What does public charging cost in 2026? Prices per network and per city

Short answer: there is no national price for public charging. We found no official source that publishes an average public charging price. What you pay depends on five things: regular (AC) or fast (DC) charging, the network, your municipality’s or province’s concession, how you pay (ad hoc, via the network’s app or with a charging card) and the date, because many tariffs change per month, quarter or year. In our examples, ad hoc charging at a public AC charge point costs about €0.33 to €0.59 per kWh and fast charging €0.54 to €0.80 per kWh, including VAT, as of 27 September 2026. Current prices with source and date are on our charging prices page. Whether charging on the road or at work counts for your ERE is a different question from the price. That is in the FAQ Does charging on the road or at work count for you?.

Why there is no national charging price

According to the NAL (the Dutch National Charging Infrastructure Agenda), based on figures from RVO, the Netherlands had 211,513 public and semi-public charging points at the end of December 2025. They are run by many different operators, and according to the ACM (the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets), a charge point or charging card provider may set its own tariffs. For charge points in public space, municipalities and provinces also agree a tariff per area in a concession. RVO, NAL, ElaadNL and the ACM do not publish an official national average; we did not find one in their publications.

On top of that, most people do not pay the charge point’s price but their charging card’s price. According to the NAL price transparency action plan, about 99% of charging sessions were started and paid with a charging card in 2024. How that card price is built up is explained in What does a charging card really cost?.

The prices in this article are therefore examples: the ad hoc price you pay when you charge without a charging card, including VAT, as published by the operator or municipality on 27 September 2026.

Regular charging (AC) versus fast charging (DC)

Regular public charge points charge with alternating current. Allego lists a power output of up to 22 kW for these chargers; Velian states that its chargers deliver up to 11 kW per charging point. Most are in public space, where a municipal or provincial concession sets the tariff (see below). Below 50 kW, the operator may make the full price available digitally, for example via a QR code on the charger (AFIR Art. 5(4)).

Fast chargers are found along motorways and at charging networks’ own sites, among other places. According to the NAL, 197 motorway service areas had fast chargers at the end of 2025. At charging points of 50 kW or more deployed from 13 April 2024, the ad hoc price per kWh must be shown visibly at the station. What else AFIR regulates is explained in Charging without a charging card: your rights under AFIR.

A few examples of ad hoc prices at fast chargers, as of 27 September 2026:

• Fastned: €0.77 per kWh, one national standard price for all Fastned stations in the Netherlands.
• Allego: €0.79 per kWh at fast and ultrafast chargers, without an app or card.
• TotalEnergies (public fast chargers per concession, as of 21 October 2026): €0.61 in Amsterdam, €0.68 in Rotterdam, €0.71 in The Hague, and in Utrecht €0.72 (50 kW) and €0.86 (100 and 300 kW).
• City of Utrecht: at a public fast charger you pay at most €0.66 per kWh excluding VAT. With 21% VAT that is about €0.80.

Own app, ad hoc or charging card

On the same network you can pay different prices depending on how you pay. A few examples, as of 27 September 2026:

• Fastned gives 10% off the standard price via its own app. Starting from €0.77, that is about €0.69 per kWh; Fastned itself only states the percentage. Fastned also offers a subscription.
• Allego charges €0.69 per kWh at fast chargers with Allego Smart, a free subscription in the app, compared with €0.79 without an app or card. With the paid Allego Plus the kWh rate is lower; you pay a monthly fee for it.
• Velian advises paying ad hoc via the QR code on the charger: according to Velian you then pay no extra costs from a charging card provider.
• Vattenfall InCharge and TotalEnergies both state that with a charging card you may pay a different price from the tariff on their tariff page.

Under AFIR, an operator may not use its prices to discriminate between end users and charging card providers; price differences are only allowed if they are proportionate and objectively justified (Art. 5(3)). According to the European Commission, whether that is the case is assessed case by case (Q&A 5.15). Worked examples with a start fee, surcharge and subscription are in What does a charging card really cost?; you can compare charging cards on compare charging cards.

Municipalities and provinces set many AC prices

For charge points in public space, municipalities and provinces often award multi-year concessions to an operator. According to the NAL, they can set requirements in those concessions for the (maximum) tariff, the number and type of price components and, for example, a display on the charger. As a result, prices differ between regions and sometimes within one city. According to the NAL, price transparency scores demonstrably better in concession areas than in the open market or at semi-public chargers; the national NKL price transparency benchmark averaged 6.1 in 2025.

