A contactless bank card, phone or watch works on every train between London and Gatwick Airport: Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink. Tap in and out with the same one and you need no ticket. An adult Oyster card on pay-as-you-go is also accepted between London and Gatwick, according to the airport, Gatwick Express, Southern and TfL, but concession Oysters and Travelcards do not cover the trip. Neither card works south of the airport, so Brighton needs a ticket. These rules were checked on 2026-09-27 and can change.
What is valid on which journey
| Journey | Contactless | Adult Oyster pay-as-you-go | What else to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gatwick and Victoria on Southern | Yes | Yes | £10.70 off-peak, £19.20 peak |
| Gatwick and Victoria on Gatwick Express | Yes | Yes | £24.00 at all times, outside the daily caps |
| Gatwick and East Croydon, London Bridge or St Pancras | Yes | Yes | £4.10 to £6.60 to East Croydon, £10.70 to £19.20 to St Pancras |
| Gatwick and Brighton | No | No | Buy a ticket from the machines, the ticket office or online |
| National Express coaches | No tapping | No | Book online, in the app or at a coach desk |
Scroll sideways to see all columns
The Oyster exceptions are the ones that catch Londoners out. Freedom Pass, 60+ London Oyster, Veterans Oyster and Zip Oyster holders do not travel free to Gatwick, and the airport says the 60+ Oyster photocard cannot be used at all. London Travelcards are not valid, because Gatwick sits outside the Travelcard zones. Pay-as-you-go, whether contactless or Oyster, charges adult Standard Class fares only, so a Railcard discount cannot be applied. With a Railcard, buy a paper or e-ticket instead.
Do not plan on buying an Oyster card at the airport. National Rail says the station does not sell them and that you can only top one up at the self-service machines. Gatwick’s own page mentions a South Terminal desk that sells them. The sources disagree; a contactless card avoids the question.
How you are charged
Touch in and out every time. Use the yellow readers at the ticket gates, even if the gates are standing open. Use the same card or device at both ends. If you do not touch out, the journey is left incomplete and you are charged a maximum fare.
Peak or off-peak depends on when you touch in, and on the direction. The fares recorded on our route pages show three patterns:
- Gatwick into central London (Victoria, St Pancras): peak only when you touch in between 06:30 and 09:30 on a weekday.
- Central London to Gatwick: peak between 06:30 and 09:30 and again between 16:00 and 19:00 on weekdays.
- Gatwick and East Croydon, in either direction: both weekday windows apply. That means £6.60 rather than £4.10.
The Gatwick Express fare does not change with the time of day.
Daily and weekly caps apply, with limits. TfL’s 2026 caps for Gatwick Airport with Zones 1 to 6 are £40.80 a day at peak, £24.10 a day off-peak and £129.40 from Monday to Sunday. The Gatwick Express is excluded. Journeys you start between 16:00 and 19:00 still count towards the off-peak cap. A single return trip will not usually reach the cap: two off-peak Southern fares to Victoria come to £21.40. As Southern and Gatwick Express both note, a capped day is not always cheaper than a paper return. Contactless journeys that never touch Zones 1 to 9 are not capped at all.
Delays can still be claimed. Delay Repay covers pay-as-you-go journeys if you supply a printout of your touch-in and touch-out record.
Cards from abroad. TfL says overseas charges may apply to cards issued abroad, and that a phone wallet linked to a non-UK card may not work (source: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/ways-to-pay/pay-as-you-go, checked 2026-09-27). Ask your card issuer before you fly.
Mistakes that cost money
- Using the wrong gateline at Victoria. At Victoria the gates, not the train, decide the fare. The Gatwick Express gates, usually at platforms 13 and 14, charge the higher fare. The Southern gates, usually at platforms 15 to 19, charge the lower one. Heading to Gatwick on Southern, walk to the Southern side.
- One card for the whole group. Each person needs their own card or device. TfL lets you pay for a companion only with a different card or device from your own (source: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/ways-to-pay/pay-as-you-go, checked 2026-09-27). Two cards on a joint account can usually both be used, as each is charged separately.
- Switching devices mid-journey. Tap in with your phone and out with the physical card and the two taps cannot be matched, so you are charged as for an incomplete journey.
- Card clash. Keep an Oyster and a contactless card apart in your wallet, or the reader may charge the one you did not intend to use.
- A flat phone. TfL says that if your device runs out of battery before you touch out, you pay a maximum fare or risk a penalty fare.
- Tapping for Brighton. Pay-as-you-go is not valid south of the airport. See Gatwick to Brighton.
Coaches, buses and taxis
National Express coaches do not take tap-on payment. Buy online, in the app or at the coach desks in the arrivals halls of both terminals. The lowest fares on our route pages include a £1.50 booking fee, which is waived if you have an account.
Local buses. Metrobus single fares are capped at £3. On the way to Heathrow via East Croydon, the SL7 Superloop bus costs £1.75. Oyster works on the SL7, as does contactless. See Gatwick to Heathrow.
Taxis. Airport Cars Gatwick, the airport’s official taxi firm, quotes a fixed price. You can pay online in advance, by card in the car or in cash at the end, though pre-booked trips must be paid online. It publishes no price list. Pre-booked private hire firms take payment when you book.
Being collected by car. The forecourt drop-off charge is £10 for up to ten minutes, and it must be paid by midnight the following day. Unofficial taxi firms add it to your fare.
In short
For London trains, tap your own card or phone and tap the same one at the other end. For Brighton, buy a ticket. For the coach, book it. To choose between trains, see is Gatwick Express worth it; to time your journey, use the leave-by calculator.
Payment rules and fares on this page were checked on 2026-09-27 against the airport, Gatwick Express, Southern, TfL and National Rail pages cited in our data. They can change, so confirm with the operator before you travel.
Paper tickets and their restriction codes
Buy a paper ticket or an e-ticket instead of tapping, as you must for Brighton or to use a Railcard, and the times and trains it is valid on are set by a restriction code: two letters or digits that National Rail publishes the conditions for (source: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ticket-types/ticket-validity-finder/, checked 2026-09-28). The code is printed among the ticket’s details, so read it off your own ticket rather than guessing it from the fare name. Type it into the lookup below to see the days, times and exceptions attached to it. The lookup explains a code; it cannot tell you which code a fare between Gatwick and London should carry, because National Rail’s data does not say which train companies or routes use each code.