Parking in Palo Alto

Palo Alto does not charge for short visits downtown. That surprises visitors from San Francisco, where every curb seems to charge. Instead the city uses free time limits, color zones and daily permits for people who need to stay longer. It works well once you know the system. It also generates plenty of tickets for people who do not.

This guide explains the rules for downtown and California Avenue, then covers the shopping centers, Caltrain lots, electric car spaces and accessible parking. For the bigger picture, including Stanford's paid visitor parking, see our overview of getting around Palo Alto. The city marks several of its parking pages as being updated, so check the official links before a long stay.

Free parking and time limits

According to the city's free hourly parking page, the basic rules are:

• Two hours free in on-street spaces and in surface lots.
• Three hours free in parking garages, except in areas marked for permit holders.
• Signs rule. Individual garages and lots can differ, so read the posted limit where you park.

Those limits are enough for a meal, a movie or a walk along University Avenue. For a full day of meetings or a long lunch followed by shopping, buy a daily permit or move the car between zones.

Downtown color zones

Downtown's core business district is divided into four color zones: Purple, Coral, Lime and Blue. The rule is about re-parking. When the time limit in a zone runs out, you must move your car out of that color zone. The city's color zone page states that vehicles will be ticketed if they are re-parked in the same color zone within the same enforcement day. Parking in a different zone is fine.

The city gives an example. If you park in a two hour Lime space at noon, you can move around within Lime during those two hours. Once you leave Lime, you cannot come back to it that day. Either way, you must be out of Lime by 2 p.m.

Some spaces are exempt from the re-parking rule, though their own limits still apply:

• Green 30 minute spaces.
• Yellow commercial loading zones.
• White passenger loading zones.
• Blue disability spaces.

Download the zone map from the city page before you go. Zone boundaries follow streets, not obvious landmarks.

Downtown garages and lots

The city runs a long list of public garages and lots downtown, each known by a letter or a street pair. The garages with the most capacity for visitors include:

Surface lots fill the blocks between Alma Street and Cowper Street, including lots at Emerson and Lytton, Hamilton and Waverley, Gilman and Bryant, Cowper and Hamilton and High and Hamilton. The full list is on the city's downtown parking facilities page. Weekday lunchtime and Friday evenings are the hardest times to find a space. Upper garage levels usually have room when the street is full.

Planning dinner downtown? Our downtown neighborhood guide maps out the main streets so you can pick a garage near your table.

Daily permits for longer stays

If you need more than three hours, buy a daily permit. The city's all day visitor permit page listed the price as $25.70 a day for downtown and California Avenue public garages and lots in October 2026. Another city page still showed an older $20 price, so confirm before you buy.

Permits are sold at:

• Revenue Collections on the ground level of the Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue, cash only.
• The main level of the Bryant/Lytton, Cowper/Webster and High/Alma South garages and Level A of the Civic Center Garage.
• The main level of the 350 Sherman Avenue garage on California Avenue.

Each permit is valid only on the date printed. Employees of downtown businesses can buy annual permits through the city instead.

California Avenue

The California Avenue district uses numbered lots rather than letters. There are surface lots plus three garages:

• 350 Sherman Avenue Garage (Lot 7), the largest, a block from California Avenue. It sells daily permits.
• Two garages on Cambridge Avenue at Lots 3 and 5. The city's charger list names them the Ted Thompson Garage at 275 Cambridge Avenue and the Cambridge Garage at 475 Cambridge Avenue.

The same two hour and three hour free limits apply. Sunday mornings are busy because of the year-round farmers market, which takes over part of California Avenue itself. Arrive early or come by Caltrain, since California Avenue station is at the end of the street. Our California Avenue guide and farmers markets guide have more.

Residential streets

Neighborhoods around downtown and California Avenue are covered by Residential Preferential Parking districts. Anyone can park on those streets for up to two hours without a permit. Residents can give visitors daily scratch-off passes for longer visits. Read the signs on each block, since limits and hours vary. Residents and long-term visitors can learn how the system works in our guide to residential parking permits.

A few state and city rules apply everywhere in town:

• Since January 1, 2025, California law bans stopping or parking within 20 feet of the approach side of a crosswalk, even where the curb is not painted.
• Do not leave a car in the same spot on a public street for more than 72 hours.
• Watch for street sweeping signs, which list the day and hours when parking is banned.
• Never block a fire hydrant, a driveway or a bike lane.

Shopping centers

Stanford Shopping Center

Stanford Shopping Center, on Sand Hill Road at El Camino Real, surrounds its open-air stores with large surface lots. Self-parking there has long been free. Spaces near the department stores fill first on weekend afternoons and through December. There is a rideshare pickup and drop-off zone. A Tesla Supercharger site is on the property too. See our Stanford Shopping Center guide for the layout.

Town & Country Village

Across El Camino Real at Embarcadero Road, Town & Country Village has its own surface lots in front of and behind the buildings, with entrances from both roads. Some areas carry posted time limits. The lot near Trader Joe's is the most crowded, especially at lunch. Details are in our Town & Country Village guide.

Caltrain lots and Stanford

Caltrain charges for its station lots at all hours. A daily permit was $5.50 in October 2026, paid at a ticket machine or through ParkMobile. Palo Alto station has 389 spaces and California Avenue 185. Stanford's campus is separate from the city system. Visitor parking there is paid by zone through ParkMobile, with free periods in many zones on evenings and weekends. Our page on Stanford parking and transit covers the rates and the traps.

Electric vehicle spaces

The city runs 121 Level 2 charging ports at 10 locations, mostly in its garages. The biggest cluster is 33 ports in the Sherman Avenue garage. The city promotes them for overnight charging from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. at $0.35 per kWh with no overstay fees. During the day, the normal garage time limits still apply. Our EV charging guide lists every site.

Accessible parking

Blue disability spaces and their striped access aisles are reserved for vehicles showing a valid disabled person placard or plate issued by the California DMV. Placards from other states are generally honored too. The city enforces these spaces at all times. Under California law, a car with a placard can usually park at metered spaces without paying and stay beyond posted time limits on public streets. Private lots, including shopping centers, may set different rules. Caltrain waives its station parking fee for cars with a California placard. More tips are in our accessible travel guide.

Frequently asked questions