JFK, LaGuardia and Newark to Manhattan: What Each Option Costs
A yellow cab from JFK to Manhattan runs 88 to 100 dollars. The train is 11.75. Verified 2026 costs and times for all three New York airports.
Sammie O
A yellow cab from JFK to Manhattan costs about 88 to 100 dollars once the surcharges and a tip are added. The train costs 11.75 dollars. This page sets out what every option costs from each of New York’s three airports, checked against the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the Port Authority and the MTA in September 2026.
What each option costs
| From | Train or bus | Yellow taxi, all in | Rail journey time |
|---|---|---|---|
| JFK | 11.75 dollars, AirTrain and subway | 88 to 100 dollars | 60 to 75 minutes |
| LaGuardia | 3 dollars by bus, or free on the Q70 | 55 to 80 dollars | 45 to 60 minutes |
| Newark | 17.25 dollars, AirTrain and NJ Transit | 90 to 125 dollars | 45 to 60 minutes |
A private transfer sits between the two. The price table on this page shows the live fare for each route, so you can compare it against these figures before you book.
JFK to Manhattan
The yellow cab fare is flat at 70 dollars. That is the fare, not the total. Five charges are added on top.
- MTA state surcharge, 50 cents
- Improvement surcharge, 1 dollar
- New York State congestion surcharge, 2.50 dollars below 96th Street
- MTA congestion relief toll, 75 cents below 60th Street
- Peak surcharge, 5 dollars on weekdays between 4pm and 8pm
An off-peak trip reaches 74.75 dollars before tolls. If your driver uses the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, add 7.46 dollars. The Queensboro Bridge is free. A 15 to 20 percent tip takes the real total to 88 to 100 dollars, or 95 to 105 dollars in the evening peak.
The flat fare only applies between Manhattan and JFK. Trips to Brooklyn or Queens run on the meter.
The AirTrain costs 8.75 dollars. You pay it on entry or exit at Jamaica or Howard Beach. Moving between terminals is free. Add the subway at 3 dollars and the total is 11.75 dollars. Add the Long Island Rail Road at Jamaica instead and it is 14 dollars off peak or 16 dollars at peak. The LIRR run from Jamaica to Penn Station takes 18 to 20 minutes. Allow 60 to 75 minutes from the terminal by subway.
Pay the AirTrain with a contactless card or phone. MetroCard has been retired.
LaGuardia to Manhattan
There is no flat fare from LaGuardia. The meter runs, and a 5 dollar LaGuardia surcharge applies to every trip in either direction. The same MTA, improvement and congestion charges apply as at JFK. Expect 55 to 80 dollars all in, and around 60 to 70 dollars to Midtown with a tip.
The Q70 bus is free and has been since May 2022. It runs from Terminals B and C to Jackson Heights for the E, F, M and R trains, and to 74th Street for the 7. Terminal A connects by the inter-terminal shuttle.
The M60, Q72 and Q33 cost 3 dollars. The Q33 has served Terminal A since August 2025.
LaGuardia has no train. The AirTrain project was cancelled in 2022, so buses are the only transit link.
Newark to Manhattan
Newark works differently in each direction.
Leaving Newark, the taxis waiting there are Newark licensed and charge a zone flat rate. It is 60 dollars to the Battery and West 13th Street, 65 dollars to West 14th to 50th, 70 dollars to West 51st to 96th, 75 dollars to West 97th to 185th, and 80 dollars above that. Add a 2 dollar airport access fee, a 5 dollar East Side surcharge between the Battery and 145th Street, and 1 dollar per bag including carry-ons. The Port Authority puts the remaining fees at 6.75 to 15.75 dollars. Budget 90 to 125 dollars.
Going the other way, a New York yellow cab runs the meter and adds a 20 dollar Newark surcharge. You also pay the tolls in both directions, including the driver’s return. The Lincoln and Holland tunnels are 16.79 dollars at peak with E-ZPass. That puts a Manhattan to Newark trip at 115 to 150 dollars.
NJ Transit charges 17.25 dollars between the airport station and New York Penn Station, and the AirTrain fee is included. The rail leg takes about 30 minutes. Add 7 minutes from Terminal C, 11 from Terminal B or 20 from Terminal A. Allow 45 to 60 minutes door to door. Buying on board adds 5 dollars, so use the app or a machine.
NJ Transit does not run around the clock. Outside roughly 5am to 1am, the fallback is PATH plus the 62 bus.
Ride-hailing
Uber and Lyft pay the Port Authority 3.50 dollars for every pickup and every drop-off, up from 2.50 dollars in March 2026. It rises to 4.50 dollars in March 2027. A trip into Manhattan below 60th Street also carries a 1.50 dollar congestion relief toll and a 2.75 dollar state congestion surcharge.
Pickup points move. At LaGuardia, Terminal B pickups are on Level 2 of the parking garage and Terminal C uses the arrivals inner lane. At Newark, Terminal C pickups are on Floor 3 of the garage. At JFK the Terminal 5 and Terminal 7 ride-app pickups have been moved to the Howard Beach AirTrain station during construction. Check the app when you land.
Figures that are out of date almost everywhere
Most guides to these routes still print numbers that changed years ago. These are the ones to watch for.
| Still quoted | Correct now |
|---|---|
| 52 dollar JFK flat fare | 70 dollars, since December 2022 |
| 4.50 dollar JFK peak surcharge | 5 dollars |
| 30 cent improvement surcharge | 1 dollar |
| 17.50 dollar Newark surcharge | 20 dollars |
| No LaGuardia surcharge | 5 dollars on every trip since December 2022 |
| 1 dollar peak and 50 cent night taxi surcharge | 2.50 dollars and 1 dollar |
| 8.50 dollar AirTrain at JFK | 8.75 dollars |
| 2.75 or 2.90 dollar subway fare | 3 dollars since January 2026 |
| Q47 or Q48 to LaGuardia | Neither serves the airport since August 2025 |
| 16.80 dollars on NJ Transit to Newark | 17.25 dollars since July 2026 |
| 2.50 dollar ride-hailing airport fee | 3.50 dollars each way since March 2026 |
| Congestion pricing was cancelled | A federal judge upheld it in March 2026 |
Two of those errors sit on official pages. The Port Authority’s LaGuardia taxi page still lists the pre-2022 peak and night surcharges. The MTA’s Newark guide still quotes 16.80 dollars and an 8.50 dollar AirTrain fare.
What we could not confirm
Door-to-door journey times. The MTA and the Port Authority publish times for each segment but not for the whole trip, so the rail times on this page are built from those segments rather than quoted from either.
We also could not confirm the date the JFK AirTrain fare moved to 8.75 dollars, only that it is the fare being charged now.
Sources
- NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, taxi fare
- TLC, New York State congestion surcharge
- MTA fares
- MTA, congestion relief zone taxi and ride-hail tolls
- JFK AirTrain fares
- LaGuardia public transport
- Newark taxi zone fares
- NJ Transit, Newark Liberty International Airport
Sammie O publishes Germ Trips, a travel guide covering hotels, restaurants, airport transfers and chauffeur services. The guides aim for practical detail and a clear recommendation rather than an undifferentiated list. Where a town has no good option, the guides say so and point to the nearest one that does. Guides are AI drafted. A small number have been checked against official listings, and those say so on the page.
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