Gornergrat Bahn ticket prices in 2026
The line is closed for construction work from 2 to 14 November 2026. No fare on this page buys you a train on those dates.
The official 2026 fare table, both seasons
These are Gornergrat Bahn AG’s own fares in Swiss francs, from Zermatt, for the summer tariff (May to October 2026) and the winter tariff (November 2026 to April 2027). The operator publishes month boundaries rather than dates, so if your trip straddles the end of October, check the current tariff on gornergrat.ch before you budget. The highlighted row is the one most readers came here for.
| From Zermatt to | Summer single | Summer return | Winter single | Winter return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gornergrat (3,089 m) | 66 | 132 | 51 | 102 |
| Rotenboden (2,825 m) | 57 | 114 | 48 | 96 |
| Riffelberg (2,582 m) | 42 | 84 | 39 | 78 |
| Riffelalp (2,211 m) | 29 | 58 | 28 | 56 |
| Findelbach (1,774 m) | 23 | 46 | 23 | 46 |
Two things fall out of that table. The first is that the last stretch is where the money goes: Riffelberg is CHF 84 return and the two stops above it add CHF 48. The second is that winter is not a small discount. It is CHF 30 off the return, which is why the season you travel in matters as much as the pass in your pocket. Findelbach, at the bottom of the list, is a crossing point rather than a destination, and nobody buys a ticket to it on purpose.
Fares between the mountain stations
If you are staying up the mountain, or coming back down to a different station than you left from, these are the partial legs. They work in both directions.
| Leg | Summer single | Summer return | Winter single | Winter return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riffelalp ↔ Gornergrat | 46 | 92 | 39 | 78 |
| Riffelberg ↔ Gornergrat | 33 | 66 | 29 | 58 |
| Rotenboden ↔ Gornergrat | 21 | 42 | 20 | 40 |
What halves the fare
A Swiss Travel Pass, Swiss Travel Pass Flex, Half-Fare Card, Swiss Half Fare Card, GA or Adventure Card takes exactly 50% off the fares above. None of them makes the Gornergrat free, and I spent four winters explaining that to people who had been told otherwise. CHF 132 becomes CHF 66; CHF 102 becomes CHF 51. Every qualifying pass and the exact child ages are set out in passes and discounts.
Children are the part families get wrong, because the free age moves with the season. A child travels free up to the sixth birthday in summer, but up to the ninth birthday in winter. Between those ages and 15.99 the fare is half, and a child of 6 to 15.99 holding a Junior Card travels free. Swiss Family Card and Wolli Card holders travel free with a fare-paying parent. Groups of ten or more get 20%. Buying online means carrying a passport or personal ID.
The hiking ticket is two singles, added together
Between June and October the operator sells a hiking ticket from Zermatt for CHF 108 adult, CHF 54 reduced for Half-Fare and GA holders and children 6 to 15.99. It takes you up to Gornergrat, you walk to Riffelberg, and you ride down from there.
Now look back at the table. A single up to Gornergrat is CHF 66 and a single from Riffelberg down is CHF 42. That is CHF 108, exactly. The hiking ticket is not a discount, it is the correct ticket for a journey most people do not realise they are allowed to make, sold in one transaction. What it saves you is the CHF 132 you would otherwise have paid for a return leg you never use: CHF 24, and an hour of walking you will remember longer than the train. It is set out properly on the hiking ticket page.
Buying a single and walking down
The same logic runs further. If the summit is not the point and the lakes are, a single to Rotenboden is CHF 57 and a single from Riffelberg down is CHF 42: CHF 99 for the walk, without the summit or the ZOOOM exhibition. If you want the summit and intend to walk all the way back to the village, a single up is CHF 66 and that is the cheapest way to stand at 3,089 m. I will not tell you how long that descent takes, because no source I trust publishes a figure. What is published is the height: 1,485 m of it, downhill, on legs that have to carry you to dinner afterwards.
Priority Boarding: CHF 7 for three minutes
Priority Boarding costs CHF 7 per person in the Zermatt→Gornergrat direction and is free for accompanied children under six. It lets you board three minutes before everyone else and then choose any free seat. It is not a seat reservation, and it does not guarantee the right-hand side, which is the side the Matterhorn is on going up. The priority waiting area closes ten minutes before departure, so arriving five minutes early wastes the CHF 7 entirely. Where to sit covers whether it is worth paying at all.
