Free Mileage Deduction Calculator
Estimate your deduction using the IRS standard mileage rate for a selected year and purpose. Runs locally, so your log stays on-device.
Your inputs
Pick a year and purpose, then enter miles for each period the year holds.
Loading…
The IRS revised the 2026 rates part way through the year. Split your log at the changeover date.
Purpose
Mileage planning estimate
Use this estimate to compare years, purposes, and custom-rate assumptions before you file. Final eligibility and documentation requirements still depend on your situation.
- Keep a mileage log (date, purpose, start/end, miles). A split rate year makes the date on each trip matter.
- Moving mileage is limited to certain active-duty armed forces moves.
- If you use a custom rate, treat it as a planning assumption rather than a filing rate.
Picking the standard rate commits the car
A standard mileage rate is one published figure standing in for fuel, maintenance, insurance, tires and depreciation across a business trip. Take it and those costs sit inside the rate, so they cannot be claimed a second time on top. The choice is stickier than it looks. For a car you own, the standard rate has to be chosen in the first year the car is available for use in your business, and a car already depreciated under MACRS or expensed under section 179 is shut out of the standard rate for good. A leased car locks the method for the whole lease, renewals included.
A 2026 log of 9,100 business miles, 4,100 of them before 1 July and 5,000 after, does not resolve to one multiplication. The first block runs at 72.5 cents and the second at 76 cents, which is $2,972.50 plus $3,800, or $6,772.50 for the year. A single rate across the whole year misses in either direction: 76 cents throughout returns $6,916, and 72.5 cents throughout returns $6,597.50. The IRS set the mid-year change in Announcement 2026-11, so a 2026 figure needs the split, and an odometer reading taken in December cannot produce it.
The arithmetic fails less often than the record does. A deduction of this shape stands on a log the trip belongs to: date, miles driven, destination and the business purpose of the drive, kept close to when the drive happened. Two categories go wrong most. The run from home to a regular place of work is commuting and stays personal at any distance, and a personal errand folded into a client visit splits the trip into two purposes. Rebuilding a year of that from a calendar, in the week an examination letter arrives, is how a genuine deduction gets abandoned.
Which rates the calculator holds
Every published rate on this page was read off the IRS table of standard mileage rates for all periods, and the year 2026 carries two of them.
What it assumes
- US standard mileage rates for the tax year and purpose you select.
- 2026 is split into two periods, 1 January to 30 June and 1 July to 31 December, so a full year takes one mileage figure for each.
- Miles you enter are already business, medical, moving or charitable miles.
- A custom rate, where you enter one, replaces the published rate for that calculation.
What it leaves out
- The actual expenses method, which can produce a larger deduction for an expensive vehicle.
- Whether the standard rate is available to you at all. A first-year election, MACRS depreciation, a section 179 deduction or a lease can each close it off.
- Commuting between home and a regular place of work, which stays personal at any distance.
- Parking, tolls and the mileage log itself, which the deduction stands on.
Where the numbers come from
- Standard mileage rates, 2024 to 2026
- Published sourceBusiness 76 cents and medical or military moving 23.5 cents from 1 July 2026; 72.5 and 20.5 cents before that date; 70 and 21 cents for 2025; 67 and 21 cents for 2024. The charitable rate is 14 cents across all four periods. Standard mileage rates, IRS
- The custom rate option
- Our own assumptionA free field for modelling a reimbursement policy or a foreign rate. Treat what it returns as a planning figure.
Assumptions and sources checked 5 September 2026. Published figures move on their own schedule, so confirm anything you rely on against the authority that issues it.
How it works
- 01
Pick year + purpose
Choose business, medical, or charity miles and load the IRS rates for that year.
- 02
Enter miles driven
From your log. A year with a mid-year rate change takes one figure per period.
- 03
See the deduction
Rate times miles with the category breakdown.
- 04
Keep the record
Export or keep the inputs alongside your mileage log.
Related guides
Freelancer Vehicle Expense Deductions: Standard Mileage vs. Actual Expenses
The tool computes the standard mileage rate alone. This compares it against actual expenses and covers the rules that can bar the standard rate.
Read the guideChoosing IRS-Compliant Mileage Tracking for Freelancers
The estimate is only as good as the trip log behind it, so this sets the record-keeping bar the IRS applies.
Read the guideA Guide to Deducting Business Travel Expenses
Draws the line the purpose selector leaves open: where local business mileage ends and away-from-home travel deduction begins.
Read the guideFrequently Asked Questions
How should I use this mileage estimate?+
Where do the standard mileage rates come from?+
What counts as business mileage?+
Do I have to use the standard mileage rate?+
Why are there different rates for business, medical, and charity?+
Do moving miles qualify?+
What mileage records should I keep?+
Tracking mileage because you invoice clients for it?
Gruv pairs these records with the billing surface. Compliant invoices, payment collection, and payouts without the software subscription.
Many teams start with a narrow launch in weeks.