Is the Interlock Stream Worth It? The Real Numbers
Installing early costs money and shortens the suspension. What each side of that trade adds up to, using published Ontario fees rather than guesses.
Costs & budgeting · 7 September 2026 · 5 min read
The monthly cost of an ignition interlock
Most people budget for the one-off fees and are surprised by the one that arrives every month for a year. None of these are our fees.
The recurring line
Smart Start Ontario published, as at 27 July 2026, a monthly lease of $77.97 including tax plus an MTO monthly fee of $7.50, with installation and removal at no charge. ALCOLOCK does not publish an Ontario fee schedule.
Treat that as one provider’s price on one date rather than the Ontario rate, and get your own quote from both. Over a twelve-month condition the monthly figure is usually the largest single line in the whole budget — larger than the reinstatement fee, larger than Back on Track.
What sits alongside it, once
MTO licence reinstatement is $281.00. Back on Track is $894 after a conviction or $344 after an administrative suspension. A G2 road test is $53.75 and a G is $91.25, if you need one at all. What an ignition interlock course and car rental cost is set out in the same table.
The charges you can avoid entirely
- Unlock code — Smart Start listed $84.75. Usually the aftermath of a lockout.
- Violation reset — $96.05.
- Missed provider appointment — $113.00, and far worse than the money: it is a programme violation, adding six months to your condition for a first offence.
- Early termination — $282.50, which is worth asking about, because how long an ignition interlock lasts in Ontario changed in 2026 and a first-time condition can now end at nine months instead of twelve.
- Out-of-order road test — 50% of the fee, because the car did not match the licence.
The cheapest thing you can do
Install within 30 days of licence reinstatement. For offences dated on or after 1 July 2026, that cuts a first-time condition from twelve months to nine, and a second from three years to two. At roughly $85 a month all-in, three months saved is around $255 that never leaves your account.
Book the installation before your reinstatement date. Providers have waiting lists and the 30 days does not move for them.
Questions
Questions about this
Is $77.97 a month the Ontario price?
No. It is Smart Start’s published Ontario lease as at 27 July 2026. ALCOLOCK does not publish a schedule. Get a quote from both.
Do you charge anything toward the device?
No. We do not lease, install or service devices and none of these fees come to us. We teach the device and rent an interlock-equipped car for road tests.
Availability & pricing
If a road test is part of this
We rent an interlock-equipped car for a G2 or G road test and teach the device in ten hours of in-car training. Send the date and we will quote it in writing.
- Answered the same day, Monday to Saturday
- A written figure with everything included
- If you don’t need a road test, we’ll tell you that instead
Phone is faster. Someone answers Monday to Saturday, evenings included.