Fuel and car costs · rates of EIA and EPA
Road trip cost calculator
Distance, car, nights, travelers: the calculator adds fuel, rooms, food and tolls and divides the total between the people in the car.
Published by Radif Partners · Rules and data · Editorial policy
Road trip budget
$1,008
$504 per person
| Fuel: 32.1 gal × $3.874 | $125 |
| Fuel cost per mile | $0.138 |
| Rooms: 3 nights × 1 room | $339 |
| Food: 4 days × 2 | $544 |
| Tolls and parking | $0 |
| Same miles at the IRS business rate | $684 |
The IRS rate also pays for wear, insurance and depreciation, so it is higher than fuel alone. Prices: EIA retail averages; states without their own EIA series use their region. How this is calculated.
Two people driving 900 miles over three nights in a 28-mpg car spend about $140 on fuel at the U.S. average of $4.354 a gallon measured by EIA in the week of October 5, 2026. Add three nights in one room at $113 and food at $68 a day each for four days, and the trip comes to about $1,023, or $511 per person. Those room and food figures are not market prices: they are the federal standard rates for fiscal year 2027, used as neutral defaults because they are published, current and the same in every county without its own rate. Replace them with what you expect to pay. Fuel follows the EIA price of the state you pick; rooms are counted for two travelers each; tolls are typed in as a total. For a business trip paid by an employer, the per diem calculator is the better tool.
What a road trip really costs, line by line
Fuel is the line people estimate first and the smallest one on most trips of more than a day. On the example above, gasoline is about 14% of the total; rooms and food make up the rest. That is why a cheaper motel or a cooler of sandwiches usually saves more than shaving a few miles off the route. The calculator shows the split as a bar so the big lines are visible at a glance.
Rooms are counted one per two travelers, rounded up: three friends need two rooms. Food is per person per day, including the departure and arrival days. If someone else pays a night or a meal, lower the figure; the tool does not try to guess hotel rates by city, which change by the week.
Why the defaults are federal rates
A calculator needs a starting value, and inventing an "average hotel price" would be a figure without a source. The defaults here are the GSA standard rates in force from October 1, 2026: $113 for lodging and $68 for meals and incidentals (GSA FY2027 highlights). They describe what a federal traveler may spend in an ordinary county, not what a family will choose. For a city with its own rate, look it up in the GSA rate lookup: New York, Boston or a ski town in season can be two or three times higher.
Fuel for a drive at U.S. average prices
Fuel cost
$46.65
| 10.7 gal × $4.354 | $46.65 |
| Per mile | $0.156 |
| Same miles at the IRS rate ($0.76) | $228 |
Fuel price along the way
The calculator prices all the fuel at the state you choose. On a long drive across regions the price changes: EIA's weekly survey put regular gasoline at $3.874 in Texas and $6.227 in California in the week of October 5, 2026. For a coast-to-coast trip, run the tool once per leg with the state of each leg, or pick the state where you will buy most of the fuel. The gas cost calculator handles a single leg with more vehicle options.
Tolls, parking and the rest
Toll costs depend on the road, the vehicle class and the payment method, and toll agencies publish them separately, so the tool takes a total you enter. Parking at hotels in large cities can add a nightly fee; put it in the room price or in tolls. For an electric car, price the energy with the EV charging cost calculator and add rooms and food from here.
When the trip is for work
If an employer reimburses the trip, what counts is not the budget but the rules: lodging up to the GSA maximum of each night, meals at the federal M&IE with 75% on the travel days, and mileage at the IRS rate of 76 cents instead of the fuel you bought. The trip calculator computes exactly that.