Rate record · Eight publishers, nine pages · Read 2026-09-14
What does NYC taxi advertising cost, and who is quoting the number?
Published NYC taxi advertising costs run from $100 to $1,000 per cab per four-week period for a static top and $120 to $800 for a digital top, depending on which of eight publishers you read, all re-read on 2026-09-14. In-car screens are quoted at about $30 per screen with 1,000-screen minimums. None of these figures is a quote.
Method: each publisher's page was opened on 2026-09-14 and the figure copied as printed, with the publisher's own unit. Nothing is averaged and nothing is adjusted for date. The home page carries the four-publisher summary; this page carries every row, what each publisher is, and the arithmetic a buyer has to do with the number. The fleet figures come from the TLC record, not from any publisher.
Why is the same taxi top quoted ten times apart?
Because the eight publishers are four different kinds of business, two of them share an author, and two of them print the same numbers. Know what you are reading before you compare it.
| Publisher | What it is | Scope | Dated? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Line Media | Reseller rate card. Media buying agency that resells inventory it does not own. Its footer states it is not the owner or exclusive provider of the formats on its site. Publishes a New York City rate table. | New York City | Undated page |
| Alluvit Media | Agency estimate. Media agency blog post with national ranges and a note that New York pays the high end. Not a rate card. | National, notes NYC pays the high end | Undated post |
| OOH Today | Editorial. Trade-press article written by Gino Sesto, founder of DASH TWO. Last updated 16 March 2021 on the page itself. Shares its author with the DASH TWO row. | National | Last updated 2021-03-16 |
| DASH TWO | Agency estimate. Digital and outdoor advertising agency, Culver City. National approximate costs on a format page; the same founder wrote the OOH Today article. | National | Undated page |
| AdQuick | Marketplace. Self-serve OOH marketplace aggregating inventory from what it states are more than 1,700 media owners. Publishes national ranges per vehicle per four weeks; its FAQ block is marked updated September 2026. | National, notes New York at the upper end | FAQ marked September 2026 |
| BillboardsIn | Quote marketplace. Lead-generation site that says it gets quotes from a database of taxi advertising vendors. Publishes estimated prices per location per month for New York City. | New York City | Undated page |
| NY Taxi Ads | Operator estimate. Operator of a digital taxi-top network in New York. Publishes general estimates in a blog guide, not a rate card; its rows match the Blue Line Media New York rows figure for figure. | New York City | Undated post |
| Inspiria Outdoor | Agency estimate. Outdoor media planning and buying agency. Publishes one figure for printed tops and a starting budget for digital tops, with no period stated. | National | Undated page |
Three things in that table change how the rates below should be read. The OOH Today article is written by the founder of DASH TWO and was last updated in March 2021, so those two rows are one shop's estimate printed twice, five years apart. NY Taxi Ads' "general estimates" are Blue Line Media's New York rows to the dollar ($300 to $500 static, $400 to $600 digital), so those are one set of numbers, not two. And AdQuick's national range for a static top ($100 to $500) runs from OOH Today's floor to Blue Line's ceiling, and its digital range ($120 to $800) from OOH Today's floor to Alluvit's ceiling; whether that is a coincidence or a compilation, AdQuick does not say. The operators that own New York inventory (SOMO, NY Taxi Ads, CMT, Curb and Firefly) publish no rate card at all; the company roster records who does and who does not.
What does each publisher print, by format?
Every row as its publisher wrote it, with the publisher's unit. Where the unit is "per month" rather than "per four weeks" it is shown, because the two are not the same thing.
The ranges below are market-level figures compiled from publicly published vendor and industry sources. They are not quotes, and they are not the rates of any single network. Always get a written quote before budgeting. Figures below are ranges published by third-party media brokers and industry sites, retrieved on the dates shown. They are not quotes, not an offer, and not any single network’s rates. Rates move with fleet, daypart, share of voice and season.
