Terms of use of tickets

Children under four are exempt from having a transport ticket. All other passengers need to have a validated ticket.

Make sure that the ticket is correct for your personal details and that it is valid for the zones where you wish to travel.

You should also validate the ticket before starting the journey and in all transfers you make, unless they are direct changes between metro lines. To help you identify whether the ticket has been correctly validated, the bus validating machines display a green light and emit a soft sound. On the other hand, when the ticket has not been validated, they display a red light and emit a loud sound. On the metro, the validating machines will not let you through the barrier if there is an error in validation. If your pass does not work as a result of a fault of the validating machines, contact a member of bus or metro staff, who will change it. Damaged cards for other causes will not give you the right to compensation nor to change it.

Finally, make sure that you keep the correctly validated ticket in good condition until the end of your journey. You should not throw it away until leaving the station, as you may be asked to show it by a member of staff.

If you need more detailed information on transport tickets or passes, go to the section Metro and bus fares.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) set the maximum period of validity for tickets purchased each year.

Expiry date for tickets purchased up to 14 January 2026

Tickets purchased between 15 January 2025 and 14 January 2026 are valid until 28 February 2026. An exception applies to personalised quarterly tickets, such as the T-jove and the T-70/90 FM/FN, which are valid until 30 April 2026.

The T-16 and T-verda (free travel) cards have their own specific expiry dates.

Expiry date for tickets purchased from 15 January 2026 onwards

ETickets will expire in accordance with the conditions established by the ATM Board of Directors.

The T-16 and T-verda (free travel) cards have their own specific expiry dates.

Expiry date for magnetic T-4 tickets purchased in 2024 and 2025

Magnetic stripe T-4 tickets purchased in 2024 and 2025 are valid until 28 February 2026.

Access information on exchange of tickets due to fare changes

You can request the exchange of tickets purchased between 15 January 2025 and 14 January 2026 that have not been validated even once. This allows you to obtain the same type of ticket with the 2026 fare, which you can use throughout 2026.

The period to carry out these exchanges runs from 15 January to 30 June 2026, and payment of the price difference is required.

How do you do it?

• For tickets purchased from metro station ticket machines or at Punt TMB offices, you must request the exchange at any Punt TMB. No prior appointment is required to carry out this procedure.
• For tickets purchased through the TMB App and TMB Tickets (in cases where a card or medium with a ticket already loaded was purchased), you must access your purchase history and select the refund option for the ticket you wish to exchange. You can then purchase it again with the 2026 fare. If you purchased the ticket more than 180 days before the refund date, request the refund via the complaints form.

Exchange of T-4 tickets

T-4 tickets can only be exchanged at the following centres:

• AMB Information and Services Office: via Laietana, 33, 4th floor, 1a, Barcelona. Open Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 3:30 pm. Appointment required. Book an appointment for the AMB Information and Services Office.
• T-metropolitana Customer Service and Information Centre: avinguda de la Granvia de L’Hospitalet, 16-20. Open Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Appointment required. Book an appointment for the Customer Service Centre.

If the TMB metro or bus validators cannot read the magnetic stripe on the ticket or travel card, despite it being kept in good condition. In this case, you must present your ticket or travel card and you will receive another with the same characteristics: same ticket, number of zones and journeys or remaining days of validity.

You can request an exchange from bus and metro staff as soon as you realise your ticket is not working properly. If it is a personalised ticket, and therefore non-transferable, you will need to show the original DNI, NIE or passport to prove the ticket belongs to you.

With an integrated pass (not a single ticket), you can transfer up to 3 times to other integrated means of transport, over a certain period of time, set by the number of zones of the card. For single-zone passes, the time limit is 75 minutes from the first validation. This time limit increases by 15 minutes for each additional zone.

Please bear in mind that a return journey or resuming your journey after interrupting it is considered as two journeys. Therefore, fare integration does not allow you to validate your ticket twice within the same journey on the Barcelona metro (or the FGC line), nor two consecutive bus validations on the same route.

Except for journeys where the metropolitan fare applies, you must generally use a ticket covering as many zones as fare sectors you need to travel through on your route.

Six-zone tickets allow travel between all the municipalities within the first six fare zones of the Barcelona metropolitan transport area. You can check which ones they are on the zone map.

If you need to pass through a municipality in the seventh ring (whether passing through or as your origin or destination), you must count the number of fare sectors you travel through and buy a ticket covering those zones.

You can find specific and detailed information on how to calculate the number of zones for your travel pass on the integrated fare system information page on the ATM website.

