Every UK emissions zone · checked 27 August 2026

ULEZ, LEZ and Clean Air Zone Checker — Am I in a Charging Zone?

There are 12 live emissions zones in the UK, and only 3 of them charge a private car: London's ULEZ at £12.50 a day, Bristol at £9 and Birmingham at £8. The other 5 English Clean Air Zones never charge a car, whatever it emits. Scotland has no ULEZ at all — Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow run Low Emission Zones, where you cannot pay to enter a non-compliant car; you are fined instead.

Petrol needs Euro 4. Diesel needs Euro 6. The same two thresholds decide it in London, Birmingham, Bristol and all four Scottish LEZs.

Free · Euro status and fuel type straight from the DVLA record · No sign-up

Last updated August 2026. We read your Euro standard, not your location — for the zone boundary, use the operator's own map.

Three different schemes. Which one applies to you?

I'm driving in London

ULEZ covers every London borough (it does not include the M25) and runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. A non-compliant car is £12.50 a day; miss the payment and the penalty is £180, halved to £90 inside 14 days.

TfL's official ULEZ checker

I'm driving in an English city

Only Birmingham and Bristol charge private cars, because they are the only two Class D zones. Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside are Class B or C — your car is out of scope there no matter how old it is.

GOV.UK clean air zone checker

I'm driving in Scotland

It is an LEZ, not a ULEZ, and the difference matters: there is no daily charge and no way to pay your way in. A non-compliant vehicle gets a £60 penalty (£30 if paid within 14 days) that doubles on every repeat in the same zone within 90 days.

Scotland's official LEZ checker

Every UK emissions zone, and whether it charges a car

12 live zones. Most “clean air zone” lists online quote a daily charge for zones that do not charge private cars at all — the class of the zone is what decides it, and only Class D includes cars.

These 3 charge a non-compliant private car

London ULEZ

London · England · Ultra Low Emission Zone

£12.50/day for cars

Covers all London boroughs and does not include the M25. Runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day.

Official page

Bristol Clean Air Zone

Bristol · England · Clean Air Zone (Class D)

£9/day for cars

Petrol and diesel cars, taxis and light goods vehicles are all £9. Motorbikes are not charged.

HGVs, buses and coaches: £100/dayOfficial page

Birmingham Clean Air Zone

Birmingham · England · Clean Air Zone (Class D)

£8/day for cars

Glasgow Low Emission Zone

Glasgow · Scotland · Low Emission Zone

No charge — fine only

City centre. Enforcement began 1 June 2023 — the first in Scotland. There is no daily charge: a non-compliant car is fined, not billed.

Official page

Edinburgh Low Emission Zone

Edinburgh · Scotland · Low Emission Zone

No charge — fine only

City centre. Enforcement began 1 June 2024. No daily charge — you either meet the standard or you get a penalty.

Official page

Aberdeen Low Emission Zone

Aberdeen · Scotland · Low Emission Zone

No charge — fine only

City centre. Enforcement began 1 June 2024. Aberdeen has no ULEZ and no Clean Air Zone — searching for an 'Aberdeen ULEZ' finds the wrong scheme.

Official page

Dundee Low Emission Zone

Dundee · Scotland · Low Emission Zone

No charge — fine only

City centre. Enforcement began 1 June 2024. No daily charge — non-compliant vehicles are penalised on entry.

Official page

Charges and classes read off official operator and council pages on 27 August 2026 and listed in Sources below. Local authorities do change these rates — the “Official page” link on each zone is the authority, not this table.

“Aberdeen ULEZ” does not exist — and the difference costs money

Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow each run a Low Emission Zone, not a ULEZ. The emission standards are identical to London's — petrol Euro 4, diesel Euro 6 — but the enforcement model is the opposite of London's, and that is what catches visitors out.

In London you can drive a 2009 diesel into the ULEZ every day of the year, legally, as long as you pay £12.50 each time. In Glasgow you cannot. There is no daily charge to pay in a Scottish LEZ. A non-compliant vehicle entering the zone gets a penalty charge, and the penalty escalates:

First penalty	£60, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days
Repeat in the same LEZ	Doubles each time you re-enter within 90 days of the last penalty
Cap — cars and light goods vehicles	£480
Cap — minibuses, buses, coaches, HGVs	£960
Reset	Back to £60 after 90 days with no further penalty
Daily charge you can pre-pay	None. It does not exist.

Source: mygov.scot, Low Emission Zones — fines. Verified 27 August 2026.

