POV mileage reimbursement for official travel: 2026 rates

For official travel on or after July 1, 2026, GSA Bulletin FTR 26-03 sets the privately owned automobile rate at 76 cents per mile. It was 72.5 cents from January 1 through June 30, 2026 (FTR 26-02). The same midyear bulletin raised the motorcycle rate to 74 cents and the privately owned airplane rate to $1.935 per mile.

When a government-furnished automobile was authorized and available but you chose to drive your own, the rate is 23.5 cents per mile from July 1, 2026 (20.5 cents earlier in 2026). Airplane distances must be converted from nautical to statute miles: 1 nautical mile equals 1.15077945 statute miles.

By statute, GSA sets the automobile rate equal to the single standard mileage rate established by the IRS. On July 13, 2026 the IRS raised its business rate from 72.5 to 76 cents for the second half of 2026 (Announcement 2026-11, modifying Notice 2026-10), and GSA followed with FTR 26-03, effective for travel on or after July 1, 2026. GSA reviewed the motorcycle and airplane rates at the same time.

Rates for travel in 2027 had not been published when this page was reviewed. The calculators on this site refuse 2027 mileage instead of carrying the 2026 rate forward.

GSA’s rate table tells travelers to use the rate that applied when the travel began, and each bulletin applies to travel performed on or after its effective date. The trip calculator prices all trip miles at the rate in effect on the departure date. For a running log of separate trips, the mileage log calculator prices each line at the rate for its own date, so June and July 2026 trips receive different rates.

For a privately owned automobile the two figures are currently equal, but they answer different questions. The GSA rate is what a federal agency reimburses under the Federal Travel Regulation, subject to its authorization of the vehicle. The IRS standard mileage rate is an optional method for substantiating the cost of business use of a car for tax purposes, for example under an employer’s accountable plan. The IRS medical and moving rate (23.5 cents from July 1, 2026) and the 14-cent charitable rate fixed by statute are unrelated to official travel reimbursement.

Check with your travel office before using a personal vehicle: reimbursement can depend on whether the agency authorized it as advantageous to the government and on the cost of the alternatives.

FTR §301-10.302 lists parking fees, ferry fees, and bridge, road and tunnel tolls as reimbursable in addition to the mileage allowance. Fuel, repairs, depreciation, insurance and taxes are not: they are part of the per-mile rate. When colleagues share one personal vehicle on the same trip, only one of them claims mileage (§301-10.303). If you drive for your own convenience when another method was authorized, reimbursement is limited to the constructive cost of the authorized method (§301-10.305).