What is the federal per diem for road travel?

The General Services Administration set the fiscal year 2027 standard rate at $181 a day, $113 for lodging plus $68 for meals and incidentals, effective October 1, 2026. The fiscal year 2026 rate was $178, $110 plus $68.

How much does a road trip cost per person per day, all-in?

On the defaults in this calculator, $145.95 a person a day: food $50, lodging $50, fuel $25.12, tolls $4.17, and activities $16.67. The tiers count food and lodging only, so the all-in day is $45.95 more than the mid-range tier's $100.

Does the daily budget fall with more travelers?

Yes. The same 1,000-mile trip is $241.90 a person a day solo, $145.95 for two, and $97.98 for four, because the room, the fuel, the tolls, and the activities are split while only the food grows.

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The mileage ledger · Table No. 44

How Much Should I Budget Per Day on a Road Trip?

Three tiers, per person per day: $70 on a budget, $125 mid-range, $225 in comfort, counting food plus a shared hotel room. The federal per diem is $181, and the all-in day on the defaults is $145.95.

Filed November 1, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

Three tiers, per person per day

A road trip budget is a per-day budget, because the trip is lived one day at a time and the money is spent one day at a time, and the per-day figure is the number that survives contact with the trip. The tiers below count food plus a shared hotel room, for one night per day, which is the standard way the road-trip guides frame the daily budget. The budget tier is $70 a day a person: $30 of food and $40 of lodging, which is half of an $80-a-night room shared by two travelers. The mid-range tier is $125 a day a person: $50 of food and $75 of lodging, which is half of a $150-a-night room. The comfort tier is $225 a day a person: $90 of food and $135 of lodging, which is half of a $270-a-night room. The three tiers are the answer to the question people actually ask, which is how much to budget per day, and the answer is that it depends on the room and the meals, which are the two lines that do the spending, and which together are the daily budget in the form it is actually spent.

Tier	Food per day	Lodging share per day	Total per person per day
Budget	$30	$40	$70
Mid-range	$50	$75	$125
Comfort	$90	$135	$225

The tiers are anchored in the published guides, not invented. A road-trip guide puts budget food at $25 to $40 a person a day, mid-range at $50 to $80, and a restaurant at every meal at $90 to $150 and more, and it puts budget lodging at $60 to $80 a night, mid-range at $100 to $150, and comfort at $180 to $300, and the tiers above sit inside every one of those bands. The federal per diem is the check on the tiers: the General Services Administration set the fiscal year 2027 standard rate at $181 a day, which is $113 for lodging plus $68 for meals and incidentals, effective October 1, 2026, and $181 sits between the mid-range tier of $125 and the comfort tier of $225, which is where it should sit, because the per diem is a single-occupancy rate for a federal employee and the tiers above are per-person rates for a shared room. The per diem is also the ceiling that keeps the budget honest: a traveler who spends the per diem is spending the government's estimate of what a day on the road costs, and a traveler who spends twice the per diem is spending the comfort tier, which is a choice, not a surprise.

The all-in day, and what it adds

The tiers count food and lodging, and the all-in day adds the car and the extras, which is the figure the calculator returns. On the defaults in this calculator, a 1,000-mile trip for two over three days costs $875.71 in total, which is $437.86 a person and $145.95 a person a day, and the components of that $145.95 are food $50, lodging $50, fuel $25.12, tolls $4.17, and activities $16.67, each rounded separately. The lodging is $50 a person a day rather than $75, because two nights are spread over three days, which is the arithmetic of a trip where the nights are one fewer than the days, and the food is $50 because the default is the mid-range tier. The fuel, tolls, and activities together add $45.95 a person a day, which is 31.5 percent of the all-in day, and which is the part of the daily budget that the tiers do not count, because it is not food and not lodging, and which is the part that makes the all-in day $145.95 rather than $100. The per-day budget and the all-in day are different numbers, and the budget that confuses them is short by $45.95 a person a day, or $275.71 across the whole trip for two travelers.

