GSA Per Diem Rate 2026
Current year
For 2026, the GSA Per Diem Rate figures are $110 (Standard CONUS lodging rate), $68 (Standard CONUS M&IE rate), $68 (Lowest M&IE rate tier) and $92 (Highest M&IE rate tier).
Effective 2025-10-01 through 2026-09-30Source: Maximum Per Diem Reimbursement Rates for the Continental United States (CONUS), FY 2026 (GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 26-01) (GSA)Verified 2026-09-02
Compared with 2025
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2025.
| Item | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard CONUS lodging rate | $110 | $110 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Standard CONUS M&IE rate | $68 | $68 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Lowest M&IE rate tier | $68 | $68 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Highest M&IE rate tier | $92 | $92 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Federal employees travelling on official business inside the continental United States, and the agencies that reimburse them. These are maximum reimbursement rates set by GSA under the Federal Travel Regulation: an agency may pay up to the lodging rate for a night's room and up to the M&IE rate for a day's meals and incidental expenses, in any location GSA has not set a non-standard rate for. They are not the IRS high-low per diem rates, which are what a private employer or a self-employed taxpayer uses to substantiate a business travel deduction.
What changed this year, and why
GSA held every fiscal 2025 rate for fiscal 2026. The standard CONUS lodging rate remains $110 a night, the standard CONUS M&IE rate remains $68 a day, and the non-standard area M&IE tiers remain $68 to $92. No new non-standard area was added, and the maximum lodging allowance rates in existing per diem localities stay where they were.
Common questions
- What is the standard CONUS lodging rate for fiscal 2026?
- $110 a night, unchanged, for travel performed on or after October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026.
- What is the standard CONUS M&IE rate for fiscal 2026?
- $68 a day, also unchanged, with the non-standard area tiers holding at $68 to $92.
- Did anything change at all for fiscal 2026?
- Not in the standard rates. GSA maintained the prior year's per diem rates, added no new non-standard area, and left the maximum lodging allowance rates in existing per diem localities at their prior levels.
- Why does this page give one standard rate instead of the rate for my city?
- GSA publishes the per-city and per-county lodging and M&IE rates only as a lookup grid at gsa.gov/perdiem, where a location's row crossed with a column holds a bare amount with no sentence around it. This site publishes figures a document states in words, so what it carries is the standard CONUS rate the Federal Register notice states in its own prose. A city GSA has not listed takes that standard rate anyway.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The How much of the M&IE rate your spending leaves takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
The first and last day of a trip pay three quarters of the M&IE rate
A trip's first and last day are not reimbursed at the full meals and incidental expenses rate. GSA pays three quarters of the M&IE rate for the traveller's temporary duty location on each of those two days, on the reasoning that a departure day and a return day do not each contain a full day of meals away from home. The rate that gets cut is the one for the place being travelled to, not the one for the traveller's own official duty station, which is the part people get wrong when they work a reimbursement out by hand. GSA publishes the already-reduced amount for every location in the meal breakdown table on its own site, under a heading for the first and last day of travel, so the arithmetic does not have to be redone.
On the first and last travel day, Federal employees are only eligible for 75 percent of the total M&IE rate for their temporary duty travel location (not the official duty station location).
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
What happens when no room can be had at the maximum rate
The lodging figure on this page is a ceiling on ordinary reimbursement, not a promise that a room exists at that price. Where a federal traveller cannot find one within the established rate, the Federal Travel Regulation lets the employing agency authorise the actual expense allowance instead and reimburse what the room actually cost, up to triple the established per diem rate for that location. It is an authorisation rather than an entitlement: the agency has to approve it, normally before the travel happens, and GSA's own guidance asks the traveller to check FedRooms first to confirm that nothing is available at the per diem rate. The Federal Travel Regulation sets the allowance out in its own actual expense subpart, which is the part of the rules an agency travel manager will point to when approving one.
In addition, if a Federal employee cannot find a room within the established per diem rates, the travel policy allows the agency to reimburse the actual hotel charges up to 300 percent of the established per diem rates.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Standard locations, non-standard areas, and the city that is on neither list
GSA sets a rate of its own for the non-standard areas, which are the places the federal community travels to often enough for GSA to review them every year. Everywhere else is a standard CONUS location, and standard locations are deliberately not listed one by one on the per diem site. So an address that returns nothing from GSA's lookup has not been left out by mistake. Check the county first: where the city is unlisted but its county is listed, the county's rate governs the whole county, that city included. Where neither the city nor the county appears, the location takes the standard CONUS rate published at the top of this page. That is why the standard rate is what most federal travel is actually reimbursed against, rather than an obscure fallback.
