An Everest Base Camp permit is a pair of local authorizations, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit and the Sagarmatha National Park entry, that together cost NPR 5,000 (about USD 38) in 2026. TIMS cards do not apply in the Khumbu: the municipality permit replaced them in 2018, and it is sold only in Lukla and Monjo, never in Kathmandu. Ramesh Rai, who processes roughly 900 permits a year for our departures, wrote this guide from the counter side of the process; it covers both fees, exact purchase points, checkpoint locations, and the two documents you need in hand.
In this guide 5
What are the Everest Base Camp permit costs in 2026?
NPR 5,000, or about USD 38, covers both required permits at 2026 rates. The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit costs NPR 2,000 flat for foreign nationals, with no SAARC discount. The Sagarmatha National Park entry costs NPR 3,000 for foreign nationals and NPR 1,500 for SAARC citizens, plus 13% VAT collected on the park fee at some counters, so carry NPR 5,500 to be safe.
Fees on this page were confirmed against the Department of National Parks fee schedule in July 2026. Neither permit has changed price since 2021, but the municipality reviews its fee each Nepali fiscal year (mid-July), which is when a change would appear.
Where do you buy each permit?
The municipality permit is issued at two counters only: the Lukla gate at the north end of town (for trekkers who fly in) and the Monjo checkpoint (for trekkers walking in from Jiri or Salleri). The counter takes Nepali rupees in cash, needs your passport, and issues the permit in about five minutes. No photographs are required for either permit as of 2026.
The Sagarmatha National Park ticket has a counter at the Nepal Tourism Board office on Pradarshani Marg in Kathmandu (open Sunday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm) and at the park entry gate in Monjo. Buying in Kathmandu saves queue time in Monjo during October, when the gate processes several hundred trekkers a day; buying in Monjo works fine in any other month.
Where are the permit checkpoints on the route?
Monjo is the hard checkpoint: the national park gate at 2,835 m checks and stamps both permits for every trekker entering Sagarmatha National Park, and the municipality counter beside it sells its permit to anyone who arrived without one. A second check happens at the police post above Namche Bazaar on the trail toward Tengboche, mainly matching trekker counts against the Monjo register.
Keep both paper permits in a daypack pocket rather than a porter load, because porters travel at a different pace and can be a village ahead or behind when a post asks for papers. Lost permits are re-issued at full price, and there is no digital record a checkpoint will accept in place of the paper.
Do you need a TIMS card or guide for the Khumbu?
No TIMS card applies anywhere in the Khumbu since 2018, and travel agencies that add a TIMS line to an Everest quote are charging for a permit that does not exist on this route. TAAN's 2023 national rule requiring a licensed guide on trekking routes is enforced through TIMS issuance, and because the Khumbu sits outside TIMS, its municipality continued to admit solo trekkers as of this page's July 2026 update.
Restricted-area rules are a separate system entirely and do not apply to Everest Base Camp. Treks that do need restricted permits, minimum group sizes, and liaison arrangements are covered in the Manaslu restricted-area permit requirements guide, and the national picture is in our Nepal permits master guide at /guides/permits/.
Permit rules for the trip itself
Both Everest permits are valid for a single park entry with no time limit, so a 12-day itinerary and an 18-day itinerary pay the same NPR 5,000. Side trips within the park, to Gokyo or over the Cho La, need no additional permit. Only exiting the park and re-entering (for example, flying out of Lukla and returning a week later) triggers a second national park fee, while the municipality permit is written for the season.
Children under 10 are exempt from the national park fee. Nepali citizens pay NPR 100 for park entry and nothing to the municipality, which matters if you are trekking with Nepali friends who assume they need what you need. For every other Nepal region's paperwork, start from the Nepal trekking permits master guide, which maps all permit types to all regions in one table.
Group bookings work differently for the two permits. Our office buys each group's Sagarmatha National Park tickets in Kathmandu the day before departure using scanned passports, so no one queues at the NTB counter in person. The municipality permit still has to be bought in person at Lukla or Monjo, since that counter has never accepted an advance or agency-only purchase; every trekker in the group hands over their own passport at the counter, a five-minute process per person that our guides manage as a group so it doesn't hold up the day's walk.
FAQ
Common questions
Can I get Everest Base Camp permits in advance from abroad?+
No advance or online purchase exists for the municipality permit; it is issued in person at Lukla or Monjo only. The national park ticket can be bought a day or two ahead at the Nepal Tourism Board office in Kathmandu, and tour operators can buy it on your behalf with a passport copy.
What payment do the permit counters accept?+
Nepali rupees in cash, only. Neither the Lukla municipality counter nor the Monjo park gate takes cards or foreign currency, and the nearest reliable ATMs are in Namche, one checkpoint past Monjo. Carry NPR 5,500 per person set aside for permits before leaving Kathmandu.
Can my agency buy the Khumbu municipality permit before I land in Nepal?+
No. Unlike the national park ticket, which an agency can buy in Kathmandu with a passport copy, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit has no advance or remote purchase option. It's issued only at the Lukla or Monjo counter, in person, with the trekker's actual passport in hand. Budget five minutes per person at the counter on arrival day.
Does the permit cover a helicopter evacuation and return to the trek?+
Yes. Both Everest permits are valid for a single park entry with no fixed time limit, so a trekker evacuated by helicopter for altitude sickness and cleared to return within the same season doesn't need to buy either permit again, provided they don't exit and formally re-enter through a different gate. Check with your guide before rejoining the trek, since a full re-entry after leaving the park does trigger a fresh national park fee.
