Parking in Chicago

This guide is for anyone who keeps a car in Chicago or drives into the city: new residents buying a first city sticker, people whose block just got permit signs, and visitors trying to park downtown without a $70 surprise under the wiper. It covers residential zone permits and guest passes, meter rates and the ParkChicago app, street sweeping and the winter snow bans, downtown garages, and what to do once a ticket, a boot or a tow happens.

The short version: read every sign on the block, including the orange paper ones, and watch the calendar. The rules change in April, when sweeping starts, and in December, when the overnight snow ban begins.

Residential permits

Every Chicago resident who keeps a car in the city owes the wheel tax, which is the city sticker. The City Clerk’s sticker page lists the 2026 annual prices, effective January 1, 2026: $105.18 for a standard passenger vehicle, $167.07 for a large passenger vehicle over 4,500 pounds, $55.69 for a motorbike and $247.50 for a small truck. New residents and new car owners have 30 days to buy one. After that the clerk adds a $60 late fee, and an expired sticker can draw a ticket starting on the 16th day after the month it expires.

Zone permits and guest passes

On blocks with residential permit signs, the zone number on the sign has to match the zone printed on your sticker during the posted days and hours. Adding a zone to a sticker costs $35 a year, prorated, and changing from one zone to another after a move carries a $20 administrative fee, according to the clerk’s residential zone parking page. You need a photo ID plus a lease, mortgage, property tax bill or a utility bill from the last 30 days showing the address. Cell phone bills do not count.

Guests use daily permits, which are paper passes good for 24 hours from the date and time written on them in ink. They go in the lower passenger-side corner of the windshield. A sheet of 15 costs $15, and a household can buy up to 45 permits in any 30-day period. The 2026 passes expire December 31, 2026, and mailed orders take about 12 business days, so do not wait until the night before a visit.

New zones are created by City Council ordinance, so a block that wants one starts with the ward office.

Meters and the ParkChicago app

Chicago’s roughly 36,000 metered spaces are run under a long-term concession by Chicago Parking Meters LLC, and you pay either at the pay box by license plate or through the ParkChicago app. The city’s parking meter page links to the rate map. Current posted rates:

• The Loop (inside Wacker Drive, Congress Parkway and the lake): $7 an hour from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and $3.50 an hour overnight.
• The rest of the Central Business District (North Avenue to Roosevelt Road, Halsted Street to the lake): $4.75 an hour, 8 a.m. to midnight.
• The West Loop (Grand Avenue to I-290, Halsted Street to Ashland Avenue): $4.75 an hour.
• Most neighborhood meters: $2.50 an hour, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., with some spaces free on Sundays.

The app charges a $0.35 convenience fee on sessions under two hours and lets you add time remotely. Paid time can be moved to another space with the same or a lower rate. Meters run every day of the year unless the pay box says otherwise, holidays included. The operator warns that neither the app nor the pay boxes use QR codes, so treat a QR sticker on a pay box as a scam.

Paid meter time does not override other posted restrictions, such as rush-hour tow zones. Garages and lots also add a 23.25% city parking tax on daily stays over $2.

Street cleaning and snow routes

Street sweeping, April through November

The Department of Streets and Sanitation sweeps from April 1 through the end of November, weather permitting. Temporary bright orange signs go up two days before a scheduled sweep, and some streets have permanent signs setting one day a week or two days a month. One side of the street is swept on the first date and the other side on the second. The 2026 street sweeping page has schedules and maps for all 50 wards, and the Sweeper Tracker tool shows the trucks in real time. A street cleaning ticket is $50. Check your ward’s schedule the week you move in.

The winter overnight ban

From December 1 through April 1, parking is banned from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. on 107 miles of main streets whether or not it snows. Signs are posted permanently. According to the city’s winter parking restrictions page, violators are towed and face a minimum $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket and $25 a day in storage, with cars taken to Pound 2 at 10301 S. Doty Ave. or Pound 6 at 701 N. Sacramento Ave. The ban map is on chicagoshovels.org, which also has the live plow tracker.

