Cheapest Car Sharing in Moscow — Comparing Yandex Drive, Citydrive, and Delimobil

The debate about which car sharing service in Moscow offers the best value has been going on in our editorial office for about as long as we’ve been using these apps. One person points to Yandex Drive, another swears there’s nothing cheaper than Delimobil, and a third silently opens Citydrive. And with summer in full swing — the city emptying out, everyone heading off on trips, and half the country tuning in to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the evenings — getting around Moscow quickly and without overpaying is a priority. So we decided to settle this long-running debate not with words, but with action: we got into the same car model in each service and compared real receipts. We also checked whether the attractive per-minute car sharing rate actually matches what ends up being charged to your card.

We compared three major services: which car sharing is the best deal?

How We Tested Car Sharing in Moscow

Finding cheap car sharing in theory is easy, but verifying it in practice is much more interesting. To make the comparison fair, we eliminated as many variables as we could. We took the same car everywhere — the Geely Coolray (also known as the Belgee X50), the most popular crossover in car sharing. We used the per-minute rate everywhere, without switching to standby mode and without interrupting the trip.

We took the same car model in different services for experiment transparency

We didn’t add any extra insurance or protection, and we didn’t use promo codes or personal discounts either — just the base conditions that any regular user would see. Our account has a normal rating but no long trip history, meaning it’s not a maxed-out car sharing profile but exactly what most of you would have.

We want to emphasize an important detail: this was a pure experiment. And here are a few more points.

• All cars were picked up in the same area.
• We drove the same route.
• We stayed within roughly the same time with comparable mileage (about 20 minutes).

So we’re not comparing “a ride through the center versus a trip out of town” — it’s literally the same scenario run through three apps.

We launched and tracked all rides with an iPhone 16 — the apps for each service live on our home screen, so the test was as close to real life as possible. The only thing missing is BelkaCar, but our account was unexpectedly blocked right before the test.

Yandex Drive — The Most Expensive Car Sharing

We open the app, find a Coolray, get in. The “Minutes” rate here came out to 15.96 ₽ per minute — the highest per-minute rate among all three. No complaints about the app: it runs smoothly and shows the route and cost transparently.

Yandex Drive turned out slightly more expensive than others, but with no hidden fees

As for the car itself, it was the first in the test and immediately the most worn out. I’m sure a similar specimen can be found in any car sharing fleet, but that didn’t make it more comfortable: a beaten-up body, a smoke-filled cabin, and the smell was clearly not from expensive perfume with hints of vanilla and tobacco. In car sharing you typically don’t want to touch anything extra, but here you have no choice — you can’t let go of the steering wheel. What they did to this Coolray is anyone’s guess, but a piece of the steering wheel wrap was literally missing.

The ride took about 23 minutes and came out to 335.09 ₽. There are no hidden start-up fees here — the entire amount is calculated from minutes — but due to the most expensive rate, the total ended up higher than the competitors. Convenient, familiar, but Yandex charges more per minute than everyone else.

How Much Does Citydrive Cost — Per-Minute Rate and Why It Was the Cheapest

The same Coolray at Citydrive in their signature green-and-orange livery, or rather its Belarusian twin, the Belgee. The per-minute rate here is 13.75 ₽ per minute, noticeably cheaper than Yandex, though not the lowest in our trio. There are no separate start-up charges, and this will matter in the final tally.

Citydrive turned out to be genuinely affordable — the smallest bill of the entire test

In terms of impressions, Citydrive significantly redeemed Moscow car sharing in my eyes. The car was neat, fresh, and clean — there were some marks on the body, but nothing critical. Inside the cabin, there was even a smartphone holder, and the odometer showed only about 60,000 kilometers. Maybe we just got lucky, but after the previous car, it felt noticeably more pleasant. The only concern was once again the smell in the cabin — honestly, smoking in car sharing should really be banned already. Enough is enough!

In the end, for a ride of roughly the same 22 minutes, the trip came out to 275 ₽. This is the smallest bill of the entire test, and we didn’t use any tricks to save money — a moderate rate with no rental start fee simply performed better than everyone else on a short distance.

How Much Does Delimobil Cost — Per-Minute Rate and Start Fee

And here lies the main paradox of our test. Delimobil has the lowest per-minute rate — 12.39 ₽. You’d think this makes it the economy champion. But Delimobil has a separate rental start fee of 75 ₽, which is charged on top before you even move. The minimum trip cost here is fixed at 109 ₽.

Delimobil has additional variables, which is why it turned out less affordable than Citydrive

The car here also turned out to be a veteran of Moscow traffic, much like the Yandex one. I was specifically hunting for a Coolray, and within one neighborhood the selection was quite slim. I didn’t have to specifically seek out the most worn-out specimens — they found themselves. This one evoked a mild sadness: if dealerships put such unwashed cars with nearly 100,000 km on the odometer out for test drives as an example of what they turn into, sales would be far more modest.

Our insurance coverage was connected for free, so it didn’t affect the bill. The ride took about 20 minutes, and the app showed 323.43 ₽ at the end. So the low per-minute price looks great in advertising, but the fixed start fee eats up all the savings on short distances. Delimobil is cheaper than Yandex but more expensive than Citydrive.

Which Car Sharing in Moscow Turned Out Cheapest

So which Moscow car sharing offers the best value? The conclusion wasn’t as obvious as we thought at the start. The most tempting per-minute rate belongs to Delimobil, but it actually ended up more expensive than Citydrive because of the 75 ₽ start fee. So read between the lines.

So which is the cheapest car sharing in Moscow based on our test results? We compiled everything into one table so the breakdown is right before your eyes — see for yourselves.