Miami / Housing guide
What Miami Transit Actually Costs, and Why Metromover Changes the Math
Homzora editorial team · Updated September 19, 2026
Miami’s transit options have different prices and service areas. Metromover is free, while other services have fare rules and payment conditions. A useful housing budget starts with the trips a household actually needs to make, rather than a ranking of cities by one pass price.
This guide sets out the fares, the transfer rules, and the two quirks that change the arithmetic.
The basic fares
Metrorail and Metrobus are both $2.25 a ride, flat, regardless of distance or which line. Reduced fare riders pay $1.10, and express bus is $2.65.
Passes run $5.65 for a day, $29.25 for seven days and $112.50 for a month. A college monthly pass is $56.25 for full time students.
Pay as you go is capped at $5.65 a day on Metrorail and Metrobus, which is the same as a one day pass, provided you use the same EASY Card or contactless payment throughout.
Metromover is genuinely free
Metromover is free to ride through its service area. The official Miami-Dade page checked September 19, 2026 lists service from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. It does not describe a twenty four hour service. Check current hours and alerts before planning an early or late trip.
Someone whose journey is entirely within the Metromover network may not need to pay a transit fare for that trip. Check walking distance, operating hours, accessibility and any connections needed beyond that network.
That is worth weighing against Brickell and Downtown rents, which sit well above the citywide average. A higher rent that eliminates a transit cost is a different proposition from a higher rent that does not.
The transfer rule, and the one exception
Transfers between bus and rail are free within three hours of the first tap. Bus to bus, bus to rail, rail to bus, and from either onto Metromover.
The exception runs the other way. Transferring from Metromover onto rail or bus costs a full $2.25.
The reason is mechanical rather than punitive. Because Metromover charges nothing to board, there is no fare paid that a transfer could be credited against.
Which matters if you are planning a journey. Starting on Metromover and continuing on rail costs the same as if you had simply started on rail. Starting on rail and finishing on Metromover costs the rail fare alone.
Paying cash costs you the transfers
Transfer discounts require an EASY Card, an EASY Ticket or contactless payment. Passengers paying cash must pay the full fare on every boarding, with no transfers at all.
So a bus and then a train costs $2.25 with a card and $4.50 in cash. Over a month of commuting that difference is larger than the card fee several times over.
An EASY Card costs $2.00 as a reloadable plastic card. An EASY Ticket is a paper alternative with no card fee.
What a month actually costs
The monthly pass at $112.50 is the ceiling, and whether it is worth buying depends on how you travel.
At $2.25 a ride, the pass pays for itself at fifty rides a month. A five day commuter making two trips a day reaches forty four, which is short of break even on rides alone. Add weekend travel and it clears.
Anyone traveling less than that is better off paying per ride, particularly given the daily cap at $5.65 catches heavy days automatically.
And anyone whose movement sits inside the Metromover footprint may need very little beyond it.
How Miami compares
Monthly passes across the cities we cover: Chicago $75, Atlanta $95, Miami $112.50. New York has no monthly product at all, with a regular commuter spending near $150 under the rolling seven day cap.
These products do not cover identical networks or travel patterns. A price comparison alone cannot establish which city is cheaper for a particular household.
Worth noting the comparison is only useful at the level of a monthly figure. The systems differ in coverage, frequency and geography, and a cheaper pass in a city where you still need a car is not cheaper.
The parts that are not the pass
Three costs that sit outside the fare structure and belong in a housing budget anyway.
Parking. Metrorail daily parking is $4.50. A monthly parking permit is $11.25, but only available alongside a monthly, college or regional pass. Without a transit pass, monthly parking is $45.00.
Regional travel. If your journey extends into Broward or Palm Beach, the regional monthly pass covering Miami-Dade Transit and Tri-Rail is $155.00.
Driving. Miami is more car dependent than the other cities we cover. If the answer to your commute is a car, the transit figures above are not your transport cost and insurance, parking and tolls are.
The programs worth checking
Two free travel programs exist. The Golden Passport covers seniors and Social Security beneficiaries, and the Patriot Passport covers eligible veterans. Both require a one off application rather than being automatic.
Miami-Dade also operates reduced and free fare programs tied to household income. We have found conflicting income thresholds in published sources and do not publish a figure, so check with Miami-Dade Transit directly if that may apply to you.
What we do not publish
Commute times. A door to door journey depends on walking distance, waiting, transfers, time of day and service conditions, none of which we have measured.
In vehicle time is a component of a commute rather than the commute itself, and treating the two as equivalent produces figures that look precise and are not. Make the actual trip at the hour you would travel before committing to an address.
The short version
The published fare figures above are dated reference information. Metromover is free, but is not a twenty four hour service. Confirm current fares, transfer rules and hours with Miami-Dade Transit before choosing a fare product or an apartment based on a commute.
The pass pays for itself at fifty rides. Below that, pay as you go with the daily cap does the same job.
The full fare schedule, with every figure taken from Miami-Dade County directly, is free to download at our Miami datasets.
Fare figures are taken from Miami-Dade County published materials as of September 2026. Fares change. Verify with Miami-Dade Transit before relying on any figure. Homzora is a housing research platform and is not affiliated with Miami-Dade Transit.