Parking vs drop-off at London Heathrow: which is cheaper?
If you're only dropping someone off at London Heathrow, the £7 forecourt charge is far cheaper than £271.20 to park for 7 days. But if you're parking for the trip anyway, £271.20 is the price — and one drop-off (£7) buys you about 260 minutes of drive-up parking.
- Drop-off (one visit): £7
- Drive-up parking (7 days): £271.20
- Drive-up gate rate: about £38.74 per 24 hours
- One drop-off ≈ 260 minutes of drive-up parking
- One drop-off
- £7
- Park 7 days
- £271.20
- Gate rate
- £38.74/day
Forecourt, per visit
Drive-up gate rate
Implied per 24h
At London Heathrow's drive-up gate rate (£38.74/24h), 260 minutes of parking costs the same as one £7 drop-off.
Should I park or get dropped off at London Heathrow?
It depends on the trip. London Heathrow charges £7 for a single forecourt drop-off, while drive-up parking is £271.20 for 7 days — about £38.74 per 24 hours. For a quick airport run where you're not leaving the car, the drop-off charge is the smaller outlay. But if you're flying yourself and need to leave the car for the trip, parking is what you pay — and a single drop-off only buys about 260 minutes of that drive-up parking. Both figures are official, date-stamped snapshots read from the airport's own pages and verified 2026-06-10. We never republish unverified prices.
London Heathrow: one forecourt drop-off vs the official drive-up gate parking price by duration. Verified 2026-06-10.
| 3 days | 7 days | 14 days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drive-up parking (gate) | £121.60 | £271.20 | £533 |
| One drop-off | £7 | £7 | £7 |
- 7 days
- £271.20
- 14 days
- £533
- 7 days
- £7
- 14 days
- £7
Want to avoid both? Use the Park & Ride (formerly Long Stay)
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Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to park or get dropped off at London Heathrow?
For a quick drop-off, the £7 forecourt charge is cheaper than £271.20 to park for 7 days. If you're leaving the car for the trip, £271.20 is what drive-up parking costs (verified 2026-06-10).
How much parking do I get for the price of a London Heathrow drop-off?
At the £38.74-per-24h drive-up gate rate, one £7 drop-off buys about 260 minutes of parking at London Heathrow.
Is there a way to avoid the London Heathrow drop-off charge altogether?
Yes — the Park & Ride (formerly Long Stay) gives you 30 minutes free. Up to 30 minutes free in Park & Ride car parks, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal doors every 15 minutes (Verified 2026-06-10.)
Where do these London Heathrow parking and drop-off prices come from?
The drop-off fee is read from the airport's official drop-off page; the drive-up parking price is the airport's own published gate tariff. Both are date-stamped snapshots, re-verified on the date shown — never scraped from third-party sites.
Latest at London Heathrow
Sources & method
- Official London Heathrow drop-off page — verified 2026-06-10
- Official London Heathrow parking page — verified 2026-06-10
The drop-off fee and the drive-up gate parking price are read from the airport's own official pages and re-verified on the dates shown. The per-day rate and minutes-equivalence are exact arithmetic from those two figures. We never republish unverified prices.
Independent: we are not owned by any airport, network or booking site. Any affiliate links are labelled Ad and earn us a commission — this never affects the figures we publish or which option we show as cheapest.