Commute cost calculator
Most commute-cost estimates price gas and stop there. This prices the drive two ways, fuel only or at the IRS standard rate that also covers depreciation, maintenance and insurance, then adds parking, tolls, transit fare and, if you want it counted, the value of the time itself.
Worked example — What a 24 mile round trip, 5 days a week, costs a year: $4,560. At the IRS standard rate of $0.76 a mile, 50 weeks worked, no parking, tolls or transit added
Price your own commute
Pick fuel only or the IRS standard rate, set the round trip distance and how many days a week you actually drive in, then add parking, tolls or transit fare if any apply. Paid hours a week stays a separate input from days in the office on purpose: a hybrid schedule usually pays for a full week even when the commute happens on fewer of its days.
24 mi round trip, 28 mpg, IRS rate: 24 mile round trip, 28 mpg, 5 days a week, priced at the current IRS standard mileage rate.
Advanced 5
| Line item | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Driving, at the IRS rate | $4,560 | $380 |
| Parking | $0 | $0 |
| Tolls | $0 | $0 |
| Transit fare | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $4,560 | $380 |
What a commute costs per year
A 24 mile round trip driven 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year is 6,000 miles. At the current IRS standard rate of $0.76 a mile, that alone is $4,560 a year, or $380 a month, before parking, tolls or transit fare are added. The weeks figure nets out roughly two weeks of vacation, holidays and sick time rather than assuming all 52 are spent commuting, which is the single most common way a back-of-envelope estimate overstates the total.
The number moves a lot with the inputs, which is the point of a calculator over a rule of thumb: double the distance and the cost doubles, drop a day a week and it falls by a fifth, and every dollar of parking or tolls is added on top rather than folded into a per-mile guess.
Fuel only vs the true cost of a commute
On the same 24 mile round trip at 28 mpg and $3.40 a gallon, fuel alone costs $729 a year, a per-mile price of $0.121. The IRS standard rate prices the identical trip at $4,560, a $3,831 gap that is entirely depreciation, maintenance and insurance, the costs a fuel-only estimate leaves out because they do not show up at the pump.
Neither number is wrong. Fuel only answers "what leaves my bank account on gas this trip". The IRS rate answers "what this trip actually costs the vehicle", which is why it is the rate used for a tax deduction or an employer reimbursement rather than a receipt total. Use fuel only to budget cash flow and the IRS rate to price what the car itself is worth giving up.
What one fewer office day a week is worth
Dropping from 5 days a week in the office to 4 on the same 24 mile round trip saves $912 a year at the IRS standard rate, a fifth of the 5-day total because the saving scales directly with the days no longer driven. Parking, tolls and transit fare, when any apply, save in the same proportion, since each is priced per workday rather than as a flat monthly figure.
Annual commute cost by round-trip distance and days in office
Every cell below is priced at the current IRS standard rate, $0.76 a mile, over a 50-week working year. Fuel-only totals run lower and depend on your own gas price and fuel economy, which is what the calculator above is for.
| Round trip | 1 day/wk | 2 days/wk | 3 days/wk | 4 days/wk | 5 days/wk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 mi | $380 | $760 | $1,140 | $1,520 | $1,900 |
| 20 mi | $760 | $1,520 | $2,280 | $3,040 | $3,800 |
| 24 mi | $912 | $1,824 | $2,736 | $3,648 | $4,560 |
| 30 mi | $1,140 | $2,280 | $3,420 | $4,560 | $5,700 |
| 40 mi | $1,520 | $3,040 | $4,560 | $6,080 | $7,600 |
| 60 mi | $2,280 | $4,560 | $6,840 | $9,120 | $11,400 |
| 80 mi | $3,040 | $6,080 | $9,120 | $12,160 | $15,200 |
Reading down the 24 mile row: five days a week costs $4,560 a year against $912 for one day a week, exactly five times as much, because distance and days both scale the total linearly at a fixed per-mile rate.
What this arithmetic assumes
The IRS rate is a modelled cost, not a receipt
Nobody writes a check for depreciation. The standard rate is the IRS's own estimate of what a mile of driving costs a typical vehicle, fuel included, and it is the number used for a mileage tax deduction or a standard employer reimbursement. Your actual vehicle may cost more or less to run than the rate assumes, which fuel-only mode does not attempt to estimate either.
The rate moved mid-year in 2026
The standard rate was $0.725 a mile from January through June, then rose to $0.76 on 2026-07-01, the first midyear revision since 2022. A site that has not been updated since the start of the year is quoting a stale figure. This calculator uses the rate in force today and states the date it was last checked below.
The time-cost toggle is your assumption, not this page's
Putting a dollar value on an hour spent driving is a real judgement call, which is why it stays off until you turn it on and supply your own hourly figure. Nothing on this page asserts what an hour of your commute is worth.
Reimbursement and tax treatment are not modelled
An employer that reimburses mileage at or below the IRS rate is generally not adding taxable income; above it, the excess usually is. Whether a mileage deduction applies to you at all depends on your employment status and, since 2018, most W-2 employees cannot deduct unreimbursed commuting mileage federally. Neither of those tax outcomes is calculated here.
Where the mileage rate comes from
The $0.76 figure is the IRS standard business mileage rate for the period beginning 2026-07-01, checked against the IRS's own Internal Revenue Bulletin on 2026-08-08 and corroborated against independent professional reporting of the same figure and effective date.
- IRS Announcement 2026-11, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29 The current $0.76-a-mile business rate and its 2026-07-01 effective date
The rate has moved mid-year before and can again. This is general reference, not tax advice; if you are claiming a mileage deduction or reimbursement, check the rate for the exact dates you drove against irs.gov directly.
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