True Cost Per Mile Calculator
What does your car really cost per mile? Not just the gas — the depreciation ticking away with every mile, the insurance spread across the year, and the maintenance that keeps it running. This calculator adds all four into one all-in cost per mile, then goes further: it prices IRS mileage reimbursement at the verified business rate, checks whether delivery driving pays for itself at your per-mile earning, and breaks depreciation down on its own. Every component shows its math, example values are labelled as examples, and all figures are estimates — not tax advice.
Each mode asks only for the inputs it needs.
Price per gallon ÷ mpg. The fuel cost calculator works this out for a trip; here it is one component of the all-in figure.
What the car is worth now (or what you paid, for a new car). Depreciation spreads this over its useful life.
What the car will still be worth when its useful life ends. Leave 0 if you assume it is worth nothing by then.
How many miles you expect the car to last. 150,000 is an illustrative assumption, not a measured figure for your car.
Your monthly premium. It is spread over the year: premium × 12 ÷ annual miles.
Tires, oil, brakes, and repairs averaged per mile. Divide a year of maintenance bills by a year of miles for your figure.
Miles you drive in a year. This spreads the monthly insurance premium into a per-mile figure.
All-in cost per mile
0.47
- Fuel per mile
- 0.14
- Depreciation per mile
- 0.2
- Insurance per mileMonthly premium × 12 ÷ 15000 annual miles.
- 0.08
- Maintenance per mile
- 0.05
- Annual cost$0.47 × 15000 miles.
- 7,050
- Monthly costAnnual cost ÷ 12.
- 587.5
How it was calculated
- Fuel: $0.14 per mile (entered directly).
- Depreciation: vehicle value minus salvage, divided by useful life in miles = $0.20 per mile.
- Insurance: monthly premium × 12 ÷ 15000 annual miles = $0.08 per mile.
- Maintenance: $0.05 per mile (entered directly).
- All-in cost: $0.14 + $0.20 + $0.08 + $0.05 = $0.47 per mile — $7050.00 a year, $587.50 a month.
How it works
All-in cost per mile = fuel per mile + depreciation per mile + insurance per mile + maintenance per mile. Each component is derived separately so the total can be checked: the illustrative example uses fuel $0.14 + depreciation $0.20 + insurance $0.08 + maintenance $0.00 = $0.42 per mile, which over 15,000 annual miles is $6,300 a year and $525 a month.
Depreciation is straight-line: (vehicle value − salvage value) ÷ useful life in miles. A $30,000 car with $0 salvage over 150,000 miles loses $30,000 ÷ 150,000 = $0.20 per mile — so after 10,000 miles it has lost $2,000 of value on this model. A higher salvage value lowers the per-mile figure because less value is being used up.
Insurance per mile spreads a fixed cost over distance: monthly premium × 12 ÷ annual miles. A $100 monthly premium over 15,000 annual miles is $100 × 12 ÷ 15,000 = $0.08 per mile. Driving fewer miles raises the per-mile insurance figure, because the same premium is spread over fewer miles — one reason low-mileage cars look expensive per mile.
Reimbursement is miles × IRS rate: 1,000 business miles at the verified 76-cent business rate (IRS, July 1 – December 31, 2026) is 1,000 × $0.76 = $760.00. The gig margin is earning per mile minus all-in cost per mile: $1.20 earned against $0.42 cost is a $0.78 margin per mile, or $78.00 per 100 miles.
Worked examples
Illustrative breakdown: $0.14 + $0.20 + $0.08 = $0.42 per mile
Take illustrative components: fuel $0.14 per mile, a $30,000 car with $0 salvage over 150,000 miles giving $0.20 depreciation per mile, and a $100 monthly premium over 15,000 annual miles giving $0.08 insurance per mile, with maintenance set to $0.00 in this illustration. The all-in cost is $0.14 + $0.20 + $0.08 + $0.00 = $0.42 per mile — $6,300 a year at 15,000 miles, or $525 a month. Enter your own maintenance figure for your real total; the point of the example is the breakdown, not the numbers.
Gig check: $1.20 earned vs $0.42 cost = $0.78 a mile ahead
A delivery driver earning $1.20 per mile driven (base pay plus tips, divided by all miles including dead miles back) against the $0.42 all-in cost above keeps $1.20 − $0.42 = $0.78 per mile — $78.00 per 100 miles. But if the same driver earns only $0.30 per mile, the margin is $0.30 − $0.42 = −$0.12 per mile: the driving costs more than it pays, even before income tax. Run gig mode with your own pay and miles — and count dead miles, or the margin looks better than it is.
