Uber and taxis in Manchester
There is no single taxi regulator here. Each of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs licenses its own cabs and sets its own tariff, so the rules on the car you get into depend on where it was licensed. Manchester City Council's black cabs must take a card and must run the meter inside the city boundary. Once the destination is more than 4 miles beyond it the fare becomes negotiable, the meter is optional and the driver need not take the job. Agree a price first. Tickets, passes and contactless are on the Manchester page.
Licensed taxis
Hackney Carriage
- How you pay
- Takes cards (guaranteed) and cash. Card and cash both accepted; card acceptance is a Council-stated requirement, not optional.
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manchester.gov.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026assets.live.dxp.maginfrastructure.com fetched 11 Aug 2026assets.live.dxp.maginfrastructure.com fetched 23 Jul 2026 - How you get one
- Street hail, rank or phone.
- Cost
- Metered.
- Worth knowing
- Fleet is wheelchair-accessible per both the Council page and Manchester Airport's page (100% wheelchair-accessible fleet).
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manchester.gov.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026assets.live.dxp.maginfrastructure.com fetched 11 Aug 2026assets.live.dxp.maginfrastructure.com fetched 23 Jul 2026
Ride apps licensed here
Uberuber.com
- How you pay
- Takes payment in the app and cash. In-app card payment is the default; Uber UK's help centre states cash is also now selectable as a payment method (paid directly to the driver at trip end).
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- How you get one
- In the app.
- Cost
- Upfront price shown in the app before you book.
- Worth knowing
- Uber's own Manchester Airport taxi landing page states outright: This means Uber's in-app Taxi product category (metered black-cab-style dispatch some UK cities offer inside the Uber app) is not offered at MAN — only the standard rideshare classes (UberX/XL/Exec/WAV) are available there.
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Boltbolt.eu
- How you pay
- Takes payment in the app. In-app payment via linked Mastercard/Visa/AmEx card (AmEx Euro-zone only); Bolt's own payment-method-management page lists only card options, no cash option to add.
- How you get one
- In the app.
- Cost
- Upfront price shown in the app before you book.
- Worth knowing
- Bolt's own MAN airport page states, which is out of date: Terminal 1 closed to the majority of operations on 19 November 2025, and the airport now functions as two terminals, T2 and T3, sharing The Station.
FreeNowfree-now.com
- How you pay
- Takes payment in the app. Black Cab / EV Black Cab / XL Black Cab bookings: physical card or Apple Pay also accepted (not only via the app).
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free-now.com fetched 23 Jul 2026support.free-now.com fetched 23 Jul 2026support.free-now.com fetched 11 Aug 2026 - How you get one
- In the app.
- Cost
- Upfront price shown in the app before you book.
- Worth knowing
- The London cash exclusion named explicitly on FreeNow's own payment page implies London is treated as a special case distinct from other UK cities, which leaves genuine doubt about whether Manchester allows cash for Black Cab bookings placed through the app — a visitor should not assume either way without checking in-app at time of booking.
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Street Carsstreetcarsmanchester.co.uk
- How you pay
- Takes cash. Payable by cash, debit and credit card, or monthly invoice (account customers); the app additionally offers 1% cashback on spend.
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streetcarsmanchester.co.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026streetcarsmanchester.co.uk fetched 11 Aug 2026 - How you get one
- Phone or app.
- Cost
- Upfront price shown in the app before you book.
- Worth knowing
- It isn't clear from the airport's own pages whether Street Cars remains a current official airport partner.
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streetcarsmanchester.co.uk fetched 23 Jul 2026streetcarsmanchester.co.uk fetched 11 Aug 2026
What is not recorded
- No published tariff is recorded for Hackney Carriage. Ask for an estimate before you set off, and check the meter is running.