How much does a 12306 refund or change cost?
On a domestic train, a refund is free 8 days or more before departure, then costs 5%, 10% and 20% of the ticket price. Each ticket can be changed once: free 48 hours or more ahead. Closer to departure, a change to a later date costs 5% or 15% of the lower fare, and 40% after departure. A mistaken purchase can be refunded free online within 30 minutes of paying, if the train is 4 hours or more away. Tickets to or from Hong Kong West Kowloon (香港西九龙) refund at 5%, 30% or 50%.
Domestic rules come from China Railway’s passenger transport regulations (from 1 Jun 2026) and fee notice 铁客〔2021〕15号 (from 14 Jan 2021). “Or more” includes the number named, “under” does not; times are Beijing time. The railway can adjust refund and change rules temporarily; consult station announcements.
12306 refund fee by cancellation time
The refund (退票) fee depends on the time left before the train leaves your boarding station (China Railway notice; English FAQ agrees).
| Time left before departure | Refund fee |
|---|---|
| 8 days or more | No fee |
| 48 hours or more, under 8 days | 5% of the ticket price |
| 24 hours or more, under 48 hours | 10% |
| Under 24 hours | 20% |
Fees are counted in steps of ¥0.5: of the part below ¥1, under ¥0.25 is dropped, ¥0.25 to under ¥0.75 counts as ¥0.5, and ¥0.75 or more rounds up to ¥1. The minimum fee is ¥2, or the ticket price if that is under ¥2.
Two cases cost more:
- Changing a ticket whose train is under 8 days away to a train 8 days or more away, then refunding it 8 days or more before that train leaves, still costs 5% (arrival-station changes too).
- If you change a ticket to a date in the Spring Festival travel period, the refund fee on the new ticket is the under-24-hours rate, which the English FAQ writes as a flat 20%.
Other refund rules:
- Money goes back the way you paid. The English FAQ gives no number of days.
- No refund once the train has left your boarding station, or for a ticket changed after departure.
- No fee if the railway is at fault: for a delayed train, refund at the boarding station before it actually leaves; for a cancelled one, from the announcement until 30 days after the travel date.
Can I change a 12306 ticket for free?
Yes: once per ticket, if the new train is on sale and has seats. A change can be a new date, train or seat class (改签, called endorsement on the English site). The fee is a share of the lower of the old and new ticket prices (China Railway notice).
| When you change | Train on or before the ticket date | Train on a later date |
|---|---|---|
| 48 hours or more before departure | Free | Free |
| 24 hours or more, under 48 hours before | Free | 5% |
| Under 24 hours before departure | Free | 15% |
| After departure, before 24:00 that day | Free (same day) | 40% |
Later-date changes under 48 hours before departure, and after departure, apply from 15 January 2024 (12306 announcement).
If the new ticket costs more, you pay the difference (online, you pay the new ticket in full and the old payment is returned). If it costs less, the difference comes back minus a refund fee at the refund scale, or 20% after departure.
12306 ticket change vs change of arrival station
12306 lists them as separate services, but the 2026 regulations count a change of arrival station (变更到站) inside your one allowed change. An ordinary change keeps your stations (the English FAQ makes an exception for stations in the same city).
- An arrival-station change gives you a new destination, with another train on a different date, number or seat. Request it 48 hours or more before departure, which puts it in the free first row above.
- A ticket already changed, a group ticket or a through ticket can’t have its arrival station changed.
Wrong ticket? The 30-minute free refund
A free refund for mistaken purchases started on 19 January 2026, for tickets with travel dates from 2 February 2026 (China Railway news item, 20 January 2026). You qualify if:
- you paid by e-payment or reward points on the 12306 platform;
- you refund online yourself within 30 minutes of successful payment and 4 hours or more before departure;
- it is your only such order that calendar day (one order per buyer per day). A refund already free under the ordinary rules does not use up this allowance.
