Public toilets are toilets that are accessible to the general public with common access from the street. Conveniences being the collective term for male and female designated toilets, convenience usually acquiring a gender attribute.

A public toilet may or may not cost money to use. For those that do, see “pay toilet”. Between the categories of outright free and outright pay toilets, there is a grey area of toilets where a fee is expected, but not enforced. A charge levied in the UK during the mid-20th century was one British penny, hence the generally adopted term “spend a penny” meaning to use the toilet.