How much does my commute cost?
Double the one-way trip, multiply by the days you actually travel, and price the miles at what running a car really costs rather than at the pump price. A 20-mile each-way drive, 5 days a week over 48 weeks, is 9,600 miles and about $7,296 a year before parking and tolls.
That is only the half you can see. At 35 minutes each way the same commute takes 280 hours, which is 7.0 full working weeks. Not holiday. Not paid. Just gone.
One assumption worth stating: this counts 48 working weeks rather than 52, because you do not commute on annual leave. Anyone quoting a commute cost on a full 52 weeks is inflating it by about eight percent.
Fuel is the small half
Petrol is about a fifth of what a mile actually costs once depreciation, servicing, tyres and insurance are counted. The IRS rate prices all of it.
Nobody is paying for them
Home-to-work travel is not worktime by regulation, so the hours come out of your life rather than your working day. Counting them in working weeks makes the scale obvious.
Distance has a price
Once both halves are on one line, an offer that pays more but sits further away can be compared honestly against the one that does not.
What driving to work costs, by distance
Find your one-way distance and read across. Figures are for 5 days a week over 48 weeks, priced at the IRS standard mileage rate, before parking and tolls.
| One way | Miles a year | Per week | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 miles | 2,400 | $38 | $152 | $1,824 |
| 10 miles | 4,800 | $76 | $304 | $3,648 |
| 15 miles | 7,200 | $114 | $456 | $5,472 |
| 20 miles | 9,600 | $152 | $608 | $7,296 |
| 25 miles | 12,000 | $190 | $760 | $9,120 |
| 30 miles | 14,400 | $228 | $912 | $10,944 |
| 40 miles | 19,200 | $304 | $1,216 | $14,592 |
| 50 miles | 24,000 | $380 | $1,520 | $18,240 |
Cost per mile to drive, and where the wear and tear hides
Most people price a commute at the pump and stop there, which is why commuting feels cheaper than it is. The IRS puts the full cost of running a car at 76 cents a mile, covering depreciation, servicing, tyres and insurance as well as fuel.
The last column is the part that never shows up as a monthly bill. In a 25 mpg car at $3.20 a gallon, fuel is roughly a fifth of the mile and the other four fifths are quietly accruing against the car.
| Fuel economy | Fuel only at $3.20/gal | Full cost, IRS rate | Everything but fuel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 mpg | $0.21/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.55/mile |
| 20 mpg | $0.16/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.60/mile |
| 25 mpg | $0.13/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.63/mile |
| 30 mpg | $0.11/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.65/mile |
| 35 mpg | $0.09/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.67/mile |
| 45 mpg | $0.07/mile | $0.76/mile | $0.69/mile |
How many hours a year does commuting take?
Minutes are easy to shrug off and working weeks are not, so the middle column is the one to read. Thirty minutes each way is six working weeks a year. An hour each way is twelve. The money columns price those hours at what an hour of your time is worth, which is a fair way to think about them given that nobody else is paying for them.
| One way | Hours a year | Working weeks | Worth at $20.00/hr | Worth at $30.00/hr | Worth at $45.00/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 min | 120 | 3.0 | $2,400 | $3,600 | $5,400 |
| 20 min | 160 | 4.0 | $3,200 | $4,800 | $7,200 |
| 30 min | 240 | 6.0 | $4,800 | $7,200 | $10,800 |
| 40 min | 320 | 8.0 | $6,400 | $9,600 | $14,400 |
| 45 min | 360 | 9.0 | $7,200 | $10,800 | $16,200 |
| 60 min | 480 | 12.0 | $9,600 | $14,400 | $21,600 |
| 75 min | 600 | 15.0 | $12,000 | $18,000 | $27,000 |
| 90 min | 720 | 18.0 | $14,400 | $21,600 | $32,400 |
Is commuting time paid?
No, and the regulation says so in one sentence. Under 29 CFR 785.35, an employee travelling from home before the workday and back at the end of it is doing ordinary home-to-work travel, and "Normal travel from home to work is not worktime." The regulation adds that this holds whether you work at one fixed location or at different sites.
Travel between sites during the workday is a different question and generally does count as hours worked, which matters if it is pushing your week past 40. If that is your situation, the overtime pay calculator works out what the week should actually pay.
Is a long commute worth it?
Put the total against the offer. A job paying $6,000 more but sitting 20 minutes further away is not obviously the better job once the extra hours and miles come out of it, and the calculator above will tell you which way it falls in your case. The same arithmetic run backwards is useful in a negotiation: a shorter commute is a pay rise nobody has to fund.
There is also a version where the number comes out fine and the answer is still no. If the drive is the least of it, the honest question is about the destination rather than the distance. Check the pay itself against the market with our free salary benchmark, and if the week is long as well as far, the PTO accrual calculator shows how much time off you are actually banking against it.
Frequently asked questions
The questions people ask once the total is in front of them.
Sources
- IRS, Standard mileage rates for the 76 cents per mile business rate, 1 July to 31 December 2026.
- 29 CFR 785.35 on ordinary home-to-work travel not being worktime.
Seven working weeks a year, spent getting somewhere you are not sure you want to be.
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