Static taxi top
Home-page unit: per cab, 4-week period
10x between the lowest and highest published figure
| Published figure | Unit as published | Publisher | Type | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300 – $500 | per cab, 4-week period | Blue Line Media | Reseller rate card | 2026-09-14 |
| $500 – $1,000 | per cab, 4-week period | Alluvit Media | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| $150 – $300 | per cab, 4-week period | DASH TWO | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| $100 – $200 | per cab, 4-week period | OOH Today | Editorial | 2026-09-14 |
| $100 – $500 | per vehicle, 4 weeks | AdQuick | Marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $250 – $500 | per taxi, per month | BillboardsIn | Quote marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $300 – $500 | per taxi, per month | NY Taxi Ads | Operator estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| $300 – $350 | per taxi, double-sided printed, period not stated | Inspiria Outdoor | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
Digital taxi top
Home-page unit: per cab, 4-week period
6.7x between the lowest and highest published figure
| Published figure | Unit as published | Publisher | Type | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $400 – $600 | per cab, 4-week period | Blue Line Media | Reseller rate card | 2026-09-14 |
| $300 – $800 | per cab, 4-week period | Alluvit Media | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| $200 – $400 | per cab, 4-week period | DASH TWO | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| $120 – $180 | per cab, 4-week period | OOH Today | Editorial | 2026-09-14 |
| $120 – $800 | per vehicle, 4 weeks | AdQuick | Marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $350 – $600 | per taxi, per month | BillboardsIn | Quote marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $400 – $600 | per taxi, per month | NY Taxi Ads | Operator estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| from $5,000 | campaign starting figure, period not stated | Inspiria Outdoor | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
In-car screen
Home-page unit: per screen
Sources agree
| Published figure | Unit as published | Publisher | Type | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| from $30, minimum 1,000 screens | per screen | DASH TWO | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| about $30 per car, minimum buy 1,000 screens | per screen | OOH Today | Editorial | 2026-09-14 |
| about $30 per screen per month, minimum often 1,000+ screens, or CPM-based | per screen | AdQuick | Marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $5,000 – $20,000 | seat back screens, per month, count not stated | BillboardsIn | Quote marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
Trunk panel
Home-page unit: per cab
Sources agree
| Published figure | Unit as published | Publisher | Type | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| about $150 | per cab | DASH TWO | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| about $150 | per cab | OOH Today | Editorial | 2026-09-14 |
| $150 – $600 | partial wrap or trunk, per vehicle, 4 weeks | AdQuick | Marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $200 – $500 | per display, 4 weeks, national page | Blue Line Media (national taxi page) | Reseller rate card | 2026-09-14 |
Full wrap
Home-page unit: per cab
Agreement at the ceiling, not at the floor
Read before using this row. Published as a taxi rate, but in New York a body wrap on a yellow medallion taxi is not a standard authorized format: 35 RCNY 58-32(c) bars exterior advertising unless the Commission authorizes it. These figures describe FHV, rideshare or branded fleet vehicles unless the seller can show a TLC authorization. The fleet record counts medallion cabs only.
| Published figure | Unit as published | Publisher | Type | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500 – $2,000+ | per cab | DASH TWO | Agency estimate | 2026-09-14 |
| about $2,000 | per cab | OOH Today | Editorial | 2026-09-14 |
| $1,500 – $3,000+ | per vehicle, 4 weeks, production and installation included | AdQuick | Marketplace | 2026-09-14 |
| $950 – $1,950 | per display, 4 weeks, national page | Blue Line Media (national taxi page) | Reseller rate card | 2026-09-14 |
| $2,000+ | per taxi, per month | NY Taxi Ads | Operator estimate | 2026-09-14 |
Taxi TV spots, whole fleet
Per 4-week period, entire New York fleet
Sold against riders, not per cab
| Spot | New York page | National page, same publisher | Publisher | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :15 spot | $10,000 – $30,000 | $5,000 – $30,000 | Blue Line Media | 2026-09-14 |
| :30 spot | $14,000 – $35,000 | $7,000 – $35,000 | Blue Line Media | 2026-09-14 |
| :60 spot | $18,000 – $65,000 | $9,000 – $65,000 | Blue Line Media | 2026-09-14 |
The same reseller prints two floors for the same :15 spot: $10,000 on its New York page and $5,000 on its national page, where the row is labelled Taxi Interior, Digital; both were read the same day. The ceiling is identical. The difference between a taxi top and a passenger screen, and who counts each, is on the taxi top versus Taxi TV page.