The Sunday sunrise trip
On Sundays in July, August and September the railway runs a sunrise trip that visits the Riffelsee and the summit. It costs CHF 157 with breakfast and CHF 132 without, or CHF 91 and CHF 66 at the reduced rate. The departure time is not published, so confirm it with the operator when you book rather than trusting a figure from a forum.
The Zermatt Peak Pass
The Peak Pass covers unlimited travel on the Gornergrat Bahn, the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and Sunnegga–Rothorn lifts, the Randa–Täsch–Zermatt trains and Zermatt’s local buses, plus admission to the Glacier Palace and ZOOOM. It starts from CHF 180; the four-day version is CHF 250 in winter and CHF 320 in summer. Dogs travel free on it. The shorter durations are priced separately and I am not going to quote figures I cannot confirm. The arithmetic is simple enough: a single Gornergrat return is CHF 132, so a Peak Pass only pays for itself if you are genuinely riding two or three mountains.
What GetYourGuide charges, and why it matches the counter
The flagship Gornergrat ticket on GetYourGuide is CHF 132. That is not a coincidence and it is not a markup: it is the operator’s own summer return fare, sold through a reseller, with the ZOOOM exhibition included exactly as it is at the window. Free cancellation runs to 24 hours before departure and the voucher is a mobile one, scanned at the Gornergrat Bahn station opposite Zermatt’s main station.
The second listing, at CHF 206 for the same journey, is the reason this page exists. Same train, same summit, same exhibition, roughly 60% more money, and a 4.4 rating from 38 reviews against the flagship’s 4.7 from 672. Both listings are compared alongside everything else on every Gornergrat ticket.
There is no cheaper price online
I want to be blunt about this, because a great deal of the internet implies otherwise. Booking ahead does not discount the Gornergrat Bahn. There is no web-only fare, no early-bird band, no code. What buying ahead actually buys you is the queue: you walk past the ticket hall in July with a voucher on your phone instead of standing in it, and you keep the right to cancel free of charge up to 24 hours out if the forecast turns. That is worth something on a mountain you are paying CHF 132 to look at. It is not a saving, and anyone telling you it is has not checked. Whether the view justifies the fare at all is the question in is Gornergrat worth it.
If your pass gives you 50%, buy at the counter or on the operator’s own channel with the pass in hand rather than through a reseller, because a discounted fare has to be issued against the pass. If you have no pass, the CHF 132 you pay online is the same CHF 132 you would pay at the window, and you skip the queue.
Still deciding when to go? The tariff band is only half the seasonal question: best time to visit covers the flowers, the reflection window and the November closure.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the Gornergrat Bahn cost in 2026?
CHF 132 for an adult return from Zermatt under the summer tariff (May to October) and CHF 102 under the winter tariff (November to April). Singles are CHF 66 and CHF 51. Any of the standard Swiss passes takes 50% off, and the full station-by-station table is above.
Is it cheaper to buy Gornergrat tickets online?
No. There is no cheaper online fare. Buying ahead saves you the ticket-hall queue in high season and gives you free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure, which matters when you are buying a view. It does not reduce the price by a franc.
What is the cheapest way to get to Gornergrat?
Buy a single. A summer single to the summit is CHF 66, and you walk back down instead of riding. If you would rather ride part of the way, the CHF 108 hiking ticket covers the summit, the walk to Riffelberg and the train down from there, which is CHF 24 less than the return.
Do children pay on the Gornergrat Bahn?
It depends on the season, which catches families out constantly. Children travel free up to their sixth birthday in summer but up to their ninth birthday in winter, then pay half up to 15.99. A Junior Card, Swiss Family Card or Wolli Card can make that free: see passes and discounts.
Is Priority Boarding worth CHF 7?
Only if you arrive early. It buys you three minutes of head start on boarding and free choice of any seat, not a reservation, and the priority area closes ten minutes before departure. It does not guarantee the right-hand side, which is the side you want going up. More in where to sit.