E-scooters in Berlin: apps, prices, parking zones and the rules

Which e-scooter apps work in Berlin?

Five companies rent out e-scooters in Berlin, all under city permits that run until 31 March 2027:

• Lime, Bolt and Voi: city-wide, and also bookable in Jelbi, the app of Berlin’s transport company BVG.
• Dott: city-wide. Dott merged with Tier, and Tier riders have used the Dott app since October 2024.
• Zeus: only in the outer districts of Spandau and Reinickendorf.

Bird no longer runs in Berlin. Inside the S-Bahn ring, the circle line around the centre, the city allows at most 19,000 rental e-scooters, split evenly among the four operators there; outside it there is no cap.

At the end of every ride you take a photo of the parked scooter: Berlin’s permits require proof like this. Step-by-step help is in how to rent an e-scooter.

ScootRadar can read live data only from Dott in Berlin: on 12 October 2026 the map around Berlin showed about 4,900 Dott scooters. Find the other four in their own apps.

How much does an e-scooter cost in Berlin?

You pay to unlock, then by the minute. Dott is the only operator whose Berlin rate we found, in its public data feed; Bolt gives a starting price for all of Germany.

The app shows the final price before you unlock; prices on older pages, the city’s English portal included, are out of date. For regular riders there are passes: Bolt sells unlimited unlocks in Germany from €0.99 a month, and Voi sells subscriptions and minute packs.

Berlin e-scooter rules: where to ride, parks and the law

The German rules in brief. From 1 March 2027, e-scooters will be treated much like bicycles.

Riding two up is a common mistake: in 2025 Berlin police recorded 1,087 e-scooter rides with two or more people on board, more than red-light offences (1,012).

Stay out of the parks. Berlin’s public parks (Grünanlagen) are closed to motor vehicles, and in German law an e-scooter is one. Look for the tulip sign at the entrance: a triangle with a green border and a tulip. Riding or parking there can cost up to €55 on the spot, which is what TV satirist Jan Böhmermann paid for riding through the Tiergarten, the Berliner Zeitung reported in March 2024. Grün Berlin, which runs Tempelhofer Feld, says motor vehicles are banned there too.

No zone slows you down automatically: the Senate says throttling a moving scooter isn’t currently legal in Germany. Slow down yourself on cobblestones, and cross tram tracks as close to a right angle as you can.

E-scooter parking in Berlin: Jelbi bays, red zones and the pavement

If there’s a marked bay nearby, the scooter goes there: a Jelbi point or station run by BVG, or a district bay. Around each bay is a no-parking zone of at least 100 m where the app won’t let you end the ride. In April 2026 no-parking zones covered 28 of the 88 km² inside the S-Bahn ring, almost a third.

In Lime’s app, for example, bays show a blue P or a yellow Jelbi “J”, and red zones mean no parking. Away from bays you may park on the pavement if 2.30 m stays clear for people walking. These places are always off limits, with at least 1.5 m kept clear before and after each:

• at a bus or tram stop: 25 m either side of the stop sign under the permits since April 2025 (some pages still give the old 15 m);
• at the entrance to a building or a U-Bahn or S-Bahn station;
• at a pedestrian crossing, driveway or fire lane, or within 10 m of a junction;
• on a bike lane or the tactile paving for blind people, or in a pedestrian zone;
• in a park, a cemetery or a tree pit;
• on a bridge used by pedestrians, unless there’s a marked bay on it.

Tip: you may leave the scooter in a car parking space at the kerb, free of charge: a 2022 change to Berlin’s parking-fee rules exempts e-scooters, to get them off the pavement. It works wherever the app lets you end the ride. At events and building sites you may be unable to end a ride for a while; operators must warn you in the app.

In a red zone the app won’t let you end the ride, and the minutes keep running. Check the app for the nearest bay before you reach your destination.

Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz and other sights: marked bays only

Since 11 March 2024, a 3.5 km² area of Mitte, about the size of Tempelhofer Feld, has been a no-parking zone for rental vehicles. You can end a ride there only at a marked bay, roughly every 200 m, including at Alexanderplatz, Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate; at the start there were around 70 Jelbi points and 30 signed bays. Another large no-parking zone runs from the Hauptbahnhof, the main station, south to Potsdamer Platz; at the station, use the Jelbi point S+U Hauptbahnhof/Heidestrasse.

Each operator maps the city’s zones itself, and they change often, so the map in your app has the final word. To see where Dott scooters are right now, open the live map of Berlin.

What bad parking costs in Berlin

Badly parked scooters are mostly a Mitte problem: of 35,026 reports of illegally parked e-scooters in 2025, 31,577 were in that district.

Lime warns you first, then charges a fee and may block your account. Dott blocks repeat offenders for good, and its photo check refuses to end a ride if the scooter is badly parked. To report a scooter in the way, use Jelbi’s form, scooter-melder.de or the hotline on the scooter; by day the operator must move it within four hours.

U-Bahn, Jelbi and BER airport

Since 1 May 2024, BVG has banned e-scooters from its U-Bahn trains, trams, buses and U-Bahn stations, folded or not. With a rental, end the ride outside the station and rent another at the other end.

Jelbi is BVG’s mobility app: public transport tickets plus Lime, Bolt and Voi scooters, with a Jelbi account of its own. Dott can’t be booked in Jelbi, but its scooters stand at Jelbi stations.

BER airport: Dott’s area ends well north of the airport, and BER’s own travel page lists no e-scooter sharing. Take the FEX airport express or the S-Bahn into town and pick up a scooter there.

Prefer to pedal? nextbike and DB Call a Bike rent out bikes in Berlin, and so do Lime, Bolt and Voi.

Will Berlin ban e-scooters after March 2027?

Every operator’s permit ends on 31 March 2027, and what comes next hasn’t been decided (as of October 2026): the Senate has published no new rules or tender. In June 2026 an alliance of about 40 organisations called for fixed stations from April 2027.

The long-term plan is settled. Under its Sharing Strategy 2035, adopted on 6 May 2026, the Senate wants to move area by area to about 3,000 fixed mobility hubs, where rentals would start and end. That isn’t a ban, whatever March 2026 headlines said; the Senate says Berlin can’t ban e-scooters outright.

Did you know? Berlin e-scooter facts

• About 850 e-scooters a year are fished out of Berlin’s waterways, the Senate estimates; the permits oblige operators to recover them.
• Every rental scooter must show its complaint hotline number in Braille on the handlebar.
• The average ride is short: 1.6 km and 6.5 minutes in the first quarter of 2026.