Trip Fuel Cost Calculator
Enter your distance, fuel efficiency and fuel price to see how much fuel a trip needs and what it costs in total and per person.
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Your units, converted exactly
Enter distance in km or miles and fuel efficiency in km/L, L/100 km, mpg (US) or mpg (UK). The calculator shows your efficiency in the other three units and the fuel needed in liters, US gallons and UK gallons.
The whole trip, split between people
Add tolls and parking, set how many people share the cost, and see the fuel cost, the total, the cost per person and the fuel cost per km and per mile.
Compare a second vehicle
Add another vehicle's fuel efficiency to see how much fuel it would use on the same trip and how much more or less that fuel would cost at the same price.
How to calculate the fuel cost of a trip
- 1
Enter the distance in km or miles, and tick Round trip if you are driving back the same way.
- 2
Enter your vehicle's fuel efficiency and choose its unit.
- 3
Enter the current fuel price and say whether it is per liter, per US gallon or per UK gallon.
- 4
Add tolls, parking and the number of people sharing, then read the total and copy the trip summary.
What people use this tool for
- Budget the fuel for a road trip before you leave.
- Split the cost of a shared drive between friends or colleagues.
- Compare the fuel cost of taking one car instead of another.
- Convert a fuel efficiency figure between mpg, km/L and L/100 km.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the fuel cost of a trip calculated?
Fuel needed is the distance divided by the distance the vehicle covers on one unit of fuel, and fuel cost is the fuel needed times the price of one unit of fuel. With L/100 km, fuel needed is the distance in km times the L/100 km figure, divided by 100. Tolls and parking are then added to give the total.
Can you show a worked example?
A trip of 250 miles each way is 500 miles as a round trip. At 30 mpg (US) that takes 500 ÷ 30 = 16.67 US gallons, which is 63.09 liters. At $3.459 per US gallon the fuel costs $57.65. With $12 in tolls and $8 for parking the total is $77.65, or $25.88 each for three people.
How do I convert mpg to L/100 km?
Divide 235.215 by the mpg (US) figure, or 282.481 by the mpg (UK) figure. The same division converts L/100 km back to mpg. To go between km/L and L/100 km, divide 100 by the value. For example, 30 mpg (US) is 7.84 L/100 km, 12.75 km/L and 36.03 mpg (UK). The calculator shows these equivalents for whatever efficiency you enter.
What is the difference between US and UK mpg?
A US gallon is 3.785411784 liters and a UK (imperial) gallon is 4.54609 liters, so the same vehicle gets a higher mpg figure in UK gallons. A mile is 1.609344 km in both. The starting units come from your browser's language: miles and mpg (US) for US English, miles and mpg (UK) for UK English, km and km/L for English or Hindi in India, and km and L/100 km otherwise. You can change them at any time.
Does round trip double the tolls and parking?
No. Round trip doubles the distance only. Enter tolls and parking as amounts for the whole trip, there and back.
How is the cost split and rounded?
The total is divided by the number of people, from 1 to 100. Every amount is worked out exactly and rounded half up to two decimals once, at the end. Because each share is rounded to the nearest cent, the shares added together can differ from the total by up to half a cent per person. Fuel cost per km and per mile cover fuel only, not tolls or parking.
Why is there no fuel price filled in, and does it convert currencies?
Fuel prices change from day to day and station to station, so the field starts empty and no prices are looked up for you. Enter the price per liter, per US gallon or per UK gallon. The currency symbol only labels the amounts; nothing is converted between currencies.
Is anything saved or uploaded?
Nothing is uploaded; the calculation runs in your browser. Nothing is saved either, unless you tick "Remember my vehicle and units in this browser". Then your fuel efficiency, units and currency symbol are kept in this browser's local storage under the key zutilium:fuel-cost-calculator. The distance, fuel price, extras and number of people are never saved. Untick the box to erase the saved copy.