Paris Metro Without a Physical Card: Bonjour RATP & IDF Mobilité (2026)

I just got back from Paris and for the first time in all my trips there, I bought zero physical tickets. Not one. Everything went through my phone — metro rides, buses, the whole city. It took about five minutes to set up before I landed.

This is actually new. Paris transit was famously bad at going digital. You needed a physical card (the Navigo), or you fumbled with vending machines that sometimes didn’t accept foreign Visa cards, or you bought a carnet of paper tickets that you’d inevitably lose one of. Not anymore. Here’s what changed, what the two main apps actually do, and which one you actually need.

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Two apps, two jobs

There are two apps you’ll hear about: Bonjour RATP and IDF Mobilités. They sound like they do the same thing. They don’t, quite.

Bonjour RATP — for navigation and real-time info

This is the official RATP app (RATP runs the metro, buses, RER, and trams inside Paris). It’s your journey planner. You type in where you want to go, it shows you routes, real-time departures, disruptions, whether your line is running normally. It’s genuinely good — better than Google Maps for Paris transit because it shows platform info and has accurate live data.

What it’s not great for: buying tickets. You can buy some tickets in Bonjour RATP, but the interface is clunky and it’s not the main flow. Think of it as Google Maps + RATP’s live feed.

Download it: yes, download it. Use it primarily for navigation.

IDF Mobilités — for buying tickets and loading your phone wallet

IDF Mobilités is the Île-de-France-wide transit authority — it covers everything: metro, RER, bus, SNCF Transilien trains to the suburbs. This is the app where you actually buy tickets and store them on your phone.

Since late 2023, IDF Mobilités supports a virtual Navigo Easy card — basically a digital version of the reusable tap card — stored in Apple Wallet (iPhone) or as an NFC tag on Android. You top it up with individual tickets or passes, then tap your phone at the metro gate just like you’d tap a physical card.

Download it: yes, this is the one you need for purchasing.

Short version: use IDF Mobilités to buy, use Bonjour RATP to navigate.

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Step-by-step: buying a metro ticket on iPhone

1. Download IDF Mobilités from the App Store before you leave home.

2. Open the app → “Buy tickets” (or “Acheter des titres” if it defaults to French — there’s a language setting).

3. Choose your ticket type:

   • t+ ticket — single ride on metro/bus/RER within zones 1–2. Works for the vast majority of tourist trips inside Paris.
   • Carnet of 10 t+ tickets — discounted pack, makes sense if you’re staying more than 3 days.
   • Day pass (Forfait 1 jour) — covers unlimited travel for one day on zones 1–2. Worth it if you’re doing 5+ rides.
   • Navigo Easy (virtual) — a reusable container you load with whatever you need. This is the one that lives in Apple Wallet.

4. Add a payment method — credit card or Apple Pay. Apple Pay is the smoothest.

5. Purchase. The ticket appears in your IDF Mobilités app, or if you set up the virtual Navigo Easy, it lands in Apple Wallet.

6. At the metro gate: hold your iPhone near the yellow NFC reader (the round target). It takes about half a second. Gate opens, you walk through.

Android: same flow, but you use NFC directly from the IDF Mobilités app rather than Apple Wallet. Enable NFC in settings first.

Non-NFC phone: if your phone doesn’t have NFC (older budget Androids), the app also generates a QR code for some ticket types. Scan it at the gate. Slightly slower, still works.

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Which ticket to actually buy

Single t+ ticket vs carnet

A single t+ ticket runs around €2.15 (check current rates — pricing adjusts annually). A carnet of 10 is roughly €17.35, which works out to €1.73 per ride. If you’re making more than 3 trips, buy the carnet.

Day pass — when it makes sense

The Forfait 1 jour zones 1–2 costs around €8.65. It pays off once you hit 5 rides in a day. If you’re doing a tourist day — hotel, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Marais, dinner somewhere, back to hotel — that’s easily 6 trips. Buy the day pass, stop counting.

Navigo Easy vs Navigo Hebdomadaire (weekly)

The virtual Navigo Easy is the digital equivalent of the reusable card: you load rides onto it. If you’re staying a full week, look at the Navigo Hebdomadaire (weekly pass) instead — it’s a flat rate covering all zones 1–5 from Monday to Sunday, which makes it great if you’re also doing day trips to Versailles or the airports. For a 4–5 day city trip, the Navigo Easy loaded with a day pass or carnet is usually more economical.

Zones explained

Paris metro zones 1–2 cover central Paris and most tourist areas. Zones 3–5 extend into the suburbs. If you’re heading to either Paris airport, you’ll need a ticket that covers additional zones — the app sells these directly as named airport tickets so you don’t have to figure out the zone math yourself.

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Quick FAQ

Do I need a physical Navigo card? No. If you have an iPhone or a recent NFC Android, the virtual Navigo Easy in IDF Mobilités handles everything a physical card does. Physical cards still exist and still work — but you don’t need one.

What if my phone dies mid-trip? This is the real risk of going phone-only. Three options: (1) buy a single t+ ticket from the vending machine — they accept contactless bank cards now; (2) tap your contactless bank card directly at the gate on some newer metro lines (Visa/Mastercard contactless is accepted on most Line 14 gates and some others — not universal yet, check the gate for the card symbol); (3) have a backup paper ticket tucked in your wallet as insurance.

Can I use contactless bank cards on the metro directly? On some lines yes — Line 14 and a growing number of gates accept Visa/Mastercard contactless. But it’s not universal across the whole network yet. Check for the card symbol on the gate reader before assuming it’ll work.

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Bottom line

Download both apps before your flight. Set up IDF Mobilités on WiFi at home — the virtual Navigo Easy takes about 5 minutes, and you want it done before you’re standing in arrivals with luggage trying to find the vending machine. Load a carnet or a day pass depending on how long you’re staying.

Then use Bonjour RATP once you’re there to figure out which line to take and whether there are delays. The two apps together replace everything that used to require a trip to the ticket window.

It’s a small thing but it changes the texture of moving around Paris. One less thing to queue for, one less thing to lose.