How Much Does ETIAS Cost for a Family of Four in 2026?

If you're pricing up a Schengen trip for four people, the ETIAS number is smaller than most people expect — and much smaller than plenty of websites make it look. The fee is €7 per traveller aged 18 to 70. Children under 18 pay nothing.

Adults over 70 pay nothing either.

So the realistic answer for a family of four is €14: the classic two-adults-two-children setup. It's €28 if all four of you are in the paying age band. And it's €0 if you're travelling with two children and two grandparents over 70.

There's no family rate, no group discount and no per-household charge — the fee is charged per person.

One caveat before you budget. ETIAS isn't expected to be in force for the whole of 2026. The European Commission has pointed to the last quarter of 2026, following the Entry/Exit System rollout.

If your trip is in spring or summer 2026, you'll most likely pay nothing at all — EES registration is free. What follows is general guidance, not immigration advice. Always check the official sources before you book.

How much does ETIAS cost for a family of four?

Short answer: €14 for two paying adults, €28 if all four are 18–70, and €0 if nobody in the group falls in the paying age band.

The rule behind those numbers is simple. One ETIAS per traveller. A €7 fee for applicants who are 18 or older and not over 70.

No fee for anyone younger or older. That's it — there's no sliding scale based on trip length, no surcharge for multiple countries and no extra charge for a longer validity period.

The €7 figure is set out in the ETIAS Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 and is the amount the EU currently publishes on its official ETIAS site. It's collected once, when you apply, and it covers the whole validity period.

ETIAS cost for a family of four, by family make-up

Every family is different, so here's what four travellers pay in the most common combinations. Figures are illustrative of the current published fee, not quotes.

Notice how narrow the range is. Even the most expensive version of a family of four — four full-fare adults — comes to €28. That's less than a single Schengen visa fee for one adult.

Who pays the €7, and who is exempt?

There are three fee categories under the ETIAS rules, and they're based purely on age and status at the time you apply.

• Paying applicants: travellers aged 18 to 70. They pay €7 each.
• Fee-exempt by age: children under 18, and applicants over the age of 70. They still apply and still receive an ETIAS — they simply skip the payment step.
• Fee-exempt by status: non-EU family members of EU, EEA or Swiss citizens who are covered by EU free movement rules. This one is fiddly, because it depends on your nationality, your residence status and who you're travelling with — the official ETIAS site sets out exactly who qualifies.

Where the age rules get confusing

Two edge cases trip people up constantly.

The 70/71 boundary. The EU describes the exemption as applying to applicants "over 70". If you're booking for a parent or grandparent who is 70 or has a birthday close to the travel date, don't guess. The official application will calculate the fee for you at the payment step — if no fee appears, none is due.

The 17/18 boundary. Age is assessed at the point of application, not at the point of travel. A 17-year-old who turns 18 before the trip is still fee-exempt if the application goes in while they're 17. A 17-year-old who applies after their birthday pays.

And the most important point of all: fee-exempt does not mean authorisation-exempt. A six-month-old baby needs an ETIAS. Your 14-year-old needs an ETIAS.

They just don't cost you anything.

Is the ETIAS fee per person or per family?

Per person. Always per person.

There is no household application, no group booking, no family bundle and no discount for applying for several people at once. The ETIAS system was built around individual travellers, and every person gets their own authorisation with their own reference number.

What you can do is apply for your children. A parent or legal guardian completes the application on behalf of a minor — the form asks for the guardian's details — but the resulting authorisation is still issued to the child, in the child's name, linked to the child's passport.

Here's the practical upshot for a family of four:

1. Four separate applications.
2. Two of them (the adults) require a €7 payment each.
3. All four need their own valid passport or travel document.
4. All four receive their own ETIAS, usually within minutes of applying.

Will you actually pay ETIAS in 2026?

This is the part most cost articles skip, and it matters more than the €7.

ETIAS is not live yet. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) began rolling out on 12 October 2025, with a progressive implementation across member states running until 10 April 2026. ETIAS is expected to follow — the Commission has indicated the last quarter of 2026 — with a transition period afterwards.

Dates have shifted before, so treat any specific launch date as provisional.

So if you're flying to Spain in July 2026, the honest answer is that you'll probably pay nothing. You'll be photographed and fingerprinted under EES, which is free, and that's the whole cost.

If you're travelling at Christmas 2026 or into 2027, budget the €14. And keep an eye on the official EU ETIAS site, which publishes the launch date and the current fee.

What the €7 actually buys you

Cheap doesn't mean limited. An ETIAS authorisation does a lot for seven euros.

• Three years of validity — or until your passport expires, whichever comes first.
• Unlimited entries during that period, as many times as you like.
• Up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the Schengen area. That's the standard short-stay allowance, whether you use one trip or ten.
• Cover for tourism, business meetings, transit and short study. It's not tied to a single purpose of travel.
• Access to every Schengen country plus Cyprus, and to several other participating countries once their systems are connected.

