Per diem · rates of GSA FY2027
Per diem calculator for a whole trip
Pick the destination and the two dates: every night gets the lodging cap of its own month and fiscal year, every day its M&IE.
Published by Radif Partners · Rules and data · Editorial policy
Federal per diem for the trip
$577
Standard CONUS rate · Sun, Oct 25 to Wed, Oct 28
| Lodging, 3 nights at the GSA maximum | $339 |
| M&IE before meal deductions | $238 |
| M&IE paid | $238 |
| Total | $577 |
Rates of fiscal year 2027 (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027). How this is calculated.
Day by day
| Day | Lodging | M&IE rate | Share | Meals off | M&IE paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Oct 25 FY2027 | $113 | $68 | 75% | – | $51 |
| Mon, Oct 26 FY2027 | $113 | $68 | 100% | – | $68 |
| Tue, Oct 27 FY2027 | $113 | $68 | 100% | – | $68 |
| Wed, Oct 28 FY2027 | – | $68 | 75% | – | $51 |
A federal per diem total is the sum of two separate counts: each night at the lodging maximum of the month and fiscal year that night falls in, plus each calendar day at the M&IE rate, cut to 75% on the day you leave and the day you come back. That is why a trip has one more day than it has nights. In the standard CONUS area for FY2027 a night is capped at $113 and a full day pays $68. A stay that straddles September 30 mixes two GSA tables: four nights in Chicago from September 28 to October 2, 2026 put 3 nights at $223 and 1 at $232, for $1,315 at the federal maximum. The calculator also takes away meals paid by the government or a conference fee, caps a cheaper room at what you really paid, keeps lodging taxes on a separate line, and handles a same-day trip of more than 12 hours.
Four nights in Chicago, two fiscal years
$1,315. That is the most a federal traveler could claim for a Chicago stay from Monday, September 28 to Friday, October 2, 2026, before lodging taxes. The first 3 nights belong to FY2026, when the September cap for Cook and Lake counties was $223; the night of October 1 belongs to FY2027, whose October cap is $232. Chicago's M&IE stayed at $92 in both years, so only the travel days move that column: $69.00 on Monday and on Friday, the full amount in between.
| Date | Fiscal year | Lodging | M&IE paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2026 | FY2026 | $223 | $69.00 |
| September 29, 2026 | FY2026 | $223 | $92.00 |
| September 30, 2026 | FY2026 | $223 | $92.00 |
| October 1, 2026 | FY2027 | $232 | $92.00 |
| October 2, 2026 | FY2027 | no night | $69.00 |
A claim filed this month for that trip is still built from two tables. Nothing about the filing date changes it: what counts is the date of each night and each day.
Chicago, IL: a stay across September 30
Per diem at the federal maximum
$1,324
| FY2026 lodging: 2 × $223 | $446 |
| FY2027 lodging: 2 × $232 | $464 |
| M&IE, FY2026 days | $161 |
| M&IE, FY2027 days | $253 |
Each night and each day takes the table of its own date.
Counting nights and days without double counting
Lodging is a nightly figure; meals and incidentals are a calendar-day figure. Leave on the 3rd, return on the 7th and you have four nights of lodging but five days of M&IE. Under the Federal Travel Regulation the entitlement starts the day you leave your home or office and stops the day you get back (41 CFR 301-11.5), and the rate follows the temporary duty location, not your home city. One wrinkle the date fields cover: when you reach the hotel after midnight, the FTR lets you claim that room on the previous calendar day, so enter the departure date of the evening you set off.
Seasonal areas need the same care. A resort whose cap jumps on the first of a month gives two different nightly figures inside one week, and the day-by-day table in the calculator lists each one. A single rate typed once for the whole stay, which is what a quick lookup invites, overpays or underpays every night that sits on the other side of the change.
Room below the cap, meals already paid
The lodging figure is a ceiling. If your room cost less, type the nightly price and the calculator uses it wherever it sits under the cap. Book Chicago at $202 a night for that same week and the September nights stay at $202, while October 1 is also under its $232 cap. Add a lunch served at a conference on Tuesday and $26 comes off that day at the $92 tier. The trip then totals $1,196.00.
The meal fields are split in two on purpose. A meal served on a travel day is deducted at its full GSA value from the reduced 75% amount, and no day can fall below the incidentals, so the calculator needs to know which day it was. Airline snacks and a breakfast included in the room price are not counted; the M&IE breakdown page lists the value of each meal by tier.
Lodging taxes sit outside the per diem
Hotel taxes in the 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii and the territories are reimbursed as a miscellaneous expense, apart from the per diem, but only the tax on the part of the room that is itself reimbursable. Pay $272 for a Chicago room capped at $232 and the tax on the extra $40 stays with you. That is why the tax field takes the amount you actually paid for the reimbursable part, and why the result shows it on its own line.
Same-day trips and what this tool does not price
Set the return date equal to the departure date and an hours field appears. Past 12 hours in travel status, the FTR pays 75% of the M&IE for that single day and no lodging: $51.00 at the standard rate. At 12 hours or fewer the result drops to zero.
Mileage, airfare and parking are left to the full trip calculator, which adds them to this same per diem. Travel to Alaska, Hawaii or abroad uses rates that are not in the GSA table; the OCONUS calculator takes them by hand. Actual expense reimbursement, which an agency can approve up to 300% of the per diem when a city's rate is too low for an event, is not modeled. For FY2026, the standard lodging figure was $110, $3 under today's.