In two counters: the cost of a taxi ride in Moscow has increased to 70 in a year%
The cost of a taxi ride to a number of destinations in Moscow has increased by up to 70% in a year, Izvestia estimates. According to Rosstat, the price per 1 km of a taxi ride in Moscow increased by 30.8% from May last year to May 2025. Yandex.Taxi claims that the growth was only 16%. At the same time, the company uses average data for two regions at once — on the cost of trips in the capital and the region. The government's analytical center estimated a 25.2% increase in prices in the capital in 2024. It is extremely difficult to figure out the pricing. Despite the fixed tariffs of aggregators, prices are automatically accelerated by the system due to increased demand. One of the reasons is the outflow of drivers: the average duration of a taxi driver's work was 8-10 months. The FAS conducts inspections of aggregators in 85 regions.
Why have taxi fares increased?
Passengers record a noticeable increase in prices for taxi services over the year. Izvestia checked and found out that the cost of a trip using aggregator services in June increased by up to 70% in some areas compared to the same period in 2024. The comparison was based on the same fares, for example, "economy" was compared with "economy" or "comfort" with "comfort", the same trip address, about the same time, and an increasing coefficient was also taken into account. It is usually used in case of increased demand due to bad weather, traffic, availability of cars in one place or another, and so on.
Similar data is provided by editorial sources in the corporate park of one of the large companies.
"Prices for fixed trips sometimes double or more compared to the period a year ago," they said. — We tried to identify a pattern in this variation, but the task turned out to be difficult.
Any rain, wind or traffic jams instantly affect the cost. Moreover, there are much more force majeure situations than a year ago, the source told Izvestia.
According to Rosstat, the price per 1 km of a taxi ride increased by 30.8% in Moscow from May last year to May 2025, and by 35% in the Moscow Region. The peak of the increase in cost occurred at the end of 2024. At the end of last year, the government's analytical center estimated a 25.2% increase in prices in the capital over the year.
The editors at Yandex Taxi said that the data provided by Izvestia did not correspond to reality. Comparing prices for multiple trips does not reflect the real dynamics of the market. They made their calculations there — according to the service, in the Moscow region (including Moscow) the average cost per minute increased by 16%.
"Taxi prices depend on the balance of supply and demand in each specific location and time," the company's press service said.
They explained that even at the same time on different days, the balance can vary greatly, affecting the final cost of the trip — there are no available cars nearby for everyone who wants to leave. Depending on the balance of supply and demand, an increasing coefficient may be triggered. It is automatically calculated for a specific situation and can also be different, the aggregator noted.
The balance of supply and demand and cost dynamics is directly affected by the number of cars on flights. The fewer there are, the faster prices rise, sources in several large taxi companies told Izvestia. There are fewer and fewer cars — this is influenced by unaffordable leasing and taxi companies simply abandon some of the cars.
According to the Moscow Department of Transport, which is referred to in the Chocolate taxi, in May 2025, more than 422 thousand drivers were registered in the KIS ART (integrated information system "Taxi Work Analytics"), but only 150 thousand work in the capital and the region. According to the company, the duration of a rental driver's work is 8-10 months, and the projected outflow from the industry by mid-2026 will amount to an additional 10%. As a result, the shortage of personnel and downtime of cars may worsen, Spartak Zabolotsky, an investor in Chocolate, told Izvestia.
"The outflow of drivers is influenced by the complicated procedure for allowing drivers to work and low earnings," Andrei Kapitan, a member of the Public Council for Taxi Development (OCRT) and head of the 495 taxi company, told Izvestia.
Employees are required to obtain a carrier ID, register in the CIS ART system, mandatory certification, a certificate of absence of a criminal record (the period of receipt in the department is up to 30 days), self-employed or sole proprietor status. There are not enough drivers, cars are idle, which is why the price for a trip increases, the market participant notes. Many vehicles are being withdrawn from fleets due to high leasing costs.
The Chocolate taxi company reported that in 12 months in Moscow, the number of cars newly added to control rooms has more than doubled. According to data from February to April 2024, 13,576 new cars were registered in the taxi registry, and 6,798 cars in the same period of 2025. All this creates a shortage of supply in the most popular segment of economy transportation, which is now approaching 10%.
The situation leads to the fact that drivers cannot fulfill all orders. If there are several calls per machine, the aggregator's digital service automatically raises the cost. Passengers record price increases and often refuse to travel.
What makes up the price of taxi rides?
In Yandex. Taxi, Izvestia was given an example of pricing. It takes about half an hour to get from Leningradsky Prospekt to Troparevo without traffic jams — you can get from work for about 900 rubles outside rush hour. If there is a meeting for future employees in the office in the middle of the day and they order a taxi at the same time, then demand may exceed supply and there will not be enough drivers nearby. Then a trip to Troparevo may already cost 1,300 rubles, the service noted.
When all employees leave the office on Friday evening with busy roads, the trip home from the office may take 45 minutes and cost 1,700 rubles, Yandex Taxi noted. The price increase in this scheme reaches 44-89%, estimated by Izvestia.
At the same time, the aggregator suggests ignoring pricing during a period of high demand. Meanwhile, such periods actually shape the work of carriers and constitute a hidden pricing segment that is difficult to calculate for statistics.
As an industry source told Izvestia, previously information about the inclusion of increasing coefficients in pricing was not displayed to users. You can view it now, but the data on the size of the coefficients and the algorithms of their operation are closed.
Yandex.Taxi notes that comparing trips along the same route can be misleading due to the traffic situation, weather conditions and other external factors that can significantly affect the duration and cost of the trip. The aggregator calculates the price increase based on the average cost of one minute of a trip, taking into account all tariffs except corporate ones. This assessment method takes into account all factors affecting the final cost of a trip, such as seasonality, weather, traffic situation, and time of day, they added.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) told Izvestia that they are studying the pricing of Yandex.Taxi. Earlier, the service sent requests to 344 aggregators in 85 regions of the country. The FAS is currently working to update the market analysis, the agency added.
Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Transport, Rostransnadzor, aggregators and passenger carriers.
How to reduce taxi prices
Filling the shortage of personnel and the influx of drivers into the industry is solely influenced by the increase in driver earnings per hour, a source in one of the taxi companies told Izvestia. With the increasing costs of taxi companies, the aggregator's commission for the order is still high. The service takes almost a quarter of the carriers' earnings.
According to Yandex.Taxi, their commission is fixed — as a percentage of the order price. For example, for each order in the economy tariff in Moscow, the driver pays the service a 22% commission (including VAT). In other cities and other tariffs, the commission is different, the aggregator reported.
— The offer of taxi services in megacities, where the taxi market model is the main one, is administratively limited by the number of cars in parks and the number of their tenants, — Maxim Shusharin, director of the Maxim service management organization, told Izvestia.
According to the company's press service, private travelers in the regions have increased the price of a trip by about 5% per year.
During periods of a sharp increase in orders, that is, during rush hours, bad weather, and holidays, supply cannot increase, so part of the demand is cut off by increasing the price several times, Maxim Shusharin noted. In his opinion, the only way to contain the cost is to involve private drivers with personal cars, which are a minority in Moscow. They are now cut off from the market by the requirements of the taxi law, he added.
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