What it doesn't buy is a guaranteed entry. An ETIAS is a travel authorisation, not a visa. Border officers still make the final decision when you arrive, and they can ask about your onward plans, your funds and your return ticket.

Cost per trip: why €14 stretches over three years

Families often look at €7 per person and assume it's a per-trip charge. It isn't. Here's how it amortises over the validity period.

Take two paying adults and one trip a year for three years. Total cost: €14. That's €4.67 a year for the whole family, or about €1.55 per trip per adult.

Compare that with the €90 an adult visa national pays for a single Schengen visa application.

There's a helpful comparison with the UK, too. If your trip includes time in Britain, every traveller needs a separate UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). As of April 2025 the UK ETA fee was £16 per person — including children — with two years of validity.

Four travellers means roughly £64 each time you renew, which is well over double the total ETIAS bill for the same family. Check the current figure on GOV.UK before you budget.

ETIAS vs Schengen visa costs: when your family can't use ETIAS at all

Here's the thing that catches mixed-nationality families out. ETIAS is only available to visa-exempt nationals. If someone in your family holds a passport from a country that needs a Schengen visa, ETIAS isn't an option for them at any price — they need a visa, and a visa costs a lot more than €7.

Not sure where each passport sits? Check the full etias country list before you plan your budget. Roughly 60 countries are covered, including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and the UAE.

So a family of four holding Indian passports — two adults, one child aged 8 and one toddler — would pay €180 + €45 + €0 = €225 in visa fees, plus service fees and a trip to a visa centre for biometrics. That's before flights. If you hold an Indian passport, the process and costs are set out in full in our guide to etias indian passport holders.

Canadian passport holders sit on the other side of the line entirely — visa-exempt, so ETIAS applies once it launches. The two routes are compared in detail in schengen visa or etias canada.

A mixed-nationality family of four: what you'd actually pay

This is common in the UK, and it's where budgets go wrong.

Mum holds a British passport and needs ETIAS: €7. Dad holds a Nigerian passport and a UK residence permit — he needs a Schengen visa: €90 plus a visa-centre service fee. The two children hold British passports: €0 each.

Family total: roughly €97 plus service fees, not €14.

The lesson is straightforward. Work out which passport each traveller will use, then apply the right rule to each person separately. Don't average it out across the family.

Worked example: what one family actually paid

The Reids from Bristol — Michael (44), Sophie (42) and 16-year-old twins Ella and Jack — booked 12 days in Paris and Nice for July 2027, once ETIAS is expected to be fully in force.

What they paid:

• Michael's ETIAS: €7
• Sophie's ETIAS: €7
• Ella's ETIAS: €0 (under 18)
• Jack's ETIAS: €0 (under 18)
• Total ETIAS cost: €14, roughly £12 after the card's exchange rate

What went wrong. Michael searched "ETIAS apply" and clicked the first paid result. He entered his details, paid €39.95, and only afterwards noticed the site wasn't the official one.

The authorisation he received may be perfectly valid — some intermediaries are registered — but he paid almost six times the fee for the privilege. Sophie used the official site for the other three applications and paid €7 for hers and nothing for the children.

Cost of that one wrong click: about €33. On a €14 family bill, that's the entire budget more than doubled. Bookmark the official address before you start.

What the ETIAS application actually asks, step by step

Knowing the form in advance makes a family application much faster. Here's the order it runs in on the official site or app.

1. Who's applying. You confirm whether you're applying for yourself or on behalf of someone else — this is the step that lets a parent apply for a child.
2. Personal details. Surname, first names, surname at birth, date of birth, place of birth, country of birth, sex.
3. Nationality. Current nationality, nationality at birth, and any other nationalities you hold. Dual nationals must declare both.
4. Travel document details. Passport number, issue date, expiry date, issuing country. This is the field that causes the most rejections — the letter O and the digit 0 look identical on a passport, and a single wrong character means a fresh application and a second fee.
5. Contact details. Home address, email address, phone number.
6. Education and occupation. A simple current-status question.
7. Member state of first intended entry. The country where you'll first cross into the Schengen area. Flying into Paris on the way to Italy? That's France.
8. Background questions. A short set of yes/no questions covering criminal convictions, previous refusals, deportations and travel to conflict zones.
9. Guardian declaration — only when applying for a minor. You confirm you're the parent or legal guardian.
10. Payment. Only shown if the applicant is aged 18–70. Card payment for the €7.
11. Decision. Most applications are decided automatically within minutes. Save the application number and check your email.

Allow at least 96 hours before travel as a minimum buffer, even though most decisions land in minutes. If the system needs to run extra checks, a decision can take considerably longer — the EU advises applying well ahead rather than relying on speed. There's no paid fast-track option, so an early application is your only insurance.

Paying the fee without paying twice

Payment is by card, online, at the end of each application. One transaction per paying traveller — so a family of four with two adults makes two €7 payments, not one €14 payment.

