Commute Time & Cost Calculator

Commute time and cost calculator for daily driving

This Commute Time & Cost Calculator estimates how long your commute takes and what it costs you to drive, using a small set of inputs most people can get quickly. The primary goal is simple: help you quantify the time and money impact of your current commute so you can compare options like moving closer, changing routes, adjusting work days, or renegotiating your schedule.

The calculator is locked to one use case: commuting by car where the main costs are distance-based operating cost or fuel consumption, plus optional tolls and parking. It is not designed for public transport fares, rideshare pricing, cycling, or multi-leg routing. If you need ticket prices or transit schedules, this tool is the wrong tool. Here, the decision is whether your driving commute is acceptable, and what it totals over a week, month, and year.

Start by entering your one-way distance in kilometres. Add your commute days per week and trips per day, which is typically 2 (to work and back). For time estimates, you can enter an average speed, or leave it blank and the calculator will use a reasonable default. You can also add an “extra delay per trip” for traffic, school drop-offs, or slow intersections. For cost, you can use a quick “cost per km” estimate, or switch to a fuel-based calculation using your vehicle’s L/100 km figure and fuel price per litre. The results are shown as daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly totals, so you can see the real scale of the commute.

Assumptions and how to use this calculator

• Distance is one-way and the calculator multiplies by trips per day to get daily distance.
• If average speed is not entered, the calculator assumes 40 km/h as a general mixed-traffic default.
• “Extra delay per trip” is added on top of the speed-based time estimate to reflect typical congestion or stops.
• Monthly totals use weeks per month (default 4.33) to convert weekly time and cost into monthly estimates.
• Costs are estimates only and exclude depreciation, insurance, servicing, and unexpected repairs unless your cost-per-km already includes them.

Common questions

What should I enter for cost per km?

Use cost per km when you want a fast, “good enough” estimate and you already have a number in mind from prior tracking or a company travel reimbursement rate. If you do not have a number, switch to the fuel-based method, which uses inputs most drivers can find on a fuel receipt and a vehicle spec sheet. If you only know fuel cost and not other costs, cost per km can understate your true commuting cost.

Why does the calculator ask for weeks per month?

“Per month” is ambiguous because months have different numbers of working days. This calculator converts weekly totals to monthly using a weeks-per-month factor. The default 4.33 is a simple average (52 weeks divided by 12 months). If you want a stricter estimate, you can use 4.0 for a conservative month or adjust it to match how your employer schedules working weeks.

What if my route is different in the morning and afternoon?

This calculator assumes the same one-way distance and similar travel conditions for each trip. If your return route is longer or much slower, you have two practical options: use the longer distance to avoid underestimating, or average the two distances and add extra delay minutes to account for the slower leg. The output is meant for planning, not minute-by-minute navigation.

Does the fuel-based method include tolls and parking?

Fuel-based cost includes fuel usage for the distance and then adds optional tolls and parking per day if you enter them. It still does not automatically include maintenance, tyres, depreciation, or insurance. If you want a single number that bundles everything, use the cost-per-km method with a value that already includes your broader running costs.

When is this calculator not a good fit?

If you commute by train, bus, taxi, rideshare, or a mix of modes, your costs are usually fare-based and time is schedule-based. This calculator is not designed to estimate ticket pricing, surge pricing, or route transfers. It is also not built to compare multiple routes or to model “best case vs worst case” traffic scenarios. Its job is to give you a clear baseline for a typical car commute and show what that baseline adds up to over time.