Is Modafinil legal in Austria?

Legal status

Not a designated drug in Austria, and controlled instead as a prescription medicine. The placement is the Rezeptpflichtverordnung: modafinil appears in part 2 of Annex A to the prescription regulation marked NR, which requires a prescription and additionally prohibits repeat dispensing. The NR marking is a tighter medicines control than RP, and it is still a medicines control rather than a drug designation. No narcotics, psychotrope or NPS listing was established. This is a medicines control rather than a drug designation, and the two are separate systems in Austria. The medicines act's §7 authorisation requirement and §59 pharmacy supply rule are what surround the prescription entry.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. What applies is the medicines regime alone. No narcotic and no psychotrope designation exists, so the SMG ladder never begins, no life ceiling attaches, and the death penalty does not exist in Austrian law. Modafinil carries the stricter of the two prescription markings and none of the SMG tiers, so the exposure is a medicines law exposure only. Those two offence lists are distinct, and neither is an automatic fine for holding a prescription substance. AMG §84(1) tops at EUR 25,000, or EUR 50,000 on repeat. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Austria entry rather than re-derived from the Suchtmittelgesetz in this pass, the published penalties are these. Austrian practice is depenalised and not legalised, and the published entry says so in those terms. There is no legal minimum quantity, and possession of any amount for personal use is punishable under section 27, up to six months in prison or a fine. Under Therapie statt Strafe at section 35, small quantity personal use is typically provisionally suspended from prosecution on one to two years of probation where the person accepts counselling or treatment. Consumption itself is not criminalised, but the possession that precedes it is. Above the Grenzmenge, the threshold quantity, the offence becomes dealing or trafficking under sections 28 and 28a, up to one to three years, escalating to ten to fifteen years for commercial or organised cases. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. This row is placed outside that regime, so they are recorded as Austria's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure.

If prescribed or medical

There is one country level rule here and it is SMG §5(1): medical, dental, veterinary and scientific purposes are the only ones for which a Suchtmittel may be acquired, possessed, carried, imported or exported, and only on the Act's own terms. Travel exemptions, professional licensing and medical dispensing sit inside their own provisions, so no free standing traveller allowance exists above them. Because this substance carries no narcotic and no psychotrope designation, SMG §5(1) does not govern it and neither the psychotrope medicine exception nor the psychotrope travel certificate is in play. The medicines regime applies instead: AMG §7 sets the authorisation requirements with their exceptions and §59 confines the supply of medicines to pharmacies except where §§57 and 58 or the following provisions say otherwise. Modafinil's NR marking means the lawful route is a single dispensing on prescription with repeat dispensing prohibited, and there is no schedule exemption to fall back on because there is no schedule.

Documentation

Carry the dispensing paperwork rather than relying on the packaging alone, because the control here sits in the medicines regime. Modafinil is marked for no repeat dispensing, so a single dispensing event is what the record will show. The prescription regulation was read on 18 September 2026 at the consolidation listing BGBl II 282/2025 as its latest amendment, through page 49 and including the exception and warning annexes.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Austria’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.