Out of scope entirely in Scotland

mygov.scot states that LEZ restrictions do not apply to motorbikes, mopeds or fully electric vehicles. Separately, exempt vehicles include those for disabled people (any vehicle a Blue Badge holder is travelling in, and vehicles in the disabled tax class), emergency service vehicles, military vehicles, vehicles of historic interest and showman's vehicles. Councils may grant further local exemptions for up to a year.

Am I in the ULEZ zone?

If you are anywhere in Greater London, yes. TfL's own wording is that the zone “operates across all London boroughs, and does not include the M25”. There is no inner and outer ULEZ any more and no borough opt-out; the boundary sits at the edge of Greater London, and the M25 carriageway itself is outside it even where it runs close to the boundary.

It runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day. There is no rush-hour-only version and no weekend exemption — that is the Congestion Charge, a separate central-London scheme that has nothing to do with emissions.

Outside Greater London, there is no ULEZ anywhere in the UK. If you have seen a “Manchester ULEZ” or “Leeds ULEZ” headline, neither city appears on GOV.UK's list of clean air zones in operation. The zone list above is that list, plus Scotland's four LEZs.

We cannot answer the boundary question — and neither can any other reg lookup

A registration number tells you what a vehicle is, never where it is. Any site claiming to tell you from a number plate whether you are inside a zone is guessing. Use TfL's map for London, GOV.UK's for the English Clean Air Zones and mygov.scot for Scotland. What we do give you, free, is the half a reg lookup can genuinely answer: the Euro standard and fuel type that decide whether you would be charged if you were inside one.

One number decides it everywhere: your Euro standard

London's ULEZ, the two charging English Clean Air Zones and all four Scottish LEZs use the same two thresholds for cars. Check it once and you have your answer for the whole country.

Vehicle	Standard needed	Guide registration date	Note
Petrol car	Euro 4	Generally first registered as new after 2005	TfL's own wording. Same threshold in Birmingham, Bristol and all four Scottish LEZs.
Diesel car	Euro 6	Generally first registered as new after September 2015	The threshold that catches people out — a 2014 diesel is Euro 5 and is charged.
Hybrid	Follows its engine	Petrol hybrid → Euro 4. Diesel hybrid → Euro 6.	There is no separate hybrid rule in any UK zone.
Fully electric	Always compliant	—	Zero-emission vehicles are out of scope everywhere, including Scotland.
Motorbike / moped	Depends where	—	London ULEZ requires Euro 3. Bristol does not charge motorbikes. Scotland's LEZs do not apply to them at all.

Registration date is a guide, not the rule. A car's Euro standard comes from its type approval, and manufacturers moved to each standard at different times — so two cars registered the same month can sit either side of the line. That is why we read the DVLA record's Euro status rather than inferring it from the year. More on Euro 4, 5 and 6 and how they map to registration dates.

What this checker does, and what it does not

What you get free

The Euro emission standard on the DVLA vehicle record, and the fuel type it applies to.
The CO2 figure and the VED road-tax band that follows from it.
Full DVSA MOT history — every test, advisory, failure and odometer reading.
Tax and MOT expiry status, and any export marker.

What we will not pretend to do

Tell you whether a specific road or postcode is inside a zone. No reg lookup can.
Override the operator. If TfL, a council or mygov.scot disagrees with us, they are right and we are not.
Bill you for any of it. Nothing on this page is behind a paywall, at any tier.
Confirm an exemption. Historic, disabled-tax-class and retrofit exemptions are decided by the operator, on application.

ULEZ, LEZ and Clean Air Zone FAQ

Am I in the ULEZ zone?

If you are inside Greater London, yes. Transport for London states that the Ultra Low Emission Zone 'operates across all London boroughs, and does not include the M25' — so every borough is inside it, but the M25 itself is not. It runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day. Outside Greater London there is no ULEZ anywhere in the UK: other English cities run Clean Air Zones and Scotland runs Low Emission Zones, which are different schemes with different rules.

Is there a ULEZ in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee?

No. Scotland has no ULEZ. All four cities run a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) covering the city centre — Glasgow from 1 June 2023, and Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh from 1 June 2024. The critical difference from London is that an LEZ has no daily charge: you cannot pay to drive a non-compliant vehicle in. Instead you receive a penalty charge of £60, reduced to £30 if you pay within 14 days, and that penalty doubles for each further entry in the same zone within 90 days, capped at £480 for cars and light goods vehicles.

Which UK clean air zones actually charge a private car?