A few things to watch:

• Your bank's foreign transaction fee. €7 charged in euros may attract a small non-sterling fee. Some cards waive it; most don't.
• Duplicate applications. If you refresh or resubmit, you can end up paying twice. Check your email before trying again.
• No refunds on refusals. The €7 is a processing fee. If the application is refused, it isn't returned — budget it as spent the moment you pay.
• One application per person. Applying "as a family" through a third party doesn't reduce the fee; it just adds a service charge on top.

What most ETIAS cost guides get wrong

A handful of myths have spread widely enough to affect real family budgets. Here are the ones worth correcting.

• "ETIAS costs €7 per person, so a family of four pays €28." Wrong for most families. Children under 18 are fee-exempt, so the standard two-adults-two-children figure is €14.
• "You apply once for the whole family." No. Four travellers, four applications, four authorisations.
• "ETIAS starts in 2025." It doesn't. EES started in October 2025; ETIAS is expected in the last quarter of 2026, with a transition period.
• "EES costs the same as ETIAS." EES is free. It's a biometric registration at the border — no application, no fee, no form.
• "The Schengen visa fee is €80." Out of date. The adult fee rose to €90 in June 2024, with €45 for children aged 6 to 11 and no fee under 6.
• "Everyone travelling to Europe needs ETIAS." Only visa-exempt nationals. Visa nationals need a Schengen visa instead, and there's no ETIAS route for them.

If you read a cost guide quoting €35 or €50 per applicant, you're almost certainly looking at a commercial intermediary's pricing, not the ETIAS fee.

Do children and babies need their own ETIAS?

Yes — every traveller needs one, whatever their age. A three-month-old needs an ETIAS in their own name, linked to their own passport.

The good news is that they cost nothing. The child fee exemption applies to all applicants under 18, with no lower age limit and no requirement that they travel with a paying adult.

Two practical points for families:

• Children need their own passports first. You can't apply for an ETIAS without a valid travel document, so renew or issue children's passports before you start.
• The ETIAS expires with the passport. If your child's passport has 18 months left, their ETIAS lasts 18 months, not three years. Since it's free, that's only an admin annoyance — but it's a real one if you forget.

What happens if an ETIAS is refused — do you get the €7 back?

No. The fee is non-refundable if the application is refused.

Refusals aren't common, but they happen. Typical reasons include a mismatch between the details on the form and the passport, a previous immigration refusal or overstay that triggers a flag, or security checks that return a hit.

If you're refused, you have the right to appeal in the member state that made the decision, and you can apply for a Schengen visa at a consulate instead. Both routes cost considerably more than €7 and take weeks rather than minutes — which is why it's worth slowing down and triple-checking passport numbers on the form.

Hidden costs to add to the family budget

The ETIAS fee is the smallest line in a Schengen trip. Here's what actually adds up for a family of four.

Passport renewal is the one families underestimate. Check the current fees on GOV.UK before you assume it's cheap — a family of four renewing together can easily spend several hundred pounds.

The other avoidable cost is the intermediary. Only use one if you genuinely need help — for example, if you're applying for a relative who can't complete the form themselves. Registered intermediaries exist, but the official application takes about 10 minutes per person.

Family budgeting checklist for a 2026 Schengen trip

Work through these in order. It takes ten minutes and saves arguments later.

1. Check each traveller's passport nationality. ETIAS or Schengen visa — the answer differs per person.
2. Confirm the ETIAS launch date against the official EU site. If your trip falls before it, your ETIAS budget is €0.
3. Check passport expiry on every passport. Ideally six months beyond your return date, and remember the ETIAS expires when the passport does.
4. Count the paying adults. Anyone 18–70 pays €7. Under 18 and over 70 pay nothing.
5. Multiply. Two paying adults = €14. Four paying adults = €28.
6. Add visa costs for any traveller who isn't visa-exempt — €90 for adults, €45 for children aged 6–11, nothing under 6, plus service fees.
7. Add passport renewals where needed.
8. Apply early. At least 96 hours before travel, and earlier if your family has any previous refusals on record.
9. Use the official site only. One address, one app, €7, no service charge.
10. Save every application number in one place — a shared note on your phone works fine.

Key takeaways

• A family of four with two children under 18 pays €14 in total for ETIAS — €7 for each paying adult.
• Four adults pay €28. Families with only over-70s and children pay €0.
• The fee is per person. There's no family rate, no group discount and no household application.
• Children under 18 and adults over 70 are fee-exempt but not authorisation-exempt — they still need their own ETIAS.
• ETIAS is expected to launch in the last quarter of 2026. Trips earlier in 2026 will likely cost nothing, with EES registration free of charge.
• Visa nationals can't use ETIAS at all. A Schengen visa costs €90 for adults and €45 for children aged 6–11 — a completely different budget.
• Use the official EU site only. Third-party services commonly charge €30–€100 per person for a form that takes ten minutes.
• This is general information, not immigration advice. Confirm fees, dates and eligibility with the official EU ETIAS site and your national authorities before you travel.

See also: ETIAS for families and children