2019 GSA Per Diem Rate
For 2019, the GSA Per Diem Rate figures are $94 (Standard CONUS lodging rate), $55 (Standard CONUS M&IE rate), $56 (Lowest M&IE rate tier) and $76 (Highest M&IE rate tier).
Effective 2018-10-01 through 2019-09-30Source: Maximum Per Diem Reimbursement Rates for the Continental United States (CONUS), FY 2019 (GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 19-01) (GSA)Verified 2026-09-02
Compared with 2018
| Item | 2018 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard CONUS lodging rate | $93 | $94 | +$1 (+1.1%) |
| Standard CONUS M&IE rate | -1 | $55 | - |
| Lowest M&IE rate tier | -2 | $56 | - |
| Highest M&IE rate tier | -2 | $76 | - |
- 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
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
Two things moved for fiscal 2019. The standard CONUS lodging allowance rate went from $93 to $94 a night, and the M&IE tiers were revised for the first time in three years: the standard CONUS M&IE rate is $55 a day and the tiers that non-standard areas are set from run $56 to $76. One new non-standard area was added for Cobb County, Georgia, and the Hancock and Knox county areas in Maine were combined into one.
Common questions
- What is the standard CONUS lodging rate for fiscal 2019?
- $94 a night, for travel performed on or after October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019.
- What is the standard CONUS M&IE rate for fiscal 2019?
- $55 a day. It is the meals and incidental expenses rate for any location GSA has not set a non-standard rate for.
- What are the M&IE tiers?
- $56 at the bottom and $76 at the top. Every non-standard area's M&IE rate is one of the tiers inside that band; the standard rate of $55 sits below all of them.
- 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.
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
GSA's per diem rates are designed for federal civilian employees on official travel within the continental United States. If a federal employee travels to one of the 48 contiguous states or the District of Columbia on government business, the agency uses the GSA-published lodging and meals-and-incidental-expenses rates as the maximum it will reimburse. Rates for travel outside CONUS - Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories, and foreign countries - are set by other agencies, not by GSA. The standard CONUS lodging rate is $94 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate is $55, though specific locations may have higher rates listed by county. These rates apply only to federal employees on official travel; they do not automatically set the reimbursement limit for contractors, the deductible amount for a commercial trucker, or the rate a private employer pays its own staff.
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
A federal traveler must keep receipts for lodging and for any other authorized travel expense that costs over $75, and must hand them to the agency when claiming reimbursement. If a receipt is missing, the traveler must give the agency a reason acceptable to it for why the receipt could not be provided. The rule applies at every official temporary travel destination, not only at high-cost locations. Even though M&IE rates are paid as a flat daily allowance, the lodging portion is reimbursed based on actual cost up to the locality maximum, so the lodging receipt is always required. The lowest M&IE rate tier is $56 and the highest M&IE rate tier is $76, but regardless of which locality rate applies, the documentation rules in the Federal Travel Regulation 301-11.25 remain the same.
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 (see Federal Travel Regulation 301-11.25).
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 may not shift money between the lodging per diem and the meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) per diem. Under the Federal Travel Regulation, the lodging rate is a maximum, not a guaranteed payment: a traveler is reimbursed only for the actual cost of the room, up to that maximum. Any unspent lodging money does not become available for extra meals or a more expensive hotel. Similarly, any portion of the M&IE allowance that goes unused cannot be transferred to cover lodging costs. For 2019, the standard CONUS lodging rate is $94 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate is $55, and each is spent within its own lane. This rule prevents employees from mixing and matching the two categories to upgrade one at the expense of the other.
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 and has no authority over what a private company pays its contractors, what a federal contract specifies for contractor reimbursement, or what the Internal Revenue Service allows a self-employed trucker to deduct for meals. A contractor working under a federal contract should check the contract terms with the contracting officer and follow the travel policies of the contractor's own employer. A trucker or other self-employed person claiming a meals deduction on a tax return must look to IRS rules, not the GSA rate. The GSA-published figures - such as the standard CONUS lodging rate of $94 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate of $55 - therefore apply only within the federal travel system and do not govern these other situations.
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
Many hotels advertise a "GOV" or government rate for guests who show federal identification, but that commercial discount is a separate thing from the GSA per diem rate. The GOV rate is whatever the hotel chooses to offer; the per diem rate is what the federal government will reimburse, and the two figures can differ in either direction. If the hotel's GOV rate is higher than the applicable per diem, the traveler must obtain actual-expense approval before the trip in order to be reimbursed above the per diem cap. With the standard CONUS lodging rate at $94, a GOV rate that is higher or lower than that amount does not change the reimbursement limit. The traveler is responsible for knowing the correct per diem for the destination and should not treat the hotel's posted GOV rate as a substitute for it.
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 CONUS lodging allowance rate will increase from $93 to $94.
- Standard CONUS M&IE rate
The revised standard CONUS M&IE rate is now $55
- Lowest M&IE rate tier
the M&IE NSA tiers are revised from $54-$74 to $56-$76.
- Highest M&IE rate tier
the M&IE NSA tiers are revised from $54-$74 to $56-$76.