Federal Mileage Reimbursement
GSA changed the automobile rate in the middle of 2026, so the year has two different numbers. Enter your miles and the date travel began to get the rate that actually applies to your voucher, plus what the other 2026 rate would have paid.
Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Rates verified against GSA.gov ·
Enter the one-way distance and leave the round trip box checked if you came back.
The rate is set by the date your travel began, not the date you file the voucher.
Your voucher should pay $152.00 for 200 miles at $0.76 a mile, the rate in effect from July 1, 2026 onward.
| Effective | Auto | Gov avail. | Motorcycle | Airplane |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 onward | $0.76 | $0.235 | $0.74 | $1.935 |
| January 1 to June 30, 2026 | $0.725 | $0.205 | $0.705 | $1.78 |
| Calendar year 2025 | $0.70 | $0.21 | $0.68 | $1.75 |
| Calendar year 2024 | $0.67 | $0.21 | $0.65 | $1.76 |
| Calendar year 2023 | $0.655 | $0.22 | $0.635 | $1.74 |
| July 1 to December 31, 2022 | $0.625 | $0.22 | $0.605 | $1.81 |
| January 1 to June 30, 2022 | $0.585 | $0.18 | $0.565 | $1.515 |
| Modeled | Not modeled |
|---|---|
| GSA POV mileage reimbursement for official travel: automobile, motorcycle, and privately owned airplane, plus the lower constructive rate when a government car was authorized and available and you used your own automobile or motorcycle instead (41 CFR 301-10.306; GSA prints that rate on its automobile row, and we apply it to a motorcycle too). | The constructive cost for a privately owned airplane flown instead of an available government car, which depends on the driving distance. Per diem for lodging and meals, airfare, and rental cars. Also not modeled: the parking, ferry, bridge, road and tunnel fees that 41 CFR 301-10.302 lets you claim on top of mileage, and the 41 CFR 301-10.303 rule that mileage is payable to only one traveler when two employees share a car. |
| Rate selection by the date travel began, across seven published periods: July 1 2026, January 1 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, July 1 2022, and January 1 2022. | Dates before January 1, 2022. GSA publishes rates back to 2017; we stop at 2022, which covers the window in which a voucher is still normally live, and return no rate rather than guessing beyond it. A 2027 rate, which GSA has not published: trips from January 1 to December 31, 2027 are shown at the July 1, 2026 rate with a warning that it is an estimate, and later dates are refused. Also not modeled: how your agency splits a voucher for a trip that straddles July 1, 2026. |
| Nautical to statute mile conversion for airplane claims, at the GSA factor of 1.15077945. | Airport-to-airport distance lookup. Use the Department of Transportation inter-airport distance tool GSA links to. |
| The mid-year 2026 comparison, showing what the same trip pays under the other 2026 rate. | Relocation and work-related move mileage, which is a separate $0.235 line from July 1, 2026 under the FTR relocation chapters. |
| A straight miles times rate computation, rounded once to the cent. Nautical conversion and round-trip doubling run on the unrounded distance. | Tax treatment, accountable-plan substantiation, agency-specific pre-authorization rules, and the constructive-cost comparison some agencies run when POV travel is more expensive than common carrier. |
Totals are rounded to the cent. Your agency travel office approves the voucher and has the final say on which rate and which miles it will pay.
Two rates for one year
Most years the federal mileage rate changes once, on January 1. In 2026 it changed twice. The automobile rate opened the year at $0.725 a mile, then rose to $0.76 on July 1 after the IRS revised its optional standard mileage rates in Announcement 2026-11. The government-car rate moved from $0.205 to $0.235, motorcycles from $0.705 to $0.74, and airplanes from $1.78 to $1.935.
That split is the easiest thing to get wrong on a voucher filed in the autumn for travel that happened in the spring. GSA's instruction is to use the rate in effect when travel began, and it says each published rate stayed in effect until the next date listed. On a 500-mile round trip, picking the wrong 2026 row is a $17.50 error in one direction or the other: 500 billable miles times the $0.035 gap between $0.725 and $0.76.
The government-car question is worth real money
GSA publishes two automobile rates, and the gap between them is the widest it has been in years. The lower one is not triggered by a car merely sitting in the motor pool. It applies when you use your own car instead of the method the agency authorized: 41 CFR 301-10.306 pays “a constructive mileage rate limited to the cost that would be incurred for use of a Government-furnished automobile,” and 41 CFR 301-70.103 says that where an employee “elects to use a POV instead of the authorized method of transportation, agencies must limit reimbursement to the constructive cost of the authorized method.” If instead your agency determines POV use advantageous to the Government and authorizes it, 41 CFR 301-10.301 pays the full rate — “an applicable mileage rate based on the type of POV actually used” — whether or not a government car existed. So: authorized POV, $0.76 a mile; your own car in place of an authorized government automobile, $0.235, a drop of 69 percent. On a 240-mile round trip that is $56.40 rather than $182.40.
The deciding fact is what your travel authorization says, not what you remember about the motor pool. Read the authorization before you take your own car, and if the authorization is silent, ask the travel office to write down whether a government vehicle was available. Pair this with the Per Diem Lookup to price the whole trip rather than just the driving.
Airplane claims are paid in statute miles
Pilots file in nautical miles and get paid in statute miles. GSA sets the conversion at 1 nautical mile to 1.15077945 statute miles, which turns a 100 nautical mile leg into 115.08 statute miles. At the July 2026 rate of $1.935 that is $222.68 rather than the $193.50 you would claim if you forgot to convert. Convert first, then multiply.