The one published minimum
$5,000 per ad format or higher, which may be spread over displays and periods, as published by Blue Line Media, read 2026-09-14. Blue Line Media adds that the minimum may be reduced in certain cases. AdQuick publishes a $5,000 minimum per market for rideshare tops and "varies by market" for every taxi format. No operator page read for this site states a minimum.
How many cabs does a budget buy, and what share of the street is that?
Budget divided by the per-cab, four-week price, at each publisher's floor and ceiling, then divided by the 8,878 yellow taxis on the road on an average day. The arithmetic is shown so it can be checked.
| Static top, publisher | Range | $5,000 (Blue Line minimum) | $25,000 | $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Line Media | $300 – $500 | 10–16 cabs · 0.11–0.18% of 8,878 | 50–83 cabs · 0.56–0.93% of 8,878 | 200–333 cabs · 2.3–3.8% of 8,878 |
| Alluvit Media | $500 – $1,000 | 5–10 cabs · 0.06–0.11% of 8,878 | 25–50 cabs · 0.28–0.56% of 8,878 | 100–200 cabs · 1.1–2.3% of 8,878 |
| DASH TWO | $150 – $300 | 16–33 cabs · 0.18–0.37% of 8,878 | 83–166 cabs · 0.93–1.9% of 8,878 | 333–666 cabs · 3.8–7.5% of 8,878 |
| OOH Today | $100 – $200 | 25–50 cabs · 0.28–0.56% of 8,878 | 125–250 cabs · 1.4–2.8% of 8,878 | 500–1,000 cabs · 5.6–11.3% of 8,878 |
| AdQuick | $100 – $500 | 10–50 cabs · 0.11–0.56% of 8,878 | 50–250 cabs · 0.56–2.8% of 8,878 | 200–1,000 cabs · 2.3–11.3% of 8,878 |
| BillboardsIn | $250 – $500 | 10–20 cabs · 0.11–0.23% of 8,878 | 50–100 cabs · 0.56–1.1% of 8,878 | 200–400 cabs · 2.3–4.5% of 8,878 |
| NY Taxi Ads | $300 – $500 | 10–16 cabs · 0.11–0.18% of 8,878 | 50–83 cabs · 0.56–0.93% of 8,878 | 200–333 cabs · 2.3–3.8% of 8,878 |
| Inspiria Outdoor | $300 – $350 | 14–16 cabs · 0.16–0.18% of 8,878 | 71–83 cabs · 0.80–0.93% of 8,878 | 285–333 cabs · 3.2–3.8% of 8,878 |
Worked once, in words. At Blue Line Media's New York static floor of $300 per cab per four weeks, the $5,000 minimum buys 16 cabs; at its $500 ceiling, 10. Out of 8,878 yellow taxis on the road per day that is 0.18% or 0.11% of the street for four weeks, before anyone asks how many hours a day each cab works (8.5 on average, NYC TLC monthly indicators, May 2026). At Alluvit Media's $1,000 ceiling the same $5,000 buys 5 cabs. A proposal that reports share of fleet against 13,589 medallions (NYC TLC 2025 Annual Report) is dividing by a licence count that includes 4,711 vehicles not on the street on a given day; the reach model on the home page caps its input at 8,878 for that reason.
