Slovak vignette validity: when each e-vignette starts and ends
When does a Slovak e-vignette start and stop being valid?
It starts on the calendar day you name when you buy, and that day counts as the first day. The 1-day vignette expires at 24:00 on that date, the 10-day and 30-day periods include it, and the long vignette runs 365 days from it rather than to a fixed end of season.
The day you name is day one
eZnamka counts the first day of validity as the day the buyer specifies, not the moment of payment (eZnamka types and prices, checked 2 September 2026). Paying at nine in the evening for that same date leaves three hours of cover, not twenty four.
The 1-day vignette is the sharpest case: it is valid until 24:00 on the named day and no later. If the drive continues past midnight, the 10-day vignette is the shorter of the two remaining options.
Name the date of your first drive on a charged motorway or expressway, not the date you leave home.
The long vignette is a rolling 365 days
Slovakia stopped selling a calendar-year vignette in August 2024 and replaced it with the 365-day one, which runs 365 days including the day the buyer names (NDS, checked 2 September 2026). Austria and Switzerland still work the other way, where a season ticket expires on a fixed date whenever it was bought.
That removes the reason to wait for January. A driver buying in October gets a full year rather than the tail of one, so buy the long vignette on the day the year should begin.
You can set the start up to 60 days ahead
Slovakia unified the purchase rules for every vignette type in January 2025, and a buyer can now postpone the start of validity by up to 60 days from the purchase, raised from 13 days (eZnamka, checked 2 September 2026). A summer trip can be paid for at Easter.
The named date binds once validity begins, so pick it against the itinerary rather than against the booking. Compare the four periods on the Slovak vignette options page and count the return leg in before choosing.