Start with the total driving distance, the number of days, and how many people are travelling. Add your vehicle’s fuel economy and a gas price, then fill in what you expect to spend on lodging, food and tolls. The budget updates as you type, and nothing is sent anywhere or saved on our servers.

Not sure where to begin? Use Try an example, or pick a budget style to fill in lodging and food assumptions you can edit. Want the distance worked out for you? Build a route in the Miles & Mapped Trip Planner, then bring the mileage here.

Fuel is the part of a trip most people can estimate precisely:

For example, 300 miles at 30 MPG needs 10 gallons. At $3.60 a gallon, that is $36.00.

If you add a detour allowance, the calculator applies it to the miles before working out the gallons. With more than one vehicle, tell it whether your distance counts each vehicle or the total: by default, every vehicle is assumed to drive the full distance you enter.

Lodging and food are usually the biggest swings. Lodging is paid nights × cost per room × rooms, and paid nights are often one fewer than trip days. Food is your daily budget per person × travelers × days you’ll buy food. Changing either one is the fastest way to see how a cheaper or more comfortable trip changes your total.

The calculator divides the estimated total by the number of travelers, by the number of days, and by both. Remember that shared costs such as a room or fuel don’t grow with each extra traveler, so more people usually lower the cost per person.

The contingency is an optional percentage added once on top of your subtotal. It is a cushion for surprises, like a repair, a pricier room or an extra tank of gas. It is not a prediction of what you’ll spend. Turn it off if you want the plain subtotal.

• Compare gas prices along your route and fill up where fuel is cheapest.
• Share rooms and split fuel across more travelers.
• Book lodging with free breakfast, or a kitchen, to trim your food budget.
• Check toll costs ahead of time and plan around them where it makes sense.
• Use the pinned-plan comparison to test a cheaper version against your original.

Every figure comes from the numbers you enter, so the result is only as good as your assumptions. Fuel prices, tolls, hotel rates and traffic change. Vehicle presets are illustrative, not official ratings, and the currency symbol is a label only; amounts are never converted. Treat the total as a planning tool, not a quote.