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Parking and stopping in Amsterdam: paid parking, prohibitions and exceptions

By Mustafa Aybek · maker of Rijtheorie Hub · sources: RVV 1990, cbr.nl · last updated 2026-10-11

Paid parking, licence-plate parking and parking apps

Amsterdam uses expensive licence-plate parking: pay to your plate via an app and stop the session the moment you leave.

No ticket behind the glass: many tourists buy a machine ticket and put it on the dashboard; in Amsterdam only your number plate being in the system counts, a slip behind the glass means nothing if the payment is not linked to your plate.
Forgetting to stop the session in the app costs money: it keeps running until you end it, so you keep paying while your car is already parked at home.
Entering the wrong plate (for example a 0 instead of an O, or copying a foreign plate incorrectly) counts as unpaid and triggers an assessment, even though you did pay.
Times differ per street: in one street paid parking ends at 19:00 and round the corner not until midnight; always read the sub-plate for that exact spot.
On Sundays and public holidays Amsterdam usually still charges for parking, unlike many other municipalities where it is then free.

P+R on the city edge is by far the cheapest: park and continue by public transport, provided you check in and out.

P+R is only cheap with public transport: if you do not travel on by public transport or fail to check in and out per the rules, you lose the P+R rate and pay a lot extra.
A resident's visitor parking is not automatically active: a resident must register your number plate digitally, otherwise you simply stand at full tariff or even illegally.
In a permit street the sub-plate 'permit holders only' can mean paying is not even possible and your car may not stand there at all.
Garages have a maximum clearance height; vans, campers and cars with a roof box or bikes on the roof often do not fit.
Popular garages and P+R sites can be full on busy days; reserve or check availability in advance via the municipal website or app.

In a blue zone a parking disc must be visible behind the glass, arrival time rounded up to the next half hour.

Arrival time, not departure time: many people accidentally set the time they want to leave; you are meant to enter the arrival time, rounded up to the half hour.
Moving the disc afterwards is not allowed: turning the time back to stay longer is fineable and enforcers watch for exactly that.
No disc to hand: without a parking disc you may not park in a blue zone, not even 'just briefly'.
The blue zone often applies only on certain days and hours; outside those times you need no disc, but check that on the sign.
Do not confuse the free blue zone with an ordinary paid-parking street; in central Amsterdam a parking disc does not help you, there you simply must pay by number plate.

Even without a sign: no parking within 5 metres of a junction, in front of driveways, at a yellow line or sharp bend.

Those five metres apply even without a line or sign: people often think 'there is nothing here, so it is allowed', but on a junction and within five metres parking is always forbidden.
Standing in front of a driveway is not allowed, not even 'briefly', not even if it is your own driveway and no one else seems bothered.
Parking half on the pavement or outside the bay to gain space is illegal parking and is actively fined in Amsterdam.
Broken yellow line = no parking (loading/unloading and dropping off briefly is allowed), continuous yellow line = you may not even stop there; those two are often confused.
On narrow canals and in low-traffic streets the municipality may apply extra towing policy; a wrongly parked car is gone faster than you think there, with high towing costs.

At a no-parking sign you may still briefly stop to board or load; at a no-stopping sign even that is forbidden.

One stripe versus two stripes: the round sign with one diagonal stripe is no parking (brief stopping allowed), the sign with a cross (two stripes) is no standing (stopping at all is not allowed).
Yellow line rule: broken yellow = no parking, continuous yellow = no standing; this is the street version of those same two signs.
Loading and unloading is not a parking free pass: you must actually be busy in one continuous go; the moment you lock the door and walk off you are parking and breaking the restriction.
Setting down and picking up passengers is allowed very briefly, also at a no-parking restriction, but not at a no-standing restriction, on a cycle lane, in a bend or at a crossing.
In Amsterdam many places have window times for loading and unloading (for example only early in the morning); outside those times you may not stand there even for loading and unloading.

Along a canal: in gear or P, handbrake firmly on and front wheels towards the kerb, so the car cannot roll into the water.

Along the canal: handbrake firmly on, in gear or in P, and wheels turned towards the kerb; this small habit stops a rolling car from going into the water.
A disabled card gives no right to a bay with a number plate on the sub-plate; that is exclusive to that resident and forbidden to you, even with a card.
Parking on a charging bay without charging, or staying once your car is full, is not allowed; those bays are only for electric cars actually charging.
Never park or stand on or between tram rails or on a bus lane; you block public transport and are towed away almost immediately.
Taxi ranks and coach spots are not ordinary parking bays; as a non-taxi or non-coach you may not stand there, not even briefly.
Near water never rely on a weak handbrake alone; when in doubt check that the car is truly held before you get out.

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