Gordie Howe Bridge Truck Tolls 2026: Per-Axle Fees, Breakaway & Cost Guide

Quick answer: The Gordie Howe International Bridge charges large commercial trucks $12.00 CAD ($8.75 USD) per axle at the standard rate, or $9.60 CAD ($6.90 USD) per axle on a Breakaway prepaid business account. A standard five-axle tractor-trailer pays $60.00 CAD ($43.75 USD) per crossing at the standard rate and $48.00 CAD ($34.50 USD) on Breakaway. At the Ambassador Bridge, the same truck pays $60.00 USD without an account, or $45.00 USD or less with an A-PASS or E-ZPass account, at the rates in effect since August 1, 2026.

Want your exact number? Run your axle count through the free Gordie Howe Bridge toll calculator.

What the Gordie Howe Bridge changes for carriers

The Gordie Howe International Bridge connects Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan — the busiest commercial land border between Canada and the United States. The bridge opened to traffic on July 27, 2026, and a Windsor-based transportation company made the first commercial truck crossing that day, according to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA). It gives carriers a second high-capacity crossing alongside the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, with direct freeway-to-freeway connections (Highway 401 on the Canadian side, I-75 on the US side) and no city-street bottleneck. For fleets, the headline is simple: a new toll option that undercuts the incumbent at the posted rates.

Because it is a publicly owned crossing, its toll schedule is published openly, in Canadian and US dollars. That matters for cost planning: unlike a per-kilometre highway toll, a bridge toll is a fixed, predictable line item you can bake into every Windsor–Detroit lane quote. For Highway 407 and the other Ontario border crossings, see our guide to tolls in Toronto, Ontario and Canada.

Gordie Howe Bridge toll rates (2026)

Large commercial vehicles are charged per axle. The table below shows the total per crossing for common configurations at both the standard and Breakaway rates.

How the truck toll is calculated: per-axle rate × number of axles. There is no distance component and no time-of-day pricing — a 5-axle truck pays the same whether it crosses at 3 a.m. or during the afternoon rush.

Vehicle classes. The per-axle rate applies to large commercial trucks, buses, RVs, vehicles towing fifth wheels, and taller passenger vehicles over 2.3 metres (7.5 feet). Small and medium personal vehicles under that height pay the flat rate instead. Oversized and hazardous loads pay the per-axle base rate plus possible additional fees for special handling and added safety considerations. WDBA's pages disagree on escort vehicles: the toll rates page says an escort fee includes a flat toll charge of $100 CAD, with additional fees as necessary, while the specialized loads page says an escort vehicle pays the applicable toll with no additional fees. The multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists is toll-free.

Currency note. WDBA sets rates in Canadian and US dollars for customers paying cash or through a Breakaway account, and each Breakaway account is opened in one of the two currencies. Debit and credit card payments at the toll lane are charged the Canadian rate at the bank's exchange rate at the time of crossing. As of October 10, 2026, WDBA's own pages do not fully agree. The toll rates page still says US rates may be adjusted at the time of opening, although the bridge opened on July 27, 2026. The same page's image for large commercial and passenger vehicles shows $8.60 USD per axle, while its calculator, its image for hazardous and oversized vehicles and WDBA's toll FAQ say $8.75 USD, which this guide uses. All rates are subject to change, so confirm against the official toll rates page before building a rate card.

Gordie Howe vs Ambassador Bridge for trucks

Both bridges land in the same two cities, so for most Windsor–Detroit freight they are interchangeable on routing — which makes toll cost the deciding factor.

The Ambassador figures are the operator's commercial tolls in effect since August 1, 2026, posted in US dollars. Compared like for like, a five-axle tractor-trailer saves up to $10.50 USD per crossing at Gordie Howe with an account at each bridge ($34.50 versus $45.00 or less) and $16.25 USD per crossing with no account at either ($43.75 versus $60.00). A truck with an Ambassador account but no Breakaway account saves little or nothing: $43.75 versus $45.00 or less. A truck making one Windsor–Detroit round trip a day, five days a week, crosses roughly 500 times a year, so the like-for-like saving comes to up to $5,250 USD per truck, per year with accounts, or $8,125 USD without. Commercial customers expecting more than 150 Ambassador crossings a month can also apply for A-PASS subscription accounts with fixed monthly rates, so price that option too before picking a default crossing. Multiply across a fleet and the crossing decision stops being a driver preference and becomes a procurement decision. We break the comparison down further in Gordie Howe vs Ambassador Bridge: which is cheaper for trucks.

The Breakaway account: how fleets capture the discount

Breakaway is the Gordie Howe Bridge's toll discount program. Members pay $9.60 CAD ($6.90 USD) per axle instead of the $12.00 CAD ($8.75 USD) standard rate — a 20% per-axle discount that applies to every crossing. For a high-frequency lane that discount adds up fast. See the Gordie Howe Breakaway account and how carriers save for enrollment mechanics and a break-even analysis.

The toll is not customs clearance

A common and expensive misunderstanding: paying the toll does not clear your shipment. The Gordie Howe Bridge is a crossing, not a customs broker. Every commercial truck still has to file an electronic manifest before it arrives at the booth:

• Entering the United States — a CBP ACE eManifest, transmitted and accepted before arrival.
• Entering Canada — a CBSA ACI eManifest, transmitted and accepted before arrival.

Arriving without an accepted eManifest means refusal, delay, and potential AMPS/penalty exposure — the toll savings evaporate the moment a truck sits at secondary. BorderPro, a separate product, is in early access as of October 10, 2026: it prepares and checks ACE and ACI eManifest data, but its site says live manifests must still go through an authorized filing channel until it completes agency certification.

Rolling bridge tolls into load costing

Because a bridge toll is a fixed per-crossing amount, it belongs in your cost-per-mile and load-quoting math, not as an afterthought on the settlement. A carrier running Windsor–Detroit lanes should:

1. Pick a default crossing (usually Gordie Howe on Breakaway) and put its per-axle rate in the rate card.
2. Add the round-trip toll to every cross-border quote before accepting a lane.
3. Track actual crossings so the toll flows into per-load profitability and driver pay.

In TruckerPro, the dispatch software does not price tolls on a load's route, so price the crossing first with the free Gordie Howe Bridge toll calculator and build it into the quote. When the toll bill arrives, you can enter it as a bill in the Tolls category, link it to the load and code each line to a truck, so the toll counts in the per-truck profit and loss report and, when the bill is in the load's currency, in that load's profit and loss. Feature availability varies by plan.

Sources were checked on October 10, 2026. Gordie Howe figures are from WDBA's official toll rates page and toll FAQ; the bridge opened to traffic on July 27, 2026. Ambassador Bridge figures are the commercial tolls in effect since August 1, 2026, from the Ambassador Bridge commercial toll rates page. All rates are subject to change.