🚇 Updated October 2026
Tokyo Subway Ticket (2026):
24, 48 or 72 Hours — Is It Worth It?
The pass is good value on the 72-hour tier and marginal on the 24-hour one. Here are the official prices, the break-even against real Metro fares, and the one exclusion that catches people out.
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24 hours
¥1,000 adult
72 hours
¥2,000 adult
Break-even
~4 rides/day on 72h
Covers JR?
No
In short: the 72-hour ticket at ¥2,000 works out to about ¥667 a day, which four short Metro rides already beat — that tier is usually worth it. The 24-hour at ¥1,000 needs five or six rides in one window, which is a busier day than most people have. Either way the pass excludes JR, so the Yamanote Line is not included. Prices and fares checked on 19 October 2026.
Check the Tokyo Subway Ticket on Klook →What the Pass Actually Covers
The Tokyo Subway Ticket is a visitor pass giving unlimited rides on all Tokyo Metro and all Toei Subway lines for 24, 48 or 72 hours from the moment you first use it. That combination matters: Tokyo Metro and Toei are separate companies, so a journey that switches between the two normally costs two fares. The pass removes that penalty entirely.
What it does not cover is JR — and in Tokyo that is a large hole. The Yamanote Line, the loop that links Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shinagawa, Tokyo and Ueno, is JR. So are the Chuo and Sobu lines. If your days are built around the loop rather than the subway, the pass will sit unused in your pocket.
Tokyo Subway Ticket Prices
| Pass | Adult | Child | Cost per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-hour ticket | ¥1,000 | ¥500 | ¥1,000 / day |
| 48-hour ticket | ¥1,500 | ¥750 | ¥750 / day |
| 72-hour ticket | ¥2,000 | ¥1,000 | ¥667 / day |
Adult and child prices read off the official Tokyo Metro site on 19 October 2026. The cost-per-day column is our arithmetic, not an official figure. Validity counts forward in hours from first use.
What a Single Ride Costs Instead
To know whether the pass pays, you need the fare it replaces. These are Tokyo Metro's published adult single fares by distance band — the IC-card column is what a Suica or Pasmo charges, and it is marginally cheaper than a paper ticket at every band.
| Distance | IC card | Paper ticket |
|---|---|---|
| 1–6 km | ¥178 | ¥180 |
| 7–11 km | ¥209 | ¥210 |
| 12–19 km | ¥252 | ¥260 |
| 20–27 km | ¥293 | ¥300 |
| 28–40 km | ¥324 | ¥330 |
Most central-Tokyo subway hops fall in the first two bands, so call it ¥178–¥209 a ride. Against that, the ¥1,000 24-hour ticket needs five to six rides in a single window to break even. The ¥2,000 72-hour ticket, at about ¥667 a day, needs roughly four rides a day — a normal pace once you are changing lines a couple of times per outing. That gap is the whole decision.
Fares read off Tokyo Metro's adult fare table on 19 October 2026; the quoted prices include the ¥10 adult barrier-free fee. Toei Subway fares are set separately. Break-even counts are our arithmetic.
Which Version Should You Buy?
Buy the 72-hour if…
You have three subway-heavy days in central Tokyo. At ¥2,000 it works out to about ¥667 a day, which four short Metro rides already exceed. This is the version that pays for itself on an ordinary sightseeing day rather than a frantic one.
Skip it if…
Your itinerary runs along the Yamanote Line. The pass covers Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway only — JR is not included, and Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shinagawa and Ueno are all Yamanote stops. A pay-as-you-go IC card handles both networks without the arithmetic.
The 24-hour is the marginal one…
At ¥1,000 you need roughly five or six subway rides in a single 24-hour window to break even, depending on distance. That is a lot for one day unless you are deliberately crossing the city. Check your route before you buy this tier.
How to Decide and Where to Buy
Count your subway rides, not your days
The clock runs in hours from first use, not calendar days, so a 24-hour ticket first tapped at 15:00 is valid until 15:00 the next day. That makes an afternoon-arrival day and the following morning a single 24-hour window. Count the Metro and Toei rides inside it — against ¥178–¥324 a ride, five or six is where the ¥1,000 tier starts to pay.
Check whether your route is actually subway
The pass excludes JR, including the Yamanote Line, and private railways. Asakusa, Oshiage, Ginza, Roppongi, Omotesando and Tsukiji are all subway; Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno and Akihabara are reachable by subway but are also Yamanote stops you may end up using instead.
Buy before you land, or at least before the counter
The ticket is sold to overseas visitors, and the official site offers both a physical ticket and a digital QR version. Klook sells the same pass with an English checkout and a voucher you collect on arrival — useful if you would rather not work out which window sells it at the airport.
Keep an IC card anyway
Even with the pass, a Suica or Pasmo covers the JR rides, buses and convenience stores the pass does not. Nobody in Tokyo uses only a subway pass, and carrying both is the normal setup rather than a redundancy.
For the wider picture — how Metro, Toei and JR divide up the city, and where an IC card beats any pass — see getting around Tokyo and our guide to Japanese IC cards. If you are arriving at Narita or Haneda, Tokyo airport transfers covers the routes into town, several of which are bundled with this pass.
Common Questions
1. How much is the Tokyo Subway Ticket?
2. Is the Tokyo Subway Ticket worth it?
3. Does the Tokyo Subway Ticket cover JR and the Yamanote Line?
4. When does the 24 hours start?
5. Who can buy the Tokyo Subway Ticket?
6. Physical ticket or digital QR version?
7. Can I use the Tokyo Subway Ticket to get to Tokyo Skytree?
8. Is there a cheaper Tokyo subway pass?
Three subway days, ¥2,000
If your Tokyo days run on the Metro and Toei lines rather than the Yamanote loop, the 72-hour ticket is the tier that pays for itself. Klook checks out in English on a foreign card.
View the Tokyo Subway Ticket on Klook →