Road Trip Cost Calculator

About this Road Trip Cost Calculator

Budget a whole road trip: fuel, hotels, food, tolls, wear, activities and parking, split per person. It is one of the Car and Travel on ToolUstad, and like every tool here it runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type, paste or open is uploaded to a server, and there is no sign-up or usage limit.

What is a road trip cost calculator?

Driving trips often feel cheaper than flying until you add up everything. The calculator budgets the whole thing: fuel, lodging, food, tolls, vehicle wear, activities and parking, then splits it per person and per day. On a 600-mile one-way trip, 1,200 miles round trip, at 28 MPG and $4.01 a gallon, fuel is $171.86 for 42.86 gallons. Two hotel nights at $130 are $260. Food is $300 for 3 days and 2 travelers at $50 a day. Tolls are $30, wear is $120 at $0.10 a mile, activities are $100 and parking is $20. The total is $1,001.86, or $500.93 per person and $333.95 per day, at $0.83 a mile all-in.

Each line has its own simple formula. Fuel is total distance divided by MPG times the price per gallon. Lodging is nights times the nightly rate. Food is days times travelers times the daily food budget. Wear is total distance times the wear rate, which covers tyres, servicing and mileage-driven depreciation at about $0.05 to $0.10 a mile.

Driving days and fuel stops

About 500 miles a day is a comfortable plan, roughly 7 to 8 hours behind the wheel with stops, and the calculator turns the total distance into driving days on that basis: 1,200 miles is 3 days. Fuel stops come from the tank range: a 15-gallon tank at 28 MPG gives 420 miles of range, so the same trip needs about 2 fuel stops after the starting fill.

Drive or fly?

The comparison depends on the group size. Flying at $250 a person costs $500 for two travelers, $501.86 less than the $1,001.86 drive, before a rental car at the other end. With four travelers the flights cost $1,000, still less than the $1,301.86 drive on this 3-day trip, and driving pulls ahead only with a bigger group, roughly eight or more on this route, or when the destination needs a car anyway, or when luggage fees and airport parking are added to the flight.

Best practices

• Budget hotels and food first: they are the biggest lines, so a $20 cheaper hotel saves more than a $0.20 cheaper gallon.
• Pack a cooler: cutting food from $50 to $30 a day per person saves $120 on a 3-day trip for two.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Forgetting the return trip and budgeting half the fuel.
• Using the IRS $0.70 a mile on top of fuel, which double counts the fuel cost.

Who is the road trip cost calculator for?

Anyone planning a driving holiday, families comparing a road trip with flights, and groups splitting costs between travelers.

Current value, checked 10 Nov 2026: the default gas price is $4.01, the AAA national average for regular gasoline as of 9 Nov 2026. The price box is an optional override. Check the current value here. The IRS 2026 standard mileage rate is $0.70 a mile.

Learn: how to use the Road Trip Cost Calculator

1. Enter the one-way distance and whether it is a round trip, plus your MPG and gas price.
2. Add the nights and hotel rate, the trip days, food per person per day and the number of travelers.
3. Add tolls, activities, parking and the vehicle wear rate per mile.
4. Enter a flight cost per person to compare driving against flying, or leave it at 0.
5. Read the total, per-person and per-day costs, the category breakdown, driving days and fuel stops.

Features

• Fuel from distance, MPG and gas price, with tank range and fuel stops
• Lodging from nights and nightly rate, food from days, travelers and daily budget
• Tolls, activities, parking and vehicle wear per mile
• Total, per-person, per-day and all-in cost per mile
• Driving days at about 500 miles a day
• Drive vs fly comparison, plus a downloadable itinerary summary

Worked example

Frequently asked questions