Fuel & Charging
Commute Cost Calculator
What getting to work costs you — per day, per month, and per year. Two figures, because there are two honest answers: what the commute adds to your fuel bill, and what those miles cost once the car's own wear is counted.
Energy only, per year
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— mi × —
All-in at the IRS rate, per year
—
— mi × 76¢
- Per commute day
- — / —
- Per month
- — / —
- Per year
- — / —
- Miles driven commuting, per year
- — over — days
Two different questions. The energy figure is what the commute adds to your fuel or power bill this month. The all-in figure is what those miles cost once depreciation, insurance, maintenance and tires are counted — money you spend whether or not you notice it. Neither is a tax deduction: commuting between home and work is not deductible.
Informational only, not professional advice. This tool computes the cost of a commute from figures you supply. The IRS standard mileage rate is offered as a published national cost benchmark, not as tax guidance — commuting expenses are not deductible, and nothing here is tax or financial advice. Nothing you type is sent anywhere; the arithmetic runs in your browser.
How this is calculated
The arithmetic is deliberately plain. Everything turns on how many miles you actually drive and what one of them costs:
miles per day = one-way distance × 2 commute days = days per week × weeks per year miles per year = miles per day × commute days cost per day = miles per day × $ per mile + tolls and parking cost per year = miles per year × $ per mile + (tolls and parking × commute days) cost per month = cost per year ÷ 12
Two small choices in there are worth stating. The distance field is one way and the return trip is added for you, because forgetting the drive home is the commonest way this number comes out half right. And the monthly figure is the annual one divided by twelve, not the daily figure times twenty-something — no month contains the same number of commutes, so any monthly number is an average by construction.
Where “$ per mile” comes from
The energy column is the same division the rest of this site is built on: $ per gallon ÷ miles per gallon for a gas car, or $ per kWh ÷ miles per kWhfor an electric one. Both use figures you supply — your pump price, your utility rate, your car's rating. Nothing national is assumed. If you want to see the two side by side for the same commute, that is what the EV vs. Gas Cost Calculator does.
The all-in column, and what the IRS rate really is
The second column values your commute miles at the IRS standard mileage rate. In the IRS's words, that rate “is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile” — so it reaches past fuel to depreciation, insurance, maintenance and tires. It is the closest thing to a citable, authoritative all-in cost per mile that exists for American drivers, which is exactly why it is used here and exactly why its limits need saying.
2026 has two rates. The rate was 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 – June 30, 2026 (Notice 2026-10), and was revised mid-year to 76 cents for July 1 – December 31, 2026 (Announcement 2026-11). The field is pre-filled with the current one. A mid-year revision is unusual — the IRS has done it only a handful of times, always when fuel prices moved sharply — and it is a useful reminder that this figure is a snapshot, not a constant.
It is a national average, and you are not the nation. The rate is built from a study of a representative vehicle and representative driving. Your car may depreciate faster or slower, your insurance may be double the assumed figure, and a paid off fifteen-year-old commuter car costs far less per mile than the rate suggests. That is why the field is editable rather than locked: if you know your own all-in cost per mile, type it in and the column becomes genuinely yours. Working that figure out from your own records — every cost of keeping the car, divided by the miles it covers — is the job of the tools under Keeping & Replacing.
This is not a tax deduction
Because the standard mileage rate is a tax figure, it is worth removing any ambiguity: you cannot deduct your commute. IRS Publication 463 says plainly that “you can't deduct commuting expenses” — travel between home and your main or regular workplace is personal, however long the drive. The rate appears on this page as a published cost benchmark and nothing more. Nothing here is tax advice.
Tolls and parking sit outside both figures
They are entered separately and added to both columns, which is the correct treatment rather than a convenience. Publication 463 treats parking fees and tolls as claimed in addition to the standard mileage rate, not inside it — the rate covers operating the car, while a toll and a garage are costs of where you drive it. For many city commutes this is the largest single line on the page, and a tool that folded it into a per-mile figure would bury it.
What this does not cover
The commute only. Not the miles you drive for anything else, not transit fares if you sometimes take the train instead, and not the value of your time — which for a long commute is often the largest cost of all, and which this site will not pretend to price for you. The figures also hold your fuel price, schedule and rate constant for a full year, which no real year does. Treat the annual number as the size of the commute at today's prices rather than a forecast.
Last reviewed: August 2026
Frequently asked questions
Why are there two numbers instead of one?
Because they answer different questions and people mean different things by "what my commute costs." The energy figure is the money that leaves your account because you drove — the extra gasoline or electricity, and nothing else. The all-in figure values the same miles at the IRS standard mileage rate of 76 cents (July 1 – December 31, 2026), which is built from an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a car: fuel, depreciation, insurance, maintenance and tires together. The truth for most drivers sits between the two. The energy figure is what you feel this month; the all-in figure is closer to what the commute really consumes over the life of the car, since the miles wear it out and push its trade-in value down whether or not you notice.
Can I deduct my commute on my taxes?
No. This is the most common misunderstanding about the standard mileage rate, so it is worth being blunt: the IRS treats travel between your home and your main or regular place of work as a personal expense. Publication 463 states it in four words — "You can't deduct commuting expenses." That holds however far you drive and whether or not you are self-employed. The rate is used here purely as a published, citable estimate of what a mile in a car costs to operate. It is a cost benchmark on this page, never a deduction.
What number should I use for weeks per year?
Count the weeks you actually drive in, not the 52 on the calendar. Subtract vacation, public holidays, sick days and any day you work from home. Someone with three weeks of leave and a week of holidays who is in the office five days a week is realistically driving 48 weeks or fewer — and the difference is not small. At 28 miles a day round trip, four weeks of not commuting is about 560 miles, which is real money in both columns. If you work a hybrid schedule, enter the average days per week instead: the field accepts half-days, so a Monday-Wednesday-Friday one week and Tuesday-Thursday the next is 2.5.
Does the IRS rate already include tolls and parking?
No, which is why they are a separate input here and why they get added to both columns. Publication 463 is explicit that parking fees and tolls attributable to business use are claimed in addition to the standard mileage rate rather than inside it. The rate covers what it costs to operate the car itself; a toll booth and a parking garage are costs of where you drive it, not of the driving. So a $9 parking spot on 240 commute days is $2,160 a year that no per-mile figure of any kind would have shown you.
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