US Per Diem Calculator (2026-27 GSA Rates)

Instantly calculate GSA lodging and M&IE for any city in the continental US, across multiple cities and trips, with first- and last-day rules built in. Easily export your results to Excel.

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Per diem allowance for business travel, covering lodging, meals and incidental expenses

What is per diem?

Per diem, Latin for "per day," is a daily allowance for travel costs: lodging, meals, and incidentals like tips. Meals and incidentals are a flat daily amount, so finance skips the line-by-line receipt review. Lodging has a nightly cap, and federal travelers claim their actual hotel cost up to that cap.

For trips from October 1, 2026, the standard per diem rate is $181 a day: $113 for lodging and $68 for meals and incidental expenses, or M&IE. That rate applies anywhere GSA has not set a higher one. Hundreds of locations, including New York City, San Francisco, and Boston, have their own higher rates.

Federal employees must follow GSA rates. Private employers don't have to, but many use them as the baseline for their own travel policy because the IRS accepts them for substantiating employee travel costs.

Enter your dates and destinations below. The calculator returns lodging, meals, and the first and last day adjustment for each trip you add, even when a trip covers several cities.

Calculate your per diem allowance

Enter your travel dates and destination to see your lodging, meals, and incidentals allowance.

Calculate

Departure date

Return date

State

City or county

Choose your travel dates and destination to see your allowance.

Result

Total days: 0
Trip total: $0
Lodging: $0
Meals: $0
Incidentals: $0

You receive 75% of the daily M&IE rate on the first and last day of travel. Rates shown are the GSA maximums for your travel dates.

Search by state

Select a state on the map to see its per diem rates.

Who sets the GSA per diem rate

Three agencies set US government per diem rates, and which one applies depends on where you're traveling. The calculator covers the first; the other two are linked so you can look up the rest.

The General Services Administration (GSA) sets rates for the continental US, known as CONUS. The Department of Defense sets rates for non-foreign areas outside CONUS, such as Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories. The State Department sets rates for foreign countries.

GSA resets its rates each October 1 at the start of the federal fiscal year. Lodging in some cities also changes by month, which is why Chicago runs $148 in winter and $238 in spring. If your team travels abroad, the international per diem rates guide covers the State Department side.

How the per diem calculator works

Four rules from the Federal Travel Regulation decide a per diem total, and missing any of them is the usual reason an estimate is wrong. The calculator applies the first three to every trip you enter. The fourth, provided meals, is one you subtract yourself.

Lodging is a cap: Federal travelers are reimbursed actual hotel cost up to the GSA lodging rate for that city and month, with a receipt. If your hotel costs $95 and the cap is $113, the reimbursement is $95. The calculator shows the cap so you can budget the maximum.
M&IE is a flat daily amount: It covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and incidentals like tips. At the $68 standard tier the split is $16 breakfast, $19 lunch, $28 dinner, and $5 incidentals. No meal receipts are needed.
The first and last day pay 75%: On travel days you get three-quarters of the M&IE rate, which is $51 at the standard tier. Here is a three-night trip at the standard rate: lodging is 3 × $113 = $339, and M&IE is $51 + $68 + $68 + $51 = $238. The total is $577.
Provided meals are deducted: If a meal is included in a conference fee or paid for by the government, subtract that meal's share from the day's M&IE: $16 breakfast, $19 lunch, or $28 dinner at the $68 tier. Complimentary hotel breakfasts and meals served on a flight are not deducted, and incidentals never are. The calculator shows the maximum, before any deductions.

ITILITE's expense management checks per diem claims against location-specific policy rules, so the city and month lookup happens at submission, not in a spreadsheet. For the full walkthrough, read the guide to how per diem works for US business travel.

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Per diem calculator FAQ

For trips from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027, the standard rate is $181 a day: $113 for lodging and $68 for meals and incidentals, anywhere GSA has not set a higher local rate. GSA calls this FY2027, because its fiscal year starts in October. For trips up to September 30, 2026, the standard rate was $178.

Multiply nights by the lodging rate, then add M&IE for each day. Full days get the full M&IE amount, and the first and last days get 75%. A three-night trip at the standard rate comes to $577.

You get 75% of the daily M&IE rate on both days. At the $68 standard tier, that's $51. Lodging is unaffected because it's tied to nights, not days.

Federal travelers get lodging at actual cost up to the cap, with a receipt. Only M&IE is flat. Private employers set their own policy and can pay lodging as a flat allowance, but IRS substantiation rules still apply.

Yes, when the meal is included in a conference fee or paid for by the government: subtract its share from that day's M&IE. At the $68 tier, breakfast is $16, lunch is $19, and dinner is $28. Complimentary hotel breakfasts and meals on a flight don't count, and the $5 incidentals portion is never deducted.

Yes. GSA rates are not mandatory for private employers, but the IRS accepts them as a substantiation method for employee travel costs, as explained in IRS Publication 1542. Many companies adopt them so they don't have to build and defend their own rate tables.