2023 GSA Per Diem Rate
For 2023, the GSA Per Diem Rate is $98 (Standard CONUS lodging rate), $59 (Standard CONUS M&IE rate), $59 (Lowest M&IE rate tier) and $79 (Highest M&IE rate tier).
Effective 2022-10-01 through 2023-09-30Source: Maximum Per Diem Reimbursement Rates for the Continental United States (CONUS), FY 2023 (GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 23-01) (GSA)Verified 2026-08-31
Compared with 2022
| Item | 2022 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard CONUS lodging rate | $96 | $98 | +$2 (+2.1%) |
| Standard CONUS M&IE rate | $59 | $59 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Lowest M&IE rate tier | $59 | $59 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Highest M&IE rate tier | $79 | $79 | +$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
The standard CONUS lodging rate rose from $96 to $98 a night for fiscal 2023, and lodging rates went up in some existing non-standard areas, though no new one was added. Meals did not move: the M&IE tiers stay at $59 to $79 and the standard CONUS M&IE rate stays at $59 a day.
Common questions
- What is the standard CONUS lodging rate for fiscal 2023?
- $98 a night, for travel performed on or after October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023.
- Did the meals rate change for fiscal 2023?
- No. The standard CONUS M&IE rate is unchanged at $59 a day and the non-standard area tiers are unchanged at $59 to $79.
- 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)
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 rate will increase from $96 to $98.
- Standard CONUS M&IE rate
the standard M&IE rate unchanged at $59.
- Lowest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE per diem tiers for FY 2023 are unchanged at $59-$79,
- Highest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE per diem tiers for FY 2023 are unchanged at $59-$79,