Muni is the city's own network, and the one you'll actually use to get around San Francisco. One flat fare covers everything except the cable cars — which are a separate, much larger fare that catches nearly everyone out.
One fare, one price, regardless of distance — a ride from the Ferry Building to the zoo costs the same as two blocks up Market Street. The fare is good for 120 minutes, and within that window transfers between buses, Metro trains, and historic streetcars cost nothing extra.
| Fare | Price |
|---|---|
| Single ride, adult (19–64) — Clipper or tapped bank card | $2.85 |
| Single ride, adult — cash on board or Metro ticket machine | $3.00 |
| Single ride — seniors 65+ and riders with disabilities | $1.40 / $1.50 cash |
| Day Pass — buses, trains, streetcars (no cable cars) | $5.70 |
| Cable car single ride | $9.00 |
| Cable car — senior/disabled/Medicare, before 7 am or after 9 pm | $4.00 |
| 1-Day Visitor Passport — includes cable cars | $15.00 |
| 3-Day Visitor Passport | $35.00 |
| 7-Day Visitor Passport | $47.00 |
| Monthly "M" Pass — Muni including cable cars | $86 |
| Monthly "A" Pass — Muni, cable cars, plus BART within SF | $104 |
| Monthly — seniors and riders with disabilities | $43 |
| Youth 18 and under, all Muni except cable cars | Free |
Source: SFMTA Muni fares, checked August 2026. Clipper START gives adults on a limited income a 50% discount at $1.40 a ride.
Save $0.15 by not paying cash. Clipper and a tapped bank card both charge $2.85 where cash charges $3.00 — and cash on board requires exact change, because Muni fareboxes give none. Ticket machines in Metro stations issue a voucher rather than change.
Since December 2025 you can tap a contactless credit or debit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay directly on the reader. Adult fares only — no discounts. Simplest option for a short visit.
The regional card, accepted on around two dozen Bay Area systems. Add it to your phone's wallet to skip the $3 plastic-card fee. The only way to get youth, senior, RTC, or Clipper START discounts.
SFMTA's own app. Still sells Day Passes and Visitor Passports — but no longer Single Rides (see below). Activate the ticket as you board, not before.
$3.00, exact change, on board. No change given. Works everywhere but costs more and slows the queue.
Single Rides left MuniMobile on September 1, 2026. From that date the app no longer sells single-ride fares — Day Passes and Visitor Passports are unaffected. For one ride, use Clipper, tap a contactless bank card, or pay cash on board. Source: SFMTA fares.
Keep your proof of payment. Muni is a proof-of-payment system across the whole network, not just the subway. Hold on to your ticket, keep the pass active in the app, or keep the Clipper card you tapped with — inspectors do check, and "I tapped" isn't a defence without the card you tapped with.
"Muni" covers four distinct systems that mostly share one fare. Knowing which is which saves a lot of confusion at street level.
Part subway, part streetcar: underground through downtown, then out onto the street in the neighbourhoods. The J, K, L, M, and N run through the Market Street Subway, sharing stations with BART on the level above it. The T Third runs through the newer Central Subway.
The bulk of the network and the only way to reach large parts of the city — the Marina, the Presidio, Fisherman's Wharf, much of the Richmond. San Francisco's electric trolleybuses run off overhead wires, which is why you'll see poles on the roof.
Restored streetcars from around the world running along Market Street and the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. Regular Muni fare, not a tourist surcharge — it's a working line that happens to use antique vehicles, and it passes the Ferry Building.
Three lines, manually operated, gripping a moving cable under the street. Not covered by a regular Muni fare or a Day Pass. See below.
Source: SFMTA Muni Metro. The Central Subway opened in 2023, adding stations at 4th & Brannan, Yerba Buena/Moscone, Union Square/Market Street, and Chinatown–Rose Pak.