| Digital top, publisher | Range | $5,000 | $25,000 | $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Line Media | $400 – $600 | 8–12 cabs · 0.09–0.14% | 41–62 cabs · 0.46–0.70% | 166–250 cabs · 1.9–2.8% |
| Alluvit Media | $300 – $800 | 6–16 cabs · 0.07–0.18% | 31–83 cabs · 0.35–0.93% | 125–333 cabs · 1.4–3.8% |
| DASH TWO | $200 – $400 | 12–25 cabs · 0.14–0.28% | 62–125 cabs · 0.70–1.4% | 250–500 cabs · 2.8–5.6% |
| OOH Today | $120 – $180 | 27–41 cabs · 0.30–0.46% | 138–208 cabs · 1.6–2.3% | 555–833 cabs · 6.3–9.4% |
| AdQuick | $120 – $800 | 6–41 cabs · 0.07–0.46% | 31–208 cabs · 0.35–2.3% | 125–833 cabs · 1.4–9.4% |
| BillboardsIn | $350 – $600 | 8–14 cabs · 0.09–0.16% | 41–71 cabs · 0.46–0.80% | 166–285 cabs · 1.9–3.2% |
| NY Taxi Ads | $400 – $600 | 8–12 cabs · 0.09–0.14% | 41–62 cabs · 0.46–0.70% | 166–250 cabs · 1.9–2.8% |
A digital top is a rotation. The cab count above is the number of screens the budget buys, not the number of minutes your creative is on them. Blue Line Media publishes 1,000 to 5,000 daily views for a digital top against 9,000 to 12,000 for a static one, on the same national page, with no method stated. Whatever the true figure, ask for share of voice in writing along with the cab count, and look at the campaign archive to see what one screen on one cab looks like from the sidewalk.
What is not in the number?
Production, mostly. The rate rows are media rates unless the publisher says otherwise, and most do not say. What each one states, verbatim in substance:
- Blue Line Media. No production, print or install line item on the rate card; only creative due dates (static two to three weeks before start, digital three business days).
- AdQuick. Wrap pricing includes production (printing and lamination) plus installation.
- Alluvit Media. Custom pricing may also include printing, installation, and creative services.
- DASH TWO. Wrap spec table: factor in removal cost at campaign end.
Two more things are missing from every row. The first is time on the roof: a "per four weeks" price for a cab that works 8.5 hours a day and 26.6 days a month (NYC TLC monthly indicators, May 2026) is not the same as a cab that carries your creative around the clock, and only the operator can tell you which vehicles are on which shifts. The second is the seller's own margin: Blue Line Media's footer states that it is not the owner or exclusive provider of the formats on its site, which means its rate card is a resale price with the operator's price underneath it. Neither is wrong. Both should be in the written quote.
Where does a published number not add up?
One page prints three averages for the same thing. The arithmetic is reproduced here rather than characterised, so the reader can decide what it means.
| Statement on BillboardsIn's New York taxi page | Figure | What it implies |
|---|---|---|
| A transit ad in New York City generates this many impressions per month, at this CPM | 2,084,554 at $29.19 | 2,084,554 ÷ 1,000 × $29.19 = $60,848 per month |
| FAQ: on average, taxi ads in New York City cost this much per month | $33,514.62 | 45% below the $60,848 its own impressions and CPM imply |
| Rate table: on average, taxi advertising in New York City costs | $600 – $3,500 | A different order of magnitude from either |
| Same page, static top and digital top, estimated price per location per month | $250 – $500 · $350 – $600 | Per taxi; consistent with the reseller rows above |
All four statements were on the same page on 2026-09-14. The per-taxi rows are usable; the impressions sentence describes "a transit ad", not a taxi, and the two averages disagree with it and with each other. The lesson is not about one site. It is that a published cost with no unit, no count and no date cannot be checked, and a buyer should ask for all three before the number goes into a plan.
Taxi top or Taxi TV: who sees each and how it is counted · Who actually sells NYC taxi advertising · Send a brief
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to advertise on a taxi in New York City?
- Eight publishers, read on 2026-09-14, put a static taxi top between $100 and $1,000 per cab per four-week period and a digital top between $120 and $800. The New York-specific rows are narrower: Blue Line Media $300 – $500 static and $400 – $600 digital, BillboardsIn $250 to $500 and $350 to $600. None of them is a quote and every one of them is a range, so a proposal at the ceiling of one publisher can sit above the floor of another by ten times.
