in the car parks.

• Free: paid zones with the blue or orange card displayed and the holder present
• Ticket: none; the card goes behind the windscreen
• When: during paid hours in every zone
• Station: not tied to a station; the card covers every paid zone in the city
• Checked 4 Nov 2026

The 20 sites below come from the Senate's park and ride data, and none of them is fee-managed. Numbers match the pins on the map, where pin 21 marks the BER Kiss and Fly kerb. Occupancy figures come from the 2024 weekday survey between 8:00 and 14:00, and the BVG or VBB route planner gives travel times into the centre. Bundesplatz is left out because its park and ride signs were removed.

Berlin's low emission zone, also called the environmental zone, covers the centre inside the S-Bahn ring, about 88 square kilometres, and it applies around the clock, every day, whatever the air quality. Signs mark it on the access roads, mostly at S-Bahn bridges and underpasses. The southern A100 with its ramps and the Elsenbrücke stay outside so that through traffic can go round, while Kanzowstraße in Prenzlauer Berg, outside the ring itself, is inside; the Senate's page on the zone's boundary (in German) has a postcode lookup and detail maps.

Only cars, lorries and buses with a green sticker may drive or park inside, so a free bay in the centre still needs one. Euro 5 and Euro 6 cars and all electric cars qualify, petrol cars need a regulated catalytic converter, and diesels need Euro 4, or Euro 3 with a retrofitted particle filter. A sticker never expires and works in every German zone, though a new number plate needs a new sticker. The Senate's rules for cars registered abroad (in German) confirm that foreign vehicles need one too, graded by their EU emission standard or by their date of first registration.

Berlin's vehicle registration office issues stickers by appointment, and so do emission-test stations such as TÜV, DEKRA, GTÜ, FSP and KÜS and authorised garages, as the Senate's sticker page (in German) explains; staff check the vehicle papers, not the car. Petrol stations are not on that list. Berlin's service portal still accepts online applications, but a technical changeover means the office is not processing them as of 4 November 2026, so drivers from abroad should allow extra time or buy a sticker at a test station outside the zone.

Motorcycles, historic cars with an H plate and vehicles carrying people with the disability markings aG, H or Bl are exempt across Germany, and in Berlin cars with a German E plate also need no sticker. Driving or parking inside without one brings a fine, and district wardens check parked cars. The Federal Environment Agency's overview counts 35 zones still in force in Germany, and Berlin's Senate decided in September 2025 to keep its own zone unchanged.

Some tips online send drivers to places that charge every day of the week. These are the ones to avoid.

• BER car parks. P1 to P8 and the economy car parks have no free period, and from 1 December 2026 they take digital payment only.
• Hauptbahnhof. The DB garage under the station and the garages on Heidestraße and Ella-Trebe-Straße have no free period, and the streets around the station form Mitte zone 35, paid Monday to Saturday until 22:00.
• Multi-storey car parks. The Parkhäuser charge by the hour, though the Senate's parking page (in German) notes that public garages near the centre are often cheaper than street parking.
• Zone 29 on Sundays. Hackescher Markt and Oranienburger Straße charge every day until midnight.
• Charging bays for electric cars. A charging bay is not a free bay, and private electric cars pay the normal zone fee.