A cable car ride costs $9.00 and includes no transfers. It is not covered by a single Muni fare and it is not covered by the $5.70 Day Pass. It is covered by a Visitor Passport and by the monthly M and A passes.
Two start at Powell and Market — where the turntable and the long queue are — and run to the Fisherman's Wharf area. The third runs along California Street from Market to Van Ness Avenue.
Skip the Powell Street queue. The California line is the same fare, the same technology, and frequently has no queue at all, because it doesn't appear on most itineraries. You can also board any cable car at a stop along the route rather than at the turntable — look for the brown-and-white sign posts — and pay the conductor.
Prepay if you can. SFMTA asks riders to buy before boarding via MuniMobile or Clipper, which speeds up the line. Full-size and folding bikes are not allowed on cable cars.
A fare rise is proposed for January 4, 2027 — not yet in effect. SFMTA has proposed replacing the $9 single ride with a $12 single ride plus an $18 "Cable Car Plus" day pass that includes unlimited Muni and two free youth riders, then dropping the single ride entirely the following year. Today's price is still $9.00. Source: SFMTA proposed fare changes.
For most visits the answer is "none" — pay per ride and stop thinking about it. Three rides a day costs $8.55, which is more than a Day Pass, so the arithmetic only starts to matter once you're moving a lot or riding cable cars.
| If you're… | Buy |
|---|---|
| Taking one or two rides a day, no cable cars | Single rides |
| Taking three or more rides a day, no cable cars | Day Pass $5.70 |
| Riding a cable car even twice in one day | 1-Day Passport $15 |
| Here three days and sightseeing hard | 3-Day Passport $35 |
| Travelling with kids 18 and under | Nothing — they're free |
The Passport is really a cable car pass. Two cable car rides cost $18 on their own, so a $15 one-day Passport is already cheaper than that before you board a single bus. Without cable cars in the plan, the $5.70 Day Pass wins easily and the Passport is poor value.
Coming from another agency? Clipper takes $2.85 off the adult Muni fare when you transfer from a connecting agency within two hours — BART, Caltrain, SamTrans, AC Transit, Golden Gate, the ferries. In practice that makes the Muni leg of a regional trip free. How BART and Muni fit together →
They share four downtown stations — Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell St, and Civic Center — on separate levels behind separate fare gates. Tapping into the wrong one is a San Francisco rite of passage.
| Muni | BART | |
|---|---|---|
| Fare | Flat $2.85 | By distance, from $2.55 |
| Covers | All of SF | Market St + Mission only, in SF |
| Goes to the airports | No | Yes — SFO and OAK |
| Monthly pass | $86 | Doesn't exist |
| Runs after midnight | Owl buses, yes | No |
Muni's night advantage. BART shuts around midnight and doesn't reopen until 8 a.m. on Sundays. Muni runs a network of Owl routes overnight, which makes it the only city-wide option in those hours short of a taxi. Every operator's service span →
Metro trains go underground downtown and surface in the neighbourhoods. The same J or N you board in a subway station will be running in traffic twenty minutes later. That's normal, not a diversion.
Board at the front on buses, anywhere on Metro. Muni Metro uses all doors with proof of payment; buses generally want you at the front to tap, though all-door boarding operates on many lines. When in doubt, tap at the front.
The F line is a real line, not a ride. Regular fare, runs Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf along the Embarcadero, and it's often the most pleasant way to cover that stretch — but it's slow and gets packed. If you're in a hurry, the T Third or a bus will beat it.
Hills are a routing consideration, not a detail. A journey that looks walkable on a map may include a 20% grade. Muni's bus network is built around this; the trolleybus lines in particular exist to climb things you don't want to walk.
Cable cars are not a way to get somewhere. They're slow, the queues at Powell can exceed an hour in summer, and they cost more than three Muni rides. Ride one because you want to ride one — then use the rest of the network to actually move around.
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Fares verified against sfmta.com in August 2026. Something outdated? Report an error →