B197 driving license costs 2026
Price statistics for B197: €2,070 cost benchmark, €65 median lesson price and data from 11,041 driving schools.
Automatic with manual competence: all costs
B197 combines the comfort of learning on an automatic with full manual driving privileges: you train on automatic and prove manual competence through at least 10 manual lessons and a 15-minute test drive. This lets you drive both transmission types afterwards. Like class B, 12 special drives (5 rural, 4 motorway, 3 night) are mandatory, plus about 20 practice lessons on average. Since its introduction in 2021, B197 has become increasingly popular, but pricing varies widely.
A B197 (automatic) license costs around €2,070 on average nationwide. A single practice lesson (45 min) runs about €65. These figures are based on approx. 11k driving schools across approx. 1.4k cities (updated June 13, 2026). Lesson prices range between €56 - €82. A typical cost breakdown includes base fee €438, lesson €65, special drive €75, theory exam €60, practical exam €200 – plus individual practice hours on top. Location makes a difference too: costs range from €1,735 in Köln to €3,816 in Leipzig.
Ask specifically whether the manual lessons are included in the package price or charged separately – seemingly cheap offers can end up costing more than a standard class B license.
- Driving license cost
€2,070
Nationwide cost benchmark for B197 (automatic)
- Median lesson price
€65
Price per 45-minute practice lesson
- Data basis
approx. 11k schools / approx. 1.4k cities
Analyzed driving schools and cities
- Data updated
Time of the latest statistics calculation
Methodology and data source
The statistics are based on the drive bee database with approx. 11k driving schools in approx. 1.4k cities. Visible and approved driving schools with structured price and location data for the selected class are included.
For B197 (automatic), median values are used so individual outliers have less impact on the core finding. The cost benchmark combines the typical price components: base fee, practice lessons, mandatory special drives and exam fees.
The visible update date shows when the statistics were last calculated from the available price and location data: June 13, 2026.
Definitions
- Median lesson price
- The middle price for a 45-minute practice lesson: 50 percent of recorded prices are below it and 50 percent are above it.
- Driving license cost
- The cost benchmark for B197 (automatic) combines the most important price components of training and uses median prices from the recorded driving-school data.
- Data basis
- The rounded number of driving schools (approx. 11k) and cities (approx. 1.4k) currently included in the statistics.
