When is your Austrian vignette valid?
When does an Austrian vignette start and stop being valid?
Austrian vignettes run on calendar days, not 24-hour periods. A 1-day vignette covers the single calendar day you choose, and a 10-day vignette covers ten consecutive calendar days including the start date. The annual vignette is tied to a vignette year rather than to twelve rolling months.
Calendar days, not 24-hour blocks
This is the detail most travellers get wrong. Validity ends at midnight on the final calendar day, regardless of what time of day you started driving. A 1-day vignette bought for an evening crossing expires at midnight that same night, not 24 hours later.
If your drive continues past midnight, you need the following day covered too.
The 18-day rule for 2-month and annual vignettes
When a consumer buys a 2-month or annual digital vignette online, Austrian law gives a statutory right of withdrawal. The consequence is practical: the earliest the vignette can become valid is the 18th day after purchase.
If you are travelling sooner than that, the 1-day and 10-day vignettes are not affected — they can start immediately.
The annual vignette and the vignette year
The annual vignette is not valid for twelve months from the day you buy it. It is valid for a vignette year, which begins on 1 December of the preceding year and ends on 31 January of the following year — fourteen months of usable validity for anyone who buys it early.