The four largest cities as an example, AC, ad hoc, including VAT, as of 27 September 2026:

City	Tariff per kWh	Note
Amsterdam	TotalEnergies €0.44 (as of 21 October 2026); Velian €0.33 (charger ID AMS-) or €0.41 (AMP1-)	According to the city, prices vary by provider and may change each quarter
Rotterdam	Velian €0.42 (SGZH1.0, September 2026) or €0.45 (SGZH2.0, fixed 2026 tariff)	The SGZH1.0 tariff changes every month; that contract ends at the end of 2026
The Hague	€0.41 at every public charge point, according to the city	Vattenfall InCharge lists €0.4120 for The Hague and €0.4619 from 1 October 2026
Utrecht	TotalEnergies €0.46 (with smart charging, the default, as of 21 October 2026); Velian €0.51 (UTR-)	If you switch off smart charging with TotalEnergies, a higher tariff applies

Outside the four largest cities, two examples show how big the differences are:

• Gelderland, Overijssel and Veenendaal (NAL region East): Allego €0.422 (from 1 February 2026), Qwello €0.59 (from 1 April 2026) and €0.36 at the 191 former Equans charge points Qwello took over. For Vattenfall InCharge, NAL region East lists €0.368 from 1 July 2026, while Vattenfall’s own tariff page lists €0.3624. Differences like this between sources are a reason to always check the source and date of a price.
• Noord-Brabant and Limburg: Vattenfall InCharge charges €0.4598 in the 2024 concession and €0.4903 from 1 October 2026; in the 2017 and 2020 concessions it is €0.3256.

The time of day can matter too. In Utrecht, TotalEnergies offers a dynamic tariff of €0.41 to €0.51 per kWh depending on the time block (as of 21 October 2026), alongside its standard smart-charging tariff. In the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA 2024 contract), Vattenfall InCharge lists €0.3594 at peak hours and €0.3394 off-peak.

Prices change: monthly, quarterly or yearly

A charging price is a snapshot. How often it changes depends on the contract:

• Monthly. Velian’s ad hoc tariff at SGZH1.0 charge points in Rotterdam changes every month. In the first nine months of 2026 it ranged from €0.34 (March and May) to €0.42 (September).
• Quarterly. TotalEnergies adjusts its concession tariffs every quarter, using indexation formulas agreed with the concession grantors. Most Velian contracts also change quarterly.
• Yearly. Velian’s SGZH2.0 tariff changes yearly. In NAL region East, the contracts with Allego and Vattenfall InCharge may be indexed yearly; for Qwello, the energy component is linked quarterly to the purchase price.
• On a fixed date. Vattenfall InCharge lists new tariffs from 1 October 2026 for The Hague (€0.4619) and for the 2024 Brabant/Limburg concession (€0.4903).

That is why we give the date we checked each price. We keep the current state on charging prices.

Occupancy fees and parking

Besides the kWh price, you can pay for the time you spend at the charge point. Allego charges €0.25 per minute at fast chargers from 45 minutes once the car has stopped charging, and €0.05 per minute at AC chargers in the Netherlands from 5 hours after the start (only between 07:00 and 23:00, up to 16 hours, not in some public tenders such as Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel and Gelderland). TotalEnergies states that it charges no blocking or idle fees at its public charge points. According to the European Commission, an occupancy fee from the start of the session at charging points of 50 kW or more does not prima facie appear proportionate (Q&A 5.18).

Parking is a separate cost. If a charge point is in a paid parking area, the City of Utrecht says you pay parking fees or need a permit, just as for an ordinary parking space. According to the Commission, parking fees fall outside AFIR (Q&A 5.11).

How to find the price that applies to you

• At the charge point. From 50 kW the ad hoc price is on a screen or sticker; below 50 kW often via a QR code or link. The City of Rotterdam points to the QR code on the charger and says some chargers are getting a screen showing the charging price.
• In your charging card provider’s app. It must show every price component for the session before the start (AFIR Art. 5(5)).
• Via open data. Operators must make their current ad hoc prices available free of charge via DOT-NL, the Dutch national access point. According to the NAL, several operators supply current tariffs there and coverage is being improved in 2026.
• On our charging prices page, with the source and check date per network and per city.

Do you also charge at home? Home charging has different costs, and with your own charge point that meets the conditions you can receive an ERE payment. For private individuals, the MID meter has had to be built into the charge point since 1 January 2026. Read more in What is the ERE payment?

In short

• There is no official national average price for public charging; the price differs per charge point, network, concession, payment method and date.
• In our examples (ad hoc, including VAT, as of 27 September 2026), a public AC charge point costs about €0.33 to €0.59 per kWh and fast charging €0.54 to €0.80 per kWh.
• Municipalities and provinces set many AC tariffs through concessions, so prices can differ even within one city, for example per charger ID.
• A network’s own app is sometimes cheaper than ad hoc; with a charging card you pay your card provider’s price.
• Tariffs change per month, per quarter, per year or on a fixed date such as 1 October 2026, and occupancy fees and parking costs can come on top. For current prices, see charging prices.