How to measure
- Get fuel per mile from the fuel cost calculator or directly: price per gallon ÷ mpg. At $3.50 a gallon and 25 mpg that is $0.14 per mile. Use your real-world mpg, which usually runs 1–3 mpg below the window-sticker figure.
- Set useful life from how long you actually expect to keep the car, not from a sales brochure. 150,000 miles is an illustrative assumption used in the examples; a car you plan to sell at 80,000 miles depreciates its value over 80,000 miles, which raises the per-mile figure.
- Take the insurance premium from your policy declarations page, not from a quote. If you pay every six months, divide that bill by 6 for the monthly figure; the tool spreads it over annual miles from there.
- Estimate maintenance per mile from a year of real bills: add a year of tires, oil, brakes, and repairs, then divide by a year of miles. A year with a $900 repair bill and 15,000 miles is $0.06 per mile on maintenance alone — which is why a single bad year can move the all-in figure.
- For gig earning per mile, use a full week, not one good order: add a week of base pay plus tips, then divide by a week of miles including every dead mile back to the hotspot. Per-order pay divided by loaded miles only is the most common way drivers overstate their margin.
Assumptions & limitations
Planning estimate
- Depreciation is straight-line over useful life in miles: every mile carries the same share of (value − salvage). Real cars lose value faster early on, so this understates early-mile depreciation and overstates late-mile depreciation — it is an averaging method, not a resale forecast.
- Insurance is spread evenly over annual miles. The premium itself does not change with miles in this model; in reality low-mileage drivers may qualify for lower premiums, and high-mileage drivers may pay more.
- All figures are estimates for planning, not tax advice. The reimbursement mode is a simple miles × rate calculation; an actual deduction depends on your mileage records, your tax situation, and the IRS rules for your driving period. The IRS rate shown is the business rate — charity and medical miles use different rates.
- Fuel-only cost is deliberately NOT the answer here: tolls, parking, registration, and financing interest are also excluded from the all-in figure. The loan payment is a separate cost — use the car loan calculator for that, and the fuel calculator for fuel alone.
- Gig margin is before income tax and before vehicle financing costs. A positive margin means the driving covers its operating cost; it does not mean the net income after tax, and it says nothing about whether the work is worth your time.
Frequently asked questions
For business driving, 76 cents per mile for miles driven July 1 – December 31, 2026 (IRS Announcement 2026-11 / IR-2026-29, published on irs.gov and confirmed at build time, 2026-11-01). For January 1 – June 30, 2026 it was 72.5 cents (Notice 2026-10). The reimbursement mode defaults to 76 cents but stays editable, so you can enter the rate for your driving period — and charity (14 cents) or medical (23.5 cents, July–December 2026) miles use different rates. The IRS updates the rate annually and can change it mid-year, so check irs.gov for the current figure.
Straight-line: (vehicle value − salvage value) ÷ useful life in miles. A $30,000 car with $0 salvage over 150,000 miles gives $30,000 ÷ 150,000 = $0.20 per mile. Salvage is what the car will still be worth at the end of its life — raising it lowers the per-mile figure, because less value is being used up. Useful life is your assumption about how many miles the car will last; it is not a measured figure for your car, and changing it moves the depreciation figure directly.
Everything beyond the pump: depreciation, insurance, and maintenance, added to fuel. The fuel calculator is fuel-only on purpose, so its number can be checked against a pump receipt. The all-in figure here is the ownership figure — fuel $0.14 + depreciation $0.20 + insurance $0.08 + maintenance $0.00 = $0.42 per mile in the illustrative example — and it still excludes tolls, parking, registration, and loan interest.
Compare your earning per mile against the all-in cost per mile. If you earn $1.20 per mile (base pay plus tips, divided by all miles including dead miles back) against a $0.42 cost, the margin is $0.78 per mile — the driving pays for itself. If you earn $0.30 per mile against the same cost, the margin is −$0.12 per mile and the driving costs more than it pays, before income tax. Gig mode runs this comparison with your numbers and warns you when the margin is negative.
Yes, by changing the rate: the default is the business rate (76 cents, July–December 2026), but you can enter 14 cents for charity miles or 23.5 cents for medical miles (July–December 2026; 20.5 cents for January–June 2026). The mode itself is just miles × rate — it does not check whether your miles qualify, and it is not tax advice.