Parking in San Francisco: The Ultimate Guide

Dubbed the Golden City, San Francisco is not only home to the modern-day technological gold rush but it’s also a gold mine for tourists, residents, and California locals alike.

About 348 miles away from Los Angeles, San Francisco is located in the northern part of the state and is a lot cooler than LA—temperature-wise, but not in terms of culture!

San Francisco has an equally rich history, which is why it’s no wonder that the city houses the fourth- largest population in CA. With a population of 808,437 people and annual events like San Francisco Pride, it can be hard to find San Francisco parking–but not when you use our ultimate guide to parking in San Francisco!

Recommended Parking Apps

There are two main ways to find San Francisco parking. You can either book an SF parking spot in advance or find a temporary parking space.

For reserving parking spots ahead of time, these are the top parking apps we suggest:

ParkWhiz
SpotHero

If you need to find parking on the spot (no pun intended), here are our two favorite parking apps for finding San Francisco parking in real-time:

Xtreet
PayByPhone

#1: ParkWhiz

Interestingly enough, not all parking apps report the same prices in San Francisco. However, ParkWhiz displays similar prices to SpotHero, making it a competitive option for cheap parking services.

A major selling point of ParkWhiz is that the website shows pictures of the entrances to garages, on-street parking, and lots, so you’ll have a visual reference in case you get lost or find it hard to locate your parking spot.

You can also organize the search results based on the closest parking spots as well as the cheapest ones.

#2: SpotHero

As a user-friendly search engine, SpotHero makes it easy to look for parking options in San Francisco and book a parking spot in advance. Even better, you can reserve a single booking or schedule multiple reservations on different days.

This is a great option for people who want to book parking within 30 days in advance.

#3: Xtreet

With Xtreet, you can look up street parking, garages or lots, and parking meters via the app’s interactive map. You cannot reserve parking spots with Xtreet, but the app offers Google Maps directions to help you find the parking spot you want to reserve in person.

#4: PayByPhone

Though PayByPhone can’t help you book parking spaces in advance, it’s a great way to digitally pay for San Francisco parking. With PayByPhone, you can pay for meters from your phone, so it’s an ideal app to download if you need to add more time to a parking meter remotely.

Simply open the Pay Meter browser on your smartphone. From there, you can either register for a Pay Meter account, log into an existing account, pay to park as a guest, or connect your Facebook account. Once you choose which log-in option you’d prefer, enter the meter’s location.

Then, input how much time you’d like to pay for and confirm your payment. You’ll need to add your credit or debit card information as well. Once the payment goes through, you can enjoy your time in San Francisco! Just make sure you keep an eye on the time.

Tips For Street Parking in San Francisco

There are many rules you must adhere to in order to park legally in San Francisco. For starters, always park facing the flow of traffic.

Tip #1: Don’t park farther than 18 inches away from the curb.

Tip #2: Do not park in the same parking spot for longer than 72 hours in a row. Otherwise, you could face a citation for overtime parking.

Tip #3: When parking on a hill (San Francisco has plenty of them!), turn your tires toward the sidewalk. This will angle your tires away from traffic, preventing your car from rolling into the street should your brakes fail.

Tip #4: Make sure there isn’t any signage indicating that parking is not permitted in the area, and always double-check your bumpers to ensure they don’t extend beyond the permitted parking space. Otherwise, you could be ticketed or cited for parking improperly.

Tip #5: Check parking signs to see if a permit is required. If you don’t have a permit, note the hours that are permit-only and plan to move your car before those hours roll around.

Tip #6: You can claim on-street parking spots, but you must go through the SFMTA’s Temporary Signage Program in order to do so. You can’t block parking spots with objects of your own — like orange traffic cones or residential trash bins — to save parking spots for yourself.

Tip #7: Last but not least, drivers in San Francisco must pay attention to the city’s street cleaning schedules. As someone with a car, you must ensure that your vehicle is removed from city streets on street-sweeping days.

You can either reference the official Bimonthly Mechanical Street Sweeping Calendar or input your address into the San Francisco Property Information Map. If you choose the latter option, the website will generate information about your address, including a street cleaning schedule specific to your area.

Parking Options Comparison

Let’s look at how garages, metered street parking, and free San Francisco parking compare.

Option #1: Parking Garages

If you only need parking for an hour or two, parking in a garage in San Francisco isn’t necessary. However, if you’d like to take your time strolling through San Francisco without rushing, then a parking garage is worth the extra cost

According to Way, the average daily San Francisco parking rate for garages is between $20 and $40 for the full day. However, if you make a parking reservation in advance, you can lower the amount you spend per day to anywhere from $2 to $6 per hour or $10 to $15 per day.

Some garages offer discounts for cheap parking throughout the week and at various times of the day. For instance, St. Mary’s Square Garage offers a $6 flat rate on Saturdays and Sundays for up to 12 hours at a time. Browse Yelp to explore all the garage deals in San Francisco!

Metered Street Parking

When searching for street parking in San Francisco, you can expect the majority of metered parking spaces to have two-hour limits. However, some meters have a four-hour limit, while others do not impose a time limit at all. Check the signage at the meter for clarification.

When you reach the time limit of a metered parking spot, do not add more time to the same meter. Instead, you must drive your vehicle to a new parking spot and pay the meter associated with that space.

As of April 2024l, the rates for metered parking spots range from $0.50 to $10.75 per hour. For updated information about the exact prices of San Francisco meters, download the April 2024 Parking Meter Rate Change Data (CSV) sheet.

Meters in San Francisco are enforced Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day are the only holidays when meters are not imposed.

Similarly, metered parking spaces are usually free on Sundays, with the exception of meters in these five areas:

The Embarcadero
Fisherman’s Wharf
Off-street parking lots
Special Event Areas in Chase Center
Special Event Areas near Oracle Park

Free Parking

Free on-street parking is not unheard of in San Francisco, but it’s certainly harder to find than metered parking spots or garages. But if you’re determined enough, you might get lucky!

Your best bet is to look for SFO parking in residential neighborhoods, but just because you find a vacant spot doesn’t mean you can automatically park there. Before parking your car on a non-metered street, look at the curbs.

Are the curbs painted? If so, here’s what each color means:

Red Curbs: you cannot park here.
Green Curbs: you can park for about 10 minutes or less.
Yellow Curbs: you can only use this spot as an unloading or loading zone.
White Curbs: you can pick people up or drop them off, but do not park.
Blue Curbs: this space is reserved for people with handicap permits.

Just make sure you also read the parking signs. Some streets require permits, but even so, you can usually park in these spaces without a permit — just for a shorter period of time. If you don’t see a meter and the curb isn’t painted, you should be good to go as long as you don’t overstay your welcome.

In Summary

Now that you know how SF parking works, you might wonder what you should do if you need somewhere to park your car for a longer period of time. While parking is a short-term option, long-term options—like car storage spaces—are also available in San Fran.

If car storage near you is what you need, consider exploring your options via peer-to-peer car storage marketplaces like Neighbor. These private vehicle storage spaces in San Francisco are ideal if you need to store a vehicle every day for prolonged periods of time (1 month or longer). As a bonus: you can find car storage options in your own neighborhood!

The best part is that the storage options are 14 times safer and 50% cheaper than traditional storage spaces! It’s the most cost-effective and flexible way to store your vehicle while renting from vetted people who are local to your area.

Parking in San Francisco: The Ultimate Guide