Car Running Cost Calculator

About this calculator

Fuel is the cost people notice and rarely the largest one. Insurance, servicing, tyres, parking, the loan and above all depreciation are all real, and they arrive on different calendars — which is exactly why they are hard to add up in your head.

This page puts them all on the same footing. Fuel is worked out from your distance, mileage and pump price; everything else you enter with the period you actually pay it over.

How to use this calculator

1. Enter the distance you drive and say whether that is a day, a week, a month or a year.
2. Enter your mileage and the fuel price, and fuel is calculated for you.
3. Fill in the costs you know. Each row takes a name, an amount and how often you pay it.
4. Leave any row blank to skip it. Nothing is assumed for a row you do not fill in.

Include depreciation if you want the cost of owning the car rather than the cost of running it. It is usually the largest line and it is the one almost everyone forgets.

The formula

Fuel a year     = (Distance a year / Mileage) x Price per litre
Each cost       = Amount x (times it occurs in a year)
Total a year    = Fuel + everything else
Cost per km     = Total a year / Distance a year

A monthly cost is multiplied by 12, a weekly one by 52, a daily one by 365. The breakdown lists the heaviest cost first, because the point of it is to show which one dominates.

Worked example

1,200 km a month at 15 km/L with petrol at ₹105, insurance ₹18,000 a year, servicing ₹6,000 a year, parking ₹1,500 a month:

Distance a year = 1,200 x 12   = 14,400 km
Fuel            = 14,400 / 15 x 105 = 1,00,800
Insurance                            =   18,000
Servicing                            =    6,000
Parking         = 1,500 x 12         =   18,000
Total a year                         = 1,42,800
Per month                            =   11,900
Per kilometre                        =        9.92

Fuel is 71% of that total — and depreciation is not in it at all.

Notes and limits

• No figure here is a default. There is no assumed insurance premium and no assumed service cost, because a number invented for "a car" would be wrong for almost every actual car.
• Depreciation is normally the largest cost of ownership. A rough way to get it: what you paid, minus what a similar car of the same age sells for now, divided by the years you have had it.
• Cost per kilometre is the figure to compare against a taxi fare, a reimbursement rate or another vehicle. Most people are surprised by how high it is.
• A car driven very little has a high cost per kilometre even if the total is low, because insurance and depreciation carry on regardless.
• For a two-wheeler, the bike running cost calculator is the same arithmetic with a shorter list.

What this calculation assumes

• Every figure is one you entered. No insurance, servicing, tyre or depreciation cost is assumed.
• A monthly cost is multiplied by 12, a weekly one by 52, a daily one by 365.
• Anything you leave blank is not in the total - depreciation most often.