Everest Base Camp permits: what you actually need in 2026

Everest Base Camp permits come down to two fees, no restricted area process, and one legal requirement most first-timers don’t expect: a licensed guide.

Unlike Upper Mustang, Manaslu, or Kanchenjunga, EBC isn’t a restricted area. There’s no Restricted Area Permit, no minimum group size, no government approval process to wait on. What you need is the Sagarmatha National Park Entry Permit and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality Entry Permit, both issued in person on the trail, together costing roughly USD 37 per person. We had a guest last October who’d read three different blogs and arrived expecting a TIMS card queue at the airport. There wasn’t one because that requirement ended in 2023. Her actual holdup that morning was a change dispute over a 500-rupee note at the Monjo counter, not paperwork.

Permits here are the easy part. Knowing which two you actually need, and which rule change catches people out, is where most of the confusion sits.

Quick Answer on the Everest Base Camp Permits

Everest Base Camp permits mean two fees, the Sagarmatha National Park permit and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Municipality permit, totaling about USD 37. No TIMS card, no restricted-area rules, but a licensed guide is legally required. Full costs, process, and exceptions below.

Unlike Upper Mustang, Manaslu, or Kanchenjunga, the Everest Base Camp trek is not a restricted area. There’s no Restricted Area Permit, no government-approval process, and no minimum group size. What you do need is two permits, both straightforward to arrange, and both things your trekking company will normally sort out on your behalf.

The two permits you actually need for the Everest Base Camp Trek

A lot of older guides online still list three permits for Everest Base Camp, including a TIMS card. That’s outdated. Since the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality introduced its own entry permit, TIMS is no longer required for the standard EBC route through Lukla. You need:

1. Sagarmatha National Park Entry Permit
2. Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality Entry Permit

That’s it. Both are checked at entry points along the trail, not at the airport, so you won’t need either in hand until you’re already on foot.

The Everest Base Camp Trek Permit Cost Breakdown

Total: roughly NPR 5,000, or about USD 37 per person, for the pair. Prices are set in Nepali rupees and can shift with exchange rates or municipal revisions, so treat the USD figure as an estimate and confirm current rates with the Nepal Tourism Board before you fly.

Where do you get the Everest Base Camp trek permits

The Everest National Park permit is issued in two places: the Nepal Tourism Board office in Kathmandu, or the park entry checkpoint in Monjo, a short walk past Lukla on your first proper trekking day. Most guided trekkers get it processed en route at Monjo rather than in the city, since it saves a stop in Kathmandu before departure.

The municipality permit is issued at the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality counter in Lukla, right after you land. Your guide will usually handle this the moment you arrive, before you’ve even left the airstrip.

Neither permit needs to be applied for in advance. Both are same-day, in person, and require nothing more than your passport and a couple of passport photos.

Processing time varies mostly by who’s standing in line. Guided groups with an agency handling the paperwork typically clear both counters in 15 to 30 minutes, since the guide has everything ready before reaching the desk. Independent trekkers sorting the National Park permit themselves in Kathmandu report anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on the queue that day.

It depends: independent guide vs. full agency package

Most of what’s above assumes a standard, guided package booked through an agency, which covers the large majority of EBC trekkers. It works a little differently for the rest.

If you’ve hired a licensed guide directly rather than booking a full agency package, meaning you found and paid a certified guide yourself, you can legally do this, and you’ll still need to present that guide’s license at the Monjo checkpoint alongside your own permits. Nobody hands you the permits automatically in this case; you or your guide will need to queue at both counters yourselves.

If you’re entering via the classic overland route through Jiri or Salleri rather than flying into Lukla, you’ll need one more document most permit guides skip entirely: the Gaurishankar Conservation Area Permit, since that route passes through a different protected area before it ever reaches Sagarmatha National Park boundaries. This adds a small additional fee and a stop at a separate checkpoint, and it’s easy to miss if you’ve only researched the standard fly-in itinerary.

If you’re trekking with a large group booked well in advance, your agency may process permits in a batch the day before your Lukla flight rather than at the counter on arrival, which can save time during the busiest October and April mornings when queues at both checkpoints run long.

Do you need a guide for the Everest Base Camp trek?

Yes. Since April 2023, solo trekking without a licensed guide has been banned across Nepal’s national parks and conservation areas, Sagarmatha National Park included. Nepal Tourism Board officials cited around 40 to 50 cases a year of foreign trekkers going out of contact on the trail as part of the reasoning behind the rule. Enforcement was inconsistent through 2024, but by the 2026 season, it’s checked routinely: the National Park checkpoint at Monjo verifies your guide’s license alongside your own documents.

In practice, this changes very little for most trekkers, since the overwhelming majority already book through a registered agency with a guide. If you were planning to trek independently without one, this is the rule that affects you directly.

Myth vs. reality: “Everest has more flexibility than other regions”

A few older forum threads still claim the Khumbu route has some informal leniency on the guide rule, since it’s such a well-trodden trail with teahouses at every stop. That was arguably true in the first year or two after the ban, when enforcement varied by checkpoint and season.

It isn’t true anymore. As of the 2026 season, Monjo checks guide credentials as routinely as it checks your Sagarmatha National Park permit, and being turned back or fined for arriving without one is a real and current risk, not a rumor from 2023.

What you’ll need to bring for Everest Base Camp permits

• Passport, the physical document, not a photo of it
• 2 passport-size photos
• Cash in Nepali rupees for both permit fees, since card machines aren’t reliable this far up the trail
• Your guide’s license details, if you’re booking independently rather than through an agency

Your trekking company will typically collect your passport details and photos before departure and handle both Everest Base camp permits as part of the package, so you’re rarely the one standing at a counter filling in forms.

One detail your EBC itinerary won’t tell you

Bring at least three or four extra photocopies of your passport photo page, beyond what you think you need. Both checkpoints keep a paper copy for their own records, separate from the digital entry, and it’s common for staff to ask for one at Monjo and a second one at the Lukla municipality counter. There’s nowhere to print more above Namche Bazaar, so running short mid-trek means either backtracking or handing over your only spare, which leaves you without a copy for the return leg.

What happens if you skip the Everest Base Camp permits

Checkpoints along the trail do check, both at Monjo and again at the municipality counter in Lukla. Trekking without the correct permits can mean being turned away on the spot, fined, or asked to backtrack to sort it out, none of which anyone wants to deal with a day into a two-week trek. It isn’t worth the risk to save USD 37.

Why do these Everest Base Camp permits and fees exist

Sagarmatha National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the park entry fee goes directly into trail maintenance, ranger patrols, and conservation work across the Khumbu. The municipality fee is more local still: it funds the villages your trek actually passes through, most of which depend on trekking tourism for the bulk of their income. Paying it isn’t a formality. It’s part of what keeps the region worth visiting, and part of why Himalayan Rescue Association aid posts and trail infrastructure exist at all in villages this remote.

Permits sorted, the next question is usually timing and fitness. If you haven’t already, take a look at our guide to Everest Base Camp trek preparation, or go straight to the itinerary for our Everest Base Camp Short Trek.