E-scooter hire in Brighton and Hove: Beryl’s prices, hours and where you can ride

Brighton e-scooter hire: Beryl, in a trial since July 2026

One company, Beryl, runs the hire e-scooters for Brighton & Hove City Council, alongside the pedal bikes and e-bikes of its Beryl BTN Bikes scheme. The first 100 went out on Friday 24 July 2026 from 20 hubs on the seafront, in the city centre and at Brighton and Hove stations. The council plans up to 300 from 34 hubs by the end of the second phase.

The trial is currently licensed until the end of May 2027, the council says. The national trials can run until May 2028, so an extension is possible, but none has been announced.

At 9.18am on Friday 23 October 2026 the map of Brighton showed about 270 Beryl e-scooters: a snapshot, not the fleet size. The map shows e-scooters only, not Beryl’s bikes.

How much does a Beryl e-scooter cost in Brighton?

Beryl charges £1 to unlock, then 20p a minute from Monday to Friday and 22p a minute on Saturdays and Sundays, according to its Brighton page and the council.

Beryl’s Brighton page and the council say bundles carry no unlock fee, but Beryl’s Brighton pricing guide says the £1 unlock fee still applies to e-scooters, so check the app before you buy. The council adds that a bundle covers only the first 30 minutes of a ride; after that, pay-as-you-ride rates apply.

Beryl’s £20 Weekend Pass covers pedal bikes and e-bikes only, its pages say. Students get 25% off bundles, not pay-as-you-ride, with the code STUDENT26 and an academic email until 31 July 2027. The council says jobseekers and people on Universal Credit can get free minute bundles: the app explains how.

Beryl’s open data gives the 20p rate at weekends too, so maps built on it, ours included, show weekend prices 2p a minute too low. New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.

What time do Beryl scooters turn off? No hires from midnight to 5am

Across Brighton and Hove, Beryl’s e-scooters can’t be unlocked or hired from midnight to 5am, every day of the week. The council sets this curfew in its trial conditions and Beryl’s app applies it. A hire started before midnight carries on until you end it, the council says, but once you lock the scooter you can’t take another until 5am.

Beryl’s data doesn’t list the scooters in those hours, so the Brighton map shows none: at 2.28am on Saturday 17 October 2026 it showed zero. Beryl’s pedal bikes and e-bikes aren’t affected.

Are e-scooters legal in Brighton? Age, licence and fines

Hire scooters are legal because Brighton and Hove joined England’s trial areas in July 2026. You must be 18 or over and hold at least a provisional driving licence, the council says. In the app you photograph both sides of your photocard and take a selfie; Beryl doesn’t accept paper licences. Its launch post promises riders “in-app education and mandatory training”.

Visiting? Beryl’s Brighton launch post asks for “a valid full, provisional or supported international driving licence”, but its rider requirements ask for “a valid UK driving licence”, so check in the app before you travel. The law accepts a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full licence if you entered the UK in the last 12 months, never a foreign provisional one.

Every scooter has a registration plate: to report dangerous riding, tell Beryl the date, time, place and that number. The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.

A private e-scooter is illegal on Brighton and Hove’s roads, pavements and cycle lanes, trial or not. Riding one means a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points for having no insurance, and the police can seize it; since 29 June 2026 they can seize one ridden anti-socially without a warning first.

Where can you ride? The seafront, The Lanes and the no-go zones

The council calls the trial citywide, but GPS keeps the scooters off the promenades and the Undercliff Walk. In a no-go zone the motor stops, so walk the scooter out. The council lists these zones, and the app maps them:

Beryl bays in Brighton and Hove: end every ride in a bay

E-scooters may be parked only in bays set aside for them, and not every Beryl bike bay takes them: at 10.29am on 23 October Beryl’s data showed e-scooters in 27 bays, from Portslade station in the west to Black Rock in the east. Check in the app where you can end your ride before you set off.

Park inside the bay, end the ride in the app and wait for the confirmation. Beryl’s fees (Brighton pricing guide, July 2026):

• Outside a bay: £10.
• Outside the zone: £25, plus £80 if the scooter isn’t back in the zone within 24 hours.
• Left unlocked: £10.

Ride a scooter marked with a star in the app back to a bay and Beryl Bonus gives you 5 minutes’ credit.

Brighton station, Hove station and the trains

No e-scooters on Southern, Thameslink or Gatwick Express trains. Their operator, GTR, has banned them from its trains and stations since 1 June 2023 because of the fire risk from their batteries; e-bikes and mobility scooters are still allowed. Day-trippers: come by train, then pick up a Beryl scooter outside.

• Brighton station: the Brighton Station – South bay, with room for 20.
• Hove station: the Hove Station – South bay, with room for 29.
• Portslade station: the Portslade Station / Worcester Villas bay.

Heading elsewhere? See e-scooter hire in the UK for the other trial areas.

University of Sussex and University of Brighton students

You can’t ride a Beryl scooter to lectures at Falmer. The council’s Cabinet report of 23 April 2026 says: “Both University of Brighton and University of Sussex have decided not to review their bans on e-scooter use on their land, so hire sites are not permitted by these landowners.” Falmer and Stanmer north of The Keep are a no-go zone, and the report says the council will ask both universities to review their decisions after the first academic year. The University of Brighton’s own policy, updated in 2024, bans using, storing or charging e-scooters on its campuses and in its halls.

In town, STUDENT26 takes 25% off a bundle: the 100-minute bundle then costs £11.25.

Did you know?

• The Lanes became a no-go zone after the consultation. In the council’s consultation, which drew 1,293 responses, The Lanes (35 mentions) and North Laine (27) were the places most often suggested as extra no-go zones.
• The curfew grew before launch. The council first proposed stopping hires only on Friday and Saturday nights, with a 6.5 mph limit on weeknights. It launched with a curfew every night.
• The bikes came first. Beryl BTN Bikes had carried more than 1.2 million journeys before the e-scooters joined, Beryl said in July 2026.