EveryCalc

Home / Finance Calculators / GSA Per Diem Rates

Finance

GSA Per Diem Rates FY2027

What are the GSA per diem rates for FY2027?

Per diem is the daily allowance the federal government pays for lodging and meals on official travel. For federal fiscal year 2027 (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027), the standard CONUS rate is $181 per day: $113 for lodging plus $68 for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE). Another 295 higher-cost travel areas have their own rates, listed state by state below.

Per diem is the daily allowance the federal government pays for lodging and meals on official travel. For federal fiscal year 2027 (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027), the standard CONUS rate is $181 per day: $113 for lodging plus $68 for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE). Another 295 higher-cost travel areas have their own rates, listed state by state below.

Last updated: October 2026

Per diem calculator (FY2027)

Simple estimate: trip total is the per-day total times the number of days. Real claims prorate the first and last travel day M&IE at 75 percent; this calculator does not model that, so treat the result as a planning estimate.

Estimated trip per diem
--
Standard CONUS rate
Lodging total
--
M&IE total
--
Per-day total
--

What is per diem?

Per diem, Latin for "per day", is how the federal government reimburses travel without collecting a receipt for every meal. It has two parts with different rules. Lodging is a nightly maximum: you are reimbursed your actual hotel cost up to the cap for your destination, and lodging taxes are reimbursed separately on top of it. Meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) is a flat daily allowance: you receive the full amount for each full travel day whether you spend it all or not, and it covers meals, tips, and small incidental costs.

Who uses these rates

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sets per diem rates for the continental United States (CONUS). Federal civilian employees traveling on official business are reimbursed at these rates, and the Department of Defense uses the same GSA rates for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardians on temporary duty (TDY). Rates for Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories are set separately by DoD as OCONUS rates. Because the GSA figures are public and updated every year, many private companies, contractors, nonprofits, and universities use them as the benchmark for their own employee travel reimbursement, and the IRS accepts reimbursement at or below the federal rate under an accountable plan as tax-free.

The FY2027 standard CONUS rate

Most of the country has no locality rate of its own. Every destination in that majority uses the standard CONUS rate for FY2027: $113 per night for lodging and $68 per day for M&IE, a combined $181 per day. GSA raised the standard lodging rate from $110 to $113 for FY2027, its first increase in two years, while the standard M&IE rate stayed at $68. The remaining 295 non-standard areas are places where surveyed hotel costs run well above the standard rate, from small resort towns to New York City, and each one gets its own lodging cap and usually a higher M&IE tier between $68 and $92.

How GSA sets the rates

GSA builds each area's lodging cap from actual hotel market data: it surveys average daily room rates in the area over a trailing period, trims the results, and sets the cap near the average, reduced by 5 percent. Where the data supports it, the cap is split into seasons, so a ski town can have one rate in winter and a much lower one in summer. M&IE is set in tiers based on local meal costs. New rates are published each summer, announced in a GSA per diem bulletin and a Federal Register notice, and take effect on October 1, the first day of the federal fiscal year. The FY2027 rates on these pages cover travel from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027.

Reading the state tables

Each state page lists that state's GSA travel areas with three figures: the lodging cap for October 2026, the M&IE rate, and the combined per-day total. Lodging is the figure that moves: many areas publish a different cap for other months, sometimes far higher in peak season, so always check the month of your trip in the GSA lookup before booking. Two claim rules matter in practice. M&IE on the first and last travel day is paid at 75 percent, and lodging is a cap rather than an allowance, so an unused part of the lodging cap cannot be kept. The calculators on these pages skip both adjustments on purpose and give a simple per-day-times-days estimate for planning.

Source and how to verify: rates on this page are the official GSA per diem rates for federal fiscal year 2027 (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027), from the U.S. General Services Administration FY2027 per diem master rates file published at gsa.gov. Lodging figures are the October 2026 rate for each travel area; many areas change by season, so check the month of your trip in the GSA per diem lookup before you file a claim. EveryCalc republishes the rates for convenience; GSA and your agency travel office are the official record.

Per diem rates by state (FY2027)

GSA per diem FAQs

What is per diem?

Per diem is a fixed daily allowance that covers lodging and meals on official travel, paid instead of reimbursing every receipt. The lodging part is a nightly cap reimbursed up to actual cost; the meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) part is a flat daily amount paid in full.

What is the standard CONUS per diem rate for FY2027?

For federal fiscal year 2027 (October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027), the standard CONUS rate is $181 per day: $113 for lodging plus $68 for M&IE. It applies to every continental U.S. destination that does not have its own GSA locality rate.

Who uses GSA per diem rates?

Federal civilian employees on official travel use GSA rates in the continental United States, and the Department of Defense uses the same rates for service members on temporary duty (TDY). Many private employers, contractors, and universities also benchmark their travel reimbursement to the GSA figures.

Why is M&IE lower on the first and last day of travel?

Federal travel rules pay 75 percent of the M&IE rate on the first and last day of a trip, on the theory that a traveler in transit eats fewer meals away from home. The calculator on this page does not apply that reduction; it is a simple per-day estimate.

Do per diem rates change during the fiscal year?

The fiscal year rates are set once, but lodging caps are seasonal: many travel areas publish a different cap for different months between October and September. M&IE stays the same all year for each area. The state tables here show the October 2026 lodging rate.

What happens if a hotel costs more than the lodging cap?

The traveler normally pays the difference out of pocket. Agencies can approve actual-expense reimbursement in limited cases, up to 300 percent of the applicable maximum per diem rate under the Federal Travel Regulation, but that approval is the exception, not the rule.