Cost Per Mile to Own a Car Calculator
Enter your annual fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and loan or lease payments, and this calculator adds them into a total yearly cost of ownership and divides by the miles you drive to give your true cost per mile. It also splits that number into the fixed costs you pay no matter how far you drive and the variable costs that rise with mileage, so you can see where your money actually goes.
Variable costs
Fixed costs
Usage
True cost per mile
$0.98
$11,800.00/yr ÷ 12,000 miles
Fixed per mile
$0.70
Variable per mile
$0.28
Cost breakdown
Annual cost by component
How it works
Your total annual cost of ownership is the sum of five yearly figures: fuel (or charging), maintenance and repairs, insurance, depreciation, and any loan or lease payments. Depreciation is the loss in your car's resale value over the year — the largest cost most owners never write a check for. Cost per mile is simply that total divided by the miles you drive in a year, which is why the same car can cost very different amounts per mile for two different drivers.
The calculator separates fixed costs from variable costs. Fixed costs — insurance, depreciation, and loan or lease payments — are largely locked in whether you drive 5,000 miles or 25,000 miles a year. Variable costs — fuel and maintenance — scale roughly with how much you drive. Splitting them shows why low-mileage drivers often pay a surprisingly high cost per mile: the fixed costs get spread over fewer miles.
Because the divisor is your annual mileage, driving more miles lowers your cost per mile (the fixed costs are shared across more miles), while driving less raises it. The result is a screening estimate built entirely from the numbers you enter — it is only as accurate as your inputs, and it does not attempt to forecast future repair bills, fuel prices, or resale values, all of which vary widely by vehicle and region.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my cost per mile higher than the sticker price suggested?+
The purchase price is only the entry fee. The real cost of ownership includes fuel, maintenance, insurance, and — usually the biggest line — depreciation, the value the car loses each year whether or not you sell it. When you add every recurring cost and divide by the miles you actually drive, the per-mile figure is often far higher than people expect, especially in the early years when depreciation is steepest. This tool is a screening estimate to help you see the full picture, not financial advice.
Why do fixed costs make low-mileage driving so expensive per mile?+
Insurance, depreciation, and loan or lease payments are largely fixed: you owe roughly the same amount whether you drive 6,000 or 16,000 miles a year. Because cost per mile divides those fixed dollars by your mileage, driving fewer miles spreads them over a smaller base and pushes the per-mile cost up. That is why a car parked most of the week can cost more per mile than one that commutes daily, even with identical bills — the fixed costs simply have fewer miles to absorb them.
Is this the same as the IRS standard mileage rate?+
No. The IRS standard mileage rate is a single flat figure the tax authority publishes each year for deducting business driving; it is an average meant to approximate typical costs across many vehicles, not a calculation of what your specific car costs. This calculator instead builds a per-mile number from your own fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and payment figures. They answer different questions, so the two numbers will usually differ — check the current IRS rate on the IRS website if you need it for taxes.