Per Diem Calculator

A per diem calculator turns a destination and two dates into the most a traveler can be reimbursed for lodging and meals. The rates published by the General Services Administration (GSA) are the benchmark: federal agencies must use them, and many private employers adopt them because the IRS treats an allowance up to the federal rate as adequately accounted for when the other accountable plan rules are met. The calculator above applies the official FY2026 and FY2027 rate tables night by night, so seasonal ceilings and trips that cross October 1 come out right.

Per diem covers where you sleep and what you eat. Driving is a separate allowance: the Mileage Reimbursement Calculator applies the IRS standard mileage rate, and the Fuel Cost Calculator estimates gas for a road trip. To count days before you book, use the Date Calculator.

What per diem covers: lodging and M&IE

A federal per diem rate has two parts. The lodging rate is a nightly ceiling for the room charge before taxes. The M&IE rate is a flat daily amount for meals and incidental expenses that needs no meal receipts. Under the federal definition, incidental expenses are fees and tips given to porters, baggage carriers, hotel staff and staff on ships; laundry, phone calls and lodging taxes are not incidentals. In CONUS, lodging taxes are reimbursed separately as a miscellaneous travel expense (41 CFR 301-11.16). The two parts behave differently: the traveler keeps any savings from cheaper meals and absorbs any overspend on the flat M&IE, while lodging reimburses the actual room cost up to the ceiling and nothing above it.

GSA sets rates for the continental United States: the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Any county GSA does not list separately gets the standard rate. For fiscal year 2027 GSA lists 295 non-standard areas with higher rates, one fewer than in FY2026 because Allentown, Pennsylvania returned to the standard rate. Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the other territories use rates set by the Department of Defense, and foreign countries use rates set by the Department of State.

FY2026 and FY2027 standard rates

Federal per diem follows the government's fiscal year, which starts on October 1. After a rate freeze in FY2026, GSA raised the standard lodging ceiling by $3 for FY2027 and left the M&IE tiers unchanged.

The five M&IE tiers ($68, $74, $80, $86 and $92) were last revised for FY2025, and GSA plans to review them for FY2028. Every CONUS locality falls into one of those five tiers, which is why one meal breakdown table works for any destination.

The per diem formula

A trip of d calendar days has d − 1 nights of lodging. The departure day and the return day are each paid at 75% of the M&IE rate whether you leave at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m., and every day in between gets the full rate (41 CFR 301-11.20). Subsistence is payable only when travel status lasts more than 12 hours; a trip of more than 12 but less than 24 hours earns 75% of the M&IE rate for each calendar day.

Worked example: a five-day trip at the standard rate

An auditor visits a client in a county that uses the standard rate, leaving Monday, October 19, 2026 and returning Friday, October 23. The trip falls in FY2027.

• Lodging: four nights, Monday through Thursday, 4 × $113 = $452.
• Travel days: Monday and Friday at 75%, 2 × $51.00 = $102.
• Full days: Tuesday through Thursday, 3 × $68 = $204.
• Maximum per diem: $452 + $102 + $204 = $758.

If the hotel charges $98 a night before tax, the lodging reimbursement is the actual $392 rather than the $452 ceiling, and the trip total becomes $698. The M&IE does not shrink when the auditor eats cheaply, because it is a flat allowance. The table applies the same rules to trips of one to seven days with no meals provided.

Worked example: a Chicago conference with lunch provided

A sales manager attends a conference in Chicago (Cook County) from Monday, November 16 to Thursday, November 19, 2026. In FY2027 Chicago's lodging ceiling is $232 in October and November, and its M&IE rate is $92. The registration fee includes lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Lodging: 3 nights × $232 = $696.
• M&IE before deductions: $69.00 + $92 + $92 + $69.00 = $322.
• Provided lunches: 2 × $26, the lunch share of the $92 tier, = $52.
• Maximum per diem: $696 + $322 − $52 = $966.

Under the IRS high-low method the employer could pay a flat rate instead. Chicago is a high-cost locality in October and November under Notice 2026-60, so the rate is $329 a day, $86 of it M&IE. Three nights at the $243 lodging portion plus $64.50 + $86 + $86 + $64.50 of M&IE gives $1,030, before any adjustment for the lunches.

