Updated 9 Aug 2026
Use this free Miami International Airport (MIA) transfer cost calculator to compare what every route into the city actually costs and how long it takes: Metrorail, the free MIA Mover, the Route 150 Airport Express to Miami Beach, a metered taxi and ride-hail. Pick your destination, the number of passengers and the time of day for an instant estimate. Transit figures use the official $2.25 Miami-Dade single fare; taxi figures use the county meter tariff published by MIA.
Recommendation: cheapest is Metrorail Orange Line ($2.25); fastest is Taxi (metered) (~20 min). Transit costs $2.25 per passenger and the free MIA Mover links the terminal to the Metrorail station; taxi and ride-hail are metered estimates for up to 4 people per car.
Estimates only · meter rates and the $2 airport fee are official (Miami-Dade); distances are approximate road miles. Rates verified 2026-06-10. Verify live fares with the operator. Want this calculator on your website? Embed it free →
Transit rides (Metrorail and Route 150) cost $2.25 per passenger, so the calculator multiplies that fare by the number of travellers. Taxi and ride-hail are priced per car, not per person, so it divides your party into cars of four and applies the meter to each one.
The meter itself is set by Miami-Dade County: $2.95 for the first sixth of a mile, $0.85 for each additional sixth up to one mile, then $0.55 for each sixth after that, plus a $2.00 airport origination fee. A $15.00 minimum applies to every trip starting at MIA. Larger vehicles (SUVs and vans) carry a 30 percent surcharge, and waiting time in traffic is billed at $0.40 per minute.
Ride-hail figures are an estimate built from the same meter: usually a little below a taxi outside rush hour, and above it when surge pricing kicks in during peak hours or event nights. All road figures are estimates for comparison, not quotes; the final fare depends on your exact address and traffic.
This is where most travel guides are still wrong. Miami-Dade taxis used to charge fixed prices by zone, and a flat $35 to South Beach is quoted on dozens of sites to this day. Those zones no longer exist. On 19 July 2022 the Board of County Commissioners adopted Resolution R-700-22, which raised the meter rate by 21 percent, eliminated the flat fare zones altogether, scrapped the old surcharges for extra passengers and hand baggage, and introduced the $15.00 minimum for trips leaving MIA or PortMiami.
What that means in practice: every taxi trip from the airport now runs on the meter, wherever you are going. Nobody can quote you a fixed airport price, and you should not be asked to agree one in advance. If a driver offers a flat figure instead of the meter, that is not an official rate. The current tariff is published on the airport's own taxis and shuttles page.
Approximate road distances and what each option comes to for one passenger:
| Destination | Distance | Transit | Taxi (metered) | Time by road |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coral Gables | 5 mi | $2.25 by Metrorail | about $22 | 15 min |
| Downtown / Brickell | 6.4 mi | $2.25 by Metrorail | about $27 | 20 min |
| Wynwood / Midtown | 7 mi | no direct transit | about $29 | 20 min |
| PortMiami (cruise port) | 8 mi | no direct transit | about $32 | 20 min |
| Mid-Beach (41st St) | 10 mi | $2.25 on Route 150 | about $39 | 25 min |
| South Beach | 10.3 mi | $2.25 on Route 150 | about $40 | 30 min |
Two details worth knowing before you choose. First, the MIA Mover is free and runs around the clock every few minutes, linking the terminal with the Miami Intermodal Center where Metrorail, Tri-Rail, Metrobus and the Route 150 bus all start; the transit times above include that connection. Second, Miami-Dade caps fares at $5.65 per day when you tap the same contactless card or phone, so two or more transit rides in one day cost less than paying separately. A paper EASY Ticket is free to obtain; a plastic EASY Card costs $2.
Metrorail runs from about 5:00 in the morning until midnight. The Route 150 Airport Express leaves from the Airport Metrorail station, runs express along the Julia Tuttle Causeway to Mid-Beach and then makes limited stops down to South Pointe; check the official route 150 timetable for the current departures, as the schedule is revised periodically.
