Oxford is located some 55 miles (90 km) north west of London and 70 miles (110 km) south east of Birmingham, and the M40 motorway between London and Birmingham passes within seven miles of Oxford. The A34 road between Hampshire and the Midlands passes Oxford and forms the western part of the city's bypass. The other trunk roads serving are the A40 road linking London, the Cotswolds and West Wales, and the A420 road between Oxford and Bristol via Swindon.

Rail connections from Oxford railway station include services to London (Paddington), Bournemouth, Worcester (via the Cotswold Line), Birmingham, Coventry and the north, as well as Banbury and Bicester.

The Bicester railway branch is part of the route of a former railway service connecting to Cambridge that was known as the Varsity Line. Parts of the line have been closed since the end of 1967, but in 2006 the Department for Transport (DfT) has ordered a £300,000 feasibility study to consider reopening it.

The Oxford Canal links the city to the Midlands, and connects at Oxford with the River Thames. The Thames provides a navigable link, nowadays chiefly for leisure craft, as far as Lechlade to the west and Teddington Lock to the east and onwards to London. Oxford Airport at Kidlington offers business and General Aviation services.

Most local bus services are provided by the Oxford Bus Company  and Stagecoach Oxfordshire and include two competing frequent-interval coach services to London, Stagecoach's Oxford Tube, and Oxford Bus's Oxford Espress, both of which terminate at Gloucester Green Bus Station on the western edge of the city centre with multiple stops on its way out to the M40. The Go-Ahead Group acquired The Oxford Bus Company in 1994.

The Airline operated by Oxford Bus Company provides bus service to London Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport.Stagecoach also runs a half-hourly coach service to Cambridge, and a less frequent service to Northampton, whilst many National Express services between the North and Midlands and the South/South West call in the city. Other local and rural bus services are provided by Wallingford-based Thames Travel and Brookesbus (operated by Brookes University as partnership with Stagecoach).