M&IE breakdown and meal deductions

When a meal is provided, for example through a conference fee or a working lunch the employer pays for, the traveler deducts that meal's share of the M&IE rate. GSA publishes the shares for every tier:

On the first and last day the full meal amount comes off the reduced 75% rate, but the total can never fall below the $5 incidental amount (41 CFR 301-11.21). At the $68 tier, a dinner provided on the departure day leaves $51.00 − $28 = $23. At the $74 tier, lunch and dinner provided on the return day would leave $55.50 − $20 − $31 = $4.50, so the floor lifts that day to $5. Meals served by an airline and a complimentary hotel breakfast are not deducted, and a traveler who could not eat a furnished meal because of official business, or for medical or religious reasons, may be allowed the full M&IE.

What changes the result: season, county and fiscal year

Most non-standard areas have one rate all year, but popular destinations change the lodging ceiling by season. The table lists the 20 areas in this calculator with the highest FY2027 ceiling, with the FY2026 range for comparison. Every figure comes from GSA's official rate files.

Boston's $365 ceiling applies only in October 2026 and September 2027; from November through February the same hotels are capped at $213. San Francisco moved the other way: its FY2027 peak of $325 falls in January through March, while April through August drops to $232. Shifting a trip by a few weeks can move the ceiling by more than $100 a night.

Phoenix shows how much the season alone changes a budget. A Monday-to-Friday training week from February 8 to 12, 2027 caps lodging at 4 × $232 = $928; the same week from June 7 to 11, 2027 caps it at 4 × $122 = $488. Phoenix's $86 M&IE comes to $64.50 + 3 × $86 + $64.50 = $387 in both weeks, so the maximum per diem falls from $1,315 to $875 without any change in the work.

The county matters as much as the season. GSA defines each area by county, not by city name, and its rate files note that cities not listed may sit inside a listed county; the rate generally follows the location of the work, not of the hotel (41 CFR 301-11.4). The fiscal year matters too, because each night uses its own date. A consultant in New York City from Monday, September 28 to Friday, October 2, 2026 gets the FY2026 ceiling of $342 for three September nights and the FY2027 ceiling of $358 for October 1: $1,384 of lodging, $69.00 + $92 + $92 + $92 + $69.00 = $414 of M&IE, and a $1,798 maximum.

The IRS high-low method for employers

Private employers do not have to look up every county. Under Rev. Proc. 2019-48 the IRS lets them use the high-low substantiation method: one daily rate for localities on the IRS high-cost list and one for the rest of CONUS.

The flat rates cut both ways. For the five-day standard-rate trip in the first example, high-low pays $957 instead of $758: four nights at the $156 lodging portion plus $55.50 + 3 × $74 + $55.50 of M&IE. In a peak Boston week the GSA rate is higher, because $365 of lodging and $92 of M&IE exceed the $329 high-cost rate.

A locality is high-cost in the months its federal per diem reaches the threshold, and the notices list those localities by county and season. For travel from October 1 to December 31 an employer may keep the rates it used earlier in the year or switch to the new ones, but must stay with the high-low method through December 31. The same notices set the incidental-expenses-only rate at $5 a day and the special transportation industry M&IE rates at $80 in CONUS and $86 outside it. Of each high-low rate, $86 or $74 is treated as paid for meals, which is the part subject to the 50% meal limit of section 274(n).

Is per diem taxable?

Per diem paid under an accountable plan is not wages. The expenses must have a business connection, the employee must account for them within a reasonable time, and any excess must be returned; IRS Publication 463 treats an advance within 30 days, an accounting within 60 days and a return of excess within 120 days as reasonable. A per diem allowance counts as accounted for when it is no more than the federal rate, the employer limits it to ordinary and necessary travel, the employee proves the dates, place and business purpose, and the employee is not related to the employer, for example by owning more than 10% of the corporation.

When the allowance exceeds the federal rate, the employer reports the amount up to the federal rate in box 12 of Form W-2 with code L and adds the excess to box 1 wages. Self-employed people can use the federal M&IE rate as a standard meal allowance, but there is no standard amount for lodging, so hotel costs need receipts. Meals are generally 50% deductible, or 80% for travel under Department of Transportation hours-of-service limits. A freelance consultant on a three-day trip to Chicago in November 2026 can count $69.00 + $92 + $69.00 = $230 as meal cost without receipts and deduct half of it, $115, plus the documented hotel bill. Most employees cannot deduct unreimbursed travel at all: P.L. 119-21 made the suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions permanent (section 70110), so it applies to 2025 and every later year. Form 2106 is limited to Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials and employees with impairment-related work expenses.

