Commute Cost Calculator

The real price of getting to work goes well beyond what you pump into the tank, and most people never tally it. With U.S. regular gasoline averaging $4.48 a gallon in the week of September 21, 2026 (EIA), putting a hard number on your daily travel sharpens any budgeting decision. It also lets you weigh that figure head-to-head against the savings of working from home before committing to a job or a move.

The calculation doubles your one-way distance for the round trip, divides it by your vehicle's miles per gallon and multiplies by the pump price, then adds any daily parking and tolls. Under Advanced costs it also adds wear and tear per mile (default $0.10, close to the 10.1 cents a mile the Department of Energy cites for scheduled maintenance of a gasoline car) and a monthly insurance amount (default $100). Annual totals use 52 weeks of your commuting days. Depreciation is not included, so the result still understates the full cost of driving; for comparison, the IRS business standard mileage rate is 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026.

Capture every line item, because skipped parking days or annual registration fees quietly distort the total. The slow bleed of wear and tear is the figure people most often dismiss, yet depreciation belongs in any honest accounting. Time deserves a mention too: the hours behind the wheel carry an opportunity cost that no fuel gauge will ever show, even if it never appears on a receipt.