Search a flight anywhere in Europe and RideInstead shows the train for the same trip: how long it takes, the CO₂ you skip, and a link to book. No account. It reads the page on your device.
- Privacy first: read on your device
- A return trip plants a tree, a multi-city trip two
Works on the airline and flight-search sites you already use. Free, no sign-up.
Back Sun 22/11/2026
🌱 30–100 kg less CO₂ than flying
Ride instead and we fund a tree.
Illustration of the popup. Times and prices depend on the route you search.
01 · How it works
One search. Two ways to get there.
You keep booking the way you always do. RideInstead just puts the train next to it.
Search a flight
Use any airline or booking site. RideInstead recognises the route and the dates, one-way or return.
See the train
Door-to-door time, changes, CO₂ saved, and the fare you are looking at next to the cheapest train fare.
Book if you like it
One click opens Trainline with your trip filled in. Book a return trip and we fund a tree; a multi-city trip funds two.
In real life
See it on a real site
02 · Why now
Why Europe is ready for it
High-speed and night trains now connect hundreds of city pairs. The hard part was never the train, it was remembering to check.
European by design
Built around European corridors, stations and currencies. Prices in euro, pounds, krona and more.
Private by default
Flight pages are read on your device. No account, no tracking pixels, no ads, no selling data.
Greener, honestly
CO₂ figures use published emission factors and are shown as ranges, not hype.
03 · Departures
Trains that beat the airport
Direct trains from a few European cities, with typical journey times from our route data. Hover to pause.
Typical scheduled times, city centre to city centre. Your search shows the exact trains.
Coverage
Supported countries
The extension currently supports the countries shown in green.
Limited coverage means we only have a few cities in that country so far, so some routes there can’t be found yet. Coverage keeps growing.
Prices
See the train price next to the flight
On a flight search, RideInstead shows what the train costs, so the comparison is honest: time, CO₂ and money side by side.
- Live “from” priceLooked up for your route from Trainline’s public page (the cheapest advance fare), converted to your currency. Switch it off in Settings.
- Savings against your flightWe compare it with the fare on the page you are looking at.
- No fare, no guessIf we cannot find a real fare for your route, we show no price at all.
- Prices are indicativeFares change quickly. The final price is always the one on Trainline.
Check
Does it work on my site?
Type the airline or flight-search site you use.
04 · Privacy
Your searches stay yours
We made the privacy rules simple enough to read in one minute.
- No account or email neededInstall it and it works. The newsletter is optional.
- Pages are read on your devicePage text and form values never leave your browser.
- Anonymous totals are opt-inIf you switch them on, we get counts only (airline sites, trains opened, CO₂). Switch them off in Settings any time.
- No ads, no data salesWe earn a small commission if you book luggage storage or tours through our links. Never from selling your data.
- Open about the moneyThe Radical Storage and Klook links are affiliate links and the extension says so. The Trainline link earns us nothing.
- You are in controlDelete everything by uninstalling. Your rights under the GDPR are respected.
Privacy first
No account, no ads, no selling data. Flight pages are read on your device, and anonymous totals are off unless you switch them on.
Trees for return and multi-city trips
Plan a return or a multi-city trip with RideInstead and we plant trees with Tree-Nation, paid from our partner commissions: a return is one tree, a multi-city trip two. A one-way trip does not plant a tree. You pay nothing extra.
Transparency
No fine print. Here is how it works.
You should be able to check what a browser extension does. So we make that easy.
- Plain, readable sourceThe .zip is the extension’s actual code, not a minified bundle. Open it and read it.
- Verifiable downloadsEvery build has a published SHA-256 and is built reproducibly, so you can check your copy matches.
- Honest about the moneyTwo income sources: donations on Ko-fi and the commission on Radical Storage and Klook bookings, flagged as an affiliate link. It never changes your price.
- Every request explainedThe privacy policy lists each thing the extension can contact, and each optional one is a switch in Settings.
- Estimates labelled as estimatesCO₂ figures show their source (DEFRA 2025). Train prices are “from” prices. We say so on screen.
- Reach a humanQuestions or complaints go to a real inbox through the contact page.
05 · Questions
Questions, answered
Search or pick a topic. Every answer has its own link you can share.
