Per Diem Calculator
Add up a trip's per-diem lodging and meal allowance across all travel days.
Add up a trip's per diem
Per diem is a daily allowance for lodging plus meals and incidentals (M&IE). Enter your daily rates and the number of days, and it totals them — with the standard 75% rule for partial travel days if you want it.
Total per diem
$773.00
Lodging plus meals and incidentals
Average per day
$154.60
Total spread across every travel day
Lodging total
$440.00
M&IE total
$333.00
How it works
Per diem splits into two buckets: lodging, which covers your room, and M&IE — meals and incidental expenses like tips. Each has its own daily rate that usually depends on the city you're visiting. Enter both rates and the number of days, and the tool adds them up into one trip total.
There's a wrinkle on the first and last days, though. You don't get a full meal allowance on travel days because you're only there for part of them, so the standard rule pays 75% of the M&IE rate on each of those days. Lodging works differently: you pay for nights, not days, so a five-day trip has four hotel nights.
Leave the 75% rule ticked and the tool handles both adjustments automatically — four nights of lodging plus M&IE at 75% on day one and day five, full rate in between. If your employer reimburses a flat daily amount instead, untick the rule and it multiplies the full daily rate straight across every day.
Frequently asked questions
What does M&IE stand for?
Meals and Incidental Expenses. It's the part of per diem that covers food plus small incidentals like tips for baggage handlers or hotel staff. It's kept separate from lodging because the two rates are set independently and lodging is billed per night while M&IE is per day.
Why is the first and last day only 75%?
Because you're travelling for just part of those days, so you don't need a full day's worth of meals. The federal per-diem rules pay 75% of the M&IE rate on both the departure and return day. The tool applies that automatically when the partial-day rule is on.
Why is lodging counted as nights instead of days?
You check out on your last day, so a trip of five days involves only four hotel nights. The tool multiplies the lodging rate by nights (days minus one) so you're not charged for a room on the day you fly home. M&IE, by contrast, is counted per day.