How to use this calculator

1. Pick the destination. Choose the standard rate, one of the 46 large non-standard areas, or enter the rate from gsa.gov for any other county.
2. Enter the dates. The calculator counts nights and days and switches between FY2026 and FY2027 rates on October 1, 2026.
3. Add your hotel rate if you know it. The calculator caps it at the ceiling and shows how much of the room cost is above it.
4. Mark provided meals day by day. Each tap deducts GSA's amount for that meal, with the travel-day rules applied.
5. Read both totals. The headline is the GSA maximum; the card below shows the same trip at the IRS high-low rates.

Federal employees use it to check a travel voucher before submitting it, and travel coordinators to set trip budgets before the authorization goes out. Payroll and HR teams use it to compare an accountable plan built on GSA rates with one built on high-low rates, and contractors whose agreements cap travel at the federal rate use it to keep invoices within the limit. Small business owners use it to set a defensible daily allowance for employees, and self-employed travelers use the M&IE figure as their standard meal allowance. Because every rate is tied to a date, the day-by-day card doubles as a worksheet you can copy into an expense report.

Key terms

• Per diem: a daily allowance for lodging plus meals and incidental expenses while traveling away from home for work.
• CONUS: the continental United States, meaning the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. OCONUS is everything outside it.
• Non-standard area (NSA): a county or group of counties with a GSA rate above the standard rate.
• M&IE: meals and incidental expenses, paid as a flat daily amount in one of five tiers from $68 to $92.
• Lodging ceiling: the maximum reimbursable room charge per night, before taxes.
• Fiscal year: the federal year from October 1 to September 30; FY2027 began on October 1, 2026.
• High-low method: the IRS shortcut that replaces each county's rate with one high-cost and one standard daily rate.
• Accountable plan: a reimbursement arrangement that meets the IRS business connection, accounting and return-of-excess rules, so payments are not wages.

Tips and limitations

Check the county of the work site before you book, and keep the hotel folio even when you claim the flat M&IE, because lodging is paid at actual cost up to the ceiling. Write down which meals were provided on which day while the trip is fresh; a conference agenda is usually the best record. For a trip that runs across October 1, list the nights before and after the date separately so the reviewer can see both ceilings. If the ceiling is too low for a specific event, federal agencies can authorize actual expense reimbursement of up to 300% of the per diem rate (41 CFR 301-11.17), but only with approval, usually in advance.

This calculator stops at the rules every traveler shares. It does not apply agency-specific reduced rates for long assignments, lodging taxes, transportation or the rates for Alaska, Hawaii, territories and foreign countries. Employers may pay less than the federal rate, or more, with the excess taxed as wages. GSA can also revise a locality's rate during the year, so confirm the rate at gsa.gov/perdiem before you file a voucher.

Related calculators

• For car travel paid by the mile, use the Mileage Reimbursement Calculator or the Gas Mileage Calculator.
• To see how a taxable allowance above the federal rate changes take-home pay, use the Paycheck Calculator.
• To plan meeting times across time zones, use the Time Zone Calculator.
• To count work days on a long assignment, use the Business Days Calculator.

Sources

• U.S. General Services Administration, Per diem rates and per diem rate files for FY2026 and FY2027 (checked October 2026): standard rate $110 + $68 (FY2026) and $113 + $68 (FY2027), the lodging and M&IE rates of every non-standard area in this calculator, and the FY2027 highlights (M&IE tiers last revised for FY2025, next review for FY2028; Allentown, PA back at the standard rate).
• Federal Register, Notice of GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 27-01 (FR Doc. 2026-18439, published September 10, 2026): FY2027 standard lodging $113 after the FY2026 rate freeze, M&IE tiers $68 to $92, 295 non-standard areas.
• GSA, M&IE breakdowns: breakfast, lunch, dinner, incidental and first and last day amounts for each tier.
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 41 CFR Part 301-11: 301-11.16 (lodging taxes), 301-11.17 (actual expense up to 300%), 301-11.20 (75% rule) and 301-11.21 (meal deductions).
• Internal Revenue Service, Notice 2026-60 and Notice 2025-54: high-low rates, high-cost localities, incidental-expenses-only and transportation industry rates.
• IRS, Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses: accountable plans, Form W-2 code L, standard meal allowance, 50% and 80% meal limits and Form 2106 eligibility.
• U.S. Government Publishing Office, Public Law 119-21, section 70110: permanent termination of miscellaneous itemized deductions other than educator expenses.