At 17 you still can’t hold a car licence in Portugal: the minimum age for category B is still 18. But you don’t have to sit and wait. From 17 and a half you can enrol in a driving school (escola de condução) and start learning. And from 16 you can get a driving licence (carta de condução) for a moped, a motorbike up to 125 cm³ or a quadricycle.
The “accompanied driving at 17” you hear about in the news comes from a 2025 European directive. It is not yet law in Portugal.
What the law allows today, by age
| Age | What you can do |
|---|---|
| 16 | Get an AM, A1 or B1 licence, with written permission from your parents |
| 17 and 6 months | Enrol at a driving school and start learning for category B |
| 18 | Receive the B licence, after passing the tests |
The minimum age for each category is set in the Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir (RHLC), the regulation that fixes the rules for getting a licence. The Código da Estrada (the Highway Code) refers to that regulation for the requirements. IMT (the national transport authority, Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes) sums the rule up like this: 18 for category B, 16 for B1.
When you can start driving school
The law on driving instruction lets you enrol and start lessons six months before you reach the minimum age for the category you want. For category B, that makes 17 and a half. The RHLC says the same.
An example: you turn 18 on 10 May 2027. From 10 November 2026 you can enrol. If you go to a school before that, your enrolment for category B can’t be processed yet.
While you learn, you drive with a licença de aprendizagem (learner’s permit), the document that lets you drive, accompanied, before you have a licence. The whole path, up to the regime probatório (the probationary period: your first years with a licence, under stricter rules), is explained in the chapter on driving licences and permits on Via Rápida (in Portuguese).
Two things to keep in mind:
- The licence is only issued at 18. Having the minimum age is one of the requirements for getting the licence. You agree the exact exam calendar with the school.
- Minors need permission. If you are under 18 when you apply for the licence, you need written permission from whoever holds parental responsibility. IMT also asks for the full birth certificate.
What you can drive before 18
At 16 you have three categories within reach (the full list is in the guide to driving licence categories):
- AM: mopeds and light quadricycles, with a maximum design speed of 45 km/h. From age 14 there is an exception for two-wheeled mopeds, with special training and a restriction that lapses at 16.
- A1: motorbikes up to 125 cm³ and 11 kW, and tricycles up to 15 kW.
- B1: quadricycles. IMT describes it as a category “restricted to quadricycles”.
None of these licences lets you drive an ordinary car. The Highway Code punishes driving a vehicle your licence does not cover. The coima (fine) is €700 to €3,500 if you only hold AM or A1, and €500 to €2,500 if you only hold B1.
Is there accompanied driving in Portugal yet?
It depends what you mean by “accompanied driving”. There are two different things with similar names.
What already exists: learning with a tutor. Since 2014, a student enrolled at a driving school can do the practical part of category B accompanied by a tutor, for example a parent or grandparent.
A decree-law of 5 June 2026 simplified this regime and came into force 30 days after it was published. Since you can only enrol at 17 and a half, that is also the minimum age to drive with a tutor.
The main rules:
- The tutor has held a category B licence for at least 10 years, issued in Portugal or another EU country. If the licence is from a country outside the EU, it must have been recognised by the Portuguese authorities for at least five years and issued at least ten years ago.
- The tutor can’t have been convicted of a road crime, or of a contraordenação grave or muito grave (a serious or very serious offence), in the last five years. The tutor can’t be an instructor or an examiner, or be paid for this.
- Each tutor accompanies at most five students in any 10-year period.
- The school tells IMT who the tutor is before you start. You can only take the test 90 days after that notification.
- You can’t carry passengers or drive on motorways or equivalent roads. The tutor has to avoid busy roads and busy times, and municipal councils can ban certain areas.
- The car has to be clearly marked as a learner car accompanied by a tutor, and the insurance has to cover any damage you cause. The tutor is responsible for offences and damage, unless you disobeyed the tutor’s instructions.
At the end, you can go straight to the test or first take a teste de aferição (an assessment test at the school). If you go without the assessment and fail, you can only re-apply on your own (the so-called autopropositura, without going through the school) four months later.
What does not exist yet: a licence at 17 to drive accompanied. That is the European model: you pass the tests, receive the licence at 17 and drive with someone next to you until you turn 18. In Portugal today there is no way to hold a category B licence before 18.
A tutor is not the same as European accompanied driving. With a tutor, you are still a student: you don’t have a licence and you are learning. In the European model, you have already passed the tests and hold a licence; the only limit is driving accompanied until you turn 18.
What changes with Directive (EU) 2025/2205
The new European directive on driving licences is Directive (EU) 2025/2205, of 22 October 2025. It was published in the Official Journal on 5 November and came into force on 25 November 2025. It replaces the 2006 directive, which stops applying in November 2029.
The directive creates an accompanied driving regime for category B:
- The B licence can be issued from 17, marked with code 98.02.
- Until 18, you can only drive with a companion in the front seat who is able to guide you.
- The companion is at least 24 and has held a licence of the same category, issued in the EU, for more than five years. The companion can’t have had a driving ban in the last five years and has to meet the alcohol and drug rules.
- Each country can add conditions: identifying the companions, limiting how many you have, or requiring more.
Deadlines: Member States have until 26 November 2028 to adopt and publish the accompanied driving rules, which apply from that date. Almost all the rest of the directive has the same publication deadline, but only applies from 26 November 2029.
Where Portugal stands: as of October 2026, accompanied driving at 17 has not yet been transposed into Portuguese law. The latest amendment to the RHLC, of 8 June 2026, did not touch the minimum ages, and IMT still requires 18 for category B.
Until a law is published in the Diário da República (Portugal’s official gazette), this is only what the directive provides for, not a rule you can use. If you are 17 now, you turn 18 before the 2028 deadline. In practice, this change won’t arrive in time for you.
What you can get ahead on now
What you can do right now is study. There is no minimum age to start practising for the exame de código (the theory test): you can take theory tests (in Portuguese) long before you enrol and arrive at the school with the theory well under way.
Before you enrol, it is worth reading how to choose a driving school, especially if you are thinking of doing the practical part with a tutor and want to know how the school handles that option.