Is haggling expected for taxis in Morocco?

It depends on the kind of taxi and whether the meter is running. City petit taxis — the small colour-coded cars — are legally required to use a meter (compteur), and when they do there's no haggling at all: you ride, you pay what it reads, you round up a couple of dirham. So your first move getting in is always a friendly "compteur, s'il vous plaît," and if the meter clicks on, you're done. That's the cheapest, cleanest way to travel and the system as it's supposed to work.

The negotiation comes in when the meter mysteriously "doesn't work," especially with tourists, near big sights or late at night. If a driver won't use the meter, the firm rule is to agree the full fare before you get in, not after — settling the price at the destination is how arguments start. Either insist on the meter (and if he refuses, you're free to wave him off and take the next one, which often makes the meter suddenly work), or pin down a flat number up front. A confident, good-natured "how much to X? … no, that's too much, I'll pay Y" is completely normal and expected here.

Grands taxis (the older shared sedans running fixed routes between towns) and dedicated airport transfers are a different model: these are flat-fare from the start, not metered, so a price is always agreed or fixed in advance. Airports often have official taxi-rate boards or fixed-price desks — worth using — and shared grands taxis have a standard per-seat price locals pay that you can ask about. The same principle holds: know the number before the wheels turn.

Your genuine leverage in any of this is knowing roughly what a ride should cost. Ask your riad or hotel before you head out — "what's a fair price from here to the station?" — and you'll negotiate from knowledge instead of guessing, which instantly stops the inflated tourist quote. Keep small change so you can pay close to the agreed amount, stay relaxed and smiling (aggression backfires), and remember the sums are small in absolute terms. Insist on the meter where you can, agree the fare where you can't, and taxi travel in Morocco is easy rather than stressful.