See all the information abou metropolitan fare the metropolitan fare.

In the metro, your validated ticket or pass is valid for the following two hours.

On the bus, the validation gives the right to travel to the end of the route in the chosen direction (except on the Bus del Barri neighborhood routes and other circular lines, in which case you can complete the entire circuit).

Single-person tickets (such as the T-casual) cannot be used simultaneously by more than one person, but it can be used by different people at different times. For example you can use the pass in the morning and anyone you give it to can use it in the afternoon.

Multi-person tickets can be used with your companions, as long as you travel together. To correctly share a multi-person pass (such as the T-grup and the T-familiar), the number of validations must match the number of people traveling together. On the metro, you should stay together for the whole journey, from the entry point station until leaving the metro premises. On buses, you may separate once on board, but the person carrying the pass must be the last one to get off the bus.

Personalised tickets can only be used by the named holder of the card. You should identify yourself with the documents required whenever you are asked to show the pass. Otherwise, it is deemed that you do not have a valid transport ticket and it may be withdrawn. The most common personalised passes are the T-16, the T-jove and the T-usual.

Personalised passes of single-parent or large families (FM/FN), are special cases, because apart from the ID or equivalent of the holder, these passes should also be accompanied by the original, valid single-parent or large family card (which should be shown when a staff member requests it).

Monthly validity

Monthly tickets allow travel for 30 days from the first validation.

The 30-day period includes the day of first validation and the following 29 days. The ticket remains valid until the end of service on the final day. If the metro service ends after midnight, the ticket will remain valid until 3.59 am on the following day.

Quarterly validity

Quarterly passes allow travel for 90 days from the first validation.

The 90-day period includes the day of first validation and the following 89 days. The ticket remains valid until the end of service on the final day. If the metro service ends after midnight, the ticket will remain valid until 3.59 am on the following day.

How to get a simplified invoice

The metro ticket machines issue a simplified invoice for every purchase.

If you have purchased and validated a ticket with a contactless bank card on the bus or in a metro station, and you need a simplified or full invoice, you must register as a user on the Single ticket - Bank card website and record the payment cards you used. You will then be able to download a simplified invoice for every purchase made with each bank card.

Simplified invoices for purchases at metro station ticket machines and for digital tickets validated with a bank card allow you to request full invoices.

How to get a full invoice

For magnetic tickets and for digital tickets validated with a bank card:

• You can go to a Punt TMB with a previous appointment. You will have to provide the tax data (name of the person or company, DNI/NIE/NIF/CIF, and tax address) and provide the titles that must be invoiced.

For T-mobilitat:

• You can go to the CAI (T-mobilitat Service and Information Centre) located on Gran Via de l'Hospitalet de Llobregat avenue, no. 16-20, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The owner of the T-mobilitat Service and Information Center (CAI) is the ATM. In this center, complete invoices are made through the web form or the ATM's contact channels for T-mobilitat.
• You can go to a TMB Point with a prior appointment or by calling 900 701 149. On the day of the appointment you will have to provide the tax details (name of the person or company, DNI/NIE/NIF/CIF, and tax address) and carry the support.

In general, a refund can be issued for any transport ticket as long as that ticket has not been validated and is within the period indicated in the terms and conditions for the refund of transport tickets.

What is the return period?

All integrated ATM tickets, as well as any single metro ticket and the single airport ticket, can be returned within 24 hours from the time of purchase (regardless of whether they are tickets with a magnetic strip or T-mobilitat tickets). This applies both to online purchases and purchases made via face-to-face channels such as metro vending machines or Punts TMB.

Refunds cannot be issued for single bus and metro tickets validated by bank card, as the purchase and validation are formalised on the spot. For more information, please see the Conditions of validation of the single bus ticket with bank card and the Conditions of validation of the single metro ticket with a bank card.

For more information of the purchase of Hola Barcelona Travel Card passes or other tourist tickets purchased on holabarcelona.com website or the Hola Barcelona app, check general conditions of online contracting.

How can a refund be obtained?

If you have made an online purchase at TMB, you can process the return by accessing the purchase history from the TMB Tickets website or TMB App and selecting the return option for the order you wish to return.

If you made the purchase at a physical channel, such as metro vending machines or Punts TMB, you must go to a Punt TMB to manage the return with the transport ticket you wish to return and the purchase receipt.

If you purchased your ticket(s) online through the holabarcelona.com website or the Hola Barcelona app, see how to return your ticket at Hola Barcelona FAQ.