Trip Cost and Fuel Planning Guides
Road-trip budgeting, commute spend planning, and cost-per-mile decision support.
Quick Summary
Use this collection to estimate fuel spend before you drive. These guides cover distance-to-cost formulas, commute scaling, fill-up planning, and tradeoffs between vehicles and routes.
Planning Guides
If your goal is controlling fuel spend, these guides pair formulas with practical planning steps so you can estimate costs quickly and make better tradeoffs for each trip.
“You Save/Spend More Over 5 Years” on the EPA Label: What It Means
The “ You Save/Spend More Over 5 Years ” line on the EPA fuel economy label is a standardized fuel-cost comparison. It estimates how much more or less you would spend on fuel over five...
Break-Even MPG Payback: When Higher MPG Pays for Itself
"Payback" answers one question: How long does it take for fuel savings to cover a higher upfront price? You can model this with three inputs (miles, MPG, and fuel price) and a simple...
Carpool Savings: How to Calculate Cost and CO2 Reduction
Carpooling can reduce the number of vehicles on the road and, for participants, reduce fuel spending by sharing trips. DOE’s fuel economy guidance includes carpooling and telecommuting...
Combine Errands to Save Fuel: The Cold-Start Problem Explained
One of the simplest ways to reduce fuel use is to combine errands so you take fewer short, cold-start trips. DOE’s fuel economy guidance notes that several short trips from a cold start...
Commute Gas Cost: Daily, Weekly, Monthly (Formula + Examples)
Your commute fuel cost is a simple multiplication problem once you convert everything to cost per mile (or cost per kilometer). The key is using the right MPG number for your route and...
Cost Per Mile (Fuel): The Simple Formula + Examples
Fuel cost per mile is a budgeting metric: it tells you how much you spend on fuel for each mile you drive. You can calculate it from your gas price and your MPG in seconds. Once you have...
Cost to Fill Up: Formula, Examples, and a Quick Calculator
"Cost to fill up" is a simple multiplication problem once you estimate how many gallons you will buy. The only tricky part is translating your fuel gauge (fraction of a tank) into gallons.
E10 vs E15 vs E85: How Ethanol Blends Affect MPG and Cost
Ethanol blends often trade lower energy per gallon for different pricing and availability. FuelEconomy.gov provides baseline estimates of how E10, E15, and E85 can affect fuel economy,...
Estimated Annual Fuel Cost on the EPA Label: Assumptions and How to Adjust
The EPA label’s Estimated Annual Fuel Cost is a standardized estimate intended for comparisons across vehicles. EPA explains in its interactive label that the estimate is based on...
Fuel Cost per 100 Miles: A Better Way to Compare Cars
“Cost per 100 miles” translates fuel economy into dollars. It is simple: take your gas price and your MPG and compute how much you spend to go 100 miles. This works especially well...
FuelEconomy.gov API Guide: Pull MPG and Cost Data
FuelEconomy.gov provides XML web services endpoints that let you fetch vehicle menus (year, make, model) and vehicle details programmatically. This is useful if you're building a...
How to Calculate Driving Range on a Tank (and Add a Safety Buffer)
Driving range on a tank is a simple formula: tank size × MPG. The hard part is choosing a realistic MPG (because speed, traffic, weather, and maintenance change it) and deciding on a...
How to Use FuelEconomy.gov to Compare Cars (MPG, Cost, and Labels)
FuelEconomy.gov is the U.S. Department of Energy’s official consumer site for fuel economy information, including MPG ratings, estimated fuel costs, and printable fuel economy labels for...
Planning Refuel Stops on a Road Trip: A Simple Method
Fuel-stop planning is easier when you separate trip cost from trip logistics . Cost is based on total gallons used and fuel price. Logistics is based on your realistic range on a tank,...
Tire Pressure and Fuel Economy: What Agencies Say (and How to Estimate Cost Impact)
Tire pressure is one of the most practical "small levers" for fuel economy because it's easy to measure and correct. FuelEconomy.gov summarizes the impact of underinflation on MPG and...
How Much Does It Cost to Drive 1000 Miles?
The cost to drive 1,000 miles ranges from about $50 to $200 or more, depending on your vehicle's fuel economy and the price of gas—a sedan averaging 30 MPG with gas at $3.50 per...
How to Calculate Fuel Cost for a Road Trip
To calculate fuel cost for a road trip, divide your total trip distance by your vehicle's miles per gallon (MPG), then multiply by the current price per gallon of gas. For example, a...
Run your numbers with the Fuel Cost Calculator, then compare ongoing expenses using the Cost Per Mile Calculator.