Is RideInstead really free?
Yes. No account, no trial. If you book luggage storage or tours through its Radical Storage or Klook links, we earn a small commission and you pay nothing extra.
How does RideInstead make money?
From donations and from the affiliate commission on luggage storage and tour bookings made through its Radical Storage and Klook links. The Trainline link earns nothing. There are no ads, and your data is never sold. The extension says clearly when a link is an affiliate link.
How does it know which trip I am searching?
When you search for a flight on a supported site, the extension reads the route and dates from the page, on your device, and looks them up in its built-in list of European train corridors. It works for one-way and return trips.
Which sites does it work on?
Major European airlines and flight-search sites, and any other flight site if you allow it in Settings. If a site is missed, you can report it from the popup.
Does it show real train prices?
It shows the fare on your flight page. For the train it reads the cheapest advance fare Trainline publishes for the route. That is a "from" price, so the exact fare can differ when you book.
How accurate are the times and CO₂ figures?
Train times are scheduled journey times from public timetable data. CO₂ is shown as a range based on UK government (DEFRA 2025) emission factors, and the high end includes the non-CO₂ effects of flying. They are estimates, not guarantees.
How does the tree pledge work?
For each return trip planned with RideInstead we plant one tree with Tree-Nation, and two for each multi-city trip, paid from our partner commissions, so you pay nothing extra. A one-way trip does not plant a tree. Travelling with more people does not add trees, but your CO₂ total counts everyone. You can follow our forest on our Tree-Nation profile.
Which countries does it cover?
Europe. The built-in data has about 1,400 city pairs across Europe, from high-speed corridors to regional trains, and it keeps growing.
What data do you collect?
Nothing about you personally. Flight pages are read on your device, and page text and form values are not sent anywhere. The only optional extra is anonymous totals, explained below.
What are the anonymous totals, and can I turn them off?
If you switch this on (it is off until you do), the extension sends once a day a random install id (not linked to an account, email or device) and counts such as searches per site, trains opened and booked, and CO₂ and money totals. You can switch it off again in Settings at any time, which also deletes the stored record.
Why does Chrome ask to read all sites?
Flight searches happen on hundreds of airline and booking sites, and Chrome words the permission broadly. RideInstead only looks for the route, dates and fare, and does the reading on your device. You can switch the any-site option off in Settings.
How do I remove it and my data?
Uninstall the extension from chrome://extensions. Everything it keeps lives on your device and goes with it. If you used anonymous totals, switching them off first deletes that record on our side too.
Which browsers are supported?
Chrome and other Chromium browsers (Edge, Brave, Opera). A Firefox version is planned. You can also install from the .zip file with developer mode.
How do I install from the .zip?
Download and unzip it, open chrome://extensions, switch on Developer mode, choose "Load unpacked" and pick the unzipped folder.
How do I check the .zip is genuine?
Each build of the .zip has a SHA-256 fingerprint, shown under the download buttons and in the SHA256SUMS file. Compute the fingerprint of your download (on Windows: certutil -hashfile rideinstead.zip SHA256; on macOS or Linux: shasum -a 256 rideinstead.zip) or use the "Verify a file" button on this page, and check that it matches. The zip is built reproducibly, so you can also rebuild it from the source and compare.
No answer matches that yet. Ask us directly and we will reply by email.
Support
Help keep it free
RideInstead is free, with no account and no ads. If it saves you time, you can support its hosting and development.
The Ko-fi box and the tree widgets load only if you accept them in the cookie banner. Ko-fi and Tree-Nation may then set their own cookies, under their own privacy policies.
Support RideInstead on Ko-fi
Open Ko-fiNewsletter
Occasional news, no spam
New routes and new features. A few emails a year at most.
Next flight search, check the train.
It takes ten seconds to install and nothing to sign up for.
Download check, SHA-256 of rideinstead.zip:c830abd60026bbd4e6540aa785a9838e16f8d36aed8ce7013f2a79d5ec964191
Downloaded the .zip?
Two quick steps
1 Check the download
Make sure the file is the genuine one. Open a terminal in your Downloads folder and run the command for your system. The result must match the fingerprint under the download buttons.
No terminal? Use and pick the file.
2 Install it
Unzip the file first. Then, in your browser: