Quick summary
A single-entry visa on arrival in Jordan costs 40 dinars, about $60, and a day at Petra costs 50. The 70-dinar Wanderer Jordan Pass replaces both when you buy it before you fly and stay at least two whole nights, saving 20 dinars and covering more than 40 other sites.
The waiver disappears on shorter stays, for Arab passport holders, and for Aqaba arrivals who already enter visa-free. Below: how the tiers compare, how to buy without losing the waiver, and when the pass costs more than it saves.
Most visitors landing at Queen Alia International Airport hand over forty dinars, about $60, at the immigration counter.
A 70-dinar Jordan Pass bought before the flight removes that charge. It also adds a day at Petra, which costs 50 dinars on its own.
The trade comes with one condition, in two parts. You must buy the pass before you arrive, and you must stay at least two whole nights in the country. Get either wrong and the visa fee returns, often at the exit desk rather than at arrivals.
For travelers from North America, the UK, the EU, Australia and New Zealand, that makes the pass a decision rather than an automatic buy. The math works cleanly on a four-day trip built around Petra. It works badly on a two-day stop in Amman. On arrivals through Aqaba, where the visa is already free, it does nothing at all.
Eligibility is also narrower than the marketing suggests. The pass is closed to Arab passport holders, and some other nationalities still need a visa issued by an embassy before they fly. The rules below hold as of October 2026.
What the Jordan Pass costs, and what it saves
Two charges decide the calculation. A single-entry visa on arrival runs 40 dinars, set by the Jordanian government and listed on the Ministry of Tourism’s visa page. One day at Petra costs 50 dinars at the gate. Paid separately, that is 90 dinars before you have seen anything else.
The entry-level Wanderer pass costs 70 dinars and covers both. That puts the minimum saving at 20 dinars per person.
It also opens more than 40 sites: Jerash, the Amman Citadel and Roman Theatre, Kerak and Shobak castles, Umm Qais, Ajloun, Qasr Amra, the Aqaba castles and the Wadi Rum protected area. Guided tours inside Wadi Rum are not included. Petra by Night needs a separate ticket.
The Jordan Pass visa fee waiver covers one thing only: the single-entry visa fee. The pass itself is not a visa. It is a digital ticket, delivered as a QR code, that the border accepts in place of the 40-dinar charge.
| Tier | Price | Petra days | Visa fee waived | Same items bought separately |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wanderer | 70 JD | 1 | Yes, with 2+ nights | 90 JD |
| Explorer | 75 JD | 2, consecutive | Yes, with 2+ nights | 90 JD or more |
| Expert | 80 JD | 3, consecutive | Yes, with 2+ nights | 90 JD or more |
| No pass | Nothing | 50 JD per day | No | 40 JD plus 50 JD per Petra day |
| Sources: Jordan Pass official price list and FAQs at jordanpass.jo; Jordan Ministry of Tourism visa information. | ||||
The break-even point is one Petra day.
Skip Petra and the arithmetic flips. A 70-dinar pass exists to avoid a 40-dinar fee, so you finish 30 dinars behind unless the other sites on the list are genuinely part of your itinerary.
Every tier is priced in dinars. The dinar figures stay fixed, while the price in dollars, pounds or euros moves with the exchange rate. The steps between tiers are small: 5 dinars buys a second Petra day, and another 5 buys a third.
Those savings hold only if you stay long enough.
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The stay rule that triggers the visa waiver
The official pass site sets the threshold at a minimum of two whole nights in Jordan, three days, for the visa fee to be waived. That is the rule most travelers get wrong. It decides whether the 40 dinars comes off your bill.
Some 2026 guides describe the same threshold as three nights, four calendar days, with proof of accommodation. The gap matters only for a trip of exactly two nights, a thin margin in a country with this much ground to cover.
Book three nights and both readings are satisfied.
Enforcement happens on the way out. Stay fewer nights than the rule requires and the visa fee is collected at exit. Buy the pass after landing and you still get every site entry, but the waiver is gone.
One more limit: the waiver applies to a single-entry visa. Travelers holding a multiple-entry visa pay the visa fee in full and buy the pass purely for the attractions.
Getting that evidence right starts with how you buy.
How to buy, and the one site that counts
The purchase takes minutes, and every step happens before you fly.
- Open jordanpass.jo and pick a tier by the number of Petra days you want.
- Add the Baptism Site at Bethany Beyond the Jordan for 8 dinars if it is on your list. The add-on is offered only at the point of purchase.
- Pay and download the PDF with your QR code. Print it and keep a second copy on your phone.
- Show the QR code and your passport at immigration, then at the gate of the first site you visit.
