Cost of a car trip
Work out the real cost of your trip: fuel plus tolls, with the option to split it among occupants. Want to see the cheapest stations on your route? Plan it on the benzly map.
Leave 0 if there are no tolls
To split the cost
Frequently asked questions
How is the cost of a car trip calculated?+
Fuel = distance ÷ 100 × consumption × price per litre. Tolls are added to the result.
How do I find the cheapest stations on the route?+
On the benzly map you can plan the route and see the cheapest stations along the way, with official data.
How is the cost split between passengers?+
The cost per person is the total (fuel plus tolls) divided by the number of occupants in the car, driver included. It's the usual way to split costs on a shared trip.
How much does a 300 km car trip cost?+
At 6.5 L/100km with fuel at €1.65/L, a 300 km trip uses 19.5 litres: €32.17 in fuel alone. If the route has, say, €15 in tolls, the total rises to €47.17; the round trip is double. Adjust consumption, price and tolls to your route for your exact figure.
Is driving cheaper than the train?+
It depends on how many of you travel: the car's cost is practically fixed, so the fair comparison is cost per person versus the ticket price. Travelling alone, the ticket may win; with a full car, the cost per head drops a lot.
Is the distance I enter one way or round trip?+
One way, same as the tolls. The 'Round trip' card automatically doubles the total (fuel plus tolls).
Does the calculation include car wear and tear?+
No. The calculator adds up the trip's direct variable costs: fuel and tolls. Wear, insurance, inspection or depreciation are real car costs, but they don't change because of one specific trip.
What a car trip's cost includes (and what it doesn't)
Knowing how much it costs to drive from A to B means adding two items: fuel — distance ÷ 100 × consumption × price per litre — and the route's tolls. This calculator combines both and adds the sum almost nobody does: the cost per person when splitting among occupants.
Wear, insurance and taxes are left out: they exist, but they don't depend on one specific trip. Neither does parking at your destination: if you know it, add it separately. To decide whether a trip is worth it, what matters is what you'd pay extra to make it: fuel and tolls.
If you only want the fuel part — how many litres and how many euros, no tolls, no splitting — the fuel cost calculator does exactly that sum and nothing else.
Full example: 300 km with tolls and four occupants
With the defaults — 300 km one way, 6.5 L/100km and fuel at €1.65/L — the car uses 19.5 litres: €32.17 in fuel. With no tolls, that's the trip total; the round trip, €64.35.
Now add €15 in tolls (an example: enter your route's real amount) and the one-way total rises to €47.17. Split among 4 occupants, that's €11.79 per person. That's the scale of real decisions: a trip of nearly €50 each way drops below €12 a head when the car is full.
The return leg needs no extra work: the 'Round trip' card doubles fuel and tolls in one go. In the example, the 600 km total adds up to €64.35 in fuel and €30 in tolls.
Cost per person: the figure that decides
The classic split divides the total — fuel plus tolls — among all occupants, driver included. The calculator does it via the 'Occupants' field: since the car's cost is practically fixed, every extra passenger makes the trip cheaper for everyone else. With the example above: alone, €47.17; between two, €23.59; between four, €11.79.
It's also the honest way to compare with the train or bus: you compare the ticket price against the cost per person, not the car's total. Travelling alone, the scales may tip towards the ticket; with a full car, the arithmetic favours sharing.
Tolls: how much to add (and how to avoid them)
If your route runs on free dual carriageways, leave the field at 0. If there are paid sections and you don't know the amount, the toll calculator estimates it from the toll-motorway kilometres, using an indicative average rate by vehicle type — each concession company sets its own prices.
On the fuel-price map you can plan the route, toggle 'avoid tolls' and compare the two options; along the way you'll see the cheapest stations on the route to decide where to fill up before leaving.
A realistic price per litre changes the result
The default €1.65/L is just a starting point: the real price varies by station and by area. Check prices by province to see what's paid in the areas you cross and set the field to what you'll actually pay: over 19.5 litres, every 5 cents per litre is nearly €1 per leg. And since prices change daily, if you leave in a few days check the map again the day before.
Same trip in an EV? The EV charging cost calculator works out the full charge and the cost per 100 km, so you can compare both worlds with numbers.