Best Paris Metro App: Tickets on Your Phone (2026)

Paris transit has gone almost entirely digital. As of November 2025, paper tickets are no longer sold at metro, RER, bus, or tram stations — everything runs through a phone or a Navigo card now. Buying a ticket, riding the metro, and catching a bus can all happen without ever touching a paper ticket or fumbling with a vending machine.

This is a genuinely recent shift. Paris transit was long known for lagging on digital payment — a physical Navigo card, vending machines that sometimes rejected foreign cards, or a paper carnet of tickets that was easy to lose track of. That system is now retired. Here’s what changed, what the two main apps actually do, and which one matters most.

Quick answer: if you only download one app, make it IDF Mobilités. It’s the one that actually sells and stores tickets on your phone, so it’s what gets you through the metro gate. Add Bonjour RATP alongside it for real-time navigation, but IDF Mobilités is the app that matters most for actually riding.

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Two apps, two jobs

There are two apps worth knowing: Bonjour RATP and IDF Mobilités. They sound similar but serve different purposes.

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 a journey planner: enter a destination, and it shows routes, real-time departures, disruptions, and whether a given line is running normally. It tends to be more useful than a general maps app for Paris transit specifically, since it shows platform info and reasonably accurate live data.

It’s less useful for buying tickets — some ticket purchases are possible in the app, but the flow is clunkier than in IDF Mobilités. Think of it as a journey planner plus RATP’s live service feed.

Worth downloading: yes, primarily for navigation.

IDF Mobilités — for buying tickets and loading your phone wallet

IDF Mobilités is the Île-de-France-wide transit authority’s app — covering metro, RER, bus, and SNCF Transilien trains out to the suburbs. This is the app for actually buying tickets and storing them on a phone.

IDF Mobilités supports a virtual Navigo Easy card — a digital version of the reusable tap card — stored in Apple Wallet (iPhone) or as an NFC-based ticket on Android. Tickets or passes are loaded onto it, then a phone tap at the metro gate works the same way a physical card does.

Worth downloading: yes — this is the one needed 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 leaving home.

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

3. Choose a ticket type:

   • Single Metro-Train-RER ticket — one ride, valid across the Île-de-France network (the 2025 fare reform removed the old zone-based single-ticket system, so this single fare now covers the whole network rather than just zones 1–2).
   • Navigo Jour (day pass) — unlimited travel for one calendar day across most of the network (airport zones are generally excluded — check current terms in the app).
   • Navigo Easy (virtual) — a reusable container loaded with individual tickets as needed. This is the one that lives in Apple Wallet.
   • Navigo Hebdomadaire (weekly pass) — a flat weekly rate for longer stays, useful if day trips outside central Paris are planned.

4. Add a payment method — credit card or Apple Pay. Apple Pay tends to be the smoothest option.

5. Purchase. The ticket appears in the IDF Mobilités app, or lands in Apple Wallet if using the virtual Navigo Easy.

6. At the metro gate: hold the iPhone near the NFC reader. It takes under a second, and the gate opens.

Android: the same general flow applies, using NFC directly from the IDF Mobilités app rather than Apple Wallet. NFC needs to be enabled in settings first.

Non-NFC phone: for a phone without NFC (some older or budget Android models), the app can generate a QR code for some ticket types, scanned at the gate — slightly slower, but functional.

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Which Ticket to Actually Buy

Single ticket

As of 2026, a single Metro-Train-RER ticket costs around €2.55 (bus/tram single tickets run slightly less, around €2.05) — check current pricing in the app, since fares are reviewed periodically. The old paper carnet of 10 tickets no longer exists; ticketing is fully digital and priced per single ride or through a day/weekly pass.

Day pass — when it makes sense

The Navigo Jour day pass runs around €12 as of 2026 and covers unlimited travel across most of the network for a calendar day (airport connections are typically excluded and priced separately — confirm current terms in the app). It tends to pay off once several rides are planned in a single day — a typical sightseeing day (hotel, a major sight, a neighbourhood, dinner, back to the hotel) can easily reach five or six trips, at which point the day pass is usually the better value.

Navigo Easy vs Navigo Hebdomadaire (weekly)

The virtual Navigo Easy is the digital equivalent of the reusable card — rides or passes are loaded onto it as needed. For a stay of a full week or longer, the Navigo Hebdomadaire (weekly pass) is worth comparing: it’s a flat rate covering the network from Monday to Sunday, which works well alongside day trips to places like Versailles. For a shorter 4–5 day city trip, Navigo Easy loaded with single tickets or a day pass or two is usually the simpler, more economical option.

Zones and airports

The 2025 fare reform removed zone-based pricing for standard single tickets within the network — a single ticket now covers a journey anywhere on the core network regardless of distance. Airport connections (to Orly via Line 14, or to CDG via RER B) are the main exception: these use separate, higher-priced airport tickets rather than the standard single fare, and the app sells these as clearly named airport tickets rather than requiring manual zone calculations.

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Quick FAQ

Do I need a physical Navigo card? No. An iPhone or a recent NFC-capable Android running the virtual Navigo Easy in IDF Mobilités can handle everything a physical card does. Physical cards still exist and still work, but they’re no longer necessary.

What if a phone dies mid-trip? This is the real risk of going phone-only, especially now that paper tickets are no longer sold at stations. A few options: (1) a contactless bank card may work directly at the gate on some lines (see below); (2) charge the phone at a café or station where possible before it’s fully dead; (3) some stations retain staffed ticket counters that can issue an emergency ticket, though this is increasingly rare — checking ahead for the specific station is worth it if this is a concern.

Can contactless bank cards be used on the metro directly? On some lines, yes — Line 14 and a growing number of gates accept Visa/Mastercard contactless payment directly, without needing the IDF Mobilités app at all. Coverage isn’t universal across the whole network yet, so it’s worth checking for the card symbol on a gate reader before relying on it.

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Bottom Line

Downloading both apps before a flight is worth doing. Setting up IDF Mobilités on wifi at home — the virtual Navigo Easy setup takes a few minutes — means it’s ready before standing in arrivals with luggage. A single ticket, a day pass, or a Navigo Easy top-up can then be loaded depending on how the trip is shaping up.

Bonjour RATP is the one to lean on once in the city, for figuring out which line to take and whether there are delays. Together, the two apps replace what used to require a trip to a ticket window or a vending machine.

It’s a small shift, but it changes the day-to-day experience of moving around Paris — one less thing to queue for, one less thing to lose.