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Cost per mile: what a mile actually costs you

Work out what your vehicle really costs a mile, and whether the standard mileage rate or actual expenses leaves you better off at tax time. The arithmetic runs in your browser and the figures go nowhere.

2026 IRS rates Standard vs actual No email

How to calculate cost per mile

Add up what the vehicle costs you in a year and divide it by the miles you drove:

Cost per mile = (fixed costs + fuel + maintenance, a year) ÷ miles, a year

Fixed costs are depreciation or lease payments, insurance, registration and taxes. Fuel a year is the miles divided by the miles per gallon, times the price of a gallon. For example: $9,000 of fixed costs, 12,000 miles at 30 miles per gallon and $3.50 a gallon ($1,400 of fuel), and $1,200 of maintenance come to $11,600 a year, which is 96.7 cents a mile.

For business driving in 2026 the IRS standard rate is 72.5 cents a mile from January to June and 76 cents from 1 July (IRS, Announcement 2026-11). The calculator below does both sums with your own figures and says which deduction is larger.

The calculation

Annual figures throughout. The defaults are a plausible mid-size car, not a recommendation, so replace them with yours.

What the vehicle costs you a year

What the vehicle loses in value, or what you pay to lease it. Not the loan payment.
The national average was $3.89 in mid-July 2026.

How far you drive

Everything: business, commuting and personal.
Split by half-year because the rate changed on 1 July.
Business parking and tolls only, never a ticket.
Your vehicle costs you
a mile, all in
fixed, a mile
running, a mile
a year, all in
Fixed costs a year
Fuel a year
Maintenance, repairs and tires a year
Business miles
Share of driving that is business

Which deduction is bigger

Both figures below already include your parking, tolls and loan interest, because those are claimable either way.

standard mileage
actual expenses
difference

January to June, at 72.5 cents
July to December, at 76 cents
Running costs at the business share
How it works

Everything on this page is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored when you close the tab.

Doing this often? OBSCURA Books records business mileage at HMRC's flat rates with the rest of the expenses, ready for the self-assessment pages. On its own, US$4 a month; with everything else, US$9 a month or US$79 a year. 7 days free.