Ajman Parking 2026: Timings, Fees, SMS and Fines

Ajman is the smallest of the seven emirates and the easiest to underestimate. Plenty of people drive up from Dubai for the corniche, for a flat that costs half what the same one costs in Barsha, or for a job in the free zone, park on a main street the way they would at home, and come back to a violation. The rules here are not complicated, but they are different from Dubai's - different hours, a different price, a long free window in the middle of the afternoon, and a whole free day.

We run a rental fleet in Dubai as an RTA-authorised dealer and agency, and our cars end up in Ajman most weeks. This is what our customers actually need to know: when the meter is running, what it costs, how to pay from your phone, and the one thing that catches renters out.

The short version

• Paid hours are 8am to 1pm and 5pm to 10pm, Saturday to Thursday. The gap between 1pm and 5pm is free, and so is everything after 10pm.

• Fridays and public holidays are free across the emirate's paid parking.

• Standard rate is AED 2 an hour - AED 1 for half an hour, AED 10 for five hours. VIP bays are AED 6 an hour.

• You can pay by SMS to 5155, in the AjmanOne app, or at the machine. By SMS it is AED 2.38 an hour, the tariff plus the telecom fee.

• Parking is charged to the number plate, not to you - if we swap your car, the plate in your phone is the wrong one.

• Fines are checked and paid in the MPDA app, run by the Ajman Municipality and Planning Department.

When the meter is running

Ajman charges for public parking from 8am to 1pm and again from 5pm to 10pm, Saturday through to Thursday. Those two windows are the whole of it. Between 1pm and 5pm you park free, and from 10pm until 8am the next morning you park free. Friday is free all day, as are official public holidays - Ajman waives parking charges for Eid and the other national holidays, usually announcing it a few days beforehand.

That afternoon gap is the part people from Dubai get wrong. Dubai runs a single continuous paid period and Sharjah now runs until midnight, so the instinct is to leave the car at six in the evening assuming the day is over when it is not.

What it costs

The standard tariff published by the Ajman government is cheaper than anywhere else in the country:

• Half an hour - AED 1

• One hour - AED 2

• Up to five hours - AED 10

• VIP bays - AED 3 for half an hour, AED 6 an hour, AED 30 for up to five hours

Paying by SMS costs AED 2.38 an hour rather than AED 2, because the telecom operator adds its charge and bills the lot to your mobile account. For comparison, an hour on a standard Dubai roadside bay is AED 4.20 at peak. Ajman is the cheapest of the four main emirates, and the five-hour price is the one to notice - AED 10 for most of a working day is close to nominal.

How to pay: SMS, the app, the machine

SMS to 5155 is the route most people use. You send your plate details to 5155 from an e& or du number with credit on it, you get a confirmation back with your virtual permit, and you get a reminder before it runs out so you can extend rather than come back to a ticket. The exact field order to type is printed on the machine and on the zone signage - published versions of the format differ, so take it from the sign in front of you the first time and save the message afterwards.

The AjmanOne app does the same job with a card instead of your phone bill, and lets you book longer periods. The MPDA app, run by the Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, is where you check and pay a parking fine. The machines on the street still work. Whichever route you pick, keep the confirmation - if a violation turns up later, that record settles it.

The car-swap trap, which is the one that catches renters

Ajman charges the number plate, not the person and not the account. It is the same trap we wrote about for Dubai and Sharjah, and the single most expensive thing a long-term renter can get wrong.

If we swap your car - a service day, a repair, an upgrade - the plate saved in your phone belongs to a vehicle you are no longer driving. You will pay for parking, correctly, from the right app, at the right rate, for somebody else's car, while the car actually sitting in the bay has nothing against its plate and collects a violation.

So when we hand you a different car, change the plate in the app and in your saved text message before you park anywhere. Every rental with us runs on the RTA unified contract, and the confirmation text you get at the start carries the plate number and the dates - the quickest way to check which plate you are responsible for today.

Where paid parking applies, and how far it now reaches

Paid parking covers the main streets of Ajman city and the parking around government buildings - Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Road, Sheikh Khalifa Street, Al Ittihad Street, Al Karama and the corniche among them - and it has been expanding steadily rather than all at once.

The most recent significant expansion switched on 1,263 new paid spaces on 21 June 2025, on Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi Street near the Garden City Towers, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Nuaimi Street near the Ajman Pearl Towers, Al Baraa bin Malik Street and Osama bin Zaid Street. Those are residential tower streets where people parked free for years, so if you know Ajman from a while back, your mental map of where a car can sit for nothing is out of date. The practical rule is the boring one: if there is a machine or a sign, the bay is paid during the two windows.

Subscriptions, free cards and what happens if you get a fine

If you park in Ajman every day, the government publishes longer options: AED 100 for ten days, AED 200 for twenty and AED 300 for thirty, and an annual customer subscription card at AED 2,350 for a first card and AED 1,200 for a second. Those are the published figures at the time of writing and the app will show you the current ones.

Several groups get a card free: senior Emiratis, People of Determination, Emirati residents of a building, and - worth knowing if you drive an EV - environmentally friendly vehicles.

On fines, we are not going to publish an amount. The figures that circulate for Ajman parking violations come from reporting that is more than a decade old, the penalty depends on which violation was recorded, and a stale number on a page like this could cost you real money. Check the plate in the MPDA app, which shows the actual violation and the actual amount, and pay it there.

Renting a car in Dubai?

We are Urban Go Car Rentals, based in Port Saeed and delivering around Downtown Dubai and nearby. Most of our customers rent by the month and a fair number commute to the northern emirates, which is why we would rather you knew all this before your first Ajman violation.

A monthly plan includes comprehensive insurance, registration, routine maintenance, 24/7 roadside assistance and 4,000 km a month, and we will usually swap the car on a service day subject to availability. The deposit is AED 1,500 standard and AED 2,000 luxury, refundable, with a paid zero-deposit option.

On running costs: fuel is same to same, so we record the level when you take the car and you bring it back at that level, with the difference charged if it is lower. Salik is recharged at cost plus AED 1 per crossing, itemised. Traffic fines are passed through to you, itemised, at the amount the authority charged. Have a look at our fleet or the monthly rental page, and we have the parking rules for Abu Dhabi written up too.

Sources

• Department of Digital Ajman - Parking Reservation Request service, tariffs and subscriptions

• Gulf News - New paid parking zones open in Ajman starting today, 21 June 2025

• Khaleej Times - Ajman opens new paid parking zones from June 21, 2025

• Gulf News - This Dubai parking app works in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman too, 16 July 2025

• Gulf News - How to pay for public parking in Ajman

• Gulf News - How to pay public parking fines in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman online

Last reviewed: 16 September 2026