A Nepal trekking permit is an entry authorisation issued by the Nepal Tourism Board, the National Trust for Nature Conservation, or a national park office that lets a named foreigner walk a protected route for a fixed date range. Two regulatory changes reshaped these permits in the past six months: the Upper Mustang restricted-area fee dropped from a flat USD 500 to USD 50 per person per day on 22 December 2025, and the Department of Immigration lifted the two-trekker minimum for restricted-area permits nationwide on 22 March 2026. Several older blog posts, including ones on this site, still quote the pre-December pricing. This one doesn't.
Annapurna, Everest, Langtang, and the restricted valleys each run a different permit system, so what you need depends on the valley, not the trek length. The Annapurna and Langtang regions use a conservation-area fee plus a TIMS card; the Everest region skips TIMS entirely in favour of two local park fees; and the restricted districts of Mustang, Manaslu, and Nar Phu carry their own per-day or per-week charges on top of a base conservation fee.
How many permits does your route actually need?
Every foreign trekker in Nepal carries at least two documents: a route-specific park or conservation fee, and either a TIMS card or a restricted-area permit that substitutes for it. The table below sorts the seven live permit types by region so you can see which pair applies before you book flights.
| Permit | Region | 2026 fee (foreigner) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIMS (Blue, via agency) | Annapurna, Langtang | NPR 1,000 | Group trekkers booked through a registered agency |
| TIMS (Green, independent) | Annapurna, Langtang | NPR 2,000 | Independent applicants; a licensed guide is still required |
| ACAP | Annapurna | NPR 3,000 (~USD 23-25) | Covers Annapurna Circuit, Base Camp, Poon Hill, Mardi Himal, Tilicho |
| Sagarmatha National Park | Everest | NPR 3,000, some counters bill NPR 3,390 with VAT | Paid at Monjo checkpoint |
| Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality fee | Everest | NPR 2,000 | Paid at Lukla |
| Langtang National Park entry | Langtang, Gosaikunda | NPR 3,000 (NPR 1,500 SAARC) | Paid at Dhunche |
| Upper Mustang RAP | Mustang | USD 50 per person per day | Solo applications allowed since 22 March 2026; ACAP still required on top |
| Manaslu RAP | Manaslu | USD 100/week (Sep-Nov), USD 75/week (Dec-Aug) | Stacks with MCAP and ACAP; solo applications allowed since March 2026 |
Add the numbers up by region and three cost tiers appear. Annapurna and Langtang trekkers pay NPR 4,000 to 5,000, roughly USD 30 to 38, across their conservation fee and TIMS card. Everest trekkers land in a similar band: NPR 5,000, about USD 38, split between the Sagarmatha park fee and the Khumbu municipality charge. Mustang and Manaslu cost more and scale with time on the trail, since both regions moved to per-day or per-week pricing rather than a flat fee. A ten-day Upper Mustang loop now runs close to USD 500 in permit fees alone under the new daily rate, and a two-week Manaslu Circuit adds roughly USD 200 to 250 in restricted-area and conservation charges before guide fees or lodging are counted.
TIMS and ACAP: the everyday pair
TIMS, the Trekkers' Information Management System card, now comes in two tiers that replaced the old flat NPR 2,000 fee. Foreigners trekking with a registered agency such as Annapurna Trekking pay NPR 1,000 for a Blue TIMS card, while independent foreign applicants pay NPR 2,000 for a Green card. SAARC nationals pay NPR 300 in a group or NPR 600 independently, and Nepali citizens pay NPR 100 or NPR 200. The card records your route, emergency contact, and insurance details so search-and-rescue teams can locate you if you miss a checkpoint.
ACAP, the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit, costs NPR 3,000 and is mandatory on every Annapurna-region trail: the Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna Base Camp, Poon Hill, Mardi Himal, and Tilicho Lake all draw on the same card. The National Trust for Nature Conservation collects the fee and reinvests it in trail maintenance, micro-hydro power, and drinking-water stations along the route. For the counter-by-counter mechanics of buying both cards in Kathmandu or Pokhara, see our ACAP and TIMS permit guide.
Enforcement of the TIMS card itself has diverged by region heading into mid-2026. Annapurna's own posts at Dharapani, Chame, and Manang still list TIMS as required, but several guide operators report inconsistent checks there through 2026, since the ACAP card and the guide's own licence now carry most of the verification weight at those gates. Langtang runs the opposite pattern: the Dhunche and Syabru Besi checkpoints continue to check TIMS on every group, with the paper card there now replaced by a digital e-TIMS record tied to the same NPR 1,000 agency rate. Treat lighter Annapurna enforcement as a compliance gap rather than a loophole, since TIMS is still the document search-and-rescue teams query first when a trekker misses a checkpoint.
Everest treks skip TIMS for two local fees
Khumbu-region treks never use a TIMS card at all. Trekkers heading up the Everest Base Camp trail instead pay the Sagarmatha National Park entry fee, billed at NPR 3,000 by the park office though some agencies quote NPR 3,390 once 13% VAT is added, plus the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee of NPR 2,000. Both are cash-only and collected in person: the park fee at the Monjo checkpoint on day two of most itineraries, and the municipality fee at Lukla on arrival.