Not covered: changed tickets, reservation orders (预约), standby orders (候补) and other ticket types, such as multi-ride and group tickets (English FAQ). Covered: domestic trains and cross-border trains to or from Hong Kong West Kowloon. At a ticket window, raise a mistake on the spot; staff reissue the ticket, with no refund fee on any fare difference.
None of China Railway’s news item, the English FAQ or MTR’s FAQ gives an end date, says whether the policy is permanent, or says whether a free refund counts toward MTR’s 3-a-day refund limit.
How late can you refund or change online?
Tickets paid electronically on 12306 can be changed or refunded on its website or app. The Chinese change and refund FAQ adds a limit: online works until 25 minutes before departure, if you haven’t exchanged the ticket for a paper one. For refunds, the regulations say only before departure, and MTR says Mainland cut-offs follow each station’s arrangements. We’d act hours earlier.
After that, or with a paper ticket, go to a station window with the original passport you used to buy the ticket, plus the order number and any reimbursement receipt already collected. A cash-paid ticket can be changed only at a window; for a refund, apply online, then collect the cash at a window within 180 days with the original ID.
- Bought at a window: the Chinese FAQ says use a window; the English FAQ says registered users who pass facial verification in the app can also change or refund their own tickets online. Don’t count on that.
- Reimbursement receipt (报销凭证): collected before travel, it blocks online changes and affects online refunds; MTR suggests collecting it after the trip.
- Passports: the English website accepts only valid foreign passports. MTR says facial verification works only in the Chinese platform’s app; if you can’t pass it, verify in person at Hong Kong West Kowloon or a Mainland station with the original passport. 12306’s verification notice also lets foreign-passport users upload a photo of the document. Online changes need a verified status (已通过); any registered user can refund online.
- For an English interface, plan around the 12306 English website.
Is 12306 open 24 hours?
12306’s FAQs say the website offers information queries and refunds all day, and sales and changes from 5:00 to 1:00 the next day. On Tuesday the Chinese booking FAQ ends sales and changes at 24:00, but the English FAQ at 23:30.
MTR’s page for the website and app gives 05:00 to 01:00 the next day for sales and alteration, then “05:00am – 12:00 midnight on Tuesdays / 24 hours daily for ticket refund”, which can be read two ways. Our inference, not an official rule: don’t leave a Tuesday purchase or change to the last half hour.
Hong Kong West Kowloon ticket refund and change rules
Tickets that start or end at Hong Kong West Kowloon follow the cross-border rules (广深港高速铁路跨境旅客运输组织规则), in force from 1 April 2026. 12306’s cross-border FAQ repeats them.
| Time left before departure | Refund fee |
|---|---|
| 8 days or more | 5% of the ticket price |
| 48 hours up to the 7th day before | 30% |
| Within 48 hours | 50% |
That is much steeper than the domestic 0% to 20%. Cross-border refund fees are counted in whole yuan, with any fraction below ¥1 dropped. These percentages come from 12306’s cross-border rules and FAQ; MTR’s own refund percentages on its e-ticket after-sales page remain unconfirmed.
- Changes: once only, for date, train or class of travel; no change of departure or arrival station. An altered ticket can’t be refunded; round trips are altered one way at a time.
- Daily limit: MTR says a ticket refund is allowed up to 3 times a day on 12306; past that you can’t buy, alter or refund that day (its wording isn’t limited to cross-border tickets). Only one ticket is processed per refund application, and MTR doesn’t say whether each ticket or application counts toward the 3.
Cut-off times differ by page, so act well ahead:
| Page | Leaving Hong Kong | Leaving the Mainland |
|---|---|---|
| 12306 rules and cross-border FAQ | 30 minutes before | Before departure |
| MTR, 12306 page | 30 minutes before | Each station’s arrangements |
| MTR, e-ticket page (alterations) | 45 minutes before | 30 minutes before; may vary with ticket agents |
Other sites and contacts
This guide covers tickets bought on 12306. The English FAQ says the railway department won’t handle ticketing problems from other websites, so start with that seller. 12306 customer service: phone 12306, e-mail kyfw@12306.cn; the passenger transport regulations do not specify whether English service is available. More basics: our China essentials guide.
