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Trip cost estimator

What one US trip will cost

Choose a city in the continental US and your dates. You get GSA FY2027 lodging for each night, meals and incidentals for each day, your own airfare and ground transport, and a total you can download or print.

Continental US only, such as Chicago, Napa or Cook County. Anywhere GSA doesn't list gets the standard rate: type “standard”.

Your first travel day.

Your last travel day. Up to 30 nights.

Your own quote, including taxes. Leave empty if you're not flying.

Your own total for taxis, rideshare, rail or a rental car. Optional.

Your figures are kept in this page's address, so you can bookmark or share it. The address is sent to our server to work out the estimate; we don't save your figures.

Your estimate will appear here

Enter a destination and your travel dates. The estimator prices each night at the GSA lodging rate for its season, adds GSA meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) for each travel day, then adds your own airfare and ground transport.

Budgeting a whole year rather than one trip? The travel budget planner works by department. Reimbursing miles driven in a personal car? The mileage reimbursement calculator applies the IRS rate.

How it's worked out

The arithmetic, line by line

  1. Nights: from the departure date to the night before the return date. A trip from Monday to Thursday is 3 nights.
  2. Lodging: each night at the GSA FY2027 lodging rate for the season that night falls in, so a trip across a season change is priced at both rates.
  3. M&IE: one amount per travel day, nights plus one. The first and last travel days get 75% of the daily rate and the days between get the full rate.
  4. Your figures: airfare and ground transport, exactly as you enter them. Nothing is filled in for you.
  5. silentVIP fees, on their own: the same calculation as the cost comparison on our pricing page, for one traveler, one flight booking and one hotel booking.

About the GSA rates

  • The US General Services Administration (GSA) sets lodging and M&IE rates for federal employees on official travel. They're a public reference, not market prices, and your own policy may set different amounts.
  • Lodging rates exclude taxes. GSA's FAQs say the M&IE rate includes taxes and tips on meals.
  • The 75% first-and-last-day rule is the federal rule: GSA's FAQs say federal employees get 75% of the M&IE rate for the travel location on the first and last travel days. GSA's M&IE breakdown page lists the meal-by-meal split and the first-and-last-day amount for each rate.
  • Rates cover the continental US. Alaska, Hawaii, US territories and other countries have rates set by the Defense Department and the State Department, which this estimator doesn't include.

Sources: GSA per diem FAQs, GSA M&IE breakdowns and GSA FY2027 per diem highlights, checked Oct 22, 2026. Rates: GSA FY2027 per diem rates (rates file), checked Oct 21, 2026. To look up lodging rates or set city caps, use the hotel rate benchmarks. Every destination's rates, state by state, are on GSA per diem rates.

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