Market report · Portugal
Hiring a car at Porto Airport
What the headline price leaves out here, measured across 18 searches of this market, the largest returning 1,443 cars.
Assume you will pay it.
About 27% of the rental itself. One fee per rental, not per person.
Pre-authorised on the main driver's card, and released after you return the car.
Almost everything here. Book early, keep checking, rebook if it drops.
What this means for your booking
- The cheapest sticker is usually not the cheapest car. With 92% of suppliers charging about €63 for a second driver, two cars advertised a few euro apart can be €63 apart by the time you drive away. We put that fee into every price the moment you say you need one.
- Check your card limit before you travel. The typical hold here is €1,500 on the main driver's card. It is a pre-authorisation rather than a charge, but it has to fit.
- A month is not four times a week. The median week here is €174 and the median month €1210 — worse per day, which is why back-to-back rentals often beat one long booking on hires of 40 days or more.
- The airport is usually the cheapest place to collect. In every market we have measured, that held — town pick-ups cost more, not less, because the suppliers compete at the terminal. See every pick-up point here.
Getting to the car
If you land late.
62% of the
suppliers we priced shut by 22:00, and the typical
desk closes at 20:30.
A delayed flight is the difference between collecting your car and paying for a
night you did not plan.
2% are open 24 hours, so a late flight does not rule
out hiring — it rules out most of the choice.
What it costs.
25% of suppliers here
will not collect a 23:30 arrival at all.
Of those that will,
73% add a fee —
typically €80 on top of the price you
were quoted for a daytime pick-up.
A 06:00 pick-up is
similar, about €80, and
32% of suppliers do not offer one.
Measured across
1264 offers that publish their desk hours; a supplier that
does not publish them is not counted as open.
Not every supplier here hands you the keys in the terminal. Across 18 searches, this is how collection splits:
Budget time for a shuttle. 70% of suppliers here are off-airport, which is usually why they are cheaper. It is a real cost in minutes at both ends, and worth weighing against the saving.
45 suppliers appeared here across our searches, at several separate pick-up points. See which is nearest you and what each costs.
The fine print, measured
These conditions vary more between airports than most people expect. We measure each of them everywhere we sweep: deposits · debit cards · second-driver fees · desk hours.
Collect full, return full. The cleanest policy — you only pay for what you use.
Effectively standard here, so a capped car is the one to look at twice.
Usually fine, but it is per supplier and often needs declaring.
The deposit needs a credit card in the main driver's name almost everywhere here. A prepaid card is usually refused too.
Deposit banding, as the suppliers classify it themselves: high deposit 40% · average deposit 26% · low deposit 16% · low deposit option available 10% · no deposit 3% · deposit-free option available 2%.
What each supplier actually costs here
45 suppliers appeared in our searches. These are the ones you are most likely to be offered — chosen by how often they came up, then ordered by what they really cost, which is rarely the same order as the advertised price.
Prices are for a one-week hire. Mixing rental lengths would make the column meaningless — a fee charged once per rental is a very different share of a week than of a month — so this table is built from week-long searches only.
| Supplier | Advertised 1 week |
With 2nd driver | Deposit held | Full cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GreenMotion cheapest all-in · seen 338 times |
€28 | €112 +€84 |
€2,100 | €59 |
| U-Save · seen 320 times |
€31 | €115 +€84 |
€2,100 | €62 |
| Drive4Move · seen 296 times |
€99 | €169 +€70 |
€1,300 | €59 |
| International Car · seen 296 times |
€108 | €178 +€70 |
€1,300 | €59 |
| DiscoverCars choice · seen 1694 times |
€131 | €194 +€63 |
€1,845 | €70 |
| Tangerine Rent A Car · seen 314 times |
€169 | €212 +€43 |
€1,450 | €66 |
| Drive on Holidays · seen 1204 times |
€240 | €262 +€22 |
€1,420 | €79 |
| Europcar · seen 460 times |
€196 | €286 +€90 |
€300 | €85 |
| Sicily By Car · seen 688 times |
€232 | €288 +€56 |
€850 | €68 |
| Drivalia · seen 387 times |
€243 | €319 +€77 |
€300 | €67 |
| Opcao Rent a Car · seen 288 times |
€364 | €406 +€42 |
€3,000 | €163 |
| SIXT · seen 426 times |
€343 | €434 +€91 |
€1,000 | €109 |
Deposits vary far more than prices. Opcao Rent a Car holds €3,000 on the main driver's card against Europcar's €300. It is released after you return the car, but it has to fit.
"With 2nd driver" is the advertised rental plus that supplier's additional-driver fee — our definition of the total, and the only one we rank on. Full cover is quoted separately and never added in: many travellers hold annual excess insurance or rely on a card, and folding in an assumed purchase is precisely the trick this site exists to expose. Medians across 18 searches; a supplier that does not publish a fee is not counted as free. How we measure this.
Price it for your dates
Every supplier, ranked by the total you actually pay.
How these numbers were measured
We search this market on a schedule through DiscoverCars, at several rental lengths, and keep what came back. Each figure above is the median across 18 searches, not a single snapshot and not an estimate.
- Second-driver share — the percentage of priced offers whose supplier charges a fee for an additional driver. Offers that do not publish a fee are excluded from the share rather than counted as free.
- Typical fee — the median fee for the whole rental, not per day. One fee per rental, however many drivers.
- Deposit — the median amount the supplier pre-authorises on the main driver's card at the counter. It is released after you return the car.
- Cancel free — the share of offers that can be cancelled without charge.
Car hire is priced dynamically and these are typical values, not quotes. Availability and price are confirmed on DiscoverCars before you pay. We publish the aggregates; the underlying records stay ours.
Measured from 18 searches of this market between 20 September 2026 and 22 September 2026. Car hire is priced dynamically: these are typical values, not quotes, and the only way to know your price is to search your dates. Prices and availability come from DiscoverCars and are confirmed there before you pay.