The two-inch ban

A separate ban covers about 500 more miles of arterial streets and can be switched on any time of day or year once there are at least two inches of snow on the street. The city rarely activates it, but cars parked there when it does can be ticketed or relocated. If your car is missing after a storm, call 311 before reporting it stolen, since the city relocates cars rather than always towing them.

Garages downtown

Downtown meters are expensive and full on weekdays, so most people driving in for a show, a museum or a Bears game end up in a garage, where prices change with the date and any events nearby.

The four garages under Grant Park and Millennium Park are run by Millennium Garages, which lists 9,176 spaces between Randolph Street and Van Buren Street. Grant Park North is at 25 N. Michigan Ave. and Grant Park South is at 325 S. Michigan Ave., both entered from center-lane ramps on Michigan Avenue. The Millennium Park Garage is at 6 S. Columbus Dr. and Millennium Lakeside is at 5 S. Columbus Dr. All four have 6-foot-8 clearance, a problem for roof boxes and tall vans. The garages are open 24 hours, daily parking does not include in-and-out privileges, and EV charging is available. During the Bears season, a shuttle to Soldier Field leaves from Level 2.5 of the Millennium Park Garage starting three hours before kickoff and runs for two hours after the game. Customer service is (312) 616-0600.

For everything else downtown, SpotHero, a parking reservation app founded in Chicago in 2011, lets you compare and book spaces in private garages and lots ahead of time, and the company says most reservations can be changed or canceled up to the start time. Read the entrance instructions on the pass before you go.

If you only need the Loop for a few hours, consider parking at a $2.50 neighborhood meter near an L stop and taking the train in. The Washington/Wabash station is about two blocks from Grant Park North.

Tickets, boots and how to contest

Common fines

The city’s Smart Streets page publishes a current fine schedule for several common violations: $50 for an expired meter outside the Central Business District and $70 inside it, $50 for street cleaning, $90 for parking in a bus lane, $100 for a bus stop, $140 for a commercial loading zone and $250 for parking in a bike lane. The winter ban ticket is $60 before towing costs.

Paying or contesting

After a ticket, the Department of Finance mails a notice of violation. You have 21 days to pay or contest, and you can ask for a hearing by mail, virtually or in person; the online option is the eContest system on the city’s contest tickets page. Pull the city’s ticket photos first, and bring your own evidence, such as photos of missing signs or a ParkChicago receipt. If you ignore the notices, a default determination is entered. You then have 21 days from that date to file a petition to set it aside in person, and after that you lose the right to contest.

Unpaid tickets get a late penalty equal to the original fine or $250 minus the fine, whichever is less, so most tickets double. The Department of Finance ticket help line is (312) 744-7275.

Boots and tows

According to the Department of Finance notice guide, any car you own can be booted once you have three or more tickets in final determination, or two that are at least a year old. The boot fee is $100 on top of everything owed, and a car still booted after 24 hours is towed. Removing or tampering with the boot brings a $750 fee and an immediate tow. If you think the boot is a mistake, you have 21 days to challenge it at a city hearing facility.

The city has online payment plans for booted cars when no tow or storage fees are involved: a down payment of 50% of the balance plus fees, or 10% for hardship, then at least $25 a month for up to 24 months, or 36 months with hardship. The boot is released within one business day of the down payment.

If the car has been towed, call 311 to find it. The Streets and Sanitation towing FAQ cites the municipal code at $250 for a tow and $50 a day in storage for cars under 8,000 pounds, more than the winter ban figures above, so budget for the larger number. The Central Auto Pound, at 500 E. Wacker Dr. on the lower level, is open 24 hours. Bring a photo ID, proof of ownership and a current city sticker, or the car stays.

Good to know

• Street sweeping runs through the end of November 2026, weather permitting. The winter overnight ban should start again December 1, 2026, and run to April 1, 2027, based on the city’s standing rule.
• Residential daily permits bought in 2026 expire December 31, 2026. The clerk has allowed a 10-day grace period in January for the previous year’s passes.
• Smart Streets camera enforcement, which covers the area from Irving Park Road to 26th Street and west to Ashland Avenue, added unpaid meters and commercial loading zones in early 2026. The pilot is set to expire in December 2026, so watch for a City Council vote on extending it.
• Checked September 28, 2026.

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