Every arrival at Roissy ends with the same question, somewhere between baggage claim and the exit doors: how much to get into Paris, and with whom. The honest answer starts with a number most travel sites get wrong or leave undated. Since 1 February 2026, the regulated taxi flat rate between Charles de Gaulle and Paris is 56 € for the right bank and 65 € for the left bank, set by prefectural decree and identical day or night, in both directions.
That figure is the anchor for every comparison that follows. What it covers, what it quietly excludes, and where a private chauffeur becomes the better arithmetic: that is the actual decision, and it deserves real numbers rather than opinions.
The official 2026 flat rates, and what they include
Parisian taxis apply fixed airport fares regulated by the Préfecture de Police. For 2026:
- CDG ⇄ Paris right bank (north of the Seine): 56 €
- CDG ⇄ Paris left bank (south of the Seine): 65 €
- Orly ⇄ Paris left bank: 36 €
- Orly ⇄ Paris right bank: 45 €
Two booking surcharges can apply on top: 4 € for an immediate hail through an app or operator, 7 € for an advance reservation. The flat rate covers a direct trip only. Ask for a stop on the way and the meter takes over; the forfait is void.
Read the fine print once and the scope becomes clear: the rate applies between the airports and Paris intra-muros. La Défense, Saint-Denis, Versailles or Disneyland are outside it, billed on the meter, usually 70 € to 90 € or more depending on traffic. For the geography of the airport itself, our guide to CDG Terminal 1 versus Terminal 2 explains where each terminal actually drops you.
Where the taxi wins, plainly
For one traveller with a cabin bag, landing mid-afternoon, heading to a right-bank hotel: the official taxi queue is hard to beat. You walk out, you queue ten minutes, you pay 56 € by card. No booking, no coordination, full price certainty thanks to the forfait. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
The taxi rank is also the correct answer when your plans are fluid: no cancellation to manage, no driver waiting on a flight you may miss.
What the flat rate does not buy
The forfait fixes the price, not the experience. It does not include anyone tracking your flight: land two hours late at 23:40 and the queue is what it is, sometimes thirty minutes in high season with two terminals' worth of arrivals. It does not include a name board inside the terminal, help from the carousel, or a guaranteed estate car when you travel with four suitcases. Vans for five to seven passengers exist in the taxi fleet but cannot be summoned at the rank; with a group, you are improvising.
And it does not protect anyone from the oldest trap at Roissy: the men in the arrivals hall murmuring "taxi, madame, taxi". Licensed Parisian taxis never solicit inside the terminal. Following a tout is how a 56 € journey becomes a 150 € story. The official ranks are signposted at every exit; use them or pre-book, nothing in between.
The fixed-price chauffeur, with honest arithmetic
A private chauffeur from CDG to central Paris costs €105 with us, any address, both banks, van and S-Class available at their own rates. That is more than the right-bank taxi forfait, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. What the difference buys is specific: your flight tracked and the pickup moved at no charge when the plane is late, a driver waiting in arrivals with your name, sixty minutes of waiting included, the price confirmed in writing before you fly, a vehicle class chosen in advance, and free cancellation until 24 hours before pickup.
The arithmetic flips entirely in four common cases. A left-bank address narrows the gap to almost nothing. A family of four with luggage needs the van you cannot reliably get at the rank. A 06:50 long-haul landing after a sleepless night is precisely when nobody wants to navigate a queue. And any destination beyond the périphérique, Disneyland first among them, leaves the forfait behind anyway: a metered taxi into the suburbs routinely exceeds a pre-agreed fixed price. Our complete guide to Paris airport transfers walks through every option, RER and buses included, if you want the full picture.
Orly, briefly, because the logic inverts
Note the curiosity in the Orly rates: the left bank is the cheap side there (36 €), the right bank the dear one (45 €). South-bank hotels are closer to Orly, north-bank hotels to CDG; the decree simply follows the kilometres. We compared every Orly option, metro and tram included, in our Orly to the city centre guide; a private transfer there is 95€ fixed.
The decision, reduced to one paragraph
Travelling light, alone, flexible, right bank, daytime: take the official taxi queue and pay the 56 € forfait with a clear conscience. Travelling with people, luggage, a tight schedule, a suburban destination, a late or early flight, or simply a preference for someone holding your name at arrivals: book the fixed price and consider the difference the cost of certainty. Both answers are correct; they are just answers to different questions.