What the UK ETA Actually Costs for Canadian Citizens

Canadian citizens flying to the UK for most tourist or short business trips now need an ETA, an online authorisation that’s cheaper and faster than a visa but is not optional. As of 2026, this applies before you fly, not on arrival, and the fee is published directly by the UK government rather than fixed enough for us to print here and trust it to still be right next year.

Why Canada is affected at all

Canada has long been visa-exempt for UK tourism and short business visits, and that hasn’t changed. What changed is the mechanism: instead of simply turning up with a passport, visa-exempt nationalities including Canada now need pre-clearance in the form of an ETA before boarding. It’s a lighter requirement than a visa — no interview, no consulate visit — but it is a new mandatory step layered onto a country that previously had none.

What the application actually involves

The process is a short online form through the UK government’s own app or gov.uk, asking for your passport details exactly as printed, a current photo, and a way to pay online. It is not something you need an agent or a travel company to handle for you, and any site charging a large “service fee” on top of the government’s own charge is adding cost for a form you can fill in yourself in a few minutes. Most approvals come back within a day or two, though the government doesn’t guarantee a fixed turnaround.

The fee, and why we’re pointing you elsewhere for the number

We’re not printing a specific amount here on purpose. The fee has changed once already since the scheme started, and a figure written into a blog post in 2026 is exactly the kind of thing that quietly goes stale. What doesn’t change is the shape of it: one payment, tied to your passport, covering multiple visits over a set window rather than a single crossing. For the current number, go to gov.uk directly — it updates the same day the fee does, which a travel blog never will.

How long one ETA actually covers you

This is one of the more useful things about the scheme once you’re through the application: your ETA isn’t spent the moment you land. It covers a defined window of multiple potential visits, so a Canadian making two separate UK trips inside that window — a wedding in spring, a work trip in autumn — generally doesn’t reapply for the second one. The exact validity period is published by the Home Office and has shifted before, so check it against your actual travel dates rather than assuming it matches what a friend told you last year.

Where this actually trips people up

Mistake	What actually happens
Applying the morning of the flight	Risk of no approval by boarding time
Using an old or expired passport photo	Application rejected, resubmission needed
Assuming a valid ETA guarantees entry	Border Force can still ask questions on arrival
Booking through a paid “ETA agency” site	Same form, extra and unnecessary fee

Permission to travel isn’t the same as guaranteed entry

An approved ETA gets you onto the plane and up to the UK border — it doesn’t remove the border officer’s normal discretion. Bring the basics you’d bring regardless: proof of onward travel, evidence you can fund your stay, and a straight answer about why you’re visiting. None of that is new because of the ETA; it simply moved one checkpoint earlier and online.

If your connection to the UK is just a layover on the way somewhere else, don’t assume that exempts you — see our transit-specific breakdown for how that rule actually works, since it applies the same way regardless of which passport you’re holding.

Travelling as a family with different passports

If you’re travelling with a spouse, kids, or parents who don’t all hold Canadian passports, each person applies individually under their own nationality’s rules — there’s no single family application, and no shortcut for a child travelling on a parent’s documentation. A Canadian-passport child still needs their own ETA even if every adult in the group is approved. Build this into your planning early, since a rejected or delayed application for one family member can hold up the whole trip, not just that person’s leg of it.

What an ETA doesn’t change about crossing the border

It’s worth separating two things that people tend to blend together: the ETA confirms you’re cleared to travel, and the border officer at arrival still does their normal job. An approved ETA is not a promise of entry — it’s permission to present yourself at the border, which is a real change from the old no-paperwork system but not the same as a guarantee. The practical upshot is small but important: bring the same basics you’d have brought before the ETA existed, because the officer’s questions haven’t gone away, only the first checkpoint has moved earlier and online.

Sorting out connectivity before you sort out the form

A surprising number of ETA problems are really connectivity problems: an application started on hotel wifi the night before a flight, a confirmation email that won’t load at a departure gate, a status check that times out because the airport wifi is overloaded. Installing the app and activating a UK eSIM before you fly means none of that depends on whoever’s network you can borrow that day — you’re online from the moment you land, and arguably more usefully, from the moment you need to prove something before you even board. See our setup guides for your phone, and check current plans once your trip is booked.