Combined, the two Everest fees land around NPR 5,000, close to what an Annapurna trekker pays across ACAP and a Blue TIMS card. Neither Everest checkpoint takes cards, so budget the cash in rupees before you fly to Lukla.
What changed in Mustang and Manaslu since December 2025
Nepal's cabinet approved a full rewrite of the Upper Mustang Restricted Area Permit in November 2025, and the change took legal effect on 22 December 2025 through an amendment to Schedule 12 of the Immigration Regulations. The old flat charge of USD 500 for the first 10 days is gone. Every trekker now pays USD 50 per person per day for however long they spend inside the restricted zone, so a five-day jeep tour to Lo Manthang costs USD 250 instead of the old USD 500, while a trek longer than 10 days costs more than it used to. Trekkers booking the Upper Mustang Trek should budget the permit line item around actual trail days now, not the old flat fee. ACAP still applies on top, since Mustang sits inside the Annapurna Conservation Area.
The Department of Immigration made a second change on 22 March 2026 (8 Chaitra 2082 in the Nepali calendar, under director Tikaram Dhakal): the long-standing rule requiring at least two foreign trekkers per restricted-area permit application was dropped. Solo travellers can now get a Manaslu or Upper Mustang RAP in their own name, at the same per-day or per-week rate a pair would have paid each. The Manaslu Restricted Area Permit itself is unchanged in price, USD 100 per week from September to November and USD 75 per week from December to August, stacked with the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit and ACAP since the Manaslu Circuit Trek route exits through the Annapurna side near Dharapani.
Nepal's guide requirement did not move alongside the group-size rule. A licensed guide from a registered Nepali agency is still mandatory in every restricted district, checked at posts along the trail. Solo permitting means one client can now apply alone, not that anyone can walk in unguided. Nar Phu Valley, a smaller restricted valley off the Annapurna Circuit, follows the same post-March-2026 solo rule; our Nar Phu Valley itinerary and permit guide covers its specific fee bracket.
Langtang and Gosaikunda
Langtang trekkers pay a National Park entry fee of NPR 3,000 (NPR 1,500 for SAARC nationals) at the Dhunche checkpoint on the drive north from Kathmandu, plus a TIMS card under the same Blue or Green tiers used in Annapurna. One park ticket covers the whole valley, including the Gosaikunda lakes and the Helambu extension, so a single fee serves multi-stage itineraries through the Langtang Valley trek.
The 2023 guide mandate that now touches every permit
Since 1 April 2023, Nepal has required foreign trekkers to hire a licensed guide or porter-guide from a registered agency before entering any national park, conservation area, or restricted region, a rule the Nepal Tourism Board introduced after a run of missing-trekker cases on unmonitored routes. The change effectively ended the old Free Independent Trekker category. The Green TIMS card that once let a solo foreigner register and walk without local supervision no longer works that way, and every TIMS or restricted-area application now carries a guide's licence number as a mandatory field.
Checkpoint enforcement of the guide rule tightened through 2024 and 2025 at the busiest gates, Dharapani and Monjo among them, where officers cross-check a guide's card against the trekker's TIMS or RAP record before waving a group through. A licensed guide adds a real cost on top of permit fees, billed as a day rate by the agency rather than folded into any permit, and that day rate is effectively non-optional on every route in this guide. The practical upside outweighs the added cost for most trekkers: a guide who already carries your paperwork through a checkpoint removes the single most common cause of a delayed or turned-back start, a missing or mismatched permit.
Documents to bring
Every TIMS, ACAP, and restricted-area application draws on the same core paperwork, so gathering it before you land in Kathmandu avoids a lost day at the counter.
- Passport valid at least six months beyond your trek dates
- Two passport-sized photographs for standard permits, four for restricted-area applications
- A travel insurance policy number covering high-altitude trekking and helicopter evacuation
- Your guide's licence number, filed by the agency on TIMS and RAP applications
- Nepali rupees in cash; permit counters and trailhead checkpoints do not take cards
Restricted-area applications also route through the Department of Immigration rather than the Nepal Tourism Board counters, and processing has historically needed a short lead time before departure. Confirm current lead times with your agency when booking, since the December 2025 and March 2026 rule changes moved fast enough that processing windows are still settling.
Where the fees go
ACAP revenue funds the National Trust for Nature Conservation's work across the Annapurna region: trail bridges, micro-hydro electricity, drinking-water stations, and community lodges. The Khumbu municipality fee funds equivalent infrastructure in the Everest valleys, and restricted-area revenue from Mustang and Manaslu is split between the central government and the local rural municipalities. The permit is closer to a conservation levy than a tax, and it's part of why fees have moved more than once in the past two years.
Book your trek with permits handled
Annapurna Trekking, the trekking arm of Swotah Travel and Adventure, files every permit on this page as part of an all-inclusive package, so your TIMS, ACAP, or restricted-area paperwork is underway before you land. Message our team on WhatsApp at +977 984 159 5962 or visit our contact page to confirm what your 2026 route needs.