Validity now runs for three months from your date of entry into Jordan. The Petra authority extended the pass’s validity to boost tourism, which moved the clock away from the purchase date. The ticket activates at the first successful scan, so paying online does not start the countdown.
Passes are non-refundable and personal. Each traveler needs one, and the visa waiver follows the passport it was issued against.
Buy only at jordanpass.jo.
The pass is sold on the official domain and nowhere else: not at Queen Alia airport, not at a land border, and not through a reseller or a lookalike checkout page. A QR code the border does not recognise leaves you paying the 40 dinars anyway. The official pass FAQ sets out the terms, including the exclusion for Arab passport holders.
Once the pass is in hand, the border you choose decides what it is worth.
Where you enter decides the value
The pass is accepted at every official entry point, but the visa waiver only pays off where a visa fee actually exists. Queen Alia in Amman is the standard route, and the 40-dinar charge applies there. Our guide to getting from Queen Alia into central Amman covers what happens after passport control.
Aqaba changes the arithmetic. Arrivals at King Hussein International Airport, and overland entries from Eilat at the Wadi Araba crossing, fall inside the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, where most nationalities are admitted visa-free. The pass still gets you into Petra and the rest of the list, but there is no 40-dinar fee for it to cancel.
Wadi Araba carries a second condition. Enter there, stay at least two nights and leave through the same crossing, and the waiver holds. Leave Jordan by another route, through Amman or the Allenby Bridge, and it is void. Restricted nationalities entering at Wadi Araba may also have to exit through the border they used on arrival.
Land crossings further north sit in a different category altogether. Read up on the advisory zones on Jordan’s northern borders before you plan any overland route.
When the pass is not worth buying
Trips shorter than two nights. The waiver needs a minimum stay, so a short stopover pays the 40 dinars regardless. The pass then has to justify itself on attractions alone, a hard sell at 70 dinars for one day.
Arab passport holders. The pass is closed to them, so the visa and every site ticket are paid separately. Nationals who are not on the waiver list can still buy a pass for the attractions, but they pay the standard visa fee at the border.
Travelers whose only Jordan stop is Aqaba. The special economic zone already admits most nationalities without a visa, and Petra is a long drive north. There is nothing for the waiver to cancel.
Anyone skipping Petra. Without a Petra day, the pass loses its headline saving, and the 70 dinars has to be earned back site by site.
For everyone else, the decision comes down to one question: how many days do you want inside Petra?
Buy before arrival, or the waiver disappears
The window is narrow, and it closes at the aircraft door. The pass has to be in your inbox before you land in Amman, and the stay has to clear the minimum.
- Count the nights before booking hotels: if the itinerary lands on exactly two nights, add a third. One night’s accommodation costs less than a reinstated 40-dinar fee at the exit desk.
- Buy direct at jordanpass.jo: complete the purchase before departure and file the confirmation email with your travel documents.
- Print the QR code: carry paper and phone copies, plus the passport the pass was issued against, because the waiver follows that document.
- Watch: the minimum-stay wording on the official site. If it moves from two nights to three, a two-night trip loses the waiver and the pass becomes an attractions-only purchase.
On a trip of three nights or more with Petra on the itinerary, the pass settles both charges in one payment. Every traveler in the group saves the same 20 dinars.
Plan for three nights, buy before you fly, and the only queue left at Queen Alia is the one for passport control.
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Questions? Answers.
Can I visit Petra more than once on a Jordan Pass?
Petra is the exception in the pass system. Wanderer covers one day, Explorer two consecutive days and Expert three, while every other site on the list allows a single entry. Petra days cannot be split across a trip.
Does the pass work for entry through Aqaba?
Yes. It is accepted at every official entry point, including King Hussein International Airport and the Wadi Araba crossing. But Aqaba sits inside a special economic zone where most nationalities enter visa-free, so the 40-dinar waiver has nothing to cancel there.
Does a late-night arrival still count toward the minimum stay?
The rule is written in whole nights rather than hours, so an arrival close to midnight can still qualify as long as the required nights fall before your departure. Officers check the dates when you leave, and accommodation records settle any question.
Can two people share one Jordan Pass?
No. Each traveler needs a pass issued against their own passport, and the visa waiver follows that passport through immigration. A couple buys two passes, and each one cancels a single 40-dinar fee.
What happens if my trip is cancelled after I buy the pass?
Passes are non-refundable, but the validity change helps here: the three months now run from your date of entry into Jordan instead of from the purchase date, so a delayed trip no longer burns the ticket.
How much does an entry visa for Jordan cost?
A single-entry visa costs 40 dinars, about $60, paid at the airport counter on arrival. Applying in advance through the eVisa portal adds a service fee of roughly 16 dinars to the same charge, which makes the online route more expensive than the counter, as of mid-2026.