Read the all-in day against the group size, and the per-person figure falls as the group grows, which is the second story the daily budget tells. The same 1,000-mile trip for one person is $725.71 in total, which is $241.90 a person a day, because the room, the fuel, the tolls, and the activities are all paid by one person. For two it is $145.95 a person a day. For four it is $97.98 a person a day, because the total is $1,175.71 over three days for four travelers, and the room and the car are split four ways while only the food grows. The daily budget is a per-person budget, and the per-person budget depends on the group, and the traveler who budgets $125 a day for a solo trip is short by $116.90, while the traveler who budgets $125 a day for a trip of four has $27.02 a day to spare. The calculator on this site prices the all-in day for any group, which is the number to carry into the trip, because the trip is paid per person and the per-person price is set by the group.

What a day costs, by trip length

The per-day figure also changes with the length of the trip, because the fixed lines are spread over more days. A 200-mile day trip for two costs $255.14 in total, which is $255.14 a day, because there is one day and no hotel, and the per-person day is $127.57. A 500-mile weekend costs $550.36 over two days, which is $275.18 a day for the group and $137.59 a person a day. A 1,000-mile trip costs $875.71 over three days, which is $291.90 a day for the group and $145.95 a person a day. A 2,500-mile trip costs $1,851.79 over six days, which is $308.63 a day for the group and $154.32 a person a day. The per-day figure rises slowly with the trip length, from $127.57 to $154.32 a person, because the food and lodging grow with the days while the fuel grows with the miles, and the daily rate is the number to compare with the daily rate of staying home, which is the comparison that decides whether the trip is expensive, because a day at home costs the rent and the groceries and nothing else, and a day on the road costs $145.95 a person, which is the price of the trip in the unit it is lived in.

The new insight

The daily budget is a food and lodging budget, and the all-in day is $45.95 more, which is the part of the trip that the daily budget does not count and that the trip still charges for. The $45.95 is fuel $25.12, tolls $4.17, and activities $16.67, and it is 31.5 percent of the all-in day, which means a budget built from the tiers alone is short by nearly a third. The tiers are the right way to budget the day, because the food and the lodging are the lines that vary by day and by city, and the car and the extras are the lines that are fixed by the trip, but the tiers are not the whole budget, and the traveler who carries $125 a day in cash and spends $145.95 is short by $20.95 a day, which is $62.85 over three days, which is the dinner on the last night. The per-day budget is $125. The all-in day is $145.95. The difference is the car, and the car should be counted before the trip, not discovered during it.

How to set the daily budget, in practice

The practical way to set the daily budget is to pick a tier, add the car, and carry the total in cash. Pick the tier from the room and the meals: a $100-a-night room and $30-a-day food is the budget tier, and a $150-a-night room and $50-a-day food is the mid-range tier, and a $270-a-night room and $90-a-day food is the comfort tier. Add the car by dividing the fuel, tolls, and activities by the days and the travelers, which on the defaults is $45.95 a person a day, and carry the sum, which is $115.95 a person a day on the budget tier, $170.95 on the mid-range tier, and $270.95 on the comfort tier, though the mid-range all-in day on the defaults is $145.95 rather than $170.95, because the defaults spread two nights over three days. The cash is the discipline: a traveler who carries the daily budget in cash spends the daily budget, and a traveler who carries a card spends the card's limit, which is the difference between a budget and a wish. The calculator on this site prices the all-in day for your miles, your car, and your group, in the time it takes to type them, and the per-day figure it returns is the number to carry.

Sources

A road-trip cost guide (food $25 to $40 a person a day budget, $50 to $80 mid-range, $90 to $150 and more comfort; lodging $60 to $80 a night budget, $100 to $150 mid-range, $180 to $300 comfort; $50 to $80 a person a day for a mid-range trip). General Services Administration fiscal year 2027 standard per diem $181 a day, $113 lodging plus $68 meals and incidentals, effective October 1, 2026 (fiscal year 2026: $178, $110 plus $68). CoStar U.S. hotel average daily rate $177.65 for the week of October 11-17, 2026. A November 2026 hotel-price sample of 50 cities (median night $152 on a Tuesday, $180 on a Saturday, before taxes). All per-day figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model.