How OMNY fare capping actually works

Pay for 12 rides in a 7-day period and any additional rides are free. And, unlike with MetroCard, you don’t have to pay upfront. Just tap and pay as you go.

Customers will automatically receive free, unlimited rides for the rest of the week once they have paid $35 in fares (or $17.50 for registered Reduced-Fare customers).

The catch is consistency, not cost. Tap the same card or device every time; a different card starts its own separate count toward 12.

Tap your card or device for full-fare and Reduced-Fare OMNY trips on New York City Transit subways and local, limited and Select Bus Service buses.

Express buses, group trips, and transfers do not count toward the cap.

Express bus has its own separate cap, below. A free transfer leg is not a second count against the 12; only the first paid tap of a trip is.

When you Tap and Ride with OMNY, you get the same free transfers as with MetroCard. To receive a free transfer, use the same payment method for both legs of your trip. Each paid ride counts once toward the 7-day fare cap, even if a free transfer is included.

Each payment method—whether a physical card, digital wallet, or OMNY Card—has its own fare cap. To maximize savings, use the same method for every trip.

A household with three phones tapping in on three different digital wallets is running three separate caps, not sharing one.

It’s like a 7-Day Unlimited MetroCard without the upfront cost. Start any day and $35 (or $17.50 for Reduced-Fare customers) is the most you’ll pay. Once you’ve hit 12 paid trips in a 7-day period, the rest of your rides of the same week will automatically be free.

With fare capping available to all subway, local bus, and express bus customers, the 7-Day, 30-Day, and Express Bus Plus Unlimited Ride MetroCards will no longer be sold. Customers can still pre-load $35 for unlimited 7-day travel onto an OMNY card. Any unused funds will roll over—no more use-it-or-lose-it.

The old unlimited MetroCards are being retired, not kept as an option alongside the cap. Whatever a rider preloads now rolls over instead of expiring at the end of the week.

Express bus rides aren’t part of the standard $35 fare cap ($17.50 for Reduced Fare customers). With the new Express Bus Fare Cap, now in effect as of January 2026, you’ll never pay more than $67 a week for express bus, local bus, and subway rides.

OMNY seven-day fare-capping becomes permanent. The 7-day rolling fare cap, which allows customers to pay for 12 rides in a 7-day period and automatically ride free for the rest of the week with no pre-payment required, is becoming permanent. At the adjusted and approved base fare, no customer will pay more than $35 for subway and local bus rides in a week; reduced-fare customers will pay no more than $17.50 in a week.

They use their smartphone to pay the fare, so each ride is $3.00. After they have paid $35 in fares — the rest of the rides for the week will be free!

Twelve rides at $3.00 each comes to $36, a dollar past the $35 the MTA advertises as the ceiling. The number that actually governs is the 12th paid tap, not a running dollar total; the $35 figure is a description of the outcome, not the software's trigger.