If the city is not listed, but the county is, then the per diem rate is the rate for that entire county. If the city and the county are not listed, then that area receives the standard CONUS location rate.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Who this rate is actually for
The 2026 GSA per diem rates apply specifically to federal civilian employees traveling on official business within the continental United States (CONUS), which covers the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Federal agencies use these rates - set each year by the U.S. General Services Administration - to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses incurred while on official travel within the continental U.S. (CONUS), which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The rates are not universal: travel in Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories is covered by rates set by the Department of Defense, while foreign travel falls under the Department of State. For 2026, the standard CONUS lodging rate is $110 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate is $68, with M&IE tiers ranging from the lowest rate of $68 to the highest tier of $92 in high-cost locations. Private-sector employees, independent contractors, and self-employed taxpayers such as truckers are not covered by GSA's rates, though they may reference them for their own reimbursement or deduction purposes under separate rules.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) establishes the per diem reimbursement rates that federal agencies use to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses incurred while on official travel within the continental U.S. (CONUS), which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
What you have to keep and hand over to get reimbursed
Federal employees traveling on official business must keep documentation to back up their reimbursement claims. The rule requires a receipt for lodging expenses at every official temporary travel destination, plus receipts for any other authorized expense costing over $75. If a receipt is unavailable, the traveler may provide a reason acceptable to their agency explaining why. Without proper documentation, the agency can deny the claim even if the expense falls within the 2026 per diem rates - whether the standard CONUS lodging rate of $110, the standard CONUS M&IE rate of $68, or one of the higher M&IE tiers up to $92 in designated high-cost areas. The receipt requirement is separate from the rate itself: the rate sets the maximum reimbursable amount, and the receipt proves what was actually spent. Under the Federal Travel Regulation, travelers bear the responsibility to retain and submit these records so their agency can process the reimbursement.
For any official temporary travel destination, you must provide a receipt to substantiate your claimed travel expenses for lodging and receipts for any authorized expenses incurred costing over $75, or a reason acceptable to your agency explaining why you are unable to provide the necessary receipt
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Money you do not spend on the room cannot be shifted to meals, or the other way around
Federal employees cannot shift money between their lodging and meal allowances. The 2026 GSA per diem rules treat lodging and meals as separate buckets: the lodging rate is a ceiling on what the traveler can be reimbursed for the room, and the M&IE rate covers meals and incidental expenses. For the standard CONUS rate in 2026, that means a maximum lodging reimbursement of $110 and a separate M&IE rate of $68. If a traveler finds a cheaper hotel, the savings from the room do not flow into the meal allowance, and likewise a traveler who spends less on food cannot add the unused M&IE money toward a more expensive room. The Federal Travel Regulation does not allow this kind of mixing and matching between the two categories. Travelers are only reimbursed for their actual lodging costs up to the maximum rate, and any unspent portion of either allowance is simply forfeited rather than redirected to the other category.
For federal employees, the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) does not make a provision for “mixing and matching” reimbursement rates. The lodging per diem rates are a maximum amount; the traveler only receives actual lodging costs up to that maximum rate. Therefore, there is no “extra” lodging per diem to add to the M&IE rate. Likewise, the M&IE per diem cannot be given up or transferred to lodging costs.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
GSA's rate does not automatically govern a contractor's pay or a trucker's tax deduction
GSA sets per diem rates for federal civilian employees on official travel within the continental United States, not for the broader economy. When questions arise about how much per diem a government contractor should be paid, or how much a trucker can deduct for meals on their tax return, GSA cannot provide an answer. The agency establishes rates for federal travelers on official travel only and cannot address specific inquiries concerning the payment of contractors. A contractor working under a federal contract should check with the contracting officer to see what the contract specifies, and should also look to their own company's travel regulations. Truck-related tax questions should be directed to the IRS, not GSA. The 2026 standard CONUS lodging rate of $110 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate of $68 govern only federal employee reimbursements; they may be used as a reference by other groups, but GSA itself has no authority over those arrangements.
GSA establishes per diem rates and related policies for federal travelers on official travel only, and cannot address specific inquiries concerning the payment of contractors.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
A hotel's advertised GOV rate is not the same thing as the federal per diem rate
When booking a hotel for government travel, the rate a property advertises as a "GOV" rate is not the same as the federal per diem rate that GSA publishes. A hotel's GOV rate is a discount the property voluntarily offers to government travelers, and it may be higher or lower than the applicable per diem. For 2026, the standard CONUS lodging rate set by GSA is $110; if the hotel's GOV rate exceeds that amount, the traveler must obtain approval for an actual expense allowance before travel in order to receive full reimbursement. It is the traveler's responsibility to know the federal per diem reimbursement rates and should not assume a GOV rate is the same as the federal per diem rate. The Federal Travel Regulation's Chapter 301, Subpart D on Actual Expense governs situations where the room cost exceeds the published rate, and travelers should follow their own agency's guidelines in those cases.
It is the traveler’s responsibility to know the federal per diem reimbursement rates, and should not assume a GOV rate is the same as the federal per diem rate.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
- Standard CONUS lodging rate
the standard lodging rate also remains unchanged at $110.
- Standard CONUS M&IE rate
the standard M&IE rate is unchanged at $68.
- Lowest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE reimbursement rate tiers for FY 2026 are unchanged at $68-$92,
- Highest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE reimbursement rate tiers for FY 2026 are unchanged at $68-$92,
By year
Every published year
10 years on record, 2026 back to 2017. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.
Oldest year at the left. Every line spans the same run of years, with a tick under each year it has a figure for, so a line that starts late is a column the law added late. The vertical axis is scaled to the values plotted rather than to zero, so a line shows the shape of the change and not the size of the amount. The table states every value.
- the FY 2017 and FY 2018 notices state that the M&IE reimbursement rate tiers were not revised for those fiscal years and print no M&IE figure of any kind; GSA published the meal breakdown only at gsa.gov/mie, as a grid whose cells state no rule
- the FY 2017 and FY 2018 notices state only that the M&IE reimbursement rate tiers were not revised, and never write the tiers themselves
Download every year as a csv. One row per published figure, each carrying the document it was read from and the date it was checked.
The same calculator for another year
- 2025 How much of the M&IE rate your spending leaves
- 2025 How much a room is above the lodging rate
- 2024 How much of the M&IE rate your spending leaves
- 2024 How much a room is above the lodging rate