- Is there a minimum spend for New York taxi advertising?
- The only published minimum is Blue Line Media's: $5,000 per ad format or higher, which may be spread over displays and periods, with the note that it may be reduced in certain cases (read 2026-09-14). AdQuick publishes a $5,000 minimum per market for rideshare tops only and says other minimums vary by market. The operators that own New York inventory publish no minimum, so ask for it in writing.
- How much does Taxi TV advertising cost in NYC?
- Taxi TV is sold against the whole fleet, not per cab. Blue Line Media's New York page lists $10,000 – $30,000 for a :15 spot, $14,000 – $35,000 for a :30 and $18,000 – $65,000 for a :60, each per four-week period. Its national page lists lower floors for the same spots ($5,000, $7,000 and $9,000). DASH TWO, OOH Today and AdQuick quote in-car screens at about $30 per screen with a 1,000-screen minimum; BillboardsIn lists seat-back screens at $5,000 to $20,000 per month without a screen count.
- How many taxis does a taxi advertising budget buy in New York?
- Divide the budget by the per-cab, per-period price and then divide the result by 8,878, the number of yellow taxis on the road on an average day (NYC TLC monthly indicators, May 2026). $25,000 at Blue Line Media's New York static floor of $300 buys 83 cabs for four weeks, 0.93% of the cabs on the road; at Alluvit Media's $1,000 ceiling it buys 25, 0.28%. A "fleet share" quoted against 13,589 medallions overstates the denominator by 4,711 vehicles.
- Why do NYC taxi advertising prices vary so much between sources?
- Because the eight publishers are four different kinds of business. Blue Line Media resells inventory it does not own and prints a rate card; DASH TWO, Alluvit Media and Inspiria Outdoor are agencies publishing estimates; AdQuick and BillboardsIn are marketplaces; OOH Today is trade press, and its article was written by the founder of DASH TWO in 2021. NY Taxi Ads operates a network and publishes general estimates that match Blue Line's New York rows figure for figure. Different scopes, different dates, and in two cases the same author or the same numbers.
- What are the ads on top of taxis called?
- In the TLC rulebook the unit is a Rooftop Advertising Fixture, defined in 35 RCNY 67-03(b) as a device that incorporates the functions of a roof light with the displaying of advertising. The trade calls the printed version a static taxi top and the LED version a digital taxi top. Both are priced per cab per period, which is the unit every row on this page uses for the roof.
Sources read for this page
- Blue Line Media, NYC Taxi Ads · New York City · read 2026-09-14
- Alluvit Media, Taxi Top Advertising Guide · National, notes NYC pays the high end · read 2026-09-14
- OOH Today, What Is Taxi Advertising · National · read 2026-09-14
- DASH TWO, Taxi Advertising: Costs, Formats & Specs · National · read 2026-09-14
- AdQuick, Taxi Advertising: Tops, Wraps, Taxi TV & Pricing · National, notes New York at the upper end · read 2026-09-14
- BillboardsIn, Taxi Advertising in New York City · New York City · read 2026-09-14
- NY Taxi Ads, New York Taxi Advertising: The Ultimate Guide · New York City · read 2026-09-14
- Inspiria Outdoor, Taxi Advertising · National · read 2026-09-14
- Blue Line Media (national taxi page), Taxi and Rideshare Advertising in 50+ Cities · read 2026-09-14
- NYC TLC monthly indicators CSV · yellow taxis on the road per day, hours and days per vehicle, May 2026 · read 2026-09-14
- NYC TLC 2025 Annual Report · medallions authorized · published January 2026, read 2026-09-14
- 35 RCNY Chapter 67, TLC rulebook PDF · 67-03(b) definition of a Rooftop Advertising Fixture · read 2026-09-14
What to send us
- Boroughs or corridors
- Dates or flight length
- Budget band
- The metric you will judge it by
A person replies with the published ranges for those dates and which sellers hold the inventory. This site publishes no rate card; every figure on it is a third-party published number, dated.
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