Three. London's ULEZ (£12.50 a day), Bristol's Clean Air Zone (£9 a day) and Birmingham's Clean Air Zone (£8 a day). Bristol and Birmingham are the only Class D zones in England, and Class D is the only class that includes cars. Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside are Class B or Class C, which cover buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, HGVs and (in Class C) vans and minibuses — but never private cars. Charges checked 27 August 2026; councils do change them, so confirm on the official page before you travel.

What Euro standard does my car need?

Petrol cars need Euro 4. Diesel cars need Euro 6. That is the same pair of thresholds in London's ULEZ, in Birmingham and Bristol's Clean Air Zones, and in all four Scottish LEZs — which is why one check answers the question for the whole country. TfL describes compliant petrol cars as generally those first registered as new after 2005, and compliant diesels as generally those first registered as new after September 2015. Registration date is only a guide: the standard comes from the vehicle's type approval, so check the actual record.

Can this page tell me if I will be charged?

It can tell you half of it, honestly. Enter a registration and we read the Euro emission standard and fuel type straight from the DVLA vehicle record, which is what every UK zone uses to decide whether a car pays. What we cannot do is tell you where you are — no reg lookup knows whether the road you are on is inside a zone boundary. For the boundary, use the operator's own map: TfL for London, GOV.UK for the English Clean Air Zones, mygov.scot for Scotland. For a charging decision you intend to rely on, the operator's checker is definitive and ours is not.

What happens if I don't pay the ULEZ charge?

Transport for London issues a Penalty Charge Notice of £180, reduced to £90 if it is paid within 14 days. That is per day of non-payment, not a one-off. The daily charge itself is £12.50 for cars, motorcycles and vans up to 3.5 tonnes and minibuses up to 5 tonnes.

Is a Euro 5 diesel ULEZ compliant?

No. Diesel cars must be Euro 6, so a Euro 5 diesel pays the £12.50 daily charge in London and is charged in Birmingham and Bristol, and is non-compliant in all four Scottish LEZs. A Euro 5 petrol car is fine everywhere — petrol only needs Euro 4. This single asymmetry is behind most surprise charges, because a 2013 or 2014 diesel feels modern and is not.

Which vehicles are exempt from Scotland's Low Emission Zones?

Scotland's LEZ rules do not apply to motorbikes, mopeds or fully electric vehicles at all. On top of that, mygov.scot lists exemptions for vehicles for disabled people (including any vehicle a Blue Badge holder is travelling in, and vehicles in the disabled tax class), emergency service vehicles, military vehicles, vehicles of historic interest, and showman's vehicles. Councils can also grant local exemptions of up to a year for specialist vehicles such as construction or recovery vehicles.

Does London have a second zone as well as ULEZ?

Yes — the London-wide Low Emission Zone (LEZ) is a separate, older scheme aimed at heavier vehicles such as lorries, buses and coaches. It does not apply to cars. If you drive a car in London, ULEZ is the scheme that concerns you (alongside the Congestion Charge in central London, which is a traffic charge rather than an emissions one).

Is this ULEZ check free?

Yes. The Euro status, fuel type, CO2 figure and full DVSA MOT history are free on this site with no sign-up. Our paid tiers (Basic £2.99, Premium £3.99) add mileage and defect detail and the AI vehicle Q&A — they do not add anything emissions-related, because the emissions data is already free.

Sources

Related checks and guides

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Is your car Euro 4, 5 or 6 — and how Euro standards map to registration dates.

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The short answer, by fuel type and registration year.

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What we check — and where it comes from

Check	What it tells you	Source
MOT history & mileage	Every test, advisory, failure and odometer reading since 2005 — plus our clocking analysis the DVSA listing doesn't do.	DVSA MOT API (official)
Tax & MOT status, CO2, ULEZ	Current tax and MOT validity, emissions band and ULEZ position.	DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service
Outstanding finance	Coming soon — not yet offered, and not something we charge for today.
Stolen / write-off / keeper history	Coming soon — not yet offered, and not something we charge for today.

We're honest about our limits.

The MOT & mileage data here is the same data you can get free at gov.uk — we add the analysis and the clocking flags. We don't claim a guarantee we can't back, we don't hide our data sources, and we don't use fake countdown timers. If a check isn't live above, we don't have it yet — and we won't pretend otherwise.

Car tax does not transfer with the car. The moment you buy it, it is untaxed — and untaxed plus un-MOT'd is two offences.

Get the Euro standard, the CO2 band and the whole MOT record — free

One registration. The emissions data that decides every UK zone, plus everything the DVSA holds on the car.

Euro emission standard and fuel type from the DVLA record
CO2 figure and the VED band it puts the car in
Every MOT test, advisory, failure and odometer reading

Free · Official DVLA & DVSA data · No sign-up