2026 mileage rate calculator ESTIMATE

One hundred miles is $72.50

Publication 334, What’s New for 2026, states that the standard mileage rate for the cost of operating your car, van, pickup, or panel truck for each mile of business use is 72.5 cents. One hundred business miles × $0.725 = $72.50. The 2025 rate in the same publication’s discussion of car expenses was 70 cents; do not use that rate on 2026 miles.

Amount = Business miles × $0.725

The rate is an alternative, not an add-on

IRS Topic 510 explains that the standard mileage rate is one way to figure the deductible costs of operating a car for business. If you use it, you generally do not also deduct the same miles’ actual gasoline, repairs, and depreciation. Topic 510 also lists conditions, including that you must own or lease the car and that you must not be running five or more cars at the same time as a fleet. The first year you place a car in service can lock you into or out of the method. Read Topic 510 and Publication 463 before you rely on a total from this box.

Records come before the multiplication

The calculator trusts the mile count you type. A usable record has the date, miles, and business purpose. Commuting from home to a regular workplace is a common category the IRS treats separately from business miles; Publication 463 is the place to sort a trip, not this form. Parking and tolls are often additional and are not inside the 72.5 cent rate — confirm that in Publication 463 rather than assuming a blog summary.

If the vehicle is a depreciable asset and you use actual expenses instead, the MACRS lookup is a different path, with passenger-automobile limits that this mileage math does not apply.

Sources

• IRS Publication 334 — What’s New for 2026: business standard mileage rate of 72.5 cents a mile.
• IRS Topic 510, Business use of car — when the standard mileage rate can be used.